“Most employees do not know within what limits their processes have to be maintained and why”

Ask any machine operator the following question: “Why do you have to run that machine at a certain constant rate?”, and you will receive answers which, in some cases, will demonstrate that the operator knows their job, knows the machine and knows how to get the best results from it.

In other cases you will get the answer, “because I’ve been told to do it like that.”

However, if we probe deeper, we almost universally find that operators have no clue why they are being told to do what they do, i.e. what role their function plays in the big picture of delivering products to a customer.

Consequently, they will have no idea of the consequences for the whole organisation of them operating just slightly outside the set limits and specs of their function.

Taken to silly lengths: the guy fabricating one component of the wiring harness for an Airbus decides to make his job easier by using exactly 2-metre lengths of wire instead of the specified 2.05 metres. The harness, when mounted, sits slightly to close to an air-conditioning condenser unit which, after 27 hours in service, burns through the insulation of the harness and causes a short…..you get the picture.

The more employees are helped to understand the “big picture” of how their organisation works, and what its customers want, the more they will see their role as important and, therefore, worth doing well.