Quote of the Day, Year or Decade?

Don't expect to get any more "quotes of the day" (QOTD) from me...there are a gazillion websites out there serving that purpose. With out further delay, here is quite possibly the TWI Blog Quote of the Next Three to Five Years (QOT3Y), or until I find another one that catches my eye:

"If you can't serve as a good example you should at least serve as a terrible warning."

I like this quote. Someone sent it to me regarding bad leadership, but I think you could apply this to most anything. I'm in a bit of a stormy mood with the weather up here in the Northeast: -5 F for the past two days and 45F this morning...I refuse to watch the weather reports up here this time of year so I have had no warning of this 50 F swing...so as I turn off the thermostat this quote is sitting well with me this morning. ;-( <----cantankerous Vermonter

This quote reminds me of a way I think about Standard Work or a Job Breakdown Sheet although I admit it, in an odd sort of way. If the JBS isn't a good example of best practice, then it should serve as an indicator of terrible problems in the future. For example: Often times when writing breakdown sheets, or if you are watching them do the job, it is obvious that people know how to get the job done. When asked why it is done that way, the person may say, "I don't know, I just have to do it that way." This type of answer should be our indicator that something is wrong and could (no, will) fail in the future - a terrible warning.

If I've learned anything from key points in standard work it is this: they don't always burn you, but you will get burned. Remember that key points are quality, safety and best practices. A trick that welders use when their mask isn't handy is to close their eyes momentarily - but the weld flash through the eyelids will catch up to them eventually. Key point: wear your mask. This one is obvious. Most are not.

Another key point may be a timing action. I watched a person foul up a control sequence because of other distractions with the machine once while threading some new material, only to have to re-thread after cycle start. Asked when how often that problem happens, the reply was, "once in a while, when things get busy." The result is double the work, double the downtime, extra scrap, frustrated workers and managers. Key points, people.

Key points are the quintessential time bomb, waiting to go off and we are usually ignorant of these little monsters, because we don't take the time to notice them in plain sight. This is the real "Learning to See" waste skill that anyone can use in any situation. There are hundreds of thousands of little QCDSM time bombs in your operation right now, which one is going to blow next?

And don't get me going on how this quote does apply to our current situation of leadership at the business and government levels!!!