HIDDEN FACTORIES
There's
trouble in paradise because of hidden factories in stealth model. Hidden factories waste our productive
efforts. Hidden factories exist for
correcting: errors, product rework, revising existing products, repairing
omissions and errors, and form a gap between demonstrated output and
theoretical productive output plus a gap for reliability losses. Hidden factories exist within each department
in our operations. Hidden factories live
in Accounting, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, and Manufacturing. Want to find your hidden factories? First you've got to admit they exist to find
them. Admitting we own hidden factories
are difficult because we must admit that we are less than perfect as management
has condoned existence of the hidden factories!
Each
of us sees waste in other department’s hidden factories (but not our own). We must identify our own hidden factories and
put them out of business to increase our profits, become more productive, and
avoid additional capital expenditures for capacity. Most companies, around the world, use
≈25+% of all their employees for waste--either making it or
correcting it.
Identify
Hidden Factories
We have hidden factories in our areas of
responsibility. These hidden factories
consume our time, effort, and finances.
They rob the company and us because we let them exist in comfortable
environments. We'll never get rid of all
hidden factories but we can lessen their damage.
First, identify our hidden factories. Then destroy them. We have carefully camouflaged them. Worse yet, we've been protecting our hidden
factories for years by our dynamic management inaction.
Hidden factories have common characteristics whether
in Sales or Manufacturing. Jobs not done
right the first time build hidden factories.
We usually justify them with yes-but
words. "…Yes, we've done a good job but
now we need just a little rework or revision…" It's simple.
Our error correction work feeds our hidden factories. World-class factories do the job right the
first time and use all the theoretical capacity for making prime product
without costly delays.
Hidden factories exist because of wasted efforts. Would you finance expensive
hidden factories?
Gore
Your Own Sacred Ox
It's easy to see hidden factories built by
others. However, we don't admit we build
them in our areas of responsibility.
We're usually busy complaining about problems in
other departments. We're so busy we
can't see our own hidden factories.
Destroying our pockets of hidden factories is something
we must accomplish. We have difficulty
finding hidden factories because we've got them well justified (excused)! Look at all the years and effort we've put
into manning and supplying hidden factories.
Destroying our own hidden factories is embarrassing!
Today's competitive environment is clear. It fits a paraphrase of the frontier adage
about bears: "Eat the competition
or they'll eat you." Dying inside
of hidden factories isn't an honorable path for R.I.P!
Take the offense.
Reduce waste. Gore your own
sacred ox living in your hidden factories by tearing down the wasted or ignored
effort. Build a continuous bias toward
waste reductions. Gain back your capacity losses built into your process by
creative destruction of hidden factories.
What Other Are Doing
Hewlett Packard, a major world class manufacturing
firm with a global organization, attacked their hidden factories. HP’s President set a '80's goal requiring
lower cost of quality by 1990. He wanted
1990 results at 1/10 of the 1980 value.
He set a tough goal, which they met in one decade.
For three years they tried justifying the old status
quo conditions. Then pressure from the
top for progress became unbearable.
Slowly, HP mobilized for corrective action. Departments faced errors and waste as
challenges. They barely achieved the
cost of quality goal.
Each step in HP's continuous improvement process
found hidden factories not previously recognized. They identified and wiped them out. Costs dropped. Productivity increased. Even non-factory departments discovered they
had hidden factories! Extra capacity was
discovered.
Departments from top to bottom in the organization
found their hidden factories. They made
changes and got changes. They found,
named, and destroyed their hidden factories
The Blacksmith’s Anvil