Deftly Deal with Plant Floor Politics Take concrete steps to effectively work with production people

摘要

A ROOKIE mistake-that's what I call it in retrospect.Corporate had sent me to the plant to find out why its dryers were operating so poorly.Following my walkthrough,the operators complained extensively about burnt and wet flakes.I assured them I was there to solve all their problems.How naive-their issues mainly stemmed from mismanagement.The technical ideas I came up with largely duplicated those already recommended by other engineers and managers.The operators and foreman clammed up.To production management,I was a threat.To operators,I was a tired joke.Where did I go wrong? It's not easy for an outside engineer to work smoothly with production or maintenance staff.The first rule for succeeding with operators is to listen,not talk-most of all,don't promise anything,at least in the beginning.Ask a lot of questions.Write everything down in a spreadsheet file;cross things out as you determine they're inaccurate or false.You'll need to amass several dozen observations to write a factual report.