The case of the dummy dials

I had met Rafael when I did an effective troubleshooting workshop in his plant. He took me up on my invitation to pick my brain if he ever needed to.

“Hi KC!” he exclaimed. “Remember when you said that it was important to standardize conveyor speeds during changeovers? We set them to a specific speed but the operators keep changing them. Any thoughts on how we can stop this? We’ve tried training and counseling and nothing seems to stop them.”

“Fiddlesticks on changing settings!” I exclaimed. “Put the adjusting knobs inside JIC boxes. Make sure the covers require a screwdriver to open so only mechanics can get at them. That’ll stop ‘em.”

“Great idea, KC,” he said. “I’ll try that.”

He called me a few weeks later. It seems that he had some highly motivated operators.

“I put the adjusting knobs in a box like you suggested and it helped, but some of the operators figured out how to open the boxes using multi-tools,” he confided.

I was at a loss as to what to say, but he continued:

“But it’s OK, I found another solution that works. I put some dummy knobs on the cover of the box. Then I told the operators not to touch them. They pay no attention to me and continue to crank them up and down. Since they are not connected anywhere, I don’t care. The speed stays where it’s set.”

I love ideas from the trenches. It shows that you can still teach an old dog like me new tricks.

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