Managers' Fear

[Steven_S_Prevette@rl.gov]

Ian wrote: Yet it is still a struggle to get managers to use it.  The
reason?
UK managers are fearful of losing control. Do managers in the rest of the
world have the same fear?

Yes.

One example.  My company has a project that has steadfastly refused to use
the control charts of injury rates I produce for them.  They have over the
years paid a person at the project to extract the data from the control
charts and put it on bar charts and moving averages.

When the safety department signed up to a procedure a few years ago
mandating control charts, I was asked to come out and assess the costs to
the project of converting to SPC.  I was given a stack of a variety of
charts.  At least half of the charts in the stack were charts that
originated as control charts, but had been "converted".  So my response was
"I can save you money".

But still, they kept converting the charts.  A year ago production schedules
ramped up, and so did injury rates.  I should note that compared to general
industry the rates were not bad, but the company does pride itself in
keeping people from getting injured, and usually good safety performance
correlates to good project performance.

The control charts clearly showed an increase.  About 4 months after the
chart initially blew through the upper control limit, I was asked to come
out and meet with the safety organization.  I noted every chart on any
bulletin board (I was early, so I wandered around a while) was a moving
average chart, and certainly no clear indication of an injury rate problem
was portrayed.  I was told the workers didn't like the control charts.
Clearly, though, it was line management that did not want the charts, nor
the message.

A new VP took over the project, one who has made use of control charts.  He
finally had to directly mandate that they stop spending money redoing the
charts.  I am currently pushing the idea that the only way to solve the
"safety problem" is to solve the "production problem".  The project made
super-human efforts to catch up to schedule, and did make it.  But the
company is beginning to realize what the costs were, in overtime, equipment
repairs, money and people.  I am working on convincing folks we need to take
a systems approach to the project.



Steve Prevette
Site Technical Authority for Statistical Trending
Environment, Safety and Health
Fluor Hanford, A Fluor Global Services Company
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
steven_s_prevette@rl.gov
509-373-9371