Sharp Tools
I’ve always loved to cook. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to help out in a restaurant kitchen, which is really exciting for me, like a sports fan getting to practice with the Yankees. It struck me very quickly that I’m in an environment where sharp tools are literally important. Sharp knives mean productivity because you can dice an onion in a flash. Sharp knives mean safety, because a dull knife can easily slip and injure the user. Sharp knives are a source of pride, and the sign of a true professional. Literally.
In the larger context, Sharp Tools are anything that prevents frustration in the workplace. I’ll break this down to some finer detail, but frustration is the key. Any place in the process that produces frustration is an opportunity for sharpening.
Equipment that Works:
Much like kitchen knives, the most basic sharp tool is equipment that works. Managers owe their teams equipment that works, whether that’s a CNC router, a delivery vehicle, or a network printer. From my experience, that’s easier said than done.
In one newspaper plant that I ran, we utilized a lot of plastic strapping machines to strap bundles of newspapers. This last step in the process, that should have been simple, was the most frustrating. The strapping machines were well used, with millions of straps on each one. They were prone to jams, which wasted both time and materials. Unfortunately, capital was not available to replace the strapping machines, so we reconfigured our workflow to allow one or two machines to be taken out of the process at all times so our maintenance tech could replace parts and bring them back to a less frustrating condition.
It wasn’t an optimal solution, but it was the best we could do at the time. I know that it didn’t remove all of the frustration, but doing something is always better than doing nothing.
Maintenance:
Maintenance must get done. Whether it’s manufacturing equipment, fleet equipment, or computer networks, the investment in maintenance has to be made. If pressure for expense reductions starts to focus on maintenance activities, it’s time for the manager to go to bat, and possibly stick their neck out a little to make sure it gets done in a timely manner.
For an organization in the direct mail business, getting the product to the Post Office on time is non-negotiable. That’s why my transportation supervisor had multiple levels of backups for drivers, including me as VP of Operations. One cold winter morning I got a call that, between illnesses and planned PTO, he was out of drivers. I quickly headed in, loaded the truck and hit the road.
After about an hour on the road, the truck cab was still freezing. I called and asked, “What’s going on with the heater in this truck? I’m freezing my butt off!” The supervisor said, “Yeah, it’s scheduled to go in and get fixed tomorrow.” Ultimately it had been my responsibility to make sure this got done, so frozen toes were a logical consequence for me as the senior manager.
One more note about maintenance: If it’s not on your schedule, it’s not getting done. Even if the checklists are getting checked, if it’s not scheduled it’s not getting done. Take my word for it. There’s always a list of things to do, and if you don’t schedule it, maintenance will fall to the bottom.
Safety Guards:
It primarily applies to manufacturing, but safety guards have to be in place. OSHA regulations are pretty clear about this, but it’s easy for people to get in a hurry after a repair and jump back into production without putting guards back in place. However, it can quickly turn into a source of frustration.
A good friend of mine took over production operations in a plant where his predecessor had allowed most of the safety guards to be removed. Bob put this at the top of his priority list, but on his second day on the job the company received an OSHA complaint – likely from Bob’s predecessor – that the company was operating without guards in place. One of Bob’s first tasks was to grab a shovel and dig through the snow banks behind the building and locate the missing guards.
Environment:
The physical environment of the workplace means a lot, but can be easily overlooked by busy managers and cost-controlling executives.
While it’s not necessary to provide a Taj-Mahal work environment, there are a couple of basics that go a long way: Lighting and clean bathrooms.
Lighting, and natural light if possible, is a small thing that managers can address that will have an outsized impact. Lighting needs to be appropriate – every office doesn’t need to be lit like a surgical theater – but change those burnt out bulbs and fix the broken fixtures. It’s worth it to prevent having employees use the word “dungeon”.
In his book Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain said, “I won’t eat in a restaurant with filthy bathrooms. They let you see the bathrooms. If the restaurant can’t be bothered to replace the puck in the urinal or keep the toilets and floors clean, then just imagine what their refrigerators and workspaces look like”.
The same is actually true about all businesses, not just restaurants. If management doesn’t value their employees enough to make sure that the bathrooms are clean, that sends a very negative message.
In the newspaper business, it was traditional for newspaper publishers to have private bathrooms, and it even became a bit of a status symbol. If a bathroom is that important to highly paid senior executives, just imagine how important they are to the rest of the company.
Training:
According to a 2021 survey by Lorman , nearly 59% of employees said that they had no workplace training and that most of their skills were self-taught. And this isn’t just rank and file employees: 43% of managers who have been in their role for less than a year say they’ve had no training
With the amazing variety of resources available, particularly online, these numbers are staggering. While companies and managers may feel like they are providing training, employee perception is that they’re not, and in the workplace, perception is reality.
One way to sharpen the training tool is to move to organized training versus the traditional “Old Joe” method. “Old Joe’s been doing this job for a long time, and he’s really good at it. Go over and stand by him and you’ll learn what to do.”
There are two ways that Old Joe generates frustration. First, the employee has very little idea of what they’re supposed to learn, how quickly they’re supposed to learn it, and how they’ll know when they’re trained. Second, being good at completing tasks is a different skill set than training others how to complete the task.
Organized training doesn’t imply a full-blown classroom-style learning academy, but a training outline, some training materials, and the proper training resources. The proper training resources might be Dan, the third-best operator who’s patient and communicates well.
Training gaps like these don’t just exist at the operator level. When I took over operations for a company with a well-built and fairly complex ERP system, the extent of my orientation to the system was, “Here’s your login and password. Because you’re an executive you have access to basically everything. Go in and poke around and see if you have any questions.” Seriously, that’s how it went. What could possibly go wrong?
I eventually became comfortable with the system and was able to map some processes and create some training documents. However, my progress was months behind what it could have been, and as an executive that training gap cascaded down to the people actually doing the work.
A key element of organized training is training materials. While I always encourage trainees to take notes during training, it’s important that they have at least some references they can go back to as they progress.
An experienced operator was struggling with adjustments to a machine and asked me if it was possible to get a user’s manual so he could troubleshoot. As he asked the question, I could sense his frustration and his sense that this was an almost impossible request. After about five-minutes with Google, I was able to print out a user’s manual, punch the pages, and put it in a binder for him. I felt embarrassed that we didn’t already have a copy at the workstation, but it was an opportunity to sharpen the tool.
Training also has to be time-bound. If after several months on the job, a Customer Service Representative can only enter the simplest of customer orders, there’s a training issue. Both the trainee and their manager need to be on the same page as to timing.
Clear Information:
The information employees receive is the ultimate sharp tool. Between tools like Slack, Zoom, email, and dynamic information systems, we have more ways to provide information than ever before. And yet we still struggle.
Every employee has a fundamental right to know that they did their job correctly, and that is entirely linked to the information they are given. That’s why the sharpness of this particular tool is extremely important.
In the newspaper business, success or failure is determined by minutes, not hours or days. It wasn’t unheard of to get a call from a customer saying, “Your driver should have been here five minutes ago, where is he?”
In that kind of environment, having clear information is critical.
One night, a driver needed to deliver a special project to a publisher three hours away. It was in addition to their normal delivery, so the Production Planning team made thorough notes about it. They prepared a driver’s manifest that indicated that the special project would be on two pallets. However, when the driver arrived at the customer’s location, he discovered that the production team had split the delivery on to three pallets, and he had only taken two. A second driver had to make the six-hour round trip with the third pallet.
Frustration. Wasted time. Wasted money. Poor customer experience.
A simple process change prevented reoccurrence (1of 3, 2 of 3, etc.) although it really should have been in place before. However, since we as managers don’t have Superman’s ability to fly backwards around the Earth and turn back time, we have to correct the process failures when we see them.
Another element of clear information is that it should be easy to find. Searching through piles of information to find what you need to do your job can be intensely frustrating.
A customer in shared office space called one day to ask when their delivery would be arriving. This sent up a big red flag, because the delivery had been completed.
The delivery driver had arrived at the customer’s office, and finding no one there, left the box by the office door. The driver returned to the location, contacted building security, and reviewed security footage and discovered another employee putting the box in a closet.
The Account Manager for this customer came to me, clearly upset, because she had included a note with the job that the delivery should given to a person, and should not be left unattended.
However, the note was added to the “Job Overview” section of the work instructions, and the delivery drivers only had access to the delivery instructions.
Frustration. Wasted time. Wasted money. Poor customer experience.
The final piece of clear information is that the information needs to be specific. The rule that “you shouldn’t have to solve a puzzle to do your job” is one that I recite frequently.
In one example, a customer who normally ordered their product in cartons of 1,000 had an unusual order of 1,250 pieces. The order was packed in one carton of 1,000, and one carton of 250.
The Account Manager for the account let us know that the customer was upset because of the way the product was packaged. She complained to me that, “the production people should know that they always have the same quantity in a carton, and that would be five cartons of 250. Can’t they do math?”
This time I was the one who was frustrated, but I took it in stride and used it as an opportunity to sharpen the tool.
Look at your tools, find where they’re lacking, and start sharpening. The result could be something delicious!
