First Impressions of the Plant

First Impressions of the Plant

As we drove up to the plant, my first thought was that Sid had done a good job picking out a location for his company. Instead of one single building, SG consisted of two moderately sized side-by-side structures. The two facilities were connected by a paved path with trees and shrubs planted on either side to make the walk between the two buildings more pleasant. The landscaping was nicely manicured and reminded me more of a park than a manufacturing location. The buildings were clean and the lawns were groomed professionally. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, “OK, I could spend a week or two working in this environment.”

As Sid motioned me into the visitors’ parking area, I caught sight of something that might have been a problem, but I decided to keep my thoughts to myself until I saw the rest of the plant. Still . . . in the

back of my mind was this nagging thought: “Why would an organization this small need to have all those tractor trailers parked back there? There’s no way they can be moving that much material in and out of this place.”

As soon as we hit the front door, a small, middle-aged woman in a snappy business suit met Sid. Before I was even introduced, it became apparent that this was his secretary.

I knew I’d better make a good impression on this woman, because I’ve found over the past few years that plant managers and business owners think they run the place, but the secretaries and administrative assistants are the ones who really keep things going. If I wanted to do any type of business with Sid, I’d better make sure this woman liked me. In order to make sure, I slapped on my best smile and extended my hand to introduce myself.

“Hello, ma’am, my name is Sam,” I said, “and who might you be?”

The no-nonsense look she gave me said she wasn’t going to decide she liked me just because I smiled and took the initiative to introduce myself. Within the blink of an eye, her words confirmed what her look suggested.

“Well, I might be Joan of Arc,” she said without the slightest hint of a smile, “but I am Celia Gordon. I’m Sid’s executive administrative assistant.”

“Damn,” I thought. “That didn’t go as planned.” Luckily she was in a hurry and scurried away without even a whisper of goodbye.

Sid just looked at me and shrugged.

“She’s always like that. Just ignore it and she’ll warm up to you.”

I didn’t say a word; I just smiled. I wanted to tell him that it would take a bottle of acetylene and a blowtorch to warm that woman up. But, like I said, I didn’t say a word. I just stood there and smiled.

Then we walked to Sid’s office. There Sid introduced me to George, the manufacturing supervisor. This was the same George he had mentioned in the restaurant, who had told him to buy the new

piece of equipment.

George shook my hand and said, “Pleased to meet you,” and we entered Sid’s office.

As we sat across the table from each other, George began telling me the history of Sid’s business. It was evident that George was very proud of the fact that he was one of only a handful of people left in the company who had been there since the very beginning.

As George went through the history of SG, I realized that he had good reason to be proud. In under 30 years, the company had grown from two guys machining parts to an organization with over 500 fulltime employees and more than $300 million in sales annually. They were well respected in their industry, although recent quality concerns and late delivery issues were causing problems with some of their biggest contracted customers. These problems, however, could be fixed with the new equipment. George had no doubts about that, and I certainly wasn’t going to say otherwise—at least not yet.

As George wrapped up his history lesson, Sid suggested that I might like to see the facility. George was between production meetings and said he would be happy to show me the plant.

As we walked into the facility, I had mixed emotions. The consultant part of me was screaming at all the things I saw wrong and I felt an immediate urge to point everything out to George as we passed

by. But the (semi) human side of me screamed that this would be wrong. Looking at him and listening as he showed me the various processes throughout the plant, I decided to listen to my human side for a change.

One thing that I couldn’t be quiet about, though, was the level of negativity I sensed as we walked through the plant. As we passed, operators stared at us or just scowled. I wasn’t sure which I found

more unsettling.

I asked George if SG had some labor problems and he just nodded. I decided to take the issue up with Sid later, after the tour.

When the plant tour was over, George led me back to Sid’s office and shook my hand at the door.

“I’m really glad you came to have a look at the place,” he said. “Since Sid will have the opinion of an outsider now, I’m sure he’ll listen to me.”

Then George walked away. I realized that he was telling me that when I gave Sid the same recommendation as he had, Sid would buckle and get the new equipment. Whoops! This was going to be a problem, because I had no intention of advising Sid that he needed a new piece of equipment. Not yet, anyway.

As I slowly opened the door to Sid’s office, I saw that he was on the phone. He motioned me to come in and have a seat. I sat down and began looking around at the plaques on the wall. Several were from

suppliers for outstanding quality, cost reduction, and on-time delivery— but none of the plaques had a date less than 10 years old. Not a very good sign, but I didn’t say a word about it to Sid as he hung up the phone. I just made a mental note.

“Well, waddya think?” he asked me. “Can I get by with the smaller machine or should I just bite the bullet and go all out?”

Sid spoke with such blatant pride that I almost didn’t have the heart to tell him what I’d seen. Almost.

“You know, Sid, it may be possible to raise your quality and capacity levels without buying new equipment. If you would like, I can take a few minutes to give you my impressions of the facility. Then we can talk about some less expensive ways to bring your quality up and your cycle time down using the equipment you already have.”

Sid smiled and said he liked the sound of that, so I asked him for a few minutes to get my thoughts together and write some notes. Sid said that was perfect, because he had a meeting scheduled that should take about an hour. He asked Celia to find me a quiet space so I could work and said he’d meet me back in his office around 4:30.

Judging by our first greeting, I expected Celia to put me somewhere in a cleaning closest filled with plenty of toxic chemicals. Instead, she showed me to a small conference room with a visitors’ desk and a phone and told me where I could find the rest rooms, the snack bar, and smoking areas. A definite improvement from earlier in the day and I even thought I saw a hint of a smile as she turned to leave. But it was probably just the light playing tricks on me.