Apprentice to a Butcher

As a young boy, I was greatly intrigued to learn that Shakespeare, for a while, served as an apprentice to a butcher. I could not connect Shakespeare to a butcher at that time. But I was dismayed to think that how Shakespeare wasted much of his valuable time and talent working for a butcher. Surely he did not learn anything of his craft that made him and his works so famous and enduring. After some childish thinking, I passed it off as: 'Well, even great men like Shakespeare had to take up such lowly jobs (in India a butcher's job is still considered to be a lowly job) to survive. So I resolved that I should not be least ashamed of taking up lowly jobs in the future, if need be, just to survive and can do great jobs later on as and when opportune moments come up. And I understood that no job is low enough so long it helps one to survive with dignity'.

Forty years have passed since that time. And there was no change to my basic realization. To survive is the basic human motivation that gives our human dignity. And therefore, every job has a dignity about it since it helps us survive.

And then one day I suddenly hit upon a realization that eluded me for so long.

This came up while I became a little more curious about learning the roots of 'Lean Manufacturing'. Most of us know that the concepts of 'lean' were developed by Taichi Ohno of Toyota and later made more popular through his books and through Goldratt's 'Theory of Constraints' (perhaps important to remember that the phrase 'lean manufacturing' was not coined by Ohno). But when Ohno was asked as to where he got his ideas from he frankly admitted that he got his ideas from Henry Ford and it was not his original idea. And where did Henry Ford get his concept of waste elimination, lean manufacturing and assembly line that changed forever the concepts of manufacturing operations all over the world? Now came the surprise.

Ford got his ideas of waste elimination and lean manufacturing through his observation of the local butchers at their work. To be candid, till that time, I was not much interested in the butcher or his trade. But this fact that Ford got his idea of lean manufacturing from the butcher shook me up quite a bit.

Without wasting much time, I virtually rushed to my nearest friendly butcher's shop (Golam's Meat Shop) and observed his operation with a lot of interest. And what I saw bowled me over. It was a perfect example of waste elimination (all 7 of them), just in time, 5 S, assembly line concept, TPM and much more. No waste anywhere in the system and what naturally struck me was the inherent simplicity of the operation and cleanliness of the whole place.

In the morning, the butcher and his lean team opens the shop with just one slaughtered lamb. Three more live lambs are kept ready at a distance tied to a peg (inventory control). Before the first customer arrives, the butcher and his team utilizes the idle time, sharpening their tools, maintaining and cleaning the wooden chopping block, and cleaning the place (TPM). As soon as the first customer arrives, the head butcher asks him about his choice of meat (whether he would like to have it from the legs -- front or the rear ones, the chest portion etc and the amount of liver he needs and does he need the meat to be minced or in pieces, etc). Having understood his customer's specific requirement through his short dialogue he then sets out fulfilling the order as desired (Make what the customer wants and just the amount he asks for -- nothing more, nothing less -- no overproduction). He starts chopping the pieces with his right hand and throws the chopped piece with his left hand into a weighing pan and constantly eyes the weight of the meat on the digital meter -- all these done with rhythm and balance. As soon as the meter shows the correct amount the operation stops and while the head butcher gets engaged in collecting the money from the customer one of the team mates starts putting the pieces into a black plastic bag to deliver the pack to the customer. And then comes the next customer. And in between the customers, the cleaning operation is quickly done in a matter of less than 10 seconds to clean up the 'act'.

But as soon as the amount of meat starts dwindling, the head butcher asks his next senior most team mate to keep the next lamb ready (pull system). Just before the first lamb is done away with the next lamb appears on the sales counter kept hanging upside down (Just in time). And how is that done? It exactly looks like an assembly line or a process plant. While one of the boys slaughters the lamb, the other takes off the skin and yet another disembowels the lamb and cleans it up before it is placed on the sales counter (Standard procedure of work). The entire operation is a symphony -- well orchestrated like any famous orchestra.

And what happens to the portions not selected by the regular customers, like the skull, hooves, intestines, tongues etc? These are neatly placed and segregated at designated places for another brand of customers to pick these up and there is one boy in the team who handles this brand of customers. They take these portions for their pets or other purposes. And the shop remains open till everything that has been processed so far is sold out but the shop is not kept open after noon. As the clock strikes noon the operation comes to a grinding halt (work-life balance) and everyone suddenly becomes busy vigorously cleaning up the whole place, cleaning and sharpening the knives and implements and tidying them up (for the next operation in the evening) and again scrapping and cleaning the wooden chopping block(TPM). The cash is counted and the suppliers, who queue up at the closing hour are paid off (working well with a close knit group of suppliers -- quality assurance and supply chain management). They go off with a smile on their faces. A very neat operation.

There are other striking things to observe. All operations are within the arm's reach (ergonomics in its simplicity). They hardly apply any additional physical force than what is necessary for the job (no energy loss). The head butcher is always in a white dress with surprisingly a few spots of blood and the place does not smell - no stench, no running rivulets of blood and water, no mess in this rather messy business (customer focus). And the head butcher trains his team mates all the while (continuous on the job training), fully aware that these young lads, as they grow up and learn more about the business, would leave him and set up shop elsewhere. He does not care about that. He also does not seem to care about recession or inflation knowing fully well that human population would keep growing and there is no limit to human consumption till he lives and works and can do exactly as per the market demand -- quite counter intuitive - I must admit.

No wonder, Henry Ford got many of his brilliant ideas of Lean Manufacturing from the humble butcher and his operation. His brilliant mind could take in what he saw and clearly projected his learning well into the future. This is innovation. This is because knowledge in one field was applied to quite a different field of human activity and it changed the way in which we worked so far in manufacturing. It changed the concepts and it changed everything for good for the good of the human society.

So, after all, innovation is not that scary! It starts with our observation, playing with what we observe and gaining insights to form interesting points of view (POV). It may also lead to great laws like Newton's laws. After all, the great Newton also got his ideas from his intent observation and play. Since knowledge is all around us, it all depends on how we see this knowledge and glean relevant insights to improve the way we do things.

Many from the manufacturing industry with whom I interact firmly believe in seeing what similar industries are doing elsewhere and benchmark themselves with similar industries. There is nothing wrong with this. It helps one to take note of the best practices so as to replicate the same in their industries and thereby improve productivity.

But 'best practices' are not new knowledge. They are still looking for ideas inside the box and not outside the box. With time, they would certainly know with lot of clarity the dimensions of this box, the color, texture, smell and everything about the box and then they would like to make it bigger keeping the other features intact. But that would not initiate the culture of innovation. Far from it. To initiate a culture of innovation, people should be encouraged to look outside the box -- that is look keenly as to what goes on in other industries -- however, small and humble that might appear to be -- may be a butcher shop or the 'biri making shop' (traditional Indian mini cigars). Knowledge is everywhere -- just impatiently waiting for us to be pick them up and apply them to whatever we do. That is what I understand as 'thinking outside the box'. Well we have to find time for this and do this activity in a relaxed manner for the greater benefit of our society.

However, this example, also highlights the purpose of innovation. The basic end purpose of all innovations is to ensure the our well being. Does it help us to perform better at the task that we do or the way we do the tasks or the way in which we think about something (Performance)? Does it help us to produce more with less and save resources and thereby save the earth (Productivity)? Does it help us to make money to lead a proper balanced life and improve the standard of living for us and for our future generations and help us live with dignity (Profitability)?

You might be wondering by now as to what happened to my understanding of Shakespeare with whom I started this story. Well, I now realize the importance of his apprenticeship to the butcher and can now make the connection. The great man was definitely not wasting his time, he was too intelligent and bright to waste his valuable time.

He probably absorbed the lean manufacturing concepts from his boss and his operation and applied it to his life and his works (completely different field of human activity -- literature). That is why he could complete 37 great plays in such a short time (quality and made to order -- as demanded by Swan Theater -- no over production). History says that he penned his stories in a collaborative manner with a team of assistants (lean manufacturing and team work with able team members). That is why he could express universal and timeless human emotions and follies through stories of kings and queens (keeping with the expectation of ordinary people of his time -- customer focus -- the ordinary people certainly did not like to see similar drab stories of their colorless lives being played out on the stage -- they wanted to see something more glamorous -- that would enable them to pleasantly forget their pains for the time being and hope for a better future). That is why he offered them such fine stories so that the plays would run full houses for days (profitability through talent). That is why he wrote as briefly as he could and directly in the play format (no wastage of energy and time -- it was left to other great minds to explain to us the depths and intricacies of his writings). And it is amply clear that he kept on observing human mind, behavior and emotions, reading and researching on various topics (stories and events that did not necessarily belong to England), imagining and writing to hone his skills with the greatest determination to raise it to its highest levels of perfection and brilliance (working out of the box and continuous learning).

I now humbly acknowledge the contribution of butchers to the progress of our human civilization and I am already preparing myself to make a video or a photo log of my friend, Golam and his shop. I think it is a better way to share knowledge with adult learners rather than making them go through well written academic books. But my friend is quite taken aback by my proposal. He wonders 'What is all this fuss about. How can I be so important?' he said. He then added with a tinge of surprise in his voice,'Videos and photo shoots are meant for film stars, singers and clebrities, not me'.

I empathize. He simply fails to see the 'cloud in the book'(one of the topics of my future blog).

But do we all succeed in seeing the 'cloud in the book'?

May be, may be not!

Incidentally tonight, as I write to complete this blog, the Diwali festival has started and I can hear the sounds of crackers in the distance (Diwali is the festival of light in India). It is supposed to dispel all darkness in our souls and brighten up our lives. Let this Diwali brighten up our lives and spirits.

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Diwali.

Signing off for now,

dibyendu

http://systemdesignthinking.blogspot.com

Management's Will to Make It Happen!

Last week I was conducting a in-company training course on 'Why Equipment Fail and What we can do about it?' for a large public sector Power industry in India.

The course was attended by 12 senior engineers and managers of the Corporation. And they all liked the course and gave excellent feedback stating that such a course with its new concepts ought to be held regularly for the Corporation and others should also benefit. That was fine, I thought. But this is not the end of the story. This is not what I was looking for.

So, I asked them as to how they can implement the concepts back in their own workplace. Then came the surprise. Each one said that it can't be implemented. Why was that? They had different reasons. While one said that the workers and supervisors would not listen to them another quipped in that their management processes and policies would not allow them to do anything new and would always expect them to follow the so called 'beaten path'. Most of them thought this way. The management rules were rigid and if anything has to be changed then it ought to be changed by the Central Govt. There was no escaping from this fact.

So, what I observed was a group of otherwise talented people who got stuck in a system which I now term as the 'Duck' system. What does the duck do? It 'quacks' all the time. Hence the management system was behaving like a duck.

Can we do this in a better way? Quack Quack.

Can this be done differently? Quack Quack.

Can we stop doing this boring meaningless routine? Quack Quack.

The answer is always the same, no matter what!

However, my experience with another private sector company, one of the largest cement companies in India was completely different. The top managers would take time and energy to sit through in the discussions and interactions urging people to make action plans and implement any good idea which they thought would make their lives better. They virtually insist and are ready to provide all necessary support and resources for implementation. What I saw was commendable and even apparently strange. Immediately after the interactions the participants would prepare the necessary indents whatever they thought would be needed to bring about the changes and the top manager would approve them in a matter of minutes. This was because they also sat through the concluding meetings and updated themselves with the analysis that went behind a proposed change.

In a way, they were ready to reward excellent failures too! What a great idea! This is what Henry Ford did when he managed his organisation. He sometimes knew that the manager was wrong. But he still approved the way they thought. When asked about this seemingly strange behaviour he replied that he was fully aware of the fact that 8 of the 10 ideas would go wrong. But as a business man he also knew that even if 2 ideas out of 10 came out correctly he still stands not only to gain immensely but also wipe out the losses incurred through implementation of the other eight 'not so good ideas'.

And I think that such a process encourages people to remain motivated and committed to the organization's cause. Moreover, there can't be a better way of learning than learning both from mistakes and successes.I personally as a young engineer learnt both from my mistakes and successes. Over a period of time the odds to create success far outweigh the odds to create failures without inducing mental atrophy (No new ideas, please! No changes, please! Don't rock the boat, I insist!). But it has a caveat! We must have a thinking process that allows us to think wide and deep and also take into account the play of opposites. I would explain this some other time. 

But why was the mangement of the cement company doing this? Are they crazy? Certainly not. They have a strong business case in their minds. They are convinced, by reviewing previous successes, that once implemented the company stands to gain for years and the life of the people would be much easier through better and easier systems that evolve over time as opposed to systems that are imposed on people -- often terming them to be the best in the world (the truth is that it simply does not work).

This system that evolves over time, aggressively responding to the changes going on is a system is a system that I call 'The Eagle' -- a bird that has the agility and strength to respond creatively to its needs and changes taking place in its environment every minute. A bird that never hesitates to fly higher to surmount any obstacle and have a better view of things and reduce the energy needed for gliding for miles and also swoop down on a prey in a matter of seconds. I think you can well visualize the analogy I have just drawn between the Eagle and company that enjoys improvements.

No wonder that this company is doing extremely well for years and one of their plants consistently won the first prize in World Class Maintenance from the World Cement Association for the last 9 years from the time they implemented improvements as a cornerstone of their management activities, of course with a different thinking process, which might be loosely described as a process of debate and dialogue.
 
So, in brief, the difference between plant that succeed and the plants that don't do quite well is the difference in management attitude -- Duck or an Eagle mentality. Reliability Improvement can only be made if and only if the Management is willing to respond to the changes that continually takes place in the business scenario that takes place every minute.

A few months back during our annual conference on 'Equipment Reliability and Its Improvement', Mr. Harsh Jha, MD, Tata Metaliks, had something very significant to say. He said that permenent long standing changes can only be brought about by changing the process'.

I fully agree and nothing can be further than the truth of improvement and sustainability of any organisation. We can change the 'Thinking Process'. We can change our 'Work Process'. We can change our 'Operation Process'. We can change our 'Procurement Process'. We can change our 'Contract Management process'. And we can change our 'Management Process'. All for the better. However, this much is clear to my mind through my observations that organisations that stubbornly refuse to change would not only die an untimely death but also live a difficult life till the time they walk the face of this earth.Or as Shakespeare said: cowards die many times before their death.

But at the same time, I have also felt that change can't be brought about by so called 'change management programs'. Change can't be brought about by introducing 'systems' that operated successfully elsewhere in the same industry or for that matter in different class of industry. No human being wants to change unless forced by his own conciousness to change (sounds like Newton's first law of motion). A change can only happen through a person's awarenss and intelligent response to a concrete experience he/she faces. And a 'change' is nothing but a 'clever design' arising solely out of human thought. Management would do well to support and encourage people to come out openly with their 'concrete experiences' and then encourage them to come up with 'clever designs' as a response to those 'concrete experiences' and aggresively implement them and then urge them to go forward.

Once done, in the heart of hearts, the employee would be sold to the management for life since the management has restored the much needed faith in oneself and the pride of being alive and working. The employee would then think ten times before he decides to leave an organisation. (At last, there seems to be on the horizon a possible solution to counter the high attrition rate of employees in an organisation). On the whole, it then brings about a 'qualitative' change in the organisations, which I must admit is difficult if not impossible to measure.

And that brings me to the final point I want to make -- people matter in any change or improvement. And the desired change can only happen through people who enjoy the warmth of management support and encouragement. Inducements, great techniques, best systems and best processes don't matter at all. Human consciousness is uplifted step by step just the way we climb a ladder -- step by step. It depends on the degree of realization. Hence all improvements are only a matter of people's individual desire to improve and would only happen if people realize this fundamental point and management is willing to stroke the embers.

At this point, I hurriedly add, if I may, a Zen saying, "Talking does not cook rice". 

It is Durga Puja time in Bengal -- generally a time for fun and frolic! I use this time to catch up on my readings and writing. And I have one big unfinished task lying in front of me -- to complete my book -- which is taking a lot of time to finish. I have been slowly building up my resolve to complete this unfinished work for the last two weeks. But my resolve seems to be wavering. I however, realize that even with the completion of the book my work would greatly remain unfinished and it would be up to others to finish it -- or rather take it further through evolution. May be a few of you would love doing that -- I wonder!

So good bye for now and wish you all a very Happy Puja!

signing off for now
dibyendu