Let go of fear-based management
Material prepared by: Scientific Director of the AQT Center Sergey P. Grigoryev .
Free access to articles does not in any way diminish the value of the materials contained in them.
In the environment of fear formed at the enterprise, one should not wait for real work to improve processes and product quality. These companies don't even know what the real problems are. People in production will be busy looking for ways to hide defects at any cost.
In an article about a visit to exchange experience at the automobile plant of the largest international automobile concern in St. Petersburg, visitors report:
“We witnessed the scrupulous work of the exit control. One of the workers tried to straighten a slightly deformed car door with a crowbar. And this is in a practically robotic enterprise, where most operations are performed by automatic machines. The control immediately rejected the car, although the worker tried to give some arguments, but the inspectors They were adamant. The car was not allowed through; it was sent for revision.
Upon admission to the plant, each person is given a personal card in which the results of psychological testing, observations of the foreman, improvement proposals and defects identified by inspection are entered. If at least one defect is noted on the card, then in the next six months the person will not be able to participate in certification and move further up the career ladder.
Visitors further note that:
At their enterprise, they are fined for defects, and at an automobile plant, mistakes in work do not give a chance for professional development. The system of such cards greatly affects people, because if there are several “defective” entries, the rank is lowered and the question of professional suitability is raised.
The visitors liked the excursion and they:
We became interested in the successful practices of the automobile plant, which we will try to adopt.”
Edwards Deming on industrial tourism:
"A typical situation: the management of a company is eager to improve quality and productivity, but does not understand at all how to do this. In search of enlightenment, they visit other companies, at first glance, prosperous. There, these managers are received with open arms, and an exchange of ideas begins. They ( visitors) learn how the company operates, some of it may accidentally coincide with the 14 points. Without using the guidelines, both of them go with the flow. Neither company knows which procedures are correct or incorrect and why. whether the business is successful is why it is successful and whether it could be made even more successful. One can only hope that visitors will enjoy the tour. It is not their fault, but their problem.”
In the environment of fear formed at the visitor enterprise and the automobile plant, one should not expect real work to improve processes and product quality. These companies don't even know what the real problems are. People in production will be busy looking for ways to hide defects at any cost. After all, six months without the right to career growth is perhaps worse than fines. And it’s better not to think about the effect of several “defective” entries in the personal card of a car plant worker, which will lower the rank.
"There is no substitute for knowledge. But the prospect of using knowledge is scary."
How do managers at these enterprises find out about problems in processes, for example, with drawings, instructions, materials, programs for CNC machines and robots, equipment, settings and condition of equipment, tools, quality of worker training, etc., etc. ., if workers are forced to find ways to hide defects at any cost. Do not forget that in the vast majority of cases, workers will not jeopardize punishment and related employees.
If the number of detected defects in such an insurance system is stable ( determined using Shewhart control charts ), then the people in the system do their best, and the percentage of defects is a natural property of this system. In this case, blaming the workers for the reasons for the marriage, the enterprise management shifts all the blame onto the most powerless - the workers who “themselves suffer from the imperfection of the system designed by this management” (Edwards Deming). Only enterprise management can implement systemic changes.
If the number of defects from day to day is in a statistically uncontrollable state (determined using Shewhart control charts), the enterprise suffers maximum losses, and the processes are in chaos, their behavior is unpredictable, and therefore, any planning of such processes is doomed to failure. First of all, it will be necessary to bring processes into a statistically controlled state by identifying and eliminating special causes that cause the system to leave statistical control. And only after this will the enterprise management need to engage in systemic changes. The achieved statistically stable state of processes before the start of any systemic changes will make it possible to clearly and objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the changes made by management.
Refuse to manage by fear, study Edwards Deming's management principles, use Shewhart's control charts to determine the health of people's processes, develop evidence-based improvement methods, and create and maintain a collaborative company environment.
"Many people know about statistical quality control in production. It is important, but production is only a small part of the overall system. You can achieve 100% success within production and, in the end, go bankrupt. The most important application of the principles of statistical quality control under which I I mean knowledge of the general and special causes of variation in human resource management."
See additional examples of what an atmosphere of fear in an enterprise leads to in an open solution: Distortion of product quality control data through substitution of values that do not fit into the tolerance range. Eliminate the fear-based control system!