Advice for a New IE

[Lilunia]

Hi all,

As i have been prefacing my last couple posts: I want to thank everyone in advance for any assistance they may provide - as i am a new college graduate (w/a degree in i/o psychology), this engineering position is a bit different from my training.

Background: I work in a retail Distribution Center which is facing, along with many retailers i am sure, economic turmoil. We are under a lot of pressure to cut costs, and increase revenue. So far in my 7 months in this IE position i could not think of or see any improvements to our DC to help save money or generate profit for the company (that is, without spending a lot of money on increased technology/machinery).

My question to you folks is, what do i do now? With little to no resources at my disposal i seem to be at a dead end. While i am not struggling for work (i am overloaded with it actually), i would like to actually make positive contributions to my organization.

Additionally, i was wondering how other people liked starting out in the IE field? Did you folks face any personal dilemmas? Poor employee morale due to engineered standards? Is anyone else worried that the poor morale is an antecedent to counterproductive workplace behaviors? Does anyone worry that associates "cheat" on their productivity reporting?

I have 100,000,000 questions for anyone willing to help me out. haha =) I truly appreciate your help in advance! Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
L

 

[PSE]

What caught my attention in your post is your statement,

"While i am not struggling for work (i am overloaded with it actually), i would like to actually make positive contributions to my organization."

to me this implies that there is work going on that perhaps has little or no actual value. There always seems to be some of that in most any organization. This could be a starting point for the positive contributions you wish to make.

Probably your best resource for true improvement ideas resides with the people doing the work out on the floor. Talking with them to get a feel for what they do and what might be needed (vs wanted) to make their work easier helps on multiple levels. You get a sense of the type of work involved as well as possible improvement suggestions and you also get "buy in" from the people on the floor as they have been part of the improvement process.

From my point of view, improvements that "saved labor" simply allowed that labor to be re-applied to other jobs resulting improved overall efficiency or throughput. This is my preferred way of framing or presenting those improvement proposals. The only time labor was/is truly "saved" would be either from the elimination of a position or by avoiding having to hire additional people. All in all, I found it preferrable to work at lowering or avoiding the additional overhead labor, (the beauracracy stuff) if I could than the labor that directly added value.

Regards,

 

[Lilunia]

Thanks for the response, PSE.

Sorry if i was a poor communicator, but i don't necessarily think my work is valueless. I had meant to imply only that I was not the one generating the ideas/projects on which I work. When I do a report or analysis, it is because someone told me to. I feel like i am not doing my job that well due to this inability to find profit improvement projects.

I do spend a great deal of time on the floor with associates, as they are the most knowledgeable about the work here in the DC. However, some associates want to maintain their job security and avoid layoffs. Many associates view engineered standards as a way to "screw" them over and make them work harder and faster, without compensation. (A far cry from what i was doing just a few months ago in my psychology training--So i do have some dissonance about my job). I am sure you can see the implications of that on efforts to streamline processes and increase efficiency. Additionally, every complaint that they do verbalize - is already known through management up to the VP. Our organization does not have the capital to make the improvements.

My (maybe wrongly asserted) problem is that i feel like i am at a dead end, with my hands tied. There is not much *I* feel i am bringing to the organization. All i do is run reports, put data together, do some calculations, hit a stopwatch, etc. Seems anyone could do this. Unless i am being too hard on myself?

Thanks again,
L

 

[PSE]

Lilunia,

You are not a poor communicator. What I was implying is to determine if the work you are being asked to do, or indeed the work others are doing, actually provides something of value to the organization. If no one is acting on the reports or analysis that you are providing, has it then been work of value to the organization?

Perhaps you are wanting to be more of "self starter" on improvement projects rather than relying or receiving most of your directives from others. If this is the case, don't worry too much, it will come in time. Seven months on the job is still well within the learning curve where you are still trying to figure out how the organization runs. If you have a good boss, they should be providing you input on how well you are doing (in contrast to how well you feel you are doing).

Regards,

 

[tomwalz]

You have a bad culture. You have to excise the bad part so the good culture can grow.

You have a huge problem in the employee’s attitudes. See if you can find a lead person who has a good team and work with them.

By the time you hire them they are 18 or 40 or 60 and their attitudes are pretty well set. If they aren’t going to work with you then get rid of them. I think it is possible to change a bad attitude to a good one but it is easier and faster to hire a good employee and that is hard enough.

Been doing it 30 years. I have shut down good operations because they stretched the work out and the operations became unprofitable.

Many, many years ago I did turnarounds for a major restaurant chain. No matter how bad they got there was always at least half the employees who really did want to do a good job.

Not sure if you learned the term “informal leader” or not. These may or may not be official leaders but they exert a lot of influence over the other employees.

Times are tight and it is, unfortunately, necessary to lay off people. A lot easier than firing. If you are half as bright as you seem then you can figure out a way to lay off almost anyone. Try consolidating departments or duties to get rid of senior people.

See if you can work on the floor for long enough that they forget who you are and talk freely. Fire the ones who make up scurrilous nicknames for the boss and songs for the company. Look for the quiet ones in the background.

Try bringing in temps. Most of them are pretty bad but it is a good way to interview. The good ones get hired just as you are going to hire a good temp.

Get The Turnaround Manager’s Handbook by Sloma. It is back in print.

My guess is that you are not testing for drugs and alcohol. Announce that you are going to have to start doing that to be eligible for new work and watch who leaves.

Management should know what is going on. If they don’t want to do this hire a hatchet man as a consultant. Have him come in, make the recommendations you tell him to then leave.



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.