The Problem With Operational Heroes

During my extended career in Operations I’ve noticed something consistent: manufacturers are masters of improvisation. We’re good at figuring things out on the fly.

But the problem is, we start relying on it. We romanticize heroics instead of fixing the underlying problems. Sure, we have all seen them. We see them when a problem emerges and and "old salt" steps forward and states he has seen this problem before and how he fixed it ... so root cause of problem not solved. We have seen them how they can deviate from process to manage to get a critical customer order shipped. We also have those hoarders that keep critical parts and supplies stashed just in case because they do not trust the system. Yes, they walk among us and to enhance the problem some of them thrive on being the daily hero, most likely thinking they have some sort of job security.

They look like a hero when he produces a magical solution out of thin air, but here’s what people miss:

"Heroics has cost the company money over and over again because they are running to the Heroic parameters, not the business parameters.”

We can’t keep depending on Heroics because when the hero retires, or takes a two-week vacation, the company is suddenly in trouble.

Disruption Is Not New

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, everybody loves to talk about Disturbances to Flow. Supply chain issues, labor shortages, tariffs – it’s all disturbances. The reality is: Disturbances to Flow has always been part of manufacturing. There’s always something.

What’s changed is that we talk about it more. Back in the day, we just called it “another Tuesday.”

The goals remain the same: lower your operational costs and grow your revenue. Everything else – OEE, cash flow, KPIs – is in service of those two outcomes.

Awareness Beats Firefighting

I’ve sat in a lot of factories where people are proud of how fast they can solve emergencies. They’ve built careers on putting out fires. That said, the manufacturers who really thrive are the ones who step back and look at root causes. They know their processes inside and out.

They’re not blindsided when the tide goes out. 

Awareness of what really is your process, and awareness of who you want to be, is the key to resilience.

Adaptability is not just a buzzword. It’s about designing systems and processes that can handle surprises without needing someone to reach under their desk for a miracle.

The Chaos Story

When I started at LZB I quickly noticed that as an Organization we were very good at moving stuff around ... I would even being willing to state we were excellent. So excellent that we had even designed special carts that could move more stuff with a single person at a time. The only little problem was in part of being good at moving stuff our batch sizes were huge and so were our production lead times. But thankfully we had hero's who knew how to find stuff and help keep our plant in balance.

So i decided to take the Team to visit a plant that starting to supply Toyota as a Tier 1 supplier. I was excited for the Team to witness a calm process. Wrong ! one of the plant managers scolded me for taking him to a plant where nobody was working and no product being produced. Yes he was one of our LZB Hero's.

Unfortunately what he had failed to observe is that the company had done all of the preliminary work using APQP, so they had a nicely balanced single-piece-flow line. People trained all necessary parts within easy reach to the operators and an engineered material conveyance and replenishment system.

Yes the plant was calm and my guy did not understand he could only in his mind measure productivity based on the amount of heroic efforts required to keep production flowing. Slowly Disturbances to Flow are adopted as part of the standard process.

Manufacturers do the same thing. They patch and work around problems. They cover up inefficiencies instead of fixing them. Until one day, they’re forced to replace the entire system – in a panic, during a crisis.

Stop Waiting for Crisis

My point is simple: resilience shouldn’t be accidental. It should be intentional. Don’t wait for for your hero to retire.

Ask yourself this question:

“If our Hero(s) took a two-week vacation tomorrow, would our plant still run smoothly?”

If the answer is “maybe not”, then it’s time to start treating resilience as a business strategy, not an act of heroism. Don’t forget that in manufacturing, the tide always goes out and, as Warren Buffett likes to say, that’s when you find out who’s been swimming naked.