For Manufacturing: Not Keeping People Waiting Is Also a Quality of Work
When working on the shop floor, I sometimes find the time spent waiting for someone's reply more concerning than the actual work itself.
I sent a request to check a drawing.
I asked about material specifications.
I confirmed the priority of delivery dates.
I am waiting for information on purchase order numbers or billing details.
From my end, I cannot move until I get a reply.
Of course, the other person has their own work to do.
There are circumstances where they cannot reply immediately.
They might be in a meeting, out of the office, or tied up with other projects.
I understand that.
However, from the perspective of the person stuck on the floor, the time without a reply is not just waiting time.
People stop.
Materials stop.
Decisions stop.
In some cases, even downstream processes stop.
Seeing that, I have been thinking about this a lot lately.
Isn't not keeping people waiting also a quality of work?
The people who say "report quickly" are sometimes the slowest to reply
On the shop floor, we are often told to report, communicate, and consult quickly.
Tell me immediately if something happens.
Ask immediately if you don't understand.
Don't make decisions on your own.
Consult before things come to a halt.
What they are saying is correct.
On the floor, it is better to check first than to proceed on your own and fail.
It is better to pause and ask than to have to redo the work later.
Often, that is faster in the end.
However, there is something that bothers me about that.
I asked because I was told to "ask immediately," but the reply doesn't come.
I stopped because I was told "don't decide on your own," but the person who needs to decide is the one who is stalled.
The people who say "your reports are slow" are the ones who don't reply to my inquiries.
This is surprisingly common on the shop floor.
Of course, I don't think they have bad intentions.
But for the person being kept waiting, it is a bit of a problem.
If I don't ask, I get told "why didn't you ask?"
If I do ask, I can't proceed until the reply comes.
And yet, the delivery deadline remains the same.
When this happens, the floor gradually learns something strange.
If I ask, I stop.
If I don't ask, I get scolded.
In the end, it's faster to just handle it myself.
When this atmosphere emerges, reporting, communicating, and consulting become mere formalities.
People who are waiting are not just killing time.
If you are just waiting for an email reply in the office, you might still be able to move forward with other work.
But that is not the case on the shop floor.
The machining orientation is not decided. The finishing range is unclear. I don't know if the quantity is correct. The part number of the supplied item might be wrong. I cannot determine if the drawing is the latest version.
Making an operator wait in these conditions does more than just leave them idle.
People are not machines, so they cannot simply switch cleanly to the next task the moment they stop. The setup they had in their heads starts to fade. Sometimes they have to move materials they had already cleared. If they start another job, it becomes difficult to interrupt that one later.
To put it a bit dramatically, waiting time on the shop floor is not like keeping rice warm in a rice cooker.
It does not stay in the same state just by leaving it there.
For every moment you keep them waiting, the heat escapes.
The flow is broken.
Their focus gradually drifts away.
Even so, from the outside, it just looks like 'waiting for a reply.'
I think this is the scary part.
The speed of a reply is seen as an attitude toward work.
I do not think every reply should be answered immediately.
In fact, sometimes it is more problematic to get a quick but careless reply.
Being told 'it's fine' without checking.
Being told 'please proceed' without looking closely.
The conditions change later.
That is just fast, but it is dangerous as work.
Therefore, what is needed is not to answer everything immediately.
If you cannot answer right away, reply with when you can.
If you are checking, tell them you are checking.
If you are stopping the work, tell them the reason why.
If the other person is waiting, do not forget that you are keeping them waiting.
Even just doing that changes how the shop floor perceives the situation.
'There is no reply yet, but they are checking for me.'
'I can't move today, but I can make a decision by tomorrow morning.'
'So it is okay to stop this task.'
If they know that, the shop floor can make other arrangements.
Conversely, if nothing comes back, the shop floor is left in limbo.
Should I proceed?
Should I stop?
Should I send a reminder?
Should I keep waiting?
When these small hesitations pile up, the quality of work declines.
Quality is not something that only appears in the finished product.
When we talk about quality in the manufacturing industry, it is easy to think of the dimensions, appearance, and presence or absence of defects in the finished product.
Of course, that is important.
Having no scratches. Being the correct dimensions. Being finished to the specified requirements. Being able to ship on time.
But lately, I feel that is not all there is to it.
The quality of work appears even before it becomes a finished product.
How requests are made. How responses to confirmations are given. How people are kept waiting. How things are brought to a halt. How priorities are communicated.
That is where the quality of a person's or department's work shows.
People who respond quickly are not just fast workers. I think they imagine the other person being at a standstill.
Conversely, people who do not reply for days might be busy. However, from the perspective of the person waiting, it looks like their work is being treated lightly.
Even if that is not the case in reality, that is how it appears.
Work loses trust little by little in places like this.
People who do not keep others waiting treat the other person's time as if it were their own.
The people who are trusted on the shop floor are not necessarily the ones who know everything.
They can say when they do not know something. If it is impossible right now, they say it is impossible. If it takes time to confirm, they send a quick word first. If the other person is at a standstill, they are concerned about the fact that they are holding them up.
Work with such people is easy to coordinate.
On the other hand, people who are highly capable but slow to respond bring those around them to a halt. The person themselves might just be busy. However, from the perspective of those around them, work is congested at that person's station.
In terms of roads, it is like an intersection with a broken traffic light. There are cars. There are roads. There are destinations. But because no one knows who should go, everyone moves cautiously, watching the situation.
Waiting for confirmation on the shop floor is similar to that.
Not keeping people waiting is not about pandering to others.
I believe it means looking a little beyond your own work to see the flow of the other person's work as well.
If you demand reporting, communication, and consultation, the quality of the person responding is also called into question.
The report is late.
There is no communication.
They don't come to consult.
These kinds of phrases are often heard on the shop floor.
However, how the person being consulted responds is surprisingly often overlooked.
Do you make an annoyed face when someone comes to ask you something?
Do you leave a confirmation request sitting there unattended?
Do you put off making a decision when you are asked for one?
Do you ask 'Why was this stopped?' after the fact?
Reporting, communication, and consultation are not just the responsibility of the person doing them.
There is also quality expected from the person receiving them.
Is it easy to consult with you?
Do you provide a response?
If you are going to make them wait, is there a reason for it?
Are you willing to take responsibility for the time you caused the work to stop?
If this is weak, the team will stop consulting.
It is easy to say that the people who don't consult are the ones at fault.
But in a workplace where you don't get a response even when you do consult, can people really be expected to keep doing it?
Small wait times change the atmosphere of the workplace.
Keeping people waiting does not immediately manifest as a defect.
The drawing was wrong.
The dimensions were wrong.
It was scratched.
The delivery deadline was missed.
These are not the kind of obvious problems.
However, it has a gradual, cumulative effect.
It becomes a hassle to confirm things.
You decide on your own before asking.
Only the person who keeps reminding others ends up being the bad guy.
The person who was made to wait will then make someone else wait.
The flow of the entire job slows down little by little.
These things are hard to see in the numbers.
But when you are on the shop floor, you can tell.
Workplaces with good flow are good at responding.
It is not just about being fast; they are good at how they pause things.
They don't make people wait in a sloppy way.
Conversely, workplaces where things are always stopping somewhere have issues not just with someone's ability, but with how responses and decisions are handed off.
Not keeping people waiting is not just about being kind.
I believe it is a quality necessary to keep the work moving.
Of course, I am not perfect at this myself.
There are times when I am too busy and my replies are delayed.
There are also times when I think I will reply later, only for it to slip my mind.
That is precisely why I want to be careful.
Quality is not something created only by inspections before shipping.
The moment you keep someone waiting, the quality of your work is already being tested.
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Kindle Book Information
Reporting, communicating, and consulting on the shop floor change depending on the attitude of not only the person doing it, but also the person receiving it.
When new employees and young staff are learning the ropes, what should they ask, how should they confirm, and where should they stop?
This Kindle book organizes those points a bit further.
"The First Book a Manufacturing Newcomer Should Read"
About the Author
Information about the person writing this can be found here.