Personal Plimsoll Line

Plimsoll LinePlimsoll Line (nautical) properly the International Load Line, a mark on the hull of a merchant ship to show the waterline under specified conditions. The line shows the maximum capacity load the ship may carry.  The depth to which a boat can be safely loaded.

Samuel Plimsoll, a British MP in the mid 1800’s was outraged by the number of sailors deaths caused by overloaded and unseaworthy vessels.   In 1873 he published "Our Seamen" which cataloged disaster after disaster and showed that nearly 1000 sailors a year were drowned in British waters.  This document led to the eventual passing of the Unseaworthy Vessels Bill in 1875 and a year later the amendment of the 1871 Merchant Shipping Act to include provision for a marking on the sides of ships which would disappear below the water line when the ship was overloaded.

Is there a personal level of overload or unseaworthiness?

My good friend Ken Branco talks about personal capacity – Like it or not, our capacity is limited.  What can I predictably accomplish?  Where are resource constraints?  Am I a constraint?  Efficiency – Do things right.  Effectiveness – Do right things. Workloads for black belts, change agents, progressive leaders have the undesirable tendency toward overload, and with overload comes mistakes, failure, burnout.  What to do to keep from sinking?

"Whatever you are, be a good one."
– Abraham Lincoln

"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody."
– Longfellow

"No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime."
– James T. McKay

"In order to do more, I’ve got to be more. People frequently ask me, ‘How can I do more?’ The answer isn’t complicated: You have to develop personal capacity before you can have personal accomplishments. So many times we want to do more before we become more, but that’s backwards."
– John C. Maxwell

 

 

Pearls before swine

Pearls before swine

Got notice today that a project I’ve been working diligently has been canceled, without cause and effective immediately.  As a self-employed free-agent consultant there are few things worse than a stretch of white space in the calendar or a cliff event like this one.  Luckily new clients are queued up and ready to go.  So no financial disaster, but what a waste.  “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” and a few other choice phrases come to mind when good work goes down the flusher.  Brevior saltare cum deformibus mulieribus est vita. Life is too short to dance with ugly women.

 

 

Lee Hales

Lee HalesToday I had the good fortune to reacquaint myself with Lee Hales, president of High Performance Concepts and Richard Muther & Associates.  Seems Lee had stumbled on Lean Sigma Supply Chain from a link in earlier post here on their simplified systematic layout planning.  Many years ago I attended a facility layout workshop he and another gentleman ran.  Ever since I’ve been a fan of Richard Muther’s logical approach to organizing the physical workplace.  Need help with configuring you office, lab, factory?  Then give Lee and his team a call.

 

 

 

 

 

Month-end Madness

Do you have a “hockey stick”, where most of your bookings occur right at the end of the month, quarter, year? If you have a “hockey stick”, it is very hard to have consistently predictable revenues. Growth, profits and market value suffer when revenues are not predictable. Many companies experience 50% or more of their quarterly sales coming in during the last week or two of the quarter. The V.P. of Sales loses a lot of sleep, the CEO gets irritable and the rest of the executive staff loses confidence.

When orders look weak midway through the quarter, management applies pressure to “pull next quarter’s orders in”. The reps’ only choice may be to offer a discount to entice customers to cooperate.  Whether or not they are successful in the current quarter, there is a reinforcing effect and customers learn to hold orders to the end of the quarter to get a lower price in the future. The net effects are a "hockey stick" and lower prices which can lead to significant profitability and cash flow concerns.

Vicious Cycle: With constant pressure to manage operating expenses the supply chain can end up reinforcing the month or quarter end splurge as supplies are expedited to meet the spike in demand, or replenish the stocks that shipped out all at once.  Expediting or pulling in digs a hole creating future shortages; a self perpetuating cycle of feast and famine. 

What to do?  Change the systems – discounts, incentives, compensation, culture.  A tall order but it can be done.