WEEK 5: FINAL ASSIGNMENT

LEARNING LAUNCHING

Jose Martinez

THE CHALLENGE

Starting to lead an industrial maintenance team to ensure the reliability of a growing chain of NGV service  stations, I received some concerns about a variety of topics from our main customer, the Operational  Team that develop the sales 24 hrs of fuel from Monday to Monday, many of them related to failure  incidence and response times. From the Human Resources side, the pain was about the high cost of Extra  Hours reported in the past months. Getting into the feeling and perception of the Maintenance Technical  Team, the main disconformity was about the intensive use on Extra Hours, taking a lot of their family time  to extend laboring days and solve many operational issues.    After few weeks observing the dynamic of the Maintenance Team, I noticed the evident contradiction of  giving a 8 hours maintenance service for a 24 hours operations. Basically, any failure or need reported in  any station out of the daytime schedule was generating longer response times and extra labor time, with  no option to hire employees to take 3 shifting turns to cover 24 hours every day like the Operations Team  does. The collaborators felt exhaust and frustrated.

THE SELECTION

In a weekly team meeting, we had an idea. Every week one technician has the “Guardian Role”, doings  his tasks during the day and taking service calls during the night. What if that technician does his role  during the night? It looked like a great idea, but there were some doubts about the activities he could  accomplish and the perception of one man (and vehicle) less during the day.    It was hard to align every different opinion and get a total consensus. We felt we wouldn't find the perfect  strategy at the first shoot. But one thing we could agree: we need to test the idea. So, we tried the  “Launching Learning” convinced that we were going find some difficulties that we could fix by making  some changes, or at less we could prove if that idea was good enough or not.

THE APPLICATION

It was clear that our idea had to accomplish our customers’ pains: response times / failure incidence /  extra labor time costs. We could track those parameters weekly and get some conclusions in about a  month. If the results are good, the idea could keep going on. We defined a weekly schedule for the  “Guardian Role” during night hours focused on specific activities to prevent the recurrent failures in the  more important service stations, trying to keep a complete set of tools and replacements to reduce  dependency of the warehouse (closed at night). We also decided to cover the main sales being on the  stations during the “peak hours” when we have the highest quantity of users, near midnight. Being there,  if any failure occurs we could attack very fast.     During the next weeks we found some aspects related to the execution of the plan. Mobility issues during  night, lightning needs and the adoptions of a new way to perform the technicians’ activities, more  focused on recurrent failures and predictive analysis, the supervision and reporting of the job done…  those were some of the first barriers. But we hit the key performance indicators positively and decided to  continue but making some changes that even implicate re-define some parts of the general schedule of  the Maintenance Plans and take the time to show more clearly to the technicians the goals and  differences of this new methods and activities, and de benefits of adopting this strategy.     Nowadays, we are running our first three-month period. We still strive adapting the new “guardian role”  to some specific situations, when we have special missions that reduce temporarily the work force, but it  seems we’ll close this trimester reducing the pains that motivated these ideas.

THE INSIGHT

At the begging I had a strongly motivation to get “fast and cheap experiments” or tries of our ideas, and  effectively, we confirmed that we can improve those valuable things that our customers were asking for…  but the thing I didn’t se before is that the executions will take a longer time to be improved. That’s one  thing to keep in mind from the very beginning. I caught myself with this “bias” trying to confirm fast my  hypothesis, and it toke some effort to realize it and mend it. But when you keep an opened mind and a  flexible attitude, there’s a chance for learning and improving over the wave.

THE APPROACH

I think I would rather the same tool… but there should be a way to walk this path in a more organic way.  Testing fast and cheap is ok but changing minds and stablishing new behaviors can take more time and  effort. Getting the engagement of all the work force and change some habits are the next step of  difficulties when you depend intensively on your human talents to stablish new strategies. So, the method  of “Learning Launching” is only a tool in a longer path of generating disrupting ideas, making innovations  and specially “landing” them into consistent practices. There is the place and moment when you’ll need  your whole set of skills.


WEEK 5 : FINAL ASSIGNMENT LEARNING LAUNCHING Jose Martinez THE CHALLENGE Starting to lead an industrial maintenance team to ensure the reliability of a growing chain of NGV service stations , I received some concerns about a variety of topics from our main customer , the Operational Team that develop the sales 24 hrs of fuel from Monday to Monday , many of them related to failure incidence and response times . From the Human Resources side , the pain was about the high cost of Extra Hours reported in the past months . Getting into the feeling and perception of the Maintenance Technical Team , the main disconformity was about the intensive use on Extra Hours , taking a lot of their family time to extend laboring days and solve many operational issues . After few weeks observing the dynamic of the Maintenance Team , I noticed the evident contradiction of giving a 8 hours maintenance service for a 24 hours operations . Basically , any failure or need reported in any station out of the daytime schedule was generating longer response times and extra labor time , with no option to hire employees to take 3 shifting turns to cover 24 hours every day like the Operations Team does . The collaborators felt exhaust and frustrated . THE SELECTION In a weekly team meeting , we had an idea . Every week one technician has the “ Guardian Role ” , doings his tasks during the day and taking service calls during the night . What if that technician does his role during the night ? It looked like a great idea , but there were some doubts about the activities he could accomplish and the perception of one man ( and vehicle ) less during the day . It was hard to align every different opinion and get a total consensus . We felt we would n't find the perfect strategy at the first shoot . But one thing we could agree : we need to test the idea . So , we tried the “ Launching Learning ” convinced that we were going find some difficulties that we could fix by making some changes , or at less we could prove if that idea was good enough or not . THE APPLICATION It was clear that our idea had to accomplish our customers ’ pains : response times / failure incidence / extra labor time costs . We could track those parameters weekly and get some conclusions in about a month . If the results are good , the idea could keep going on . We defined a weekly schedule for the “ Guardian Role ” during night hours focused on specific activities to prevent the recurrent failures in the more important service stations , trying to keep a complete set of tools and replacements to reduce dependency of the warehouse ( closed at night ) . We also decided to cover the main sales being on the stations during the “ peak hours ” when we have the highest quantity of users , near midnight . Being there , if any failure occurs we could attack very fast . During the next weeks we found some aspects related to the execution of the plan . Mobility issues during night , lightning needs and the adoptions of a new way to perform the technicians ’ activities , more focused on recurrent failures and predictive analysis , the supervision and reporting of the job done … those were some of the first barriers . But we hit the key performance indicators positively and decided to continue but making some changes that even implicate re - define some parts of the general schedule of the Maintenance Plans and take the time to show more clearly to the technicians the goals and differences of this new methods and activities , and de benefits of adopting this strategy . Nowadays , we are running our first three - month period . We still strive adapting the new “ guardian role ” to some specific situations , when we have special missions that reduce temporarily the work force , but it seems we ’ll close this trimester reducing the pains that motivated these ideas . THE INSIGHT At the begging I had a strongly motivation to get “ fast and cheap experiments ” or tries of our ideas , and effectively , we confirmed that we can improve those valuable things that our customers were asking for … but the thing I did n’t se before is that the executions will take a longer time to be improved . That ’s one thing to keep in mind from the very beginning . I caught myself with this “ bias ” trying to confirm fast my hypothesis , and it toke some effort to realize it and mend it . But when you keep an opened mind and a flexible attitude , there ’s a chance for learning and improving over the wave . THE APPROACH I think I would rather the same tool … but there should be a way to walk this path in a more organic way . Testing fast and cheap is ok but changing minds and stablishing new behaviors can take more time and effort . Getting the engagement of all the work force and change some habits are the next step of difficulties when you depend intensively on your human talents to stablish new strategies . So , the method of “ Learning Launching ” is only a tool in a longer path of generating disrupting ideas , making innovations and specially “ landing ” them into consistent practices . There is the place and moment when you ’ll need your whole set of skills .