I am enjoying ‘Don Quixote’ by Cervantes, even though it’s a massive book - I’m now 900 pages in, of a 950 page book. In particular, I’ve enjoyed the part where the apparent simpleton and uneducated rustic squire Sancho Panza is gifted the governorship of an ‘isle’ (it is in fact an isolated village). Rather than completely mess it up as everyone expects, he turns out to be a governor of rare sagacity and wisdom. He lasts only a week before his rumbling tummy makes him give up his post to return to his master, the knight-errant Don Quixote de la Mancha, the Knight of the Sad Countenance. Reading the book, it made me wonder, what would one do if you were made a gypsum wallboard plant manager for a week - ‘governor of your own isle’? This question might be moot, if you already hold that exalted position. However, if the magic wand suddenly made you ‘The Boss,’ what would you do?
Having visited a reasonable spread of gypsum wallboard plants around the world, I think I know what I would do. On the basis that the magic wand did not grant me unlimited funds, and that I had to act within the budget limits of all gypsum wallboard plant managers, I think that this is what I would do:
First hour: I’d get all the staff together that could be spared and tell them the situation: Safety first; Quality matters; Take pride in your work. I’d tell them that we now have a no-blame safety-reporting system, and that we particularly want to know about near-misses. It’s only when there’s no blame (as in the aeronautical industry) that you will get reports of all incidents. It’s only when you get reports of all near-misses that you can make sensible changes. I’d have a suggestion box (anonymous if required, but with recognition for sensible and valuable suggestions). Of course, I would say that ‘my door is always open,’ since I think that a plant manager’s job is essentially to serve the staff at the plant, to make sure that they can get their job done. I’d ask for any questions and answer them as honestly as I could.
Obviously head office would have some other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to stick to. These would include things like avoiding out-of-spec board, keeping a steady mean weight, reducing water demand to maximise dryer efficiency and reducing the dosage of additives as far as possible. These (and a range of other considerations) are vital to the smooth running of a wallboard plant and, of course, I would have meet them if I wanted to keep my job.
First day: If I wasn’t already blessed with such a figure, I would make moves to procure the services of a really good secretary. Such a person is indispensable to the good running of any industrial plant, acting as a gate-keeper to the plant manager’s office, so that, although ‘the door is always open,’ you have to get past the secretary first. Ideally the secretary would have a working knowledge of gypsum wallboard production, an iron constitution and a good sense of humour.
Also on the first day, I would have a sit-down with the heads of each department. I would reiterate that safety comes first. If a job can’t be done safely, then we would need to think hard about how it can be made safe. I would invest in safety posters, to remind workers that they must take responsibility for working safely. I think that I would also ask my department heads to concentrate on tidiness as well: slips, trips and falls are among the leading causes for lost-time incidents. If ‘cleanliness is next to godliness,’ then tidiness is in the vicinity of safety. I’d make sure that our dust filters were in tip-top shape. Nothing annoys the neighbours like a dust fall on their cars or on their washing, drying on the line.
First week: I’d ask the plant engineers “What are the easiest ‘wins’ on de-bottlenecking and on plant optimisation?” If there were any projects with zero cost, we’d crack on with doing them straight away. Those with non-zero cost would be ranked in order of payback period, but safety issues would be fast-tracked. I’d try to reduce the environmental impact of the plant and this would also improve the bottom line.
As the ‘governor’ I would also make an effort to ‘green’ the plant, planting as much vegetation around the plant as possible to encourage birds to re-colonise the site. I’d make sure that any quarry had a full rehabilitation plan, since this is potentially where the most biodiversity can be created.
Finally, I would be sure to invite the local community to come along and visit the plant, and to see what steps we were taking to be good neighbours. If we lose the goodwill of our adjacent stakeholders, then we could lose our ‘license to operate.’
There’s certainly a lot to do though, and I suspect that, like Sancho, a week of being ‘governor of my own isle’ would be quite enough for me!
