A Lesson in Management by Wandering

In the upper Midwest, the phone rang. Sam, the maintenance man, picked it up.

“Sam.” 

“It’s Bill, meet me on the dry end of #3 machine, at the winder, in five minutes.”

Sam knew something was up, the mill manager did not make meaningless calls or make appointments at specific locations. Sam grabbed his smartphone, his hardhat and walked out the door. 

#3 machine was down. It was scheduled down on its regular rotation. That was a schedule they had recently started, just after Bill had arrived. 

All five machines in the paper mill were on a regular routine for maintenance downs, one machine per week. Operations scheduled their clothing changes around the down. The primary reason for each of the downs was to perform the critical, time-honored preventive maintenance tasks, followed by corrective maintenance action on items that had or would cause downtime if not corrected.

Sam fully embraced the change even though it meant he had to relinquish ‘control’ over maintenance requirements throughout the mill. Bill had made it abundantly clear that operations was responsible for deciding their own maintenance priorities and that Sam was to provide the best, most knowledgeable and efficient resources to perform the work. Sort of like the partnership between a car owner and his local dealer’s service. 

It was 9:00 AM and the machine had been down for several hours. Maintenance had started their scheduled work at seven. 

Bill was standing in the aisle between #3 and #4, waiting. 

“What’s up” Sam inquired. 

“Follow me.” Bill nodded towards the stairway to the basement. 

Following Bill down the stairs, Sam began to worry. ‘Something is not right and I don’t know what it is. This is a bad thing’ Sam thought. He knew Bill well enough to know that Bill was on to something and was about to spring it on Sam…one of Bill’s ‘lessons’. 

Bill pointed to the winder drive in the basement between #3 and #2 machines, “Notice anything?” 

“Yeah”, Sam responded. “It’s live.” 

“Follow me”, Bill nodded towards the stairway heading back up to the operating floor. 

Sam followed like a whipped puppy dog. Bill led them both to the winder. 

“Notice anything?” 

Draped over the twin drums of the winder were two millwrights and on the inside, twisted among several other paper carrying rolls, was another. Sam remembered that they were replacing rider roll bearings as part of the PM for the machine. 

‘Oh Shit, I’m in trouble, big trouble’, Sam thought. 

“I SAID, DO YOU NOTICE ANYTHING!” Bill screamed, and then in a voice that would chill an Eskimo, “Follow me.” 

That walk to his office was torturous. All kinds of demons appeared in the imaginations that Sam experienced on that long walk up the flight of stairs, down the hall until they had arrived at Bill’s office.

The morning meeting was about to begin. The mill manager's office was filled with all of his report’s, the pulp mill manager, the paper mill manager, the finishing and shipping manager, safety, accounting, quality and Sam. 

Bill’s face was beet red and everyone knew something was about to take place. The murmuring quieted. 

“I want every one of you to walk out to #3 machine and walk by the work that is being performed there by Sam’s crew and the machine crew, I want you to focus on their safety attitude. I want you all to do this and I want it done now. This meeting is over and until I feel comfortable that there is someone in this room that gives a shit about those people working out there we won’t be having any more morning meetings because they would be pointless.” 

Bill had a way of making a point, a lasting way. Bill also had knack for finding good examples of what his particular subject would be for the day, the week or the campaign. You don’t find those examples by sitting in an office or attending meetings to discuss the latest strategy. 

Sam, knowing he had been made the example of the day, dejectedly went out to the machine. 

When he got there he approached the maintenance crew working on the #3 machine winder, “Hey, Amos, you and the rest of your crew follow me…”. Sam knew enough to learn a lesson from the master of management by wandering and to reuse the lesson on his own.

This crew was about to learn a lesson of their own, one that might someday save a life. 

Life is full of lessons, some to be learned, some ignored, some not even recognized.