We utilize processes in our everyday lives, more often than you might imagine, and when we fail to utilize these processes, not-so-positive things can happen. We are going to take a trip to a world outside of manufacturing for a moment.
My middle school child and I follow a consistent morning routine where we begin our days together. I am usually busy putting on my jewelry while he is brushing his teeth, and when we make the final dash to the door after we finalize our a.m. tasks, I frantically search for my consistently missing cell phone as he chooses what basketball shoes he will wear. The life of a Middle Schooler sure is rough! We both load in the minivan, and down to the end of the driveway we go to wait for the bus. He gets on the bus and I exchange my daily wave with his bus driver before venturing off to grab my coffee on my way to Wepco.
Now, this is our norm, and we follow our fundamental procedure 90% of mornings. However, not too long ago I had a later–than–anticipated evening board meeting. I was feeling a little sluggish the following morning and decided to sleep in a few extra minutes. My son went about his routine, and made his way down the driveway to wait for the bus. I finished up without being able to check on him before he got on the bus, and so with trust, I went off to work. Besides arriving for my coffee 10 minutes behind schedule, everything was going great.
I was sipping my coffee, chatting with a friend when my husband called. He never calls in the morning, as he works early mornings into the afternoon, so I was slightly suspicious. I almost immediately realized why when the automated call from my son’s school came through saying he was marked absent.
In a mere 10 seconds, I went from feeling normal to beyond panicked. My breath was literally taken away. All I could picture was explaining to husband why our child was missing, telling a police officer I was the idiot parent who had no idea what my child was wearing that morning because I had failed to pay attention.
Disclaimer: my son is in middle school and although it is atypical in our household, he is allowed to get himself on the bus without a parent beside him. Our driveway is short, and we live in a small town where only one single blinking light sits quietly at the top of a four-way intersection. In addition to this, his bus driver is a family friend, so I can assure you, no children were endangered during the development of this blog.
Back to the panic. I had no choice but to pull over on the side of the road as I frantically attempted to log into our camera system, while simultaneously calling my husband back. I had to hysterically confess that I never physically laid eyes on our son as he got on the bus. I had no idea if my child was at school or being held hostage by a stranger. Extreme, maybe? But if you’re a mom, I know you feel my worry. I called four different numbers for the school to verify my son’s absence, and to my dismay, I couldn’t reach a soul. I called my husband back screaming for him to call the bus drivers cell while I dialed the number of another mom that works near the school. My mind was still consumed by the fear that something was wrong, and that it could have been prevented by me.
Plot twist. Thankfully, after a long while of worry, the mom friend I called told me she had watched my son get off the bus at school that morning. She informed me that the phone system was down and that every parent in the school received that message as a result of the systems down function.
Tears of relief. After calming down, I finished my drive to work. As what just transpired settled, the necessity of following a process that was already in place became apparent. Our process was that I watched my son get on the bus every morning. The morning I chose to break that process, it destroyed my level of trust and my day turned into mayhem. I could trust that my son would arrive at school safely when I physically watched him get on the bus. But without that visual, my trust in the process was dissolved therefore giving the outcome room for failure.
Reading this, you might think my failed process example is extreme. But the seriousness of what happened opened my eyes to see the value of having a process and the necessity of following it. Had I followed our process that morning, my panic level would have been nowhere near where it was, and I would have maintained my trust. In our everyday work lives, we can overlook our set processes, such as choosing to not fill out a couple of pieces of paper, or failing to send an email,. In reality, even when detriment doesn’t seem apparent, the impact can be just as severe as it was in my situation.
At Wepco, as part of our Continuous Improvement journey, we are always implementing new process or refining current ones. We work hard as a team to construct and then vet these processes. Yet, even still, there are times we go around them. Production and life get busy and overwhelming, and we create the illusion for ourselves that by skipping the process “just this one time” will save hours and make our lives easier all around. However, an illusion is exactly what that is. By going around the process, we break trust with the people we created the process with, and we leave ourselves vulnerable to failure and disappointment to our team. The mistakes that are made when cutting around the process are derived from a people issue, and if you follow the process and still encounter failure, it is then not about the people and rather about refining the process.
So this is my challenge to you: next time your day is hectic and you are feeling tempted to go around the process to save time or energy, envision the panicked mother pulled to the side of the road desperately trying to find out if her child made it to school. Use this as way to reinforce your belief in having processes and most importantly, following them. Don’t be afraid to suggest a modification to the process with your team if something is not working. Processes aren’t perfect and can always be improved. That’s the best part of continuous improvement. We never have to be done.
Here’s to valuing, following, and reflecting on the process!