Industrial Fiction: Team Leaders

“I want you to come in later today” Paula told Snodgrass over the phone. “Come in at 1:30 and plan to stay until midnight.”

That was easy enough to do. He sent Abigail a text letting her know his boss had shifted his work hours. Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.

Paula, Snodgrass and Matthias met at the usual stand-up and Paula told him that she wanted him to work with second shift in the Random Parts station. Any changes to the pick-face would have to be bought-off by all three production shifts and he needed to establish some credibility with all three.

“How can I do that? I am not an Industrial Engineer.” Snodgrass asked.

“Credentials don’t matter on the plant floor” Matthias told him with a smile. “Most production folks wouldn’t piss on an I.E. if they were on fire. You get credibility by showing up on their shift and showing you can do the job, at production rate and without needing to get rescued by the team leader.”

Paula shook her head. “That isn’t exactly right. Every team member sometimes gets in a bind. If you get in trouble, hit the Andon and let the team leader help you. You aren’t there to show you are better than they are. You are there to show you are not too good to feel their pain.” 

Matthias nodded. “Yeah, that is what I meant.”

On the way to the Random Parts station Snodgrass said “I have a couple of questions.” and Matthias angled over to a conveniently placed stand-up table.

“Why is there so much variation in how team-leaders do their job?” Snodgrass asked.

“That question makes me a little bit uncomfortable” Matthias said. “It sounds like you are saying some team-leaders aren't as good as some others.”

“Maybe that is what I am asking about” Snodgrass admitted.

“The biggest reason is that the company dictated the language in the contract that define the team-leaders’ responsibilities. The person they describe is superman. He has Masters’ degrees in Psychology, Industrial Engineering, is a Master Mechanic, can write legibly and is a Division I NCAA quality athlete” Matthias informed him.

“So you get a random group of six-to-eight people and tell them to elect a team-leader. Four of them do not want the job. One or two of them are don't have a good personality for the team-leader position. That leaves only one-or-two team members and they get the job by default” Matthias told him. “And sometimes that guy who is left...he might not be superman”

“But don’t they have to go through training?” Snodgrass asked.

“They do” Matthias said. “But rather than asking for something that is attainable, the company decided to ‘leap-frog’ the competition and ask for something that was impossible. That means they get whatever mix-and-match each team-leader can manage.”

“How does the place run?” Snodgrass asked, looking around.

“That is part of what you are going to learn today” Matthias said. “We run three production shifts. That means you have three team-leaders for every set of stations. They have different strengths and, for the most part, they are willing to work together.”

“I think Paula’s plan is to introduce you to the other two team-leaders and let you guys feel each other out. If they trust you then you will be able to work together. If you go in there like a know-it-all then all bets are off.”

Matthias was pretty sure that was Paula’s plan because that is the plan he had proposed to her. As Chairman of the union local, Matthias represented all three shifts.

Matthias took Snodgrass up to the second shift team-leader and said “Here he is, Timmy. See what you can do with him.” and then he walked away. The wheels of Union activities don’t stop just because Matthias was campaigning.

The second shift team-leader was a big man. He stood about 6’-3” and was big in every dimension. As Snodgrass was looking him over, Timmy was looking Snodgrass over.”

“So you are Hot-Snot.” Timmy said. “I have been hearing a lot about you.”

“Hot-Snot?” Snodgrass asked. “Is that my shop nickname?”

“Maybe. That’s what folks have been calling you, anyway. It started out ‘Thinks he is hot-snot in a frying-pan but is probably gonna prove to be nothing more than a cold booger on a paper plate’.”

Thinking about it for a minute, Snodgrass nodded. He could have done a lot worse in the nickname department.

Snodgrass stepped into the Random Parts job. Timmy watched him for a half an hour to ensure he could do the job. Snodgrass was certified on the job but Timmy wanted to be sure it wasn’t a certification-of-convenience.

Snodgrass only had to hit the Andon cord twice. Once was when the clip on the gas-strut was frozen and he couldn’t get it locked onto the ball-joint. The other time was when he looked over and he saw the material delivery guy consolidate the container of SD cards and Snodgrass saw some SD cards over-flow from one container into the container for a different model.

Timmy had a tool to pop the clip into position and that was an easy fix.

The problem with the SD cards was more difficult. He ended up calling Ganzer’s equivalent on second shift because material delivery denied there was an issue. Ganzer’s equivalent boxed up the suspect container of SD cards, labeled it “mixed stock” and sent it back to the supplier.

Other than that, and a text from Abigail at 8:30 “Miss you”, it was an uneventful production shift.

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