David was bouncing his leg up and down as he sat on John’s chair in the dark, waiting for the man of the hour to finally show up. He had been at John’s legal firm for 30 minutes already, and while he really needed his older brother’s counsel, he couldn’t shake the sense that he was needed back at work to clear the hold-ups that were occurring. David couldn’t help glancing at his watch repeatedly.
Every minute I spend here is another minute I’m not expediting….
David smiled and took a deep breath in as footsteps approached the office door.
“Cor blimey!”
John’s hand flew to his heart in surprise as he found a man occupying his chair and watching him from behind his desk. Then he switched his lights on.
“Hello, brother,” David replied, a small smile playing on his lips.
“Seriously, David!”
John was having quite the Monday with back-to-back meetings and clients to appease, and it was almost the end of the workday by the time he had made it back to his office. Many of his employees were already leaving, and it seemed time to lock up and go home.
It’s been so long since he had last received a surprise visit from his brother, and John had forgotten all that entailed, mainly David’s dramatic entries.
“How long have you been here?”
“Just half an hour,” David smiled, holding his hands up and leaving the chair to give John a quick hug. John shook his head while returning the hug.
“Well, at least you didn’t paint my desk blue this time…” John trailed off as he looked at his desk and then did a full sweep of his room, making sure nothing was repainted or… repurposed.
David has always been a craftsman, which explained why he started a small furniture-making company, one that John knew was no longer ‘small.’ David’s business had grown, and he had his own corner office now, though he hated using it and preferred to be amongst the workers guiding and encouraging them to work hard. Since a lot of his work now consisted of meeting with clients, David was finding that the flow of his teams’ build completions was slowing down, delivery lead times were extending, and this was putting pressure on him to work more hours.
“I swear, I didn’t mess with anything… this time.” David knew John was teasing him, and he would’ve entertained his brother with more relish any other day, but he was swamped with work. When he wasn’t out on the shop floor, work seemed to slow down. He needed to get back soon. He sighed, knowing that his workday was not going to finish anytime soon.
John looked at David, ready to ask for a raincheck when he noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He took a proper look at David who, now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen for the past couple of months, and immediately felt guilty. Though they texted regularly, David was the type to prefer face-to-face meetings and he would usually visit John at his showroom since John was there more than at his own home.
“You all right?”
“No.”
John wasn’t expecting an abrupt and honest answer as it usually took some small talk before his brother broached whatever uncomfortable subject that plagued his mind at any given time.
John nodded and moved to the small couch in his office, sitting down and relaxing, knowing whatever this was would take some time and it was better to get comfortable. He needed the break anyway. David followed his lead and took the sofa opposite John.
“So, I know you’re a bigshot lawyer and this won’t really be something you’re having trouble with, but since you have such a wide array of clients, I was hoping you could maybe help me with it anyway?”
John nodded, having worked for some clients in the furniture industry. Though that didn’t make him an expert, he was willing to listen to his brother’s troubles at the very least.
“I’ve been run ragged these past few months, so I’ll just lay it all down, yeah?”
“Of course, want anything to drink?” John’s suddenly forgotten manners awakened as he looked around, deciding on a bottle of water. He always had a spare bottle or two hidden in his drawers. David took the offered bottle gratefully and drank large gulps of water before focusing on John.
“I’ve been getting behind on orders lately. My people have been making… independent decisions and it’s resulting in my lead time predictions being wrong. Our scheduling had worked great, but now we are finding that jobs are stalling due to missing parts. We have the materials, but the parts just aren’t ready when they are needed which means I am finding many of my predictions are being missed and we are failing to fulfil clients’ orders on time. I thought I could figure it out on my own, but I’ve lost a client already, a huge order that I couldn’t afford to lose. So, I need some advice.”
“Sure, tell me more.” John’s eyes were wide as he listened to his brother, rarely seeing David worked up or looking as exhausted as he appeared now.
“So, you know how I have a schedule of jobs made for our constraint, the sanding team, to follow. Well, I am finding they are running the jobs out of sequence, due to missing inputs. Often, I find they have set up for a job not due next.”
John nodded as he listened attentively.
“What I should have, are jobs being completed in the sequence I scheduled them, but this is not the case. And, when I go investigating, I find parts are stuck in queues, the components to be sanded are not at the table sander ready to be started on time.”
“So, it is out of control?” John hedged a guess.
David grimaced. “I am worried the system has completely collapsed, and I am on borrowed time. Soon, I fear, I won’t be able to save it. I thought it was foolproof! After all, it had been working for us for the past year! So, I decided to take a proper look into it after we were late last week on multiple orders. I found that the tasks in some of our work queues kept piling up where they sat wasting time. The most distressing part? Everyone seems busy, yet there are people I know who are underutilised. It’s like they are dragging their heels and going slow. Why can’t people just focus and follow the schedule.”
“First of all, David, your system has not completely collapsed, you’re always the dramatic one! If it had, you’d be out of business.” John rolled his eyes at his brother’s theatrics. “However, it is an unfortunate and quite serious situation you’ve landed in. What was causing the delays in the first place?”
“Turns out, when the boys don’t get the parts they when they expect them, they start the next job in the queue. Failing that, they start some other job, claiming they are being productive. However, they are making bad decisions, and it gets worse whenever I am not there to catch them. I thought these were good blokes, but now I am unsure, my trust is falling fast.”
“I might not be an industry expert when it comes to your business David, but it is a surprise that you’ve brought this issue up. I’m actually going through something similar. We have a lot of active family law cases we are working on, and I usually assign a few interns with the paralegals to do the research for each separate case. This reduces our lawyers’ workloads and also ensures each case receives the appropriate amount of attention it deserves. Unfortunately, this means that some of the paralegals have gaps in their days, idle time, in between assigned jobs. So, they talk to each other and offer to help research each other’s cases. This is all well and good, but suddenly their plates are full, and when I assign a case to them, it sits neglected for too long. I’ve, of course, done my own preparation, but the paralegals are meant to be accompanying me to my meetings and actively coming up with potential arguments in favour of the client. I’ve had to push back several meetings, and even today I have had to attend several meetings alone to appease client expectations.”
Musing over what John was confiding in him David had an ‘aha’ moment.
“John, why is it that when it’s your own struggle, the problems seem insurmountable, yet when you hear someone else’s problems, the answer seems obvious? What is that called again?”
“David, it’s the psychological distance which means you can view the problems more objectively. Please do share your pearls of wisdom!”
David smiled, before continuing.
“Though we’re in different industries, I think the same principles can help. My suggestion is to limit the release of research tasks, materials in my case, to those tasks needed to complete today’s jobs. Don’t release anything else. Let’s not allow tomorrow’s jobs to be worked on when today’s jobs need to be done. Nothing more, nothing less. This makes sure your employees have small queues and, thus, what you need on time. Your people cannot then be derailed by focusing on other jobs, for whatever reason.” David paused while he considered. “John, you know, I think this will work for me as well, to make absolutely sure the table sanding boys have the materials they need to follow the schedule means having more people idle, or almost idle. It lands for me that people have too much choice. I have noticed a behaviour that, when the next job/task seems easy or quick one to complete, some people look for other, more interesting, more exciting, often times larger, with the belief that they can finish the small one within the time available. Do your people do that? It is a problem for me. They may be able to finish the quick fast, but I find that when I need it at the table sander quickly, the number of people who have to do touch the job means it too late when it does arrive. Choices are messing up the flow. Yes, that’s it!”
David seemed quite pleased to be able to help his brother, considering his brother was a big-shot educated lawyer.
However, his small smile quickly faded at the serious look in John’s eyes.
“I’m facing the exact same issue. My employees think the smaller-scale builds close to their due dates, and also jobs nearly complete, will be quick and easy to finish and so they focus on other larger tasks. It led me to the same conclusion as you, and David, I’ve tried it. Six months ago, we got so behind that I couldn’t help but assign tasks individually and completely control people’s choices. My mantra was ‘here’s a job, start and finish this before you move on to the next job in the queue. If that means sitting idle, then so be it. Get the inputs you need to finish.’”
“Well, you’re on the right track in terms of how you’re thinking about this. Might I suggest something else?”
“Yeah man, give me all you’ve got!” David demanded. “I need the help.”
“Right now, you’re behind on your orders, yes?” John asked, understanding why his brother looked so ragged.
“Yeah, pretty much.” David sighed, a grim set to his mouth.
“And you’re scheduled the table sanders to ensure your constraint’s work priorities match your completion commitments.”
“Yes, that’s right.” John took a sip from his water bottle, adding a fun pause before continuing.
“Real talk, brother, you can assign the tasks to your employees, but they will become reactive rather than proactive, and you want proactive people. So, stop releasing materials for jobs not on your constraint schedule, remove the choice, and make sure you release the materials for jobs on your constraint schedule far enough in advance that they should reach the table sander in time for the schedule to run. Don’t leave it to chance. Now, this is important. Watch out for time lost in queues, especially when that time is increasing. Ask yourself how long will each queue take to clear and move resources to attack the fastest-rising queue. This will flush your jobs. If you don’t, then you will just end up with surging piles workloads moving through your business, and long lead times. You will focus on the wrong things and be making the same mistakes as your employees. Understand?”
David hummed; his eyebrows scrunched as he waited for John to go on.
“Time the release of materials. Focus on resourcing the fastest-rising queue. Keep people working at full speed when their in-queues get low; they don’t stop until the queue is empty. David, I found this smoothed the flow and dealt with the random missing of deadlines. So, brother, your company is not about to collapse. When you fix this, you are going to grow.”
David nodded. John could practically hear his brother’s brain working as he watched David.
“So, the queues that threaten to rise will not, because your materials are now in sync with the jobs scheduled, and the smaller queues mean there are more available resources to go to war on queues that start to rise. Is that about it?”
“Yes,” nodded John.
“There will obviously still be a backlog of jobs to complete but at least I’ll be getting predictable output again. This will free up my people and clear out the work that still clogs the floor.”
David trailed off before he exclaimed excitedly, a bit of his usual temperament peeking through.
“At least I don’t have to worry about some people not having things to do. Jobs are going to fly through the factory. This is far better than my original plan, for sure!”
“Yeah, but remember, make sure that the ones who are free are, in fact, helping clear your rising queues of work instead of turning to unscheduled tasks in a bid to be ahead of the game.”
“Yeah, that’s what started this in the first place… though I suppose I played into it by instructing them to work on the bigger queue first even though those jobs weren’t immediately due.”
“Yup, I did that too, don’t beat yourself up. You were in a tough spot and made the calls you thought would help the most at the time. Keep in mind, the suggestions I gave you will bring their own sets of issues. I had a paralegal quit thinking we were going out of business. David, keep your direction and end goal clear. Your business is going to do really well once you master this.”
“Thanks, man!” David pulled John up and into a tight hug. “This has been putting me through the wringer.”
“Yeah, you look like it has been putting you through the wringer…” John admitted.
“That bad, huh?” David pulled away to ask, making John smirk slightly and shrug ambiguously.
“All right, fine!” David chuckled. He was about to say something when John’s face turned serious again.
“Just don’t wait till all looks lost before reaching out for some help, will you?” John asked.
David felt guilty, knowing his brother was also probably tired from his long day at work and now having to add worrying about David on top of it.
“I promise!” David nodded. “Now how about some fried chicken for dinner?”
“That sounds like heaven. Come on then, my treat.” John gathered his keys and other belongings as David cheered in the background.