When working as a Maintenance Technician I was repairing a
piece of equipment that was critical for production at that time. There was a
problem with the part of the machine, that secures the raw material on the
machine bed in order to CNC machine it to the final product.
The repair should have only taken maybe 30 minutes, but we did not have that
critical spare part in stock, because the same piece just broke several days
before this new incident happened.Knowing about the timing issue I didn’t want to lose any more time, so I phoned around for a supplier who has the item in stock. I then jumped into the car, picked up the part on my personal VISA Card to safe the time to get a Purchase Order, went back to the shop and repaired the machine.
On that day, I had an argument with a co-worker earlier and he saw what I was doing on the machine.
This directly translates into my “lesson learned”. The next time I will face a similar situation I will try to communicate better and have the people that need to be involved in the process involved right from the beginning. My supervisor was on vacation, so I was reporting temporarily to his boss. I should have let the manager know, even if it would have taken an extra 5 minutes, of what my plan was, since he was now my direct supervisor.
When I went back to the office (the repair took a total of
about 3 hours now and the office staff already left for the day) I had an email
from my boss’ manager to see him at 8am tomorrow morning in his office.
I was given some heat about the long delay for the repair
and had to justify every minute spent on that repair.
While I was under the assumption I have done everything I
could to get the machine back up and running as quickly as I possibly could, the manager
didn’t necessarily see the hassles I went through, but rather saw that it took
a tremendously long 3 hours instead of an easy 30 minute fix.
I was under the assumption that he would understand why it
took so long and he would be happy about me going the extra mile and get that
part, but he was questioning if it couldn’t have been done quicker still.
Definitely the lesson I have learned from this incident is
that I should have taken a few minutes to inform the manager and not only the
shop supervisor, about what was going on. Rather than just thinking I do the
best I can, I should have communicated better to prevent any such questions
after. If this manager would have been in the loop right from the moment I discovered
that we were out of stock, he might have had appreciated my actions much more.
Once again, you have produced an interesting read :)I enjoy reading tales from the "trades".I am used to an office type environment....previously a lifeguard, so it is interesting to hear about some situations that can arise in other types of jobs. In the situation that you mentioned, I respect you for taking the inititive and doing your best to track down another part. Some guys would have just given up and said "to hell with it". Too bad you received some slack for trying to do what you thought was best for the company!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback Cassandra. A lifeguard? That is amazing! I have a lot of respect for people like you, this is a very tough job. I used to be part of a first-aid organization and we would run drills once a month. I still remember our water rescue drill, so I have a basic understanding of how tough this job really must be. Getting someone out of the water, especially if he/she is in panic is extremely exhausting and very hard.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Critical Incident Analysis - back then I was very disappointed. Today, looking back, I can understand the Manager somewhat. The one thing he probably should have done differently is approach me in a different way. Get my story first before he starts pointing the finger. However, I do understand the amount of pressure he was facing given the production schedule. These kind of incidents hopefully help people like us learn to be even better Managers.