Improvement Insights Blog
I Only Get Paid to Do It the First Time
How big is your Fix-it Factory?
“I talked to a contractor at a building site and he told me, “I get paid to do it the first time, but I don’t get paid to do it the second time (to rework things),” so he’s very much focused on doing it right the first time.
“I think we’d all say that, but if you look at most companies, they all have a giant Fix-it Factory, fixing this, that and the other thing. Those people are being paid to fix things that shouldn’t have been broken to begin with. Or to trash the things they can’t fix. It doesn’t matter if it’s scrap in a manufacturing plant or it’s overproduction, or whether it’s patients who are injured during care. All of those things – you can’t afford the rework. You can’t afford it.
“So what do you have to do? You have to take the tools of quality, QI Macros, and Agile Process Innovation and start hacking away at the root of evil (not the leaves of evil). When you do that, guess what? You get more productive, more profitable, people get happier, patients and customers get happier, everything works.
“So that’s my Improvement Insight for this week: Get out of the rework business. Get out of the scrap business. I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and the QI Macros [software]. Let’s go out and improve something this week.”
