Ron Gill - Working with Operations

Summary

Ron Gill discusses the intricate relationship between technological change and ongoing operations. He emphasizes the importance of collaboration between manufacturing and technology teams to manage installations smoothly. Challenges include coordinating schedules, ensuring seamless integration without excessive disruption, and handling changes in labor requirements due to automation. Training and preparation of both technology operators and support services like maintenance are critical to successful digital transformation. Gill highlights the necessity of proactive communication, comprehensive project planning, and learning from others’ experiences to mitigate risks and ensure operational success.

Highlights

• Coordinating tech changes with ongoing operations is a balancing act! ⚖️
• Partnership between different departments is crucial for success. 🏭🤝
• Manage equipment installation schedules carefully to minimize disruptions. 📆🛠️
• Training staff is vital when new technology is introduced. 🎓⚙️
• Automation can lead to job reductions, calling for thoughtful planning. 🤖💼
• Transparency and planning help in averting project nightmares. 🚫💥
• Seeking insights from other businesses can provide valuable lessons. 🕵️‍♂️📚

Key Takeaways

• Tech change & operations need careful coordination to avoid chaos! 📅🤝
• Strong partnerships between tech and manufacturing are essential for seamless transitions. 🏗️👷‍♂️
• Prepping people through training helps ensure smooth digital transformations. 🧠🔧
• Potential reduction in workforce due to automation requires sensitive handling. 🔄📉
• Be transparent about project plans to avoid surprises and friction. 📊🔍
• Learn from others by exploring customer experiences with similar tech systems. 🗣️🤓

Overview

In this engaging discussion, Ron Gill navigates the complexities of integrating new technologies while keeping operations running smoothly. He sheds light on the common pitfalls encountered during such transitions, emphasizing that maintaining a harmonious relationship between technological advancements and operational needs is key to success.

Gill underscores the importance of strong collaboration and communication between various departments involved in operations and technology. By sharing insights on potential disruptions and the importance of transparency and planning, he provides a roadmap for companies to follow, ensuring they're well-prepped for the upcoming changes.

Training and staff preparedness stand out as critical factors in adapting to new technologies, according to Gill. Moreover, he brings attention to the potential impacts of automation on the workforce, urging careful consideration and planning to mitigate negative effects. Learning from others' experiences and staying flexible can greatly aid in navigating this complex process of digital transformation.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Managing Technological Change and Operations The chapter discusses the introduction of technological changes while maintaining ongoing operations. It identifies the challenges of managing change and operations simultaneously and explores strategies for balancing these demands.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Partnership with Manufacturing and Project Timing This chapter discusses the importance of having a strong partnership with the manufacturing department, particularly in a dispersed company environment where personnel may be in different locations domestically and internationally. It emphasizes the challenges and solutions related to installing technology across various facilities.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Training and Skill Level Adjustments The chapter discusses the intricate process of integrating machines into a production environment. It highlights the need for foundational construction and possible disruptions that can arise. The importance of laying down a strong foundation, obtaining necessary permits, and collaborating with the production team to understand the impacts and manage schedules is emphasized. The coordination with the machine manufacturer is also deemed crucial to facilitate smooth integration.
• 04:30 - 06:00: Operations Support Services and Digital Transformation The chapter discusses the challenges of coordinating production schedules with the incorporation of new equipment and technologies. It highlights the potential issues that can arise if equipment is delivered before production is ready to integrate it, such as having engineers idle for weeks due to unfinished construction or installation tasks. The chapter stresses understanding the balance between ongoing production processes and the disruptions that might occur due to construction and machine building activities.

Ron Gill - Working with Operations Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so as you uh have uh introduced technological change uh trying to do that at the same time as having operations continue is an area where we often see challenges how can continuing operations and change be managed together
• 00:30 - 01:00 and that's where you need to have an excellent partnership with the the manufacturing side of the house you know in in some cases you're in a company where everybody's on the same site and you're just walking down the hallway to talk to people uh the some of the projects that i worked on i'm dealing with a a company that has numerous facilities in the united states and we have international suppliers when you're going to install technology and i did a lot with
• 01:00 - 01:30 machines i'll always refer back to machines there's a certain amount of construction and disruption that could happen and you know you have to you have to build a machine foundation wiring has to be put in permits have to be gained and production needs to understand you know what the impact is going to be to them the disruption impact and then you need to be working very closely with them on a schedule so sometimes the machine manufacturer may have
• 01:30 - 02:00 everything ready to ship in may but production really isn't ready to do this incorporation until in june so that would be a situation where you could have the equipment delivered but don't have the oem send their engineers over and be sitting around for two or three weeks because somebody's finishing a foundation or they're running electrical or and also understand that you have a normal production process and now when you're going to be going in doing construction and you're going to be doing machine building or you're
• 02:00 - 02:30 going to be doing technology integration there is a disruption factor there and if you're not working very closely with your manufacturing counterparts in this transparency then that's going to create that's going to create friction between you and your own people because they're going to say well you know you ron you told me this machine was coming in here but you didn't tell me all this other stuff was going on because you know it's not in all these organizations it's not one person that's making the decisions so that i think is is very important and
• 02:30 - 03:00 then the other part of it is you know preparing the people for the technology so there's training and there's things that are involved and also if we speak of in many cases with automation particularly if you're working with a union or bargaining union unit people you're going to come in and part of the cost savings is reducing physical heads so the physical heads where are they going to go
• 03:00 - 03:30 you know are they going to be retrained can you retrain them sometimes there's job classification issues where you can't do that we had a project where the people who did the work were run hand routers and drilling so their skills were on a lower level the people that were required to run a machine with a controller and you know a complicated machine they were nc machinists so
• 03:30 - 04:00 our partners supposedly had this all worked out they had the you know there weren't going to be any issues when it came time to the machine installation we've got three guys that you know hand hand drill and hand route and they're sitting around the machine and they had to bring in a manager to run the machine because the other union they said well if we cross-train these people they have more seniority than we do so all we're going to do if we cross-train them we're going to be laid off so you know
• 04:00 - 04:30 i'm not going to train somebody to take my job and then the other piece of it is you know the people obviously they may need training in another area even the even coming in you may have people in a certain in a certain skill code that the technology that you're bringing in now is something they've never dealt with so you know there's training and there's processes and procedures absolutely so uh you've talked a lot there about the
• 04:30 - 05:00 changes and their impact on employees uh and so maybe we should go on and talk about the impact on operations support services like maintenance and engineering what's the impact there in in digital transformation so in digital transformation if you if you have a if you have maintenance people and you have facilities people they're they're going to need training and some cases companies don't have that
• 05:00 - 05:30 so you're going to need to contract it so you really have to understand what position are you in and again that's part of your team that's working with the the oem the person you're buying the equipment from you need to have your facilities or maintenance people communicating with them so that they understand what's coming and how it works yeah that that can create a huge headache and the other part of it is is sometimes [Music] you'll reduce
• 05:30 - 06:00 head count in one labor group but it may facilitate the need for you to hire another engineer or quality engineer to support this piece of technology so those are things that also you kind of really got to look at at the broad picture and having these groups involved and you know giving them the lay of the land what it's going to be they need to they need to be involved and they need to have an understanding so in a lot of cases they're going to be the ones that make that determination
• 06:00 - 06:30 but you know we did run into problems where we had to hire two quality engineers to do programming for programs for a machine because the other quality engineers they had didn't have the background it was you know it was different different type of software application that they were working with and that was something that was unforeseen but again what it does is now if you decide you know we're gonna we have a production commitment day of
• 06:30 - 07:00 the first of june and you find out in the third week of may that you don't have the right support then that creates headaches too so there's it's it's quite it's quite a few pieces involved and i think it's the technology integration is easier with a smaller company but then at the same time you still have to be able to identify how you can support this technology and are you going to hire people to do it or are you going to contract people to do it you know you need that you need to
• 07:00 - 07:30 have a clear understanding of that from day one because uh i really believe that you know murphy's law anything that's possible if you can go wrong can go wrong and in my experience he was an optimist because things will happen and you know the particularly in the business i was in where we've got aircraft moving from position to position on certain dates and if you shut that line down there's a huge impact and sometimes if you're missing critical
• 07:30 - 08:00 pieces you can't move from one position to the next position so these become the cardinal sins if if it all points back to you then you know you've got a lot of issues to deal with but again it's being transparent having a good project plan getting everybody involved letting everybody know what's going on and sometimes if you can i think it's a it's a great idea to ask the oem for the name of a customer that's you
• 08:00 - 08:30 know somewhere in your area where you can go talk to the customer and ask the customer okay what were your issues you know you purchased this machine and what were the unforeseen things that you ran into