“Let’s run this timeline, again, looking at your control system,” I nudged. “Monday, your production team shows up for work. They have daily and weekly targets. A machine breaks down and they lose 45 minutes of production before they can get going again. How does your control system capture that?”

“The control system is counting,” Ronnie replied. “And it is sophisticated enough to detect the change in throughput.”

“So, that’s Monday. And on Friday, the control system automatically compiles a report and forwards it to the manager, five days after the machine broke down.”

“Yes, I mean, the manager is busy. We could compile the report every day, but the manager is busy. Besides, it’s not a good idea to have him yelling at his team every day.”

“Why have him yell at them, at all?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Ronnie pushed back. “It’s my manager’s job to hold his team accountable. We are very big on accountability around here.”

“But, bottom line, your production crew is double-passing finished goods under the counter, or skipping the counter, making the whole system unreliable. So, where is your control system? It’s late, it’s unreliable and puts the manager in between the feedback and the production team.”

Ronnie stopped. I could tell he was frustrated. “So, what should we do?”

“First, let’s list the problems and see how we can change the system to make it more effective.”