It all makes work, for the working man.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Try working for the CEGB in the 70’s.....nowt got done.
I think Covid has dictated that men shouldn’t share vans though.
John

The vans had two and three guys in. They have all gone now, they must be finished at last. The mixer this morning, was to mix what seemed to be a single shovel full of mortar

 

[Brigadier]

Mate who works at our place left to work for a Housing Association.
Loved the easy pace at the start, but soon found it to be very stressful, and not just for the obvious reasons of days dragging, and lack of professional satisfaction and achievement.
The bit that he said caused him (and everyone else) the most angst was that everyone knew that no-one had anything like enough work to fill their hours, but no-one would say so.
So, they all watched each other all day, each knowing that the other was tossing it off. There's only so much pointless busy work anyone can invent, to try to look productive.
After a couple of years, he came back.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

When I was employed in during the '80's the company changed to a 'new' way of working. Previously we had worked in groups of 2 or 3 following a period of fairly intensive training. Then some bright spark came to the conclusion we had follow 'Total Quality Management' and 'Just in Time' delivery ways of working. Theory being that TQM meant the guy's in the field needed less training and JIT less waste...
So we changed from 6&1/2 hours of productive work a day to around half that...
Most of us used to have quantities of commonly used bits and pieces and spare lengths of cable and wire in our tool chests. With JIT we couldn't use those squirreled away bits and pieces.
TQM meant the 'manager' (who knew sweet FA) had to inspect the paperwork 'Tick Sheets' and check the work we had done before we could move on to the next step.
That delay was often compounded by the JIT deliveries as the TQM rules meant the next delivery of 'stuff' couldn't be delivered until the manager had signed off his part of the paperwork. It was helped when the local company stores didn't have the stuff to send out 'cause JIT stopped at their part of the supply chain.

More times than enough one person would start a job, get sent off to another site 'cause we were waiting on the next delivery, someone else would do the next stage and someone else finish it off. I always seemed to be the person starting the jobs; mainly 'cause I'd have the equipment areas marked out accurately before the initial deliveries were dropped.
It also meant that none of us were particularly bothered how the job was progressed as any pride in doing and finishing a good job was killed by the M&FA associated with TQM/JIT.
Standards certainly went down.

The challenge with TQM and JIT is they're fine as concepts/theories and can work practically, however they essentially require all parts in the process and supply chain to be like a well oiled machine. When one part stops there's often little or no spare capacity to keep other parts moving, although that goes against the concept anyway. Going by your explanation, the weak part in that process was the TQM manager and the paperwork.

 

[Keithmac]

I worked for one of these companies in the 80's, it was unbearable. I'm a lets crack on and get the job done personality, it was torture, I just didn't fit in.

I'm the same, it would do my head in watching people stringing jobs out all day.

Prefer to be busy, makes day go a lot quicker!

 

[Brigadier]

I'm the same, it would do my head in watching people stringing jobs out all day.

Prefer to be busy, makes day go a lot quicker!

And more profitable.

Just think of the overall UK productivity increase, if just a proportion of the workforce pulled their finger out a bit.

 

[Keithmac]

What's the word, institutionalised?.

Dread to think how much money is wasted. With the Council it's even worse as they're wasting our bloody money!.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

What's the word, institutionalised?.

Dread to think how much money is wasted. With the Council it's even worse as they're wasting our bloody money!.

At one of the council houses, there is (far too often) council contractors van parked outside. It seems rarely a week goes by without a van parked outside, before the present tenants moved in, a couple or so years ago, they spent a good two months, with several vans parked outside I guess doing a full top to bottom refurb. It make me wonder what the latest tenant does to the place, to need such regular repairs doing.

 

[JohnD]

is she good-looking?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

is she good-looking?

By my standards, no!

 

[JohnD]

you mean you're prettier?

 

[Notch7]

M&FA associated with TQM/JIT

There is nothing wrong with the techniques of TQM or JIT......it sounds like you had a company that made a fundamental error in their application.....namely they were imposed on you by managers.

These productivity tools only work if they are developed by the guys doing the job.

If they had had any brains they would've developed SOPs...standard operating systems. They could've taken the best bits from all you skilled guys and made sure you all carried all the tools and spare parts you needed.

 

[crystal ball]

What's the word, institutionalised?.

Dread to think how much money is wasted. With the Council it's even worse as they're wasting our bloody money!.

Plenty of PLCs wasting public money too

 

[Deleted member 18243]

working on a local council owned semi........Most of the time here has been spent sat in their vehicles, playing on the phones and brewing up.... massive and expensive operation by any standards.

SOME SAY that more than 50% of the population of England now live off public money, whilst in Scotland it's over 60%. It's becoming like the last days of 1970s Labour.

 

[JohnD]

SOME SAY

vague and meaningless.

 

[ajohn]

I think the general area of the state still employs too many people really as it keeps them away from unemployment benefits. Large institutions also generally collect too many people even in private companies.

Experience in the past. Maybe it depended on where people worked. I started with Lucas in the 60's. Staff job but people disappeared from time to time. I'd notice that they were missing and ask. Gone was the reply and always people who were generally doing SFA or doing it badly. Direct labour. Production lines, something appears and a person does something. They are busy all day. Piece work, paid on just how many someone made. Didn't work too well so people had a quota to do. Once finished go home or whatever. Then indirects other than types like me. Tool makers, works engineers, read electricians, machine repairers and etc. That lot did cause problems as a strike eventually stopped production completely. These days the work is mostly contracted out.

So the UK was pretty efficient really but how to increase productivity. More people needs larger markets or different equipment which in turn means a larger market or less people.