Question

Doesn’t Time Fly!

It was 7.30 on a Tuesday morning, when John Edwards, general manager of the Jenkins Company’s main factory, turned on to the M3 to drive to his office in Basingstoke. The journey took about twenty minutes and gave John an opportunity to reflect on the problems of the plant without interruptions. The Jenkins Company ran three printing plants and had nationwide clients for its high-quality colour work. There were about 350 employees, almost half of whom were based at Basingstoke. The head office was also at Basingstoke. John had started with Jenkins as a fresh graduate 10 years previously. He was promoted rapidly and after 5 years became assistant manager of the smaller plant in Birmingham. Almost two years ago he had been transferred to Basingstoke as assistant manager and when the manager retired he was promoted to this position. John was in good form this morning. He felt that today was going to be a productive day. He began

Prioritizing work in his mind. Which project was the most important? He decided that unit-scheduling was probably the most important – certainly the most urgent. He had been meaning to give it his attention for the past three months but something else always seemed to crop up. He began to plan this project in his mind, breaking down the objectives, procedures and installation steps – it gave him a feeling of satisfaction as he calculated the cost savings that would occur once this

project was implemented. He assured himself that it was time this project was started and mused that it should have been completed a long time ago. This idea had been conceived two years ago and been given the go-ahead but had been temporarily shelved when John had moved to Basingstoke. John’s thoughts returned to other projects that he was determined to implement: he began to think of a procedure to simplify the transport of materials from the Birmingham plant; he thought of the notes on his desk; the inventory analysis he needed to identify and eliminate some of the slow-moving stock items; the packing controls which needed revision and the need for a new order form to be designed. There were a few other projects he remembered needed looking into and he was sure he would find some time in the day to attend to them. John really felt he was going to have a productive day. As he entered the plant, John was met by the stock controller who had a problem with a new member of staff not turning up. John sympathised with him and suggested that he got Personnel to call the absentee. The stock controller accepted that action but told John that he needed to find him a person for today. John made a mental note of the problem and headed for his office. His office manager, Mrs James, asked him whether she should send off some samples, or would they need to be inspected? Without waiting for an answer, Mrs James then asked if he could suggest a replacement for the sealing-machine operator, as the normal operator was ill, and told him that Pete, the manufacturing engineer, was waiting to hear from him. John told Mrs James to send the samples. He noted the need for a sealer-operator and then called Pete, agreeing to meet in his office before lunch. John started on his routine morning tour of the plant. He asked each supervisor the volumes and types of orders that were being processed that morning, how things were going and which orders would be run next. He helped one worker to find storage space for a container-load of product which was awaiting dispatch, discussed quality control with an employee who had been producing poor work, arranged to transfer people temporarily to four different departments and talked to the dispatch supervisor regarding pick-ups and special orders which were to be processed that day. Returning to his office, John reviewed the production reports against his projected targets and found that the plant was running slightly behind schedule. He called in the production foreman and together they went through the machine schedules, making several changes. During this discussion, John was asked by someone else to agree several labelling changes to their products and received a telephone call for the approval of a revised printing schedule.

John next began to put delivery dates on important orders received from customers and the sales force (Mrs James handled the routine ones). While doing this, he had two phone calls, one from a salesperson asking for a better delivery date and one from the personnel manager asking him to book time for an initial induction meeting with a new employee. John then headed for his morning conference at the executive offices. He had to answer the chairman’s questions on new orders, complaints and potential new business. The production director also had questions on production and personnel problems. He then had to see the purchasing manager to enquire about the delivery of some cartons and also to place an order for some new paper. On the way back to his office, John was talking to the chief engineer about two current engineering projects. When he reached his desk, he lit a cigarette and looked at his watch – it was ten minutes before lunch. ‘Doesn’t time fly,’ he commented as Mrs James entered his office to put some papers on his desk. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘Time stays, we go.’ Wondering about the meaning of this, he headed for the canteen. After lunch he started again. He began by checking the previous day’s production reports and the afternoon followed the pattern of the morning. Another busy day, but how much had he accomplished? All the routine tasks had been managed, but without any creative or special project work being done. He was the last to leave the plant that night. As he drove home he pondered the role that he was paid to fulfil and wondered where the time to carry out any innovative thinking had gone today. He was sure that he had planned intelligently and delegated his authority. He acknowledged the need for a personal assistant, but saw that as a long-term project as the chairman was having a blitz on the overhead created by non-direct staff.

Points for discussion

1 What are the effects of John’s time management for himself? What are the effects for the company?

2 Identify the tasks which John should have done himself and those which he should have delegated.

How effective do you feel John’s ‘management by walking about’ is?

3 How could he improve his time planning? Would employing a personal assistant for John really

‘add value’ or just be another overhead cost on the company?

Answer 1

1. John is not able to devote time to special projects since his entire day gets occupied in daily activities. He starts the day with a high note but is disheartened at the end of the day due to lack of innovation/learning in his job owing to the focus on daily activities. This is impacting the company in terms of opportunity cost of not implementing special projects (example : unit scheduling, removal of slow-moving stock items, etc.)

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2. Should have been done by self :-
- "Management by Walking About" and asking each supervisor about the order details
- transfer employees to different departments
- review production reports
- labelling changes to the products
- reviewed revised production schedule suggested by production foreman
- reviewed delivery dates put by Mrs James
- answer chairman's questions on new orders / complaints / new business
- answered questions on production & personnel problems

Should have delegated :-
- talking to the personnel to call the absentee
- helping a worker find the storage space
- discuss quality control with an employee
- talk to dispatch supervisor about special orders
- going through the machine schedule
- approval for revised printing schedule
- putting delivery dates for important orders
- talking to the sales person for a better delivery date
- initial induction of employee
- enquiry about delivery of cartons & place order for new paper

His "Management by Walking About" is very effective as it provides him a ground level understanding of his factory.

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3. He can start using Prioritization Matrix (2x2). He can also assign mandatory 1-2 hrs duration for special projects and let the team know that he cannot be disturbed during that period unless its emergency. He should start delegating more tasks and create a daily schedule to ask for details before the end of the day for the delegated tasks. A personal assistant would add value for John and the company since that assistant would be able to schedule the meetings / calls / process the approvals / stop the intrusion during the special projects time / coordinate with other departments for collecting data (as required by senior management).