Last Mile Worker

Could it be that "best intentions" would not be enough to chip through the hardened exterior of this organizations habits, thought Frustrated Frank.   As the digital transformation honeymoon period slipped into the rear-view mirror, the burden of change seemed to settle into place.   Frank, it is no longer about the tools, instead it is each person's rationalization of why these tools will make them stronger; habits are challenging, continued Andy.   On one hand, if it works why fix it, and the other hand growth requires continuous innovation.   The organizational structure has an impact, flat organizations require compelling reasons to change.   For instance, significant pain points within the business resulting in lost revenue, market or corporate dictated edicts.   Without these, change lacks a sense of urgency and is at the discretion of the local management, the larger the operation, the greater the number of management layers, the higher pro...

It had to be about halfway through my drive into work that I began to feel a throbbing pain in my forearms and hands. I was clutching the steering wheel so tightly as the anxiety continued to build regarding the changes happening at the office this morning. So, I decided, like any red blooded American, to search my iPod (2007 model) for the quintessential song to help me through this moment; "Eye of the Tiger" by the appropriately named band Survivor. Even I, Overwhelmed Oscar, can muster the strength to get through our companies transition to the cloud, I repeated to myself while listening to this song over and over again.   Influential Irene and I were "cube-mates", I began to share some of my thoughts with her hoping it would relieve some of my stress.   Irene, "from a technology perspective things seemed so much simpler in the late 90s and early 2000's. We all consumed and learned how to leverage software packages, institutionally installed a...

My mind drifted as I drove in to work on this perfect day.   The sun was shining, birds were chirping and traffic was flowing smoothly.   I tried to imagine what work would be like after the retirement party for Legendary Lee, a fountain of knowledge for all of us over the past two decades.   Lee was involved or led change for the organization; touching everything from internal systems and tools to external innovations to help differentiate us with our customers.   When I was 17 my Father reminded me that nobody was irreplaceable yet on this day I struggled with how questions would be answered tomorrow and who or what would fill this "knowledge void". As I pulled into the parking lot Influential Irene was sitting in her car, her eyes a bit swollen as if she had been crying. When I was having a tough day, it was Irene who I went to see, she always had this infectious smile that could brighten anyone's day.   Today was different, her and Lee were very cl...

Chaotic Chris had endured many a tongue lashing in his day but this one would take the prize.   As he stood there, focused on the words erupting from his customers' mouth, he concentrated on making sure that the expression on his face showed pure empathy.   What a dumbass, all I had to do was put a note in my calendar or better yet send the customer a meeting invitation.   Chris began to reflect on why he failed at such a simple task, surely it was because he was just too busy.    You know, a star salesman like himself, doesn’t have time for the trivial things.   Unfortunately, his lack of discipline, arrogance, self-centered attitude, dis-respect for others…   has lost him a key customer. As Chris drove home that evening, sitting in the endless traffic, his mind began to wander.   Could it be that this one incident was not isolated, instead one of many examples in an extensive list of missed activities?   Just two weeks ago his boss, ...

As folks assembled in the meeting room you could feel the uneasiness in the air.   The invitation read "manage customers digitally" with the body of the message including words like "revolutionary and efficient".   Although the ground was flat, I was looking for something to trip on, help me fall suddenly and smack my head against the floor, anything to get out of this meeting.   You could see the attendees all preparing to take their stance, some were curious and sincerely interested in change, a handful had no real feelings either way, and of course my fellow naysayers.   If we added enough resistance to this movement it would fade away like so many others before I thought.   Our naysayer silently continues to vent; "the fact of the matter, at least from my perspective, is that I have been successful for years why should I change.   If my Big Chief tablet and a number two pencil has worked, let's not upset the apple cart".   However, my funk was ...

Finally the capital budget allows you to replace some very old equipment.    You can't open a trade magazine without seeing the latest news regarding the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).   Lucky for you the equipment manufacturers are offering an IIoT ready solution packaged with your equipment.   Suddenly your enthusiasm turns to confusion as you review the details of the quote.   What the hell is that subscription fee?   Isn't this equipment mine; lock, stock and barrel?   You mean to tell me that I need to pay the manufacturer, every month,   to give me the luxury of accessing data produced by the equipment I just purchased?   The only explanation has to be new math, at least as a child this is what my parents told me when I asked hard to answer questions. It's amazing how history repeats itself, we are starting to see manufacturer specific data languages appearing in their "smart" equipment.   Didn't we learn our lesson ...

While not often discussed, Avid Andy has been known to have some serious flashbacks.   Hallucinogenic drugs from parties long ago or dropped one time too many times as a child, your guess is as good as mine.   Andy recalled the time, years ago when we just stopped performing maintenance on exhaust fans under "x" CFM.   Sure, reliability advances in the product, declining costs, were all contributors to us changing our maintenance routines.   Could it be time to once again re-assess our approaches, this time on unitary systems under "x" tonnage?   Do we have any idea how to even approach such a decision?   Certainly IIoT promises to give us more information in the future, once we have the data to model; however, might we reflect back on fundamental logic around MTFB (mean time between faults) and EOL (end of life) calculations.   My favorite visual is sketched as the image above, some liberties to the traditional "bath tub" theory were taken.  ...