It was a warm summer day as I entered the premises of this production facility in France. I was visiting this supplier because of some recent quality problems they have caused, being a quality specialist and food technologist for my company I needed to bring some knowledge and prevent re-occurrence. I was alone, I had the best knowledge of the team on these kinds of processes and I speak the local language, at least to a certain level to be able to understand the documentation.
I shortly presented myself in French and I started the day with a presentation to a significant group of auditees. Already after one sentence it was very clear to me they were not interested at all and half asleep. I looked at them and thought this is not going to work at all. I decided to not accept and turned the screen black. I simply pulled out the cable. I deliberately switched to English and said I felt very disappointed that I came all the way from the Netherlands and did my best to speak French and they did not really care. And then I did not say a word for a minute or so. It was very quiet. I was dishonest to them. I wondered being rather amused whether I showed disappointment enough, being angry enough, this was pure manipulation. They seemed a bit surprised, shocked maybe, they apologized and I continued.
On the factory floor I audited some operators on quality awareness. I asked ad random one of the operators a question and he answered wrong. I asked him whether he received training, he said he did. Then the shift manager came up, he was very defensive and augmented that his operator has not been very long at the department. The shift manager was angry. I said calmly, okay, fair enough. Then bring me the best operator you have and I ask the same question. And you can already guess what happened… this man answered wrong too. And even worse, when I asked him whether he was trained he answered me that he had been around in the department a very long time and he was never trained. The shift manager who had been so angry with me did not say anything anymore, he was completely humiliated. I thought I was going to need some very positive reinforcement from something out of his department to make this guy motivated again.
I looked for something, ANYTHING, to make this audit a bit more upbeat. And then I saw a picture of an operator changing a sieve on one of the machinery with an arrow on what he should do when changing such as piece of equipment. I walked to it and tried to be as enthusiastic as I can (which was not easy, the picture was not so good, it was badly taken and the arrow partly blocked the view of the equipment. However it was the only ‘evidence’ I could find something on training has ever been done, there was no underlying program. There was nothing. In any other audit I would criticize even this picture, but in this case they already reached the ground. They could not sink any deeper. And I hate depressing people, I am a nice person). I said I liked the visual aspect of taking pictures to train people, I said it would have been great to make more pictures such as this case, and make them nice and clear with markings etc. and let operators make them as part of the training. I said you can already build on the current program you have (they had none….I knew it…I was not honest…but nobody dared to say) and I suggested even movies to this. It was all a bit of a joke.
However the shift manager had a voice again, he seemed to have some ideas.
After finishing my round, they were very anxious at my conclusion. They feared disqualification. I gave them a very long list of non-conformities and then conditionally approved them. They were relieved. And I was worried; could they in half year time do any better? I doubted.
Then after half year I visited them again and I was not looking forward to this visit at all. I felt bad for not being sincere with them, I played theatre for attention. And I have been over enthusiastic, and then give them an impossible task by conditionally approving them. Why did I not disqualify them? And now I dread I had to give them a disqualification which is more hurtful most probably. I entered the building and was greeted by the shift manager. He proposed to do a presentation himself on the things they had done. He was beaming, he looked proud and when we made a round on the department it looked so much better. I asked operators some questions and they answered correctly. The wall had pictures; everyone had been trained showed by a poster even on the wall. A score of 100%!
I was genuinely pleased, and said I was thrilled and did not expect such as enormous leap forward. I immediately fully approved them and said they had a great mindset and I admired the hard work.
After that I did some other visits and audits and did not think of this company anymore. Until last Christmas. I received a box of chocolates.