Supply Chain View

A couple of weeks ago I was writing about the cultural aspects of Lean. Then a glut of work hit me and a lot of stuff had to give: work-life balance, Supply Chain View, … This happens occasionally due to the demands of consulting project work, but it has made me sensitive of late to the issue of “humanising” the working environment.

Hence my interest in this story from the Guardian work section 26 May 2007. It seems the Engineering Construction Industry Association want to scrap 10-minute tea breaks for their workers. A proposed national agreement has been rejected by union ballot. The Tea Council, a trade body whose mission is to promote the drinking of tea, has become involved in the story. (The Tea Council are keen to promote the beneficial effects of tea breaks in general.)

Just another silly story in the press? Perhaps, but it demonstrates just how pervasive Luddite management styles still are. Just how much more productive do the ECIA think construction workers are going to be after the scrapping of their breaks? It’s easy to take measures like this – a lot easier than removing waste from the process and making real productivity improvements. How much time do construction workers spend waiting for materials, or for other workers to finish jobs ahead of them? My guess is much more than an extra 10 or 20 minutes a day.

This is quite apart from the fact that there is an implied “work-effort” bargain made between the employer and employee, and that if the employee feels that arrangements are “unfair” he/she will adjust effort accordingly. Hence the historical emphasis in manufacturing industry on work standards as a way of policing work-effort. But in construction, it’s less easy to set these standards – it’s up to the gang leader to spot “slackers”. I think it’s unlikely that the sacrificed tea-break time will be turned into productive time.

So here’s to maintaining the tea break: it respects employees as people, and it forces us to eliminate real waste if we want higher productivity.