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“ The industry has been trained to think in a very particular way for about a hundred years! It’s really difficult to change or modify even if the modification is not very big. It’s very difficult for people to change that mindset without someone from the outside to come and show them that there is something not very dramatic, but different from what they were doing previously, that can help.”
project management does not have the mechanism to adjust the plan on a daily basis when things happen and reality doesn’t follow the plan. These two small things, less multitasking and being able to manage the project in a dynamic way rather than static Gantt charts that don’t adapt, are key.
AM: How can Realization’s processes help overcome challenges that aren’t within your control, for example dealing with late parts from a vendor? Ziv: That’s a very good point. There are two main things you need to do to face uncertainty: • What we have found is that most of the disruptions that can occur can actually be taken care of before the execution of the project. It’s better to wait one or two days before you start the task or even a stream of tasks to make sure that you have all the parts, input, drawings etc., than it is to start and then get hit by the uncertainty.
• Make sure you have the flexibility to adjust priorities, so that when the time comes you do the right thing at the right time and this is the most beneficial thing for the line. Instead of relying on the fixed schedule that we define in the beginning of the project we start with a plan and then we adjust it as we go on and we make sure the resources are located just in time according to the reality that unfolds during execution.
AM: When you open up an aircraft you may find things you weren’t expecting such as corrosion that must be dealt with. How can Realization achieve such dramatic improvements even in the highly variable world of aviation maintenance? Ziv: When you reduce multitasking of your team, you allow them to dramatically fix issues faster. In fact, if there were no uncertainty, people would not need us. They would be able to plan the project perfectly and if they wanted more work they could just add more people. In reality, the people that set the pace are not the ones working on the airplane. These are actually a few key people who have the expertise, the foremen or the maintenance coordinators or the parts coordinator. Imagine if the parts coordinator is multitasking. Everyone who is waiting for a part is waiting for a longer time. If he is not multitasking and is focused, it means that whoever is getting his service is getting his service as quickly as possible. The trick is to cause him to work on fewer things at a time but the right things. Flexible scheduling means that at any given time he knows the number one thing he needs to work on. If he is able to work on the most important thing, only, then things get
resolved super fast. This way, the minute you find a problem, you can change your priorities accordingly.
AM: How do you overcome skepticism from the floor or mid-level managers? Ziv: There are two aspects to that: • It’s important to get quick results. One customer we have has a few units and one is not using synchronized project management. The maintenance leads came from that unit to another unit to do a C-check because they had the authorization to do that check. They didn’t want to work with synchronized project management because of resistance. We didn’t want to and couldn’t force them. But as soon as the project got into trouble, they called us themselves because they knew we got results elsewhere in that organization. Immediately the project became better. So from now on these people are going to be supporting the idea.
• We use a top down and bottom up approach. There has to be an executive level leadership of change. It starts with a very specific, identifiable need of the customer. Once you get the top guy to see how this will help him achieve what he needs to achieve, you harness them. On the other hand we are pretty good at educating and providing people with the buy-in they need. There will always be tough nuts to convince. In most cases they eventually buy-in or at least comply.
AM: What makes it work? Ziv: We truly believe in our philosophy and results. Everything that we do is to help achieve results and to help the teams live better, less chaotic lives. We try to have people identify some of the misconceptions that have been misleading them and show them that with a few changes they can make their lives much more effective and easier. The rest happens by itself.
AM: When you leave the consulting part and go away from the company how do you help the company keep from reverting back to the way it was before? Ziv: In general, we will not leave an organization until we ensure there is enough capability to continue to sustain the program. Organizations work according to a certain pace so when we go to an implementation we are making sure those thing are set up in the right way. Of course, when companies that have high managerial turnover will need to train newcomers, we make sure the organization has the internal capability to do that before we leave.
Aviation Maintenance |
avm-mag.com | August / September 2012 7
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