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 sympathized 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?