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Why Supervisors Can't Be Your Accountability System
Your organization has a structural problem that's destroying productivity. It looks like this: train the workforce, then hold supervisors accountable for adherence. It sounds reasonable. It fails reliably. Training doesn't transfer the way we assume it does. You can almost pick your study, they all say the same thing: the average transfer rate of training is between 10-15%. And what little does transfer, doesn't stay: Hermann Ebbinghaus mapped this in the 1880s with his for

Mac Davis
2 min read


The Quality Program That Became 180 OPEX
It was already July and we were set to miss our quality target for the year. The quality manager asked if I had any ideas. In truth, I didn't. But I love a challenge. I'd just read The Power of Habit and I was enamored with the idea of using habits to improve process. So I set about building a method, and it came out pretty simple. I proposed that people break rules for 2 primary reasons: They don't know the standard or they don't think the standard is important. I proposed

Mac Davis
2 min read


How To Build A Maintenance Shop
A core function approach to eliminating maintenance reactivity. Walk into almost any industrial facility and ask the maintenance manager how things are going. You will hear some version of the same answer: "We're getting killed and everyone is mad at us.”
It's typically not a laziness or staffing problem. It's usually an organizational issue and sometimes a matter of technical knowledge. But it's fixable.
Running maintenance is like driving through a forest. It's easier

Mac Davis
11 min read
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