If you remember from my initial all-hands meetings, I told you that the decisions that you make every day at the point of execution are often more important than the decisions that I make on a daily basis.
Our ability to succeed at the point of execution determines how successful you are AND – by default – the financial health of our company and its future. No pressure!
So, what does the point of execution mean? The point of execution to me is where we do our work based on the position we hold in the company, the work required each and every day. In some cases, the execution and outcome are binary (do this one thing to produce a specific result) and in other cases you may have to execute multiple steps – more like a process. Let’s look at a couple examples of different points of execution.
A welder on the deckplates pulls the trigger and makes an arc to join materials together. The welder’s job is to use his or her skills with a MIG, TIG or other welding system to join two pieces of material correctly with the right penetration and proper weld size (over-simplified here but helps make the point). The welder’s choice to do the job properly has far-reaching consequences on the quality of our ships and our ships’ survivability. Bath Built is Best Built has its foundation in the quality of our welders’ welds!
Let’s look at another example. A buyer buys the necessary materials that we need to build ships. Any materials not here when we need them will most likely cause delays. The buyer’s job requires many steps or gates that they need to work through in order to purchase a single part (CAT number). The point of execution in this case happens in a cubicle or office. The buyer uses tools like a phone, computer, emails and purchase orders to name a few. They use skills to negotiate price, lead times and delivery dates (again, to name a few) to ensure that our parts meet specifications and arrive on time. One thing that I have learned in my career is that we can only go as fast as the availability of parts!
I hope these two short descriptions highlight the importance of the work that happens at the point of execution regardless of where in the company it happens. I could do this all day using different locations and jobs throughout our company, but they would all look very similar. All shipbuilders have important jobs no matter where we work in BIW!
When I say “the decisions that you make at the point of execution are often more important to the business than the decisions that I make on a daily basis,” that is because your decision to do the job right the first time at the point of execution – no matter what your job is – impacts our company in a compounding way. Doing it right the first time means no rework for your work. Rework is our enemy and is extremely expensive to the company, usually causes damage and system disassembly and delays our ships.
If that isn’t compounding enough, let me add one more – morale killer. Rework really brings down shipbuilder morale! If you are like me, I hate doing a job over after completing it once. I especially hate to fix someone else’s mistake that caused the rework. No mechanic that I know likes to do rework.
What you do every day at the point of execution matters. It matters to me, it matters to your boss, to coworkers and to the customers of your work downstream in the production process. Make your work count no matter what type of shipbuilder you are in our company. Make the right decision at the point of execution!
See you on the deckplates!
Safely Execute High-Quality Work