What’s Your Company Hammer?

Audio-Only Link (MP3): What’s Your Company Hammer? by Dave Crenshaw

Text transcript:

Dave Crenshaw: We’ve got Issimo productions working on the Get Time Video Boot Camp. I know a lot of you have been asking for that, and here we are setting things up. We’ve got the cameras. . .getting everything going. These are super high-quality cameras, of course, because Issimo always does high quality work.  This is Jacob, the proprietor of Issimo Productions.  They do outstanding work.  We have got Nate, the outstanding camera technician over here.

For the video training this week, I would like to actually do something special.  I am filming with Jason Smith of Magnum Manufacturing and he told me a story yesterday that really illustrates the principle of time assets and time liabilities.  It’s “the company hammer” and as you are listening to this, I would like you to ask yourself the question, “Do we have a company hammer and is there something we can do to change that?”

So, here we go.  Jason why don’t you tell us the company hammer story.

Jason Smith: We were working with some consultants on our quality management system and they relayed a story about a cabinet shop who they were working with.

The office had a one way mirror they could review their production area and the guy was watching, one of the consultants was watching, and a guy was wandering around looking for a hammer, looking for an item. He went down and asked [the employee] what he was looking for and he said, “Well, I am looking for the hammer.” [The consultant] said, “The hammer?” and he said, “Well, yeah, the hammer.”  He said, “What do you use the hammer for?” and [the employee] said, “Well, we tap these things together with it.”  He said, “How many times do you use it?” and he said, “Well, I use it, oh, several times a day I would guess.”

[The consultant] went and talked to the owner, he said, “I want you to watch and monitor how many times your guys wander around looking for some item, just any time that they use, wandering around that they are not being productive.”  So, the owner, he kept time for one day and then multiplied it for a week and it was like 70 hours over eight employees for the week and just a horrible waste of time. He could have bought the hammer and all the other tools multiple, multiple times over.

As we have been working with Dave Crenshaw, as ridiculous as that story sounds, we have been able to find some company hammers. It has been good to go through and have Dave come in and just outside eyes to find those types of inefficiencies within our company, so I am really excited about it and the opportunities to get rid of the company hammer.

Dave Crenshaw: Thanks a lot Jason.  So, look for that Video Boot Camp.  Jason is going to be one of the stars of the show and we will have that coming out in a couple of weeks. But look for the company hammers that you have, the things that people are fighting over, sharing back and forth, those are huge time liabilities for your work day.