In TPM (Total Productive Maintenance), improvement tools and improvement teams exist to improve our processes and guarantee reliability/predictability/agility.
However, within it, is a bias for results. People biased for results, use that inherent bias in the system, to change improvement tools and improvement teams to result tools and result teams.
This makes some people to set mediocre targets, in order to show “fantastic” results.
Some dismiss significant improvements, because they did not meet bold targets.
Some get the result by any means and bring in the TPM process as an afterthought.
Results matter. But only if it actually improves the process. Where results are independent of process, disaster lurks around the corner.
Which is why I love the zero loss concept, aka, elimination of a defect in the process. It is a target that builds in process optimisation and sustainable result-orientation.
But even that can be hacked, if we do not change the current incentive systems.
– Osasu Oviawe