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February 2021 #13259 Page #102
Component Designers and the “Wheel of Responsibility”
W
e are all familiar with the wheel, right? We all understand that a wheel rotates on an axis using ball bearings. When a wheel is properly lubricated, it keeps the heat away and the parts from rubbing together. Without that lubrication, the force and resistance would cause the parts to weld together as they heated up from friction. This is pretty well understood as a basic rule of science. It takes many parts working together in unison to achieve the desired result.
By Christopher Gould
In the component design world and the building industry, we have a phenomenon similar to this basic premise of science. The biggest difference is that the moving parts are the manufacturer’s personnel and product. For argument’s sake, let’s call this “force” the customer’s satisfaction level and the “resistance” the product each customer receives. To keep the parts from “welding together,” we need lubrication. For this, I want to suggest a simple, yet effective, lubricating tool: an open mind. We’ve all been a part of a project where things have “heated up” due to improper lubrication, right? Things such as: • • • •
Something didn’t fit out on the jobsite An area had a jobsite problem due to omission There was a communication problem between design and build Mechanicals were not considered for a commercial project.
We have all been there at one point or another in our component manufacturing careers. Hopefully we learned from it and did not repeat it. But how do we overcome it? How do we educate our co-workers to learn from our mistakes? After all, we are in business to make money and we can’t do that if someone is sending us a back charge! Many years ago, when I was operating Gould Design, Inc., customers started asking questions, wondering how a company of remote folks could be outperforming their internal staff in both margin and accuracy. They began asking me to come on-site for consultations at their manufacturing facilities and share my experience with their team to help them grow in efficiency and profit. I developed a model that I call “Component Designers and the Wheel of Responsibility.”
The Heartbeat of the Company The designer is responsible for so much throughout the company. In fact, there is no other position in a component manufacturing company that is more directly responsible for that particular company’s profit margin and reputation than that of the designer, and there is no other position that has more impact on customer satisfaction.
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