There are many systems of accumulating and distributing information, and there is a lot of information. For the purpose of this reflection, I counted how many newspapers and magazines I receive each month. There were 108 papers and 42 magazines. Add to that the mail I receive and the TV shows I watch and it’s apparent that a lot of data come across the bow of my life.

In the business world there is a great deal of formal information development and transmission. Understanding all of this is a burden for managers and subordinates alike. However, they can sometimes delude themselves into believing that this is all there is, and that it is the most important.

I recently visited a plant that made chlorine gas. As an example of a quality project they had me sit with a team investigating cases where gas had escaped and injured employees. There were 42 such happenings in the past year—6 of them quite serious. The team showed me their computer analysis of the movement of the tanks containing the gas and the various pressures involved. They lost me after about 10 minutes, but since they all seemed to understand it, I hung in there. The study would be finished in a few more months, I was told, and then they would know why these exposures had happened.

After the meeting, I was taken on a tour by a shop worker and shown the area where the leaks had occurred.

"Those leaks happened while gas was being transferred from these big tanks to the little ones we send the customers," he said.

"Can you show me how the transfer is made?" I asked.

He nodded and grabbed a nozzle attached to a hose fitted into the large tank. He took a washer off the nozzle and replaced it with a new one from the open box sitting on a bench.

"Why did you replace the washer?" I asked.

"Have to do that every time," he replied. "The chlorine eats these washers right up. If you use one too many times it will leak."

"Is that how the gas escapes happen?" I queried.

He nodded briskly, "Gets them every time they don’t want to bother to change the washer."

"Have you told the task team about this?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I gave it a try a couple of times, but they’re so involved in their computer they aren’t really interested in what goes on out here."

I thanked him and then relayed his story to the general manager who found it all to be true. The problem was solved, the worker was rewarded, and the information crunchers were embarrassed. Procedures and training were changed and that was the last of the gas escapes.

Collecting data is more important than processing it, particularly when the real stuff might not be written down.

© Copyright 1999 Philip Crosby Associates II, Inc. All rights reserved.

Send mail to wdevlin@q2000.com.au with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2000 Philip Crosby Associates II Inc. all rights reserved