Last week, I was at the takeover of a factory hall with a client and representatives of the hall's builder. The hall looked fine, I think it was completely okay and clean. On the other hand, the customer indicated that it was not properly cleaned, and pointed to the thin layer of dust on the top of the electrical cabinets, the narrow strip of dust left along the wall, where the cleaning machine does not go perfectly, and similar things.
It was completely understandable and what she showed was really there, but we didn't "see" them before. I thought about why, and I came to the conclusion that the colleagues with us work in the construction industry, and I used to socialize in an electrode factory and a ceramic factory, among completely different standards.
Where 8,000 tons of powder are processed annually, it is unrealistic to expect that there is not even a thin layer of dust, no matter how good the extraction is, no matter how often we clean. The norm there is that it is regularly cleaned and that the dust layer does not exceed a certain level. It is worth fighting at the maximum thickness of the level, but that is it. And the construction industry is similar.
On the other hand, the client came from a completely different environment, was socialized differently, in her world cleanliness is much cleaner. In order to be able to cooperate well with her, I have to understand her framework and needs, her standards.
However, thinking about it further, if there is such a difference in such a relatively simple question, like the cleanliness of an absolutely empty hall, just because of previous life experience, how can we expect our subordinates to understand what we want from them in half a word? Whether it's plant cleanliness or a report or a new process, I think we can't get away from taking the time to teach them exactly what we want. What a certain request means for us.
First a lot of time is needed, then later, as colleagues learn to see through our eyes, to think with our heads, less. But you have to teach, because sometimes what is clean is not clean.
In the attached picture, the work of an unknown powder artist on a warehouse door, cc. 2017. This exceeded the acceptable dust level ????
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