आजकाल माणसं कामचं करत नाहीत… बहुतेक ना, काम करायचा
नादचं उरलेला नाही. लय आळशी झाले आहेत.

“𝘈𝘢𝘫𝘬𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢 𝘬𝘢𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘢𝘩𝘪𝘵… 𝘣𝘢𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘬 𝘯𝘢, 𝘬𝘢𝘢𝘮
𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘭𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘩𝘪. 𝘓𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘩𝘪 𝘻𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘵.”

Atul Khare said this with visible frustration when I met him at his die casting factory in near Meeraj. His company supplies parts to a two wheeler OEM. Sixteen die casting machines were running in the shop. Orders books were healthy and cash flow was kind of steady. Yet every week seemed to bring a new problem on the shop floor. Everyone looked busy, yet productivity remained difficult to predict.

Like many factory owners, Atul believed the real problem was people. He felt operators were not serious enough He believed supervisors needed tighter control. He also wondered if younger workers lacked commitment compared to earlier times. – 𝘢𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘩𝘪 𝘻𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘵.

As we walked through the shop floor, I asked him a simple question.
“Khare saheb, what if your people are not the real problem?” He raised his eye brows and smiled politely, though I could sense disagreement. Shot few more questions at him: Why were operator waiting by the machines despite strong demand? Why do your priorities keep changing every few hours? Why are you coming to know of production losses only after the shift ended?
Slowly, a different story started emerging. Good people were struggling inside a poor system.

That reminded me of W. Edwards Deming. Edward Deming’s 94:6 Rule states that 94 percent of problems within an organization are caused by, or lack of, a SYSTEM, while only 6 percent can be attributed to PEOPLE.

Think about that for a moment. 94% is NOT YOUR PEOPLE but your SYSTEM.

Yet most owners spend their energy trying to improve the six percent. They blame operators for poor output when material arrives late. They blame supervisors when machine stoppages remain invisible. They blame shop engineers when priorities keep changing through the day.

Deming understood something many leaders still struggle to accept. Even highly capable people struggle inside poor systems. Once this sinks in owners thinking, then they start asking a much better questions before expecting accountability from people.

𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗻𝗼𝘁 “𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴?” 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸 “𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴?”