TROWBRIDGE CONVEYORS STORY is a TAMARA by David Boje, Ph.D.
July 6, 2002
This is a sample answer Boje wrote to Question 1; It is longer than any MBA would write, but short by Professor standards. The answer is in form of theatre play, followed by use of readings from the MBA and Postdoc studyguides, some from the Fathers & Mother of Management, and then two Critical Logics: the SEPTET and Deconstruction are applied to the story. It ends with references.
QUESTION: What is the
Theatrics of Planning at Trowbridge Conveyors?
My Story is presented as a Theatrical play with four Scenes.
SCENE 1: THE PLANNING PROCESS
Boje is hired in one room; in another room customer gives salesman
his order; Order is passed to the engineer, who draws a blueprint and gives
order and blueprint to planning office, who gives the plans and blueprint to the
plant foreman.
Manager’s Office
Boje – I need a job or my dad won’t
let me back in the house.
Manager Irving – Can you grind and
cut metal.
Boje – (Lying) – Sure I did that on
my last job in Spokane.
Manager – OK, you work in the metal
cutting section. Wear your steel-toed shoes, and here are some blue coveralls.
Be here at 8 A.M sharp and report to the foreman.
Salesman’s Office
Salesman Bob – No problem. We’ve
never put a 10 horsepower electric
motor on an elevation conveyor. But we do 36 to 48 inch width conveyor belt
elevation conveyors all the time. What
do you do with it?
Farmer John – We load bales to our
barn. There are a series of windows 27 feet above the ground. One man puts the bales on the conveyor. Another Joe takes em
off on the 2nd floor. Then guy on ground, moves the conveyor to the
next window. Our old one broke
down. We’ve welded it together so many times, there’s not much left of the
original. Here’s a photo.
Salesman Bob – Great. I will give
this to our Engineer Ellen, who will put together the blueprints. We can have
that for you, by the end of the week. Say
do you want to try the new V-belt. It has special raised V’s to keep your
bales in center.
Farmer John – Last one had angle iron
every four feet, which seemed to work. You guarantee the V-belt will work, and
not too expensive, I’ll try that.
Salesman Bob – OK, with the V-belt,
the 12 rollers, the 28-foot height, and the electric motor, battery, 2 tires and
axle, and frame – that comes to $4,800. Will that be check or credit card?
PLANNING OFFICE:
Engineer Oscar: I finished Farmer
John’s blueprint. That is the tallest conveyor we have built, since we did
those Navy conveyors.
Planner Phil: Hey, this is a lot of
parts. I better figure out which men and tools will be needed to make this
monster. [planner makes a list of parts and jobs and job assignments; then calls
in the Foreman].
Foreman Vic: Hi Phil, are these the
plans and blueprint for Farmer John’s conveyor. Salesman Bob, says we need it
by end of the week. I will need to pull people off other jobs to get this done
on time. Is that what Manager Irving wants.
Planner Phil: Yah, that’s what he
told me. I just got off the phone with him.
He was his usual sweet self.
SCENE 2: THE PRODUCTION PROCESS
PLANT FLOOR –
Its half a city block, with overhead cranes moving on girders, and men driving
fork lifts at high speed between work areas. On the second floor in one corner
are the offices of the manager, salesman, and engineer; they never come down to
the plant floor; they send runners to and from the foreman. Each plant floor
area has a number hung high, painted black on a yellow sign, but the yellow is
blackened by soot and grease, so signs are a bit hard to read.
Area 1 has the lathes; some are 20 feet long, others are 6 feet. The
foreman’s work stand is next to area 1; it’s a series of clipboards, bins
full of blueprints, a schedule board, and a raised desk welded to a metal
pillar; he sits on a stool or stands; mostly he seems to stand.
Boje the Cutter: [next in line to see
the Foreman and get his orders for the day] I am reporting for work as your new
cutter and grinder.
Foreman Vic: OK you work in section 42,
next to the Old Swede. He’s a crusty old Bastard; hates everyone; but once you
get to know him he’s OK; Just give don’t let him rile you. OK?
Boje the Cutter: Sure, I can get along
with anyone. What do I do there?
Foreman Vic: Here, we got a new order
for Farmer John’s conveyor. I want you to have the Swede show you the
equipment, the Cutter, Buffalo, Band Saw, and where the metal stock is stored.
Then I want you to cut the parts and be sure each piece is correct to
1/16th of an inch or its no damn good to the welders. Cut it up, and
have the Swede check your cuts. Then, take the cut parts over to the welding
crew, in area 56. You want me to
repeat it?
Boje the Cutter: I got it. Go to area
42, don’t take any shit from the Swede, and cut the job right, then get it
checked and take it over to the welders in 56.
CUTTING AREA 42
Swede:
Who the F___ are you boy? You
think I’m going to teach you my job, so I get laid off, your full of S___!
Don’t touch this here shearing machine. You do it wrong and you loose
your arm. That’s your cutting wheel machine there, and the buffalo and ban saw
is over there. Stay out of my way, got it?
Boje the Cutter: Nasty F__er, aren’t
you? What time is lunch?
Foreman Vic: I told you to check the
lengths. These are F___ed. They are 1/8th inch off; this one’s ¼
inch off; hell put em scrap and do em again. I thought you said you had two
years experience.
Boje the Cutter: I need the work. I
lied. You gonna fire me?
Foreman Vic: Not yet, but you screw up
again, and I will. When you move this to the welders. I need you to go to the
motor-winding area. Have Josh show you how to cut the fiberglass spacers we need
to do the winding for the new motor.
Boje the Cutter: Vic told me to come
here and cut some fiberglass spacers for the new motor.
WINDING AREA 69
Josh the Winder: Hell boy. That’s
toxic work. Wear this mask, and try not to touch your runny rose with your
gloves. You work in that box, cause we don’t want to inhale the fibers. It’s
vented to the outside. Here’s some templates; don’t cut my templates, I need
em for other jobs; you don’t look like a cutter.
Boje the Cutter: What’s a cutter
supposed to look like?
WELDING AREA 56
Mike the Welder: You that new kid in
Cutting area. Don’t worry about the Swede. We tease him about his wife at
lunch. Gets him all riled up. We say the delivery truck guy saw her again with
some guy in a Pontiac; if he were doing her right; she would not be cat-ing
about.
Boje the Cutter: [wonders if he is
going to be as sexist as Mike to get along] Yah, that’s me, the new Cutter.
Swede’s OK, he’s been showing me how to operate the Shearer, even though he
told me first day that he wouldn’t.
Mike the Welder: At 10 AM break, in the
yard. That’s when we’re gonna play Banana Time with the Swede.
Boje the Cutter: What’s Banana Time?
[Wonder if this is some kind of sexual joke]
Mike the Welder: Banana Time is when
Sam comes on break eating a banana and tells the Swede, he copped it from the
Swede’s lunchbox. Swede never knows if its true or not. Some days Sam steals
the banana; other days one of the guys gives Sam one of their bananas. The Swede
tries not to play, but always falls for it. Specially when I ask, “Swede, why
does your wife put that banana in your lunch every day? Maybe….”
Boje the Cutter: [to himself, I knew it
was sexual humor]. Say Mike, how the welding going. I now some of the angle and
channel iron’s a bit off in length.
Mike the Welder: Steve, Kevin and me
have been covering for you. Except we had to send three pieces back that was too
far out of spec. Others, we just welded in shims or but a bit off with the
torch. Did Foreman Vic chew your ass out?
Boje the Cutter: He did, but I’ve
been cutting better since then.
SCENE 3: THE BLAME GAME
ASSEMBLY AREA 99
People not busy with other work are
recruited by Foreman Vic to assemble Farmer John’s conveyor. There is a 40-foot conveyor, and it is being attached to a
6-foot axle with 14 inch tires and rims, being bolted on. Workers are attaching
motor and controls to the frame. 200
pounds of weight is being welded behind the motor.
Mike the Welder: Hell the things a
joke. Look at it. It doesn’t stand up. Steve and Kevin, go get our welding
gear so we can put some more weight on it
Steve the Welder: that 300 pounds of
extra weight and it still tips. Something is wrong with the damn thing. Better
get Vic over here. Boje, you get Vic and hurry.
Foreman Vic: (arrives, running and
breathing hard; Sees five guys sitting on the back of the conveyor, to keep the
thing from falling over) – What the F___ are you guys doing?
I thought you were in final stages of assembly? Why are you holding up
the conveyor?
Mike the Welder: Cause we let it go and
it falls over. It won’t stand up on its own.
Foreman Vic: If you all welded it
according to the specs, then it would stand up.
Mike, Steve, and Kevin the Welders:
(all in one voice). We did our job right; don’t blame us for this mess! This
happens every month. You know we speak true.
Welders and Vic are measuring the
pieces of angle iron, channel iron, and the dimensions of the beast and
comparing findings to the blueprint.
Vic: Seems like the lengths are off an
1/8th inch here or there, but that’s not enough to make it fall
over like that. Boje, you go up and
get the Engineer, up there on the second floor; get the son-of-a-bitch down
here, on the double.
Mike the Welder: (To the spectators) .
Once a month, one of these monstrosities is so poorly designed, the
white-collars have to come down here).
Boje dashes off to get the engineer,
avoiding fork lifts along the way. A crowd is gathering to see the spectacle of
Farmer John’s conveyor. Boje
bursts into the Engineer Oscar’s office who is talking to Planner Phil, the
Manager and the Salesman Bob about their strategic plan.
Manager: [at first ignores Boje and
goes on with the strategic planning session] OK, we have got to get our
strategic plan in gear. We need to get more orders on the floor with fewer
workers. [Notices Boje]. F___ you, Boje the Cutter, you are not allowed up here.
This is white collar only! Get out, and tell your foreman your problems or get
fired now.
Boje the Cutter: Hey, I’m just the
messenger. Foreman Vic, says he needs you to look at Farmer John’s Conveyor in
assembly area 99.
Salesman Bob: Farmer John just arrived.
I’ll bring him along.
Boje the Cutter: May want to wait on
that till you inspect the design.
Engineer Oscar: Don’t talk back to
the Salesman, or you won’t work here. Come on Bob, get Farmer John and we will
check it out.
Everyone in the factory, plus the Oscar the Engineer, Bob the
Salesman, Farmer John, Manager, and all workers are gathered around Farmer John’s conveyor.
Farmer John: [breaking into the circle
of spectators] I don’t think it works right. Not supposed to tip over like
that.
Salesman Bob: John, its just an
adjustment. Oscar, what the F___ is going on?
Engineer Oscar: Don’t ask me, the
blue print was checked by the manager.
Manager: Vic, you were supposed to
supervise this job.
The Swede: [to Boje] Only time you see
the Manager, Engineer and Salesman down here is when the S___ hits the fan.
Vic: The Engineer is supposed to make
blueprints that work. The angles are wrong on this thing.
Oscar: You are full of S___. There is
not a thing wrong with the blueprints. It’s the planners’ fault.
Planner Phil: My plans translate your
drawings into men and materials. Not
my fault, if Vic and the crew don’t follow the plans.
Workers are laughing and rolling in the
aisles. The white collar elite sits in their fancy offices and never comes to
the shop floor unless its to give a speech about how well the company is doing
or to witness a megaspectacle screw up.
Vic: We followed the plans, but
they’re F____in disaster.
Manager: Why does it keep tipping over
like that?
SCENE 4: LAY OFFS
Swede: Here it comes boys.
Mike the Welder: Two weeks ago they
told us that we had 4 million in orders for next month, and enough new orders
coming in, that we needed to hire more workers.
Steve the Welder: And you believed that
circus act.
Vic: Listen up, Manager’s got
something to say.
Manager: 25 of you are being laid off.
There were not as many new orders as we thought. We are going to lay off all the
recent hires first, then work back.
Swede: [to Boje]: I been here longer than anyone. Seen this before. You will be
gone now. I don’t have to worry about you learning my job. An a new set of
Boje’s will report to work on Monday.
Boje the Cutter: S___. I thought there
was plenty of work here.
DECONSTRUCTING THE STORY
A bit of intro to some (Grand)
Fathers of Management (a Bopje web site), then I will use SEPTET
(web site) to deconstruct my story.
According to Frederick Winslow Taylor, more efficient and effective
production results from Scientific Management principles. One principle is to
split the workers’ job by separating work (doing), form planning, and
inspecting. In this story, we see
the results of workers who can no longer plan and are not responsible for
inspection.
According to Henry Fayol, the hierarchy is split up into layers in
a chain of command. Workers like Boje are punished for stepping out of the chain
of command.
Metascript - There are several scripts here. First the script of
how to build a conveyor? There’s
the Banana Time script; front stage script of managers telling workers that
there are lots of orders; The script between salesman and customer; the behind
the scenes script of the real mess this company is in.
SEPTET ANALYSIS: APPLYING 3 READINGS IS REQUIRED (I will do 7; ENTJs
are over achievers).
1.
Work Organization Frames
– Taylorism meets Fayolism inside Weber’s bureaucracy “Frames
are ideologies and mind-sets, realized in narratives and theatrics” (Boje &
Rosile, 2002a). The ideological frames are Taylor, Fayol, and Weber. My ideology
is Leftest and Libertarian; that is my frame on the world.
2.
Working Condition Themes
–Freire’s
(1970) thematic fans include oppressive
relation of older to younger workers; relations of different ethnic groups
(Swedes and Italians); sexist humor; minimal.
“The
thematic facets of each fan are explored with questions about how people
submerged in the reality of Working Conditions code and decode their material
conditions, as well as their existential situation” (Boje & Rosile, 2002,
Chapter 4, p. 14). Coding and decoding is played out in Scene 3, when the blame
game is played. Rather than problem solving and work process redesign, there are
lay offs in Scene 4. Instead of “low
wages,” or “getting drunk” at work, the feeling of blue collars workers
being exploited by white-collar privilege, is played “Banana Time” flight
from reality and boredom (Boje & Rosile, 2002, Chapter 4, p. 14).
3.
Training Characters
– Trowbridge Conveyors is “an
ever-changing cast of characters” (Boje & Rosile, 2002, Chapter 4,
p. 17). Not much real
training going on among this cast of characters, which is leading to errors in
the cutting, people are not multi-skill trained. Leaders (Manager, Vic) are not
training others in the cast to be more effective performers (some crisis
management training post hoc by Vic to Boje). Instead of training people in
multi-skills (multi-skilling) or in meaningful workflow redesign, there are just
lay offs and new recruits.
4.
3 Cs Dialogs –
lots of cussing on the shop floor; split in blue and white-collar dialog
grouping. Problems in all 3 C’s. “).
People get so busy they forget to dialog, which can result in unresolved and
widespread conflict accumulations; conflicts break out and can no longer be
contained by dialog” (Boje & Rosile, 2002, Chapter 4, p. 17).
This is evident in Scene 3 (The Blame Game). The only time
there is dialog is during crisis. And this degenerates into the blame game.
5.
Timing Rhythms – Linear time
segmentation, without any networking of flows. Linear work process not
sufficient to deal with recurring cycles of orders and lay offs, without
learning to correct systemic dysfunctions.
“The cast
of characters, without training and retraining gets out of phase with the
contextual needs of customers, markets, and the fluctuations of the economy”
(Boje & Rosile,
2002, Chapter 4, p. 17). Trowbridge has a
rhythm of its own going, which is not learning from its customers, or its own
history of mistakes.
6.
Strategic Plots –
“Plots are defined as the grasping together of
characters, actions, rhythms, themes and frames, with dialog that affect the
organization in the spectacle of Metatheatre” ” (Boje & Rosile, 2002,
Chapter 4, p. 18). The strategic
plot of this company is not working. The plan (script) to make Framer John’s
conveyor is symptomatic of deeper root cause and effect relations, of strategy
that is not being implemented. The plans are not being REAL-ized. Only pieces of
the plan are becoming REAL in the world of tasks, work, processes, and
conveyors. Planner Phil is not doing any kind of participative planning; he is
quintessential Taylor reincarnate; he is part of the split between planning and
working and between working and quality inspection (QC is not that well
implemented even as a split out function). According to Aristotle (cited in
Boje, 2002b SEPTET definitions), “A tragic theme is a catharsis of the
emotions of pity and fear in the spectators (Aristotle’s Poetics,
chapter 1449b: line 25). This strategic plot has a tragic theme; the hero Boje
has a reversal of fortune). The lay offs are supposed to be an object lesson to
the blue collars, so they will not repeat the tragic errors of the laid off
workers. But, as an object lesson, it is a poor one; the workers learn to pity
and to fear, but not to do their work any better than before).
7.
Socio-Economic Spectacles –
“The spectacle is the moment when the
commodity has attained the total occupation of social life” (Debord, 1967:
#42). “The concentrated spectacle is where both production and consumption are
constructed in a totalizing self-portrait of power that masks its
fragmentation” (Boje, 2002a What is Situation?). The concentrated spectacle
here is Taylor/Weberian/Bureaucracy. It is a portrait of power that masks
several fragmentations (vertical as well as horizontal and between customer and
the production process). There is a concentrated spectacle of
making the conveyor and the megaspectacle scandal of seeing that it keeps
falling over. The spectacle of this commodity is the spectators gathered around
to see the Conveyor that keeps Falling Over.
The Socio-Economic consequences is, we can imagine, the loss of this
customer, loss of repeat business from word-of-mouth; the loss of worker’s
trained badly, to employ one more time (in the usual solution) workers who are
green (know little or nothing), and paid low wages (making sure they are
inexperienced like Boje). The White Collar spectacle is the dance of blaming the
Blue Collars, rather than doing the collective dialog needed. Instead of
collective dialog, these guys are playing out a dysfunctional metascript for
their concentrated spectacle.
We can also deconstruct the 4 Scene play as a Tamara
(Boje, 1995). That is, like all organizations, there is simultaneous theatre
going on simultaneously in different rooms of the organization.
This is most evident in Scene 2, where there are 99 staging areas in
the production process, with theatre in each, plus the split between the White
Collar theatre front stage, and the Production Floor back stage theatre.
The TAMARA is a networking of stages. This TAMARA, as a Theatrics of
Planning, is not a healthy “storytelling organization” (Boje, 1995).
The stories from the plant floor are only carried to the White Collar
rooms, when there is a crisis. The plans from the White Collar rooms are not
being realized on the Blue Collar Plant Floor as envisioned in the White Collar
rooms. This is unhealthy Metatheatre.
RESITUATION (This is
how I am doing the CRITICAL logic in my answer). One of the eight recommended
steps in deconstruction, is the RESITUATION. What can an MBA who knows Metatheatre
Intervention (Boje & Rosile, 2002a) do about this. The challenge is to “resituate
the story [TAMARA and Metatheatre] beyond its dualisms, excluded voices, or
singular viewpoint” (Boje, 1999, Deconstruct
This!). There are plenty of
dualisms to get beyond, we will look at just one:
White Collar: Blue Collar
If a new dialog can be created across the great divide of White and
Blue collar than it is possible to re-script Trowbridge Conveyors into something
more efficient and more effective. This
could mean using the SEAM methodology to collect the Metatheatre Metascript and
do a Mirror Effect (Boje & Rosile, 2002a) to show the current theatre of
planning being acted out. A neat intervention would be to perform the Script I
have written in front of managers and workers. Then, to use Image, Invisible,
and Forum Theat re to craft a more effective Metatheatre of planning.
REFERENCES
Boje, D. M. (1995).
Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as
'Tamara-land.' Academy of Management Journal. 38 (4), 997-1035. http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/DisneyTamaraland.html
Boje, David M.
(1999) Deconstruct This (Critical Logic Level 4), http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/deconstruct.html
Boje, David M.
(2002b). What is Situation? (SEPTET Table)
http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/388/what_is_situation.htm#septet_table_1
Boje and Rosile
(2002a). Metatheatre Intervention Manual. Chapter 4 Definitions and Examples.
Web Site at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/theatrics/manual/CH04%20DEFINITIONS%20AND%20EXAMPLES.DOC
Freire,
Paulo (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. NY:
The Seabury Press (A Continuum Book).
APPENDIX:
Heavy-duty incline conveyor
w/ motor & wheels.
Features: