The Industrialist

Chapter 76: Crew

Fifteen factory operators gathered around Brigz. He seemed to be most tenured amongst them or maybe mature enough, early forties, to informally lead the people, as commoners usually needed someone they could look up to.

"Gang, this is Lance, our new co-TOR of Doctor Zee. He's the replacement for Mister Flanegan. He's a Commoner, just like us. I have confirmed it," Murmurs from the crew came indistinctively. "Let him say a few words."

Brigz had a way of speaking like he was a Technical Course Graduate.

"Thanks, Mister Brigz," Lance started as he stepped forward beside the tenured employee. "Mister Brigz is right, I am a Commoner like you, and live in Steelpoint. But I am a newly promoted Mechanic Tier one so, I will be transferring to Hypervista next week as one of my perks."

The crowd was silent. Speaking in front of the public, Lance focused his attention on his voice. A tendency oftentimes, if he experienced awkwardness or a little discouragement or intimidation, his voice would sharpen.

"So, please bear with me. This is my first time to handle operations like this. However, I will always attend to your questions, or any encountered operational problems on how to deal with them."

"Are you gonna be here nine to five?" one crew asked.

"No, not every day. But maybe three hours a day until we can stabilize production." The murmurs came again.

One thing he learned from his father about factory operations is that problems don't stop emerging, even how robust the process is. It explained that for this new product, the operators needed a higher mind to solve problems for them. This posed a predicament for Lance, as it could consume precious time, disorienting his hectic schedule.

He already anticipated this as his father had already mentioned a little about factory operations.

Hence, his response was rather bold and new.

"That's our problem ever since, boss," Brigz spoke up. "A lot of production delays happened because we encountered design problems and nobody we could consult on what to do. Because the TOR and the Supervisor are absent."

"I know your concerns," Lance responded. "This is new for you maybe and unorthodox. But I will train you, all of you, on portions of the technical details of what you are handling, and you can solve problems on your own. I know this has never been done before - the training. I know we are on a tight schedule. We will be producing ten thousand units of these until a month before the Demetrian Season."

"Ten thousand units for two months? That's outrageous!"

"How can we produce such volume and we are restricted of Overtime?"

"What if we can't finish? We will be the ones to be blamed. Heartless fat cats will deduct damages from our salaries."

And other more discernable concerns were raised. Lance overheard them, however, had not answer them one by one.

"Yes, I know. Someone told me that mostly the production efficiencies plummeted because of the unattended problems. Because of the TOR's absence."

A rampant and known predicament that most manufacturing lines encountered. The absence of TOR and the inability of the Supervisor to solve such problems greatly affected line efficiency by a twenty percent decrement.

"Therefore, to address that, we will have skeletal production times. Instead of nine to five, we will operate production, nine to three. And the remaining two hours, we will dedicate in training. This will go over a week, just lend me your ears. I will train you, cascade all I know about manufacturing RoFlo."

There were nods, there were shaking of heads. They seemed to have no unified say about Lance's proposal.

"Trainin'? We need no schoolin'!" One operator said. Others agreed.

"We are cutting off momentum, boss. Why not just be here every hour and every minute?" one operator pointed out. The easiest way for them to resolve the problem and prevent delays was by the ever-present TOR.

"What's the use, if you ain't here?"

"Give me a break, will ya? In this age, we need no more info, kid!"

"Wait! Give the boy a minute to speak." Brigz said, realizing that Lance had been pale-looking ever since the concerns were voiced out.

Lance took moments to straighten himself and cleared his throat.

"I hear you all. All good points and I understand your sentiments. You all experienced being treated unfairly by the management or by previous supervisors and TOR. Well, I am trying to make an amenable approach here. Let's try for a week, then if it does not work, all of us will increase our working hours to compensate for the downtimes we had in the past week."

"They are not even paying us overtime!" one man said.

"Ok. I am going to make a deal with you. This is risky, not for you, but for me. I will pay your overtime for one week from my own pocket."

"Woah, boss. That's too much. Are ya sure? I mean, I haven't met someone from any organization who'd pay the salary of others. Are you even good for it?" Brigz said.

"I am good for it. If it happens, my salary here as a coTOR will be allocated to your overtime. And the chances are if I don't pay you overtime, you will start to be demotivated and eventually would decline efficiency. It will greatly affect me, too. I won't have this job offer again in the future for a failed production."

"Hmm. If you walk the talk, boss. Then I think, everyone will agree to it."

There were whispers among them, discussing. The weaker ones or the new ones were being swayed by the older or stronger ones. This was what happened.

"What say you?" Lance asked.

He knew paradigm shifts were hard to handle for the simple-minded commoners. However, it's his best shot at conserving his time – Aiveez Nursery, Zelkian farming, Tyllrium trade, and transferring Hypervista. In addition, his commitment as Jaqi's research partner.

Their salary was guaranteed, and if his plan went sideways – not achieving target units until the deadline, they would blame Lance for a nontypical approach.

"Let's do this," It was Brigz who answered.

In Factory operations, it was always best to identify the root cause of the problem and create action plans out of it. Not some band-aid solutions without totally fixing a greater predicament.

Lance glanced at the cameras installed at the corners of the production floor. He was sure that Flanegan was watching them.

'Your skin will crawl, Flanegan. Wait and see,' Lance thought, imagining Flanegan's defeated face.

"My next agenda would be," Lance gained momentum. Even though the crowd had not approved his approach unanimously, at least Brigz agreed with him. And it was clear that the people had utmost respect for their tenured colleague. "How are we going to start producing with the equipment we have?"

"Setting up first, boss. Get the equipment fired and ready. But mind ya, it will take us a day or two. Cream-of-the-crop means intricate modifications that needed careful attention." Brigz responded.

"The case moldings, Brigz. What are we going to do with it? It's against protocol to just leave the mats unchecked." One operator asked.

"Let's not check the raw materials first. We are breaking a lot of protocols, I think. And Flanegan had us on the brink of failure in our first production day." Lance interjected.

"Yeah, the timing and prep are way off," Brigz agreed.

"We tend with our equipment prep first, before anything else. Let's leave the mats unchecked, then after we finish preparing and setting, we will unbox them." Lance said. "Do you have any objections?"

His decision was way off from protocol, as one operator suggested. But checking the received materials without setting up the machinery first, would cause delays. Allocating operators to check on the mats and leave the equipment set up would decrease the preparation rate and would start production maybe on the third day.

Luckily, there were no objections. It meant that his decision was sound and the operators understood it.

On the other hand, as his father pointed out, the secret of leadership was involving his subordinates as a part of the leader's decision-making, recognizing them as valuable contributors to the team.

Doing so, would motivate an individual.

The operators did as Lance had suggested and the people had a vibe of optimism as they continued equipment set-up.