Do It My Way

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;

   call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake his way,

   and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

   and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

   neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

   so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Isaiah 55:6-9 

As part of the project given to me during my internship with Bose Systems Malaysia, I generated several Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in order to improve the material delivery process between the Warehouse and Final Assembly. It is of utmost importance for each operator to follow the standard instruction given so that the either process will be able to run smoothly. The SOP that I have generated is the result of my intensive study on the process, carefully thought and planned, so that each operator may have enough time and right on time to "pass the baton" to the next person in the process.

Generating the SOP is difficult, but it is nothing close to being as difficult as to getting the people to play by your rule. Even as I observe the operators perform their job, I notice that this particular operator is not following the SOP that I have trained them to do. 

The operator's job scope is to replenish material into each station in the Final Assembly line, collect post-process trash, collect replenish signal cards and arrange finished goods for shipping. The material is delivered every hour to him to be replenished. The standard procedure is to give priority to replenishing material, disregarding all other tasks such as collecting trash and collecting replenish signal cards. 

Besides that, one rule that dictates the replenish signal card system is that each lot of material must be accompanied by one signal card. No material can be issued and held in the production line without a signal card.

However, instead of following the SOP given, he followed his own method. He took his own sweet time to replenish material, collect trash and collect signal cards. On top of that, even as he receives the material delivery cart, he detached some signal cards from the materials and send them back to the Warehouse. This is definitely not how the system works.

After observing for a few hours, I decided to confront him and correct him. But even as I approach him, before I could finish my words, he retaliated, saying that his method is better. "My method is easier and more efficient! Come, let me show you!" And well I tagged along and observe his method again. Of course his method require less travelling  with the cart, which is a heavy load to push around the place, and he can use the cart for trash at the same time, but there's a whole lot of other problems that arise from his method that he did not see.

I kept my cool and observed him until he's done. When he has done his work, he turned to me and say "I have already studied this method, and this works best and easiest for me!" When I heard it, in my heart I was like "The heck! Am I the engineer now or you? You studied? Oh really?"

While he arrogantly thought his method is better, what he did not realised was that his method required him to do twice the work. Not only that, it caused dire consequences downstream. Because he was not able to complete the replenishing task, he was not able to empty the cart within 25min for collection, causing the cart to remain in the production area and delay the material picking in the warehouse due to lack of cart. Besides that, the finished good are conveyed along a holding rack, and carefully calculated that it may hold finished goods for the next 25min without needing to clog the line. But because he spend the first 25min doing all other task, he was not able to attend to the finished good in time. As a result, another operator has to come to his aid and cover up his sorry arse, and he doesn't even know it. Now, two persons has to do one man's job. As compared to his colleague performing the same tasks on a similar line, he took 10min more than his colleague.

Remember the signal cards that he collected off the cart right away when the material was delivered to him? Several hours later, there are too much material being delivered to him, he has no place to hold them in the production line. Superiors were notified of the situation and issued a warning to him. Well, he doesn't understand that his action cause material to accumulate at the line, stocking up material that the line doesn't need, and that will cost the company a lot of money due to over-purchasing material.

You can't say that I did not try to reason with him. One week prior to the incident, I clearly remember I explained the entire SOP to all operators including him. He was the particular one who proposed several problems (that I have already foreseen) with the SOP, which I further explained the consequences of not following the SOP, including all of those mentioned above. But his pride and arrogance led him to his disobedience, thinking that his way is better, thinking that he is more experienced than me, and that he is above the rule. Disregarding the work progress of others, he only thought of doing what was comfortable for him.

~~~~~

I was completely upset. But even as I sat down in defeat and clueless, I realised that I too have been like him in my relationship with God.

Most of the time we think ourselves higher than God, thinking that His rules doesn't apply to us, and His methods are useless and poor. Most of us think our ways are better than God, and our wisdom wiser than His. Hence in our pride, we disobey Him and trash His rules.

But we are not seeing the bigger picture of our disobedience. We do not know the consequences that one leads to another causes a chain reaction of dire catastrophe. We do not understand that the consequences of our sins not only affect ourselves but also people around us. And we continue to act in our ways and we all pay for it.

God sees the whole picture of our lives. He made those rules not because He wants to control us or to restrict us, but to bless us, so that we may live an abundant, fruitful and blessed life as He wants us to have. He wants us to live freely without consequences that may destroy us. He wants us to enjoy a good life and relationship with Him and other people. He made those rules for our benefit.

But somehow, we tend to think we are smarter and wiser than Him. Look, we even call ourselves Homo-Homo-Sapiens, the Wise-Wise-Man, who, ironically, made an entire history of stupid mistakes and destructions.

Obedience is not a burden, but a blessing and joy, because in obedience to God, we can be sure that His way is always the best for us. He says "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."