IOWA,
Your question is a good and fair one. First, let me explain the "no excuses" portion of the measure.
It used to be that when we measured service with SEAS, we excluded many things from the measurement. If a customer was not in, or a bad address, or closed, or NSP, etc.... What happened is that our internal measures looked great, but the customer didn't get better service. We just thought up more ways to find an "excuse" by putting an exception on a package.
One of our leaders (Cal Darden I think) said that we need to measure ourselves closer to the way our customers see us, not how we see ourselves. He said our measurement had to include "no excuses". So we had a "no excuses" measure. Overnight, the metric plummeted. Over time however we started fixing real problems and now our service is at an all time high.
Does this mean that there is an expectation of no mistakes? I think not. By the way, here is a little trivia. Hub missort standards have been 1 in 2500 since before I started. That was calculated based on employees being 98% effective. It was based on a "double check". Out of 2500 packages, a pickoff put 98% of them in the right load. That meant the 50 potential missorts exist out of 2500. The loader catches 98% of those. That's leaves one in 2500.
I am very much against stupid warning letters. Always have been. Its a waste of time and paper. On the other hand, I'm also against a blanket statement that says never sign a warning letter.
P-Man
P-Man, let me say thanks for the honest reply to my questions.
But I must ask you though, how does this "no excuses" measurement allow for things that are out of our control. Weather will be the example I will use here. So far this winter we have received here 55+ inches of snow. That is from the first week in December til now. So we have had our share or snow. How does this measurement allow for the EC packages that we cannot honestly deliver due to conditions beyond our control. Sorry for the tangent here, but our district is nice enough now to let each center know how many actual packages were sheeted as EC on a daily basis and for how long they have been sheeted as such. Now I know you can't answer this, but what is the point of this?
I know the MAR for misloads is 1 for 2500 company wide, but why the emphasis on perfection when every one in this company is fallible? We have employees here who are currently being diciplined for each misload when their numbers are over the 1 for 7500 mark? What purpose is this serving? What happened to the "nice job, keep that streak going? I know you can't speak for where I am at, but hopefully you see my point that UPS seems to be wasting a lot of time on little things and bringing company morale down in the process.
Most of the current employees have enjoyed, (at company expense), at one point or another, food catered in or cooked for them for a job well done. Now I know I this isn't gonna happen for quite a while, and that is fine by me. But what happened to the pat on the back or the handshake and the "you did a good job today" or "I know your day sucked, but thanks for getting it done"? Most of us employees, and a lot of managment too, don't get this anymore? All we get is...well I'm sure you probably here it already, but why the change in attitude?
I apologize for the long winded rant, but in the last two years or so, this company has turned around 180 degrees when it comes to the treatment of its employees, both hourly and management?