Management Reportback - it had to be expensive

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
By having the meeting and those in attendance being District management and above creates a new "us vs. them" mentality. Its seemed that those in the upper level positions have a great idea for how things should be. The propblem is in reality getting those idea in place and making them successful is a whole different story.

For example relying on Sure Post to be a driving force in positive revenue. What happen when even more Post Office close? The system isnt nearly as perfect as it sounded in the presentations.

Anthother example of being out of touch with the actualy operations is the attention that was given to customer service. I would like to think that 99% of all drivers truely want to provide exelent service. That being said with the elevated amounts of work being dispatched on a daily basis having time to do the little things that customer expect have become very difficult to do. Also the reference to technology allowing out drivers to be more efficient and allow them time to provide exelent service is a bit ridiculous. Sure the DIAD has simplified some elements but a keyless ignition that save a grand total of 6 minutes a day does not constitute adding 20 to 30 stops to a driver all in the name of making stop per car.

Most of the people in attendance never see a operation, they never leave their office. I have always been told its good to go have a look to see how things are really being done. I belive it would be a wise for those in positions District and above to come take a look and see if they like what they see.

I agree - the only issue, as far as I can tell in my own lowly position, is that most places have a two week advance notice before anyone "important" arrives; plenty of time to fix those pesky safety issues, and iron out other nagging details.

Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
I agree - the only issue, as far as I can tell in my own lowly position, is that most places have a two week advance notice before anyone "important" arrives; plenty of time to fix those pesky safety issues, and iron out other nagging details.

Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.

Yuuuup!
 

texan

Well-Known Member
I agree - the only issue, as far as I can tell in my own lowly position, is that most places have a two week advance notice before anyone "important" arrives; plenty of time to fix those pesky safety issues, and iron out other nagging details.

Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.

It is the same way in the military. When a 2 Star or 3 Star General is coming, we hide everything, paint everything, buff everything...

The person goes by quickly, no way he or she could of seen what we did to shine, and it is over.

Back to normal operations.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
It is the same way in the military. When a 2 Star or 3 Star General is coming, we hide everything, paint everything, buff everything...

The person goes by quickly, no way he or she could of seen what we did to shine, and it is over.

Back to normal operations.

"If it don't move, paint it."
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
....Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.

The term you are looking for is "plausible deniability."

As long as it looks good on the report, they really would rather not hear about all the dirty little details. One hand washes the other.
 
Did anyone else actually watch the video and wonder how much was spent on that little party? All the fluff, awards, meals, hotels, air fares, video, etc. The Casey Night was pretty cool to hear our past CEO's talk about their accomplishments. But really, how much did that party cost our organization? Is this why we don't get increases? We need to pay for parties? Anyone ever attend it? Is it a week of golf, drinks, steaks, and bragging? I would love to see the true cost of this meeting.
This is the price of doing logistics my friend.
 

SignificantOwner

A Package Center Manager
I agree - the only issue, as far as I can tell in my own lowly position, is that most places have a two week advance notice before anyone "important" arrives; plenty of time to fix those pesky safety issues, and iron out other nagging details.

Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.

We have a winner!
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member

We have a winner!

On the occasional lonely night, that has to grind on your soul a little bit, I would imagine.

I'm pondering a full time position; and lately, I've begun considering that there are, in fact, moments in life where critical mass is reached and a decision has to be made that will alter the course of ones life. Don't get me wrong, being raised in a strictly capitalist society, I'm in it for the money and all that, obviously; however, maybe thirty years from now I will reflect on the hypocrisy you two readily affirm. Not to put you two (or anyone else) on the spot, though - I understand (or at least, I think I do) that the inability of some to affirm the reality of operations (not for a lack of desire, but more an operational constraint) is more an organic outgrowth of corporate culture in this country as a whole, and not something that is endemic or unique to UPS by any stretch.

I think what tends to bother me the most about this sort of situation is not that it exists, because I will survive regardless, but of the inability to change it. Even in my short stint at this company, I've watched countless people come through the door with a positive attitude, and the molten crazy that is operations shapes them into something that expects nothing, and doesn't believe it when anything comes their way anyway. And, I can start to see why.

When I was a preloader, I was so focused on my job at hand, I never really bothered (perhaps out of necessity for my sanity) to consider the pressures that were leveled on those in the "back office." When I was made a part-time soup, I didn't really have a taste of it; now, apparently I've been deemed responsible enough to take on tasks that I will call ... "operationally abstract"; that is to say, things look a lot more like numbers on a spreadsheet, and a lot less like people I used to work next to. And, it feels so easy to fall into that trap of compensating for production requirements by just doing the best I can within my own time constraints, and then punting it to the belt soups by barking "make it happen" or some other institutionally obsequious remark.

Unless some other Fortune 500 company makes a competitive offer to some guy with no degree and a hat full of unpopular opinions, the next twenty-plus years will be interesting; I already crack a little smile when friends talk about "pressure in the workplace."

[/end quasi-disjointed, quasi-personal, quasi-meaningless rant]
 

pretzel_man

Well-Known Member
I agree - the only issue, as far as I can tell in my own lowly position, is that most places have a two week advance notice before anyone "important" arrives; plenty of time to fix those pesky safety issues, and iron out other nagging details.

Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.


So many on htere will agree with you and there is certainly much truth to what you say. But, let me present another side of this coin....

When people are coming over to my house, I clean up. I think they know its not always spotless, but cleaning up shows respect.

Cleaning up an operation before visitors show also shows respect. There is no way to fix a poor operation in that short amount of time. A poor operation will show through the "spit and polish".

Those on the receiving end are smart enough to factor this in.

They look at production rates before, during and after the visit.

I have been on both ends of these types of visits. I think that cleaning up before an inspection is human nature. An operation that looks great during a visit will never make up for that operation looking poor on op reports the rest of the year.
 

pretzel_man

Well-Known Member
Let me guess mny....to make more money....
I realize it's the bottom line,but the approach is questionable.
Pretz,what are they hearing?

Of course money and profits are an important and necessary piece of the puzzle.

I thought report back was good and worthwhile to review.

From memory:

Kuehn discussed our financial picture. That although profits are up (record profit), we did not improve leverage. In essence the goal is to have profits grow as fast or faster than revenue. This is important and Wall Street looks for this as an investment indicator.

He discussed that we have been fortunate that we have been fairly price insensitive (rate increases) make up a lot of increased profit.

Brutto talked about International and SCS. He discussed that we also did not hit targets with growth and leverage.

Gershenhorn discussed that Basic was originally a defensive product (to answer FedEx Smartpost). He mentioned that Sureport was meant as an offensive product. To take volume from FedEx and help with residential profitability. He also mentioned that "tag along" volume has come with Surepost.

My Choice was also mentioned many times. That it was built to provide value added services to residential consignees where there is much growth.

Multiple times the impact of operational technology was mentioned. How things like Package Flow, Keyless, NGSS, and Telematics have resulted in reduced operating cost and helped improve financials. (sites with this technology is measured against sites without it.)

The customer was mentioned many times. There was a great segment about a customer who left UPS because we were arrogant. We (management) made him feel like we were doing him a favor. He left and went to fedex.

A number of years later, he gave us another change. He says we were much different today. That we cared about servicing him. BTW, the only reason he gave us another chance is because his driver was excellent in the past. The driver made an impression on him.

Anyway, I learned a lot. You can agree or not, but report back is good to get a sense of where the company stands and priorities.....
 

TechGrrl

Space Cadet
Call me cynical, but I've sort of developed the theory that above a certain grade of employee, they are not allowed to see things for how they really are - it's some sort of grandiose unspoken rule, where the important people know they can't see the belly of the beast, as it were, because that would imply culpability. Meanwhile, the underlings scramble about to hide the belly of the beast because, they reason, if anyone ever knew how it really was they would lose their own job. It's like some weird MC Escher-synergistic knot of complicity.

It's that required lobotomy that comes with promotion to grade 20 and above....
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
So many on htere will agree with you and there is certainly much truth to what you say. But, let me present another side of this coin....

When people are coming over to my house, I clean up. I think they know its not always spotless, but cleaning up shows respect.

Cleaning up an operation before visitors show also shows respect. There is no way to fix a poor operation in that short amount of time. A poor operation will show through the "spit and polish".

Those on the receiving end are smart enough to factor this in.

They look at production rates before, during and after the visit.

I have been on both ends of these types of visits. I think that cleaning up before an inspection is human nature. An operation that looks great during a visit will never make up for that operation looking poor on op reports the rest of the year.

I agree - it shows respect, and an understanding/consideration of the purpose of the visit, among other things. More of what I was trying to highlight, though, is the occasional disconnect between those who consume reports relative to those who do the work that is represented on the report. And, I don't think that is a character flaw, but is more an emergent phenomenon as one goes through the ranks and is required to quantify various things.

An example: PPH. PPH for a single area is deceiving, because of the nature of average; that by itself abstracts away the details of a particular pull - maybe it's all bulk and the loader gets wacked when the unloader finds their wall in the trailer. Or, if it's all residential stops, the truck will inevitably be smashed because the shelves quickly fill up, then the floor; human nature coupled with exasperation, the proverbial wheels quickly come off.

Abstracted one more level out, there is probably belt PPH somewhere; that number will, save any intuition on the operating supervisors part, abstract away even more of the work required to generate that number. Taken to the level of shift PPH, it's now probably even more difficult to assign any relation between the number and the labor input.

That's not to say impossible, just more difficult; an example from my own life might go as follows: during break, I always check the actual UOW from the unload; even on days where it is not what I would consider outrageous, it could be a complete and total disaster out on the belts. Why is that? In the context of my own theory, it's because UOW's processed, as a number, abstracts away the reality of what is going on up there. Maybe the stars aligned and each pull has a huge bulk stop, which the loaders are juggling while still trying to load that one residential car with all the smalls; or other countless details.

Again, this isn't me pointing fingers at UPS, saying the organization is incompetent; I think that this is more the reality of managing dynamic, unpredictable scenarios in a predictable way. And, as a function of management, you quantify those things you can, and establish relations between the measurements, in the hopes that you can achieve some meaningful insight.

edit: And, to actually bring this back to my original post as I sort of went off track there, is to say that the struggles required to make numbers what they are is sometimes never known, forgotten, or otherwise not considered, by some; or, that perhaps, they all know but aren't allowed to see it for various reasons.
 
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