"... I have been told about your use of
unique games to increase production and reduce costs. Although I feel games would seem
childish to my employees I am always open to new ides. Would you share your game
philosophies and give some examples." I.L. Ohio
By Gene Levine, THE INDUSTRY ADVISOR, - www.genelevine.com
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
AND
THE REST OF THE STORY OF THE GENE LEVINE ASSOCIATES LOGO
During the second world war
civilian doctors and dentists had to find innovative ways to overcome a shortage of pain
killing medicines caused by military needs. That's why, when I had my first toothache, my
mother knowing my low tolerance for pain, found a "painless" dentist, Dr.
Maklin.
Instead of seating me, he motioned me to walk over to a hanging chart entitled "I CAN TAKE IT CLUB". Names went down the left side of the chart. To the right of each name, in a little box, were many gold stars. I recognized some names as being classmates and friends. Dr. Maklin then told me,"when I worked on your friend's teeth, they were brave, didn't scream or squirm so they got a gold stars."
By the time I was seated I had made up my mind that if my friends got a star I could get one too. To this day I clearly remember how much it hurt, how tight I clenched the armrests of that dental chair, but I wanted the star more then I wanted to cry so I hid the pain by squeezing the arms of the chair. I was not going to cry!
After he finished, Dr. Maklin bragged about me to my mother as he put a gold star next to my name. Little did I realize it at the time but that was to be the most important gold star I would ever receive in my life. Let me explain.
Fifteen years after I received that star (1959) I was called into Howard Stringer's office. He was V.P. of Manufacturing at Allendale Garment Company in Allendale, South Carolina, a garment manufacturing concern where I worked as a management trainee. Howard explained to me that the Plant Manager of our Barnwell factory had suddenly became ill and he needed me to "watch" Barnwell for a while.
Howard said that Barnwell had been making the same product for years so it was an easy plant to manage. He emphasized that in Barnwell, nothing needed changing. "Levine, everything is balanced. The truck comes on Friday to pick up the finished goods and drops off next week's work. Let's keep it that way" he said.
In Barnwell I immediately began talking to the machine operators. After all, Howard told me not to change things. He made no mention of not talking to operators.
I soon learned that the operators felt the piece rates were too low (at that time they were earning an average of $.60 per hour against a $.75 minimum wage). They complained about the unsympathetic engineers. I checked out the rates and found that, if anything, they were too loose (meaning that the machine operators could produce far more than the were presently producing). The more I listened the more I realized the operator's negative mental attitude towards the engineers was costing the company I worked for a large loss in production.
I wanted to help motivate the machine operators to earn more money, but I didn't want to violate Howard's instructions. Then an idea came to me. Remembering how Dr. Maklin had succeeded in providing me with a motivator maybe I could use gold stars to get these ladies motivated.
I designed "I CAN MAKE IT ($1.00 PER HOUR) CLUB" charts and put the operator's names on them. I told the supervisors that each day any operator earned $1.00 or more they would get a gold star. The supervisors were convinced that their new Yankee boss was nuts. They told me, "how can you expect them to earn $1.00 when no one is even close. . . and do it for silly little stars?" I told them my story of Dr. Maklin and told them to wait.
It took two weeks before the first star appeared. Then, the next day that same operator got another star. On the third day the same operator again got a star but, now another star appeared elsewhere on the chart. The race was on, the game had begun and so did my new life and approach to productivity improvement.
Production began to pick up so fast I had to call the main plant and ask if they would send the truck out to two days earlier. I couldn't wait till Friday because the operators were running out of work. I soon received a phone call from Howard asking me why the production had increased? I told him the only thing I could think of was that the operators decided to produce – which was true.
When Howard's car pulled up in front of the Barnwell factory and I saw his mood I knew I was in trouble. As he walked into the factory he immediately saw the charts on the wall. He must have noticed that the sound of the machines had become louder because he motioned to me to put my ear near his lips which I did. "Just what is this" he asked – pointing to the charts? After I explained it to him he walked towards the doors and said, "Levine, you be in my office in about an hour!" I nodded sheepishly and he left. I felt I was soon going to be fired.
When I entered his office Howard silently handed me an envelope with my name neatly typed on it and . . .
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