The headline number everybody quotes is four operators per shift. It is accurate and it is misleading, in an interesting way.
The question
GHA INFO MEDIA: You have taken a float line to four people per shift. What did the four people start doing?
Plant manager: Two of them did what the technicians did before. One person runs the model. The fourth is the shift authority. What disappeared was not work, it was supervision of work that no longer needed supervising.
GHA INFO MEDIA: What surprised you most?
Plant manager: How much of the previous routine was not diagnosis. It was proving that the line was still behaving. The system knows now. That gave us back the two hours a day we were spending on reassurance.
GHA INFO MEDIA: Did the workforce accept it?
Plant manager: Not immediately, and honestly they were right to be cautious. The first six months had more breakdowns, because the learning curve was real. What convinced them was the maintenance data, not the headcount.
On the models
He is unsentimental about the technology. What he values is predictability, and the fact that the model is auditable — he can challenge it, and has, twice.
The system knows now. That gave us back the two hours a day we were spending on reassurance.
