A Life/Career Change Coming Soon...
 

I've had an idea festering in my skull for awhile now. I even posted it on the board to see if it would get any traction…it actually did. Its an idea for a show. A documentary actually. You have seen the shows where they make over a restaurant or a bar in a week and they turn it around? All so very entertaining and melodramatic and what not. The hosts are smart but rude and there are always tears and fights…bla bla bla. Well, I want to do the same thing with factories. Save the drama for ya Momma though.

Here is how it would play out in my mind.

1) Source out some candidate companies - need owner buy-in. They have to be struggling. Doesn't matter why - just that they are.
2) Go under cover for a few weeks - maybe a few of us. Note all the crap occurring.
3) Analyze the situation
4) Review with Owners their goals - prolly to turn a profit and stay in business but what ever
5) Develop action - have to tie in the folks that we worked with for a few weeks and let them in on it - heck by this time the whole company should know.
6) Begin the turn around process of bringing to light the failure modes associated with man, methods, materials, machines
7) begin corrective actions
8) Track and report
9) Improve
10) Profit

I can do this in any company with a team of about 5 folks - some I already have others I can get.

Turn the process into a documentary. Take the findings and publish them in my volume I have due on Operational Excellence and Failure Prevention. Develop a seminar series and then a consulting group around the work and what I learned and will continue to learn. Also falls in line with the degree program I am developing as well - it all fits together!!!

It means I will most likely leave my job for awhile - maybe a year or two or longer. I will have to secure income from loans, grants, investors and the like. It will be fun and I will learn a bunch as well as maybe help some companies out.

So, what do you think?

The restaurant show succeed because the concept of "good" and "bad" restaurants is applicable to every person who has been in a restaurant, i.e. -everyone.

I suppose you could do ok as long as you realize that entertainment is the first order of television. A documentary might be a much more realistic avenue for sure!

The show "Undercover Boss" sorta does this already.

The factory has to doing something the viewing public can relate to. You better not do it to a car dealer or repair shop. People hate them already.

Mike,

I think a real stumbling block would be getting folks to open their shop to outsiders to 'air their dirty laundry' and as you have pointed out, there's a usual litany of bass-ackward stuff going on in many shops where money is going out the door faster than anything else.

You will run into real conflict with the management-worker dynamic. On the other hand, the people who work on the floor have, in my experience, the bits and pieces of knowledge and often the vision of what is needed to turn things around, if you can pry it out of them.

In effect, you are talking about hiring yourselves out as consultants with a sideline of a TV "reality show" as extra baggage. As a consultant once told me, "A consultant is someone you pay to look at your watch and tell you what time it is."

Good luck.
Les

It sounds good on paper, but Gogar is right, you need drama. So if people get fired, jailed for skimming, that kind of thing, it might fly. You've seen the show "Undercover Boss." And you know there's plenty of tears. Not too much firing but rather praise for folks who are having a hard time in their personal lives and yet put in extra effort on the job. You have to find those people.

My idea is a new "Survivor" show featuring old, lecherous men. Give them a small island and some guns, knives and ammo and see how many return. Should throw in a deck of cards to spice things up.

Kind of like the most dangerous game, the running man or the hunger games or a combination of all three? I would watch.

I don't think I'd quit my day job until I had someone on hand committed to buy the documentary.

Let me know if you need help on the energy side of the process. I have worked in the utility business for years and am always amazed at how little attention owners/operators pay to energy use and the effect on bills, etc.

I still get calls from some of our biggest customers asking about what tier they are on...we haven't had tiers for 4+ years now, everything is TOU.

Great points all! And yes, I agree with the drama side - I don't like it for this project because it brings about an element of cheese and frankly that is not what this is about. The documentry is more about true reality not fabricated one.

IMO that TLC, History and Discovery have sold out. While I know they play to what sells, still don't have to always comply.

I don't think this thing will be a rating robber - thats really not what the intent is. As strange as it sounds it is really a true departure from the common trash that is hitting the airways now. It may be a breath of fresh air or it could turn into a bore fest - I'm not sure.

I think if it is done right it could promote insight and even change. Finding the right company(s) will be a challenge - how many factory owners will want someone to come in and expose all the trash? I tell you what - I haven't done the study (and maybe it hasn't been done) but look at the sales or stock of the companies that do Undercover Boss? I bet the stock price goes up a few points and sales increase as well after a segment airs with them showing the world how they suck then how they fix it ;)

Anybody know of a sudy that looks at that?

and yes, nothing will be strated until monies are secured ;)

Maybe a reality show/drama about bearing failure, and how the undercover boss found the wrong viscosity of lubricants were used or even catastropic bearing failure due to a bent shaft :eek:

:(

Sorry. I understand we have no appreciation of what can be really interesting.

solving actual problems is typically boring, annoying, and requires a lot of work that no one else finds interesting.

Istill think it can be made interesting without the crap - heck, if anyone of you sat in one of my lube seminars you would say "holy crap Holloway, you actually made that interesting!"

If I can make grease cool, I can make a busted machine, a labor issue, a management mistake or what ever intersting ;)

I don't know, sounds like an 'efficiency expert' to me. Why don't you go follow one around one day, if they will allow you, and see if it has any promise at being interesting.

You'll probably need fake drama, like all the other 'reality' shows. And at that point, what sets it apart from them?
Calling it a documentary?

A tv show needs someone yelling and throwing things.... I'm really good at yelling and throwing things.

Only thing you're lacking is some confidence :)

J/K, best of luck.

ya, again - not about falling into the same ol crap bucket of drama TV. Maybe this is more suited for PBS or as an Indy film doc than anything else.

As for following around an efficiency expert - thats pretty much what I do now.

I see you have the 4-M listed, but what about the 5-S, the Japenese methodoligy for order.