There is a dark side to fixing problems. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. In our world, that is when the Lean project produces results that were not intended in the design of the project. These outcomes can contribute more fat than the project was supposed to reduce in the first place. Thinking about what can happen should be part of every maintenance project, or even repair, and certainly behind every possible Lean project.

In a recent Maintenance Management class, the team was trying to eliminate the complaint that the drivers of the dump trucks in a water utility sometimes took home the keys to their trucks by accident. All kinds of effort went into trying to manage key locations, which was a minor but frequent problem. The fleet group decided to attach a large aluminum plate to each key ring (similar to what is often done with rest-room keys in gas stations). This idea was a wild success, and was soon adopted by other departments.

However, a few months later the fleet department was screaming because they had to replace large numbers of ignition switches. The switches were not designed for the extra weight of the plates. The solution to one problem thus created unintended consequences. The ultimate solution was to use a thinner gauge of aluminum. Although the consequence was minor, it does demonstrate how solutions can cause unintended problems and get out of hand. The consequence can occur in someone else's department (making it hard...