TABLE OF CONTENTS This brief appendix contains an important word about the people side of planning. Management must be cognizant of and deal with this issue in order to manage the planning program. An old adage says that engineers who get Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees think of people as numbers. But, people are not numbers. People are humans. In fact, companies humanize machines ahead of persons. They think of "taking care of" and making a machine "happy" so it will not break down. Even the newer phrase "people are our greatest assets" could be construed to reduce persons to things.
The American Heritage Dictionary (1980) defines culture as "The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought characteristic of a community or population." The maintenance workforce is a community and the beliefs of the maintenance community affect its behavior and the work it accomplishes. Many companies wrongly think culture is simply a matter of "organizational discipline" which shows evidence of these companies' machine mentalities. Companies that do not recognize culture as a vital aspect of maintenance cannot fully engage the power of the workforce. Companies that do recognize culture as being important take into consideration employee beliefs and thought characteristics. This is a not a manipulative effort on their part, but a true effort to engage the minds of their employees as well as their hands.
Furthermore, frontline leaders, the crew supervisors, are the keepers of the plant culture. What...
