Sometimes the Right Choice isn’t the Convenient One

I was the operations manager at the St. Helens Oregon ceiling tile plant. I was responsible for the board forming and the fabrication units. It was here that I made a major rookie mistake that would stick with me throughout my career. Here’s the story.

The board forming unit consisted of a mixing, forming, drying, and board cutting and stacking operation. The fabrication unit consisted of all equipment that converted 4 by 8-foot boards into 2 by 2- foot and 2 by 4-foot painted tiles packaged and ready for shipment.

The board forming unit had an eight-level dryer that was approximately 400 feet long. A slurry would enter the dryer at extremely high moisture levels and exit it fully dried and ready for processing. Boards would travel at slow speeds through the dryer on their way to be cut at a large panel saw, called the Dry Saw. If there was a problem at the Dry Saw, things could be slowed down in the dryer for a short period of time, but eventually all  boards in the dryer had to be offloaded, or there could be major damage to product, or worse, a fire.

One day, we were experiencing significant downtime in our fabrication unit. With low maintenance staffing, I requested all mechanical help in fabrication, and they came and deployed to the equipment that was having trouble. They were working beneath a conveyer, deeply involved in repairing a critical problem. It looked like they had about 45 minutes of work left to do when I got the call that we were having a problem at the Dry Saw and that boards were backing up in the dryer.

I told my team manager to monitor the situation, but I decided to have the mechanics continue working on their repairs in the fabrication unit. This was a bad choice. After 20 minutes, things got worse in the board dryer and a major jam occurred. And then, a fire. Everyone in all departments stopped what they were doing and came to contain the fire and dig out smoldering boards in the dryer. Taking a 14-foot rake, I helped pull wet boards out of the dryer while others doused the fire and helped clean up a huge mess. After 16 hours, we had everything cleaned up and were able to safely start operations back up.

It was a huge mistake on my part. I realized I should have responded to the board forming unit issues immediately, even if it would force our fabrication unit to stay down longer. My boss wasn’t happy about my choice, but was understanding. He told me, “All new production managers make this mistake. But, only once! Always pick the board forming unit issues first, then fabrication. Unless there’s a major safety or health incident in fabrication.” I heeded his advice from then on.