{"id":10645,"date":"2012-08-07T05:49:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T11:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=10645"},"modified":"2016-12-25T01:12:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T06:12:13","slug":"defects-hidden-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/defects-hidden-in-plain-sight\/10645\/","title":{"rendered":"Defects Hidden in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>We have a guest post today from James Lawther. James is primarily involved in process improvement within the Service Industry but, even more than that, he is an articulate thinker and a keen observer of the little things that make such a big difference in business.<\/p>\n<p>As this article will show, you&#8217;ll see how a small but subtle difference in thinking can potentially avoid a massive problem &#8211; indeed, customer defects &#8211; both big and small &#8211; are <a title=\"shine a light on defects\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/shine-a-light-on-defects\/8939\/\">usually hidden in plain sight<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy the article.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Obviously Wrong<\/h2>\n<p>In the mid 1970&#8217;s at a military aircraft base in sub Saharan Africa a soldier was on duty.<\/p>\n<p>It was the early hours of the morning.\u00a0 The sky was cloudless and a full moon illuminated a squadron of brand new MiG-21 fighter planes.\u00a0 The soldier&#8217;s lone figure could be seen patrolling the landing strip, guarding the planes, ensuring they weren&#8217;t sabotaged, protecting his country&#8217;s military might.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10646 aligncenter\" title=\"wrong-customer-service-lean-manufacturing-experience\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-customer-service-lean-manufacturing-experience-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"military lean six sigma\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-customer-service-lean-manufacturing-experience-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-customer-service-lean-manufacturing-experience-600x450.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-customer-service-lean-manufacturing-experience.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The soldier had nobody for company and nothing to do but listen to the sounds of the jungle and wait until the morning.\u00a0 He was bored out of his mind.<\/p>\n<h2>What if you Were Bored?<\/h2>\n<p>As he passed one of the planes impulse grabbed him, he jumped up caught hold of the pitot tube on the end of the nose cone and pulled himself up, performing a solitary chin up.<\/p>\n<p>The tube bent.<\/p>\n<p>The soldier tried to straighten it, but despite his best efforts, it was undeniably, unmistakably, horrifically bent.<\/p>\n<p>Now I don&#8217;t know this for a fact but I suspect that the soldier was not the brightest man in the army, you don&#8217;t put your <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/colin-powell-on-leadership\/424\/\">finest military brains<\/a> on midnight patrol, but he was sharp enough to realise that somebody was going to spot the damage and, more to the point, he was going to be in a world of misery for some considerable time.<\/p>\n<p>So, quick as a flash he sprinted around the airfield pulling chin ups on the noses of all the other planes, so that they all bent and all looked the same, knowing full well that nobody would ever notice.<\/p>\n<h2>The Moral of the Story<\/h2>\n<p>My Dad told me the story when I was a boy, I couldn&#8217;t vouch for is truthfulness.\u00a0 No doubt I had just done something similarly stupid, compounding an error, I can&#8217;t remember what, but I do remember the story.<\/p>\n<p>Why am I telling it on a process improvement blog?<\/p>\n<p>Simply to reinforce the point that if you want people to realise when something is wrong the best thing you can do is <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/about-peter-abilla\/what-is-visual-management\/\">make sure it is obviously wrong<\/a>.\u00a0 Change its shape, size, colour or position.\u00a0 Then it will stick out like a sore thumb (or bent nose).\u00a0 Otherwise it could be months before anybody notices.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10647 aligncenter\" title=\"wrong-process-lean-customer-service\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-process-lean-customer-service-1024x767.jpg\" alt=\"visual management, wrong process\" width=\"614\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-process-lean-customer-service-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-process-lean-customer-service-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/wrong-process-lean-customer-service-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>About James Lawther<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-9563\" style=\"display: block;\" title=\"james-lawther-service-excellence\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/james-lawther-service-excellence.jpg\" alt=\"james lawther service improvement\" width=\"132\" height=\"188\" data-lazy-loaded=\"true\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/james-lawther-service-excellence.jpg 314w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/james-lawther-service-excellence-210x300.jpg 210w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 132px) 100vw, 132px\" \/>James has worked for numerous large manufacturing, retail and service companies including Unilever, Mars and Capital One a variety of operational improvement roles. He also ran his own operations improvement consultancy where his clients were as diverse as local and national government, debt collectors and magic circle lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>Visit his web site The Squawk Point\u009d to find out more about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.squawkpoint.com\/2011\/05\/simple-minded-people-give-the-best-service\/\">service improvement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have a guest post today from James Lawther. James is primarily involved in process improvement within the Service Industry but, even more than that, he is an articulate thinker and a keen observer of the little things that make such a big difference in business. As this article will show, you&#8217;ll see how a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hidden Defects: HIdden in Plain Sight | Customer Experience<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hidden Defects impacts the customer. Most big customer defects are actually small, subtle, and are hidden in plain sight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hidden Defects: HIdden in Plain Sight | Customer Experience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hidden Defects impacts the customer. 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