Old Systems and Methods of Management
We Have Forgotten and Need to
Remember
In 1959, at 16 years of age, I worked as a deck hand on a tug boat in the
Houston Ship Channel. At seventeen I started working for contractors in the
petrochemical plants doing construction work around Baytown, Texas. At nineteen I was working in
the barge repair yards on the San Jacinto River. At twenty I was working for
a pipeline company in Texas and Louisiana. I carried all this experience with
me as I progressed through college. I was in the first class at University
of Texas Business
School that used the computer in the business statistical analysis course. and when I earned my Industrial
Management & Industrial Marketing Degree from the University of Texas in
1966 I was well grounded in both muscle and scientific methods of
management. In 1967 I joined the U.S. Marine Corps and became an aviator,
Maintenance Test Pilot, Aircraft Maintenance Officer, Aviation Maintenance
Quality Control Officer, and Aircraft Crash Investigator in both jets and
helicopters. I was involved in
putting a Marine Air Group on a computerized parts inventory system.
When I left the
Marine Corps I started working in the operations and maintenance (O&M) arena
and presently have over 38 years experience in direct assistance and consulting
support to industry. I was quick to recognize the potential for applying the
power of the personal computer to managing maintenance and purchased a Radio
Shack Model 1 in 1979 and bought the first spreadsheet program (SuperCalc) and
applied it to managing maintenance in 1980. I mastered relational databases on
Microsoft Access. I have watched the various scientific methods of management
mature and bring unprecedented levels of control to the business processes.
However, not every business process can be
managed completely by a computerized process. Prior to the advent of the
computer, man had created some very scientific methods for managing the paper
associated with technical fields and was able to produce excellent results in
the aviation maintenance field. Systems that had paper checks and balances to
prevent the loss of a mechanic's task and not let an unsafe airplane take
off. This paper system was the apex in managing technical tasks.
As each successive generation of management trainees learned to use
the computer they didn't just forget the paper systems, they rejected them.
This has been a tragic loss to our society. The promise of computerization
never worked as advertised all the way down to managing the worker twisting
wrenches. As a result, things and tasks get lost and forgotten. The
result is a significant loss of operational efficiency and accidents.
A
Solution
I am not an anti-computer guy; however, I do recognize a failure of the
computerization of maintenance that can be easily remedied. I teach a
scientific method for handling the paper generated when performing maintenance
that supports the computerized system so efficiently that both maintenance and
operations are dramatically improved. Hurricane Ike
A secondary advantage of the complimentary paper system is when the computers
go down. I have experienced weather disasters such as Hurricane Carla, Hurricane
Alicia, and Tropical Storm Allison. Hurricane Ike is now introducing a
whole new generation of managers to managing without electrical power. The
aviation quality paper handling method I teach does not need electrical power to
continue the management of critical maintenance needs in an emergency. All
maintenance activity can continue uninterrupted and in complete control during
the disruption and the collected documentation can be updated into the computer system when
power is restored with no loss of continuity. If you should care to learn more
about how this system can improve your O&M control, reduce maintenance costs,
and give you continuity in a disaster I would be happy to visit with you.
Sincerely,
David Tod Geaslin | 
