"Be Careful" is Not Enough

0
2

I was boarding an American Airlines Super 80 at DFW yesterday, I noticed a warning sign on the controls of the jet bridge. As I've said before, “warning signs are not error proofing.” That certainly applies here.

There was a red stop sign logo with text on it that said “Be careful” and something to the effect about employees remembering to do some safety doublecheck to make sure that the planes didn't crash into the jet bridge. I would have taken a photo with my camera phone, but didn't want to end up on some TSA list.

Either way, you'll have to trust me. I'll try to be more prepared for a photo next time. American would be better served in putting in real error proofing measures that are better than just saying “be careful.” Even the most professional and reliable employees might have a bad day or a bad moment.

“Be careful” doesn't cut it, whether the issue is about saving $$ for American or if it's a safety issue for passengers. What about a mechanical error proofing device of sorts to prevent the potential mishap? What about a standard work process checklist (like pilots use) to make sure the check isn't forgotten??

Please check out my main blog page at www.leanblog.org

The RSS feed content you are reading is copyrighted by the author, Mark Graban.

, , , on the author's copyright.


What do you think? Please scroll down (or click) to post a comment. Or please share the post with your thoughts on LinkedIn – and follow me or connect with me there.

Did you like this post? Make sure you don't miss a post or podcast — Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.


Check out my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation:

Get New Posts Sent To You

Select list(s):
Previous articleTrying to Reduce Hospital Overprocessing
Next articleLean is Jazz
Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Mark,

    Airport operations overall are a target rich environment for improvement: Poor flow of passengers and baggage, unnecessary bottlenecks (ticket counter, security), little regard for what the customer needs while waiting (outlets for PCs, a clock that’s visible, more comfortable chairs).

  2. Isn’t it funny how often we need a camera? I recently got a Blackberry and it doesn’t have a camera. I sure miss my old Nokia camera phone in situations like you discussed here Mark.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.