Smart companies, big and small, sometimes struggle using knowledge in everyday work. A small service tech company I worked with had paid for a complete software application to track their inventory and vehicle maintenance schedule. The software was $12,000 and came with a one year service plan that was going to expire in 8 weeks. The software, easy to use, did require the drivers of the service vans to report back to the shop what they used on a service run and when the techs should get their van serviced. Consequently, there had been 25 days of vans not being operational and the estimate of getting to the job site without the proper inventory in the van was listed at 200 lost hours of work. So the $12,000 software had an additional cost of:
Truck downtime – $1000 average per day $25,000
Driving back to get supply $100/hour $ 2,000
Someone in this company KNEW that the software could save this time, but the process of DOING was never completed. The Knowing-Doing Gap is a documented growth factor for successful businesses. According to statics by Jeffry Pfeffer author of “The Knowing-Doing Gap“, businesses that DO will surpass those that KNOW and fail to implement. In a Lean Culture, we often say DO SOMETHING because you can always do something else if the first DOING doesn’t get the results you want.
What do you know about your business that you are not doing?
