When a frontline technician identifies a problem, it kicks off a series of events. They communicate the problem, someone identifies a solution, and that solution gets implemented. The longer the gap between problem identification and solution implementation, the greater the cost to industrial plants and manufacturing organizations. We call this gap “execution latency.”

It’s a frustrating problem, often because industrial leaders aren’t trained to look for it. And it can show up even after organizations have made investments in improving both IT and OT.

I’ll walk you through what you need to know to spot execution latency in your organization and do the work necessary to eliminate it to preserve margins.

How execution latency eats at plant margins

Let’s look at an example to visualize how execution latency can impact the bottom line. Let’s say scrap rate in one plant has increased, and frontline workers have noted that quality from the existing supplier seems to have degraded. The organization decides to switch suppliers.

Problem → solution

But then there's a snag. The buying committee recommends a new supplier, but the approval process stalls. It keeps getting displaced by more urgent matters. By the time the approval is made, new contracts are signed, and the first batches of the new material arrive at the facility, months have gone by, and scrap rates have continued to creep up.

They were quick to identify a problem and a solution, but the problem was the time between identifying a solution and putting it into action was way too slow. The intelligence was there, but it didn’t get to the people who needed to act on it fast enough. Every day of delay costs the organization: more waste, less work done, worker frustration mounting.

Admittedly, this example is extreme, but it’s valuable in how it illustrates the concept of execution latency. In most organizations, latency exists as a few minutes here and there, but with a cumulative effect that has a similar impact to your margins. Let’s take a look at some common examples to help you spot it when it shows up.

How to spot execution latency

Here are some common ways execution latency shows up at a plant or in a manufacturing context:

• Distractions en route to a solution: Maybe a technician spots a problem on the line and leaves to alert the person who decides how to address it. But on the way, they’re pulled into other work—maybe a question from a peer. Or, as they log in to a tablet to submit a ticket, they’re bombarded with notifications about trainings they have to finish or reports they have to file. They take care of these tasks, thus delaying the resolution of the original problem. This is a workflow design issue: workers’ roles are complex to the point that the complexities slow them down.
• Doers are removed from deciders: In this situation, identifying a solution is not the issue. The delays happen in conveying information: frontline doers have to provide lots of context to managers and other deciders for them to identify a solution. Or else it’s the reverse: decision-makers have to provide workers with lots of context before they can successfully implement a solution. We saw this in our work with a rail client, who used a manual, email-based system to communicate necessary repairs to clients and sometimes waited days for approval before they could begin work. By streamlining the process with custom software, we were able to reduce the time necessary to communicate a diagnosis and to get approval for repairs, thus reducing overall maintenance cycle time.
• Deciders have competing priorities: In this scenario, frontline workers report a problem. Their direct manager wants a solution that gets the line up and running ASAP; the manager one level up wants a solution that works best for multiple lines in the plant; and the manager one level higher is thinking about solutions in the context of hitting quarterly goals. The lag comes as they triangulate priorities and settle on the best solution for the situation.

Another signal that the problem might be execution latency: you’re not seeing improvements in outcomes like rework, quality, scrap rate, and throughput rate even though you’ve made improvements to your systems.

How to address execution latency

As you might have guessed, most of the solutions to execution latency involve addressing workflows, communications channels, and standards for collaboration and cooperation. For example, if workers are getting pulled into competing priorities before they can address problems, consider auditing job descriptions against actual work. Over time, many roles evolve to include “invisible” work that isn’t documented anywhere. This can create hidden inefficiencies. Understanding the actual ways employees spend their time is an opportunity to reallocate and / or reprioritize tasks to ensure the most essential work gets done first.

Another way to address execution latency: move doers closer to deciders. This might mean looping frontline workers into solution conversations earlier to ensure they have context necessary to implement solutions. Or maybe capturing and distributing information differently so that it’s more universally accessible. The key is to reduce execution latency by improving the flow of information.

A third way to tackle execution latency is to review processes, systems, and workflows for their guidance on collaboration, cooperation, and communication. When there are multiple invested decision-makers collaborating on a solution, what's the protocol for prioritizing their needs and concerns? How does information move up and down the chain of command? Who needs to be involved in and consulted on various decisions?

These are not problems you can solve with off-the-shelf software. But the right intelligent product, designed and built based on your organization’s actual needs, can eliminate your costliest gaps and meaningfully reduce execution latency.

For bottom line improvements, reduce execution latency

Execution latency tends to stay hidden unless you go looking for it. But even out of sight, it can drag down operations and hurt the bottom line. The first step in addressing this sneaky profitability drain is to know it exists.

Now that you do, see if it might account for some of your lagging KPIs. Addressing it will also lead you to more efficient and effective organizational structures, clearer operational protocols, and workers who feel more empowered day to day.