10.5 Maintenance and control of the new practice

If a new scheme is to survive and yield more in benefits than it costs, it has to be protected against a number of more or less natural hazards. Standards, systems and procedures are as prone to deterioration through wear and tear and neglect as are machines. Like machines, their performance may eventually be reduced to zero.

Maintenance and control should start while the consultant is still with the client organization, and must continue after his or her departure.

Backsliding

A maintenance and control system has to guard against backsliding, which is liable to occur as long as people remember what they used to do before the change. Backsliding is not always reactionary. If a new method breaks down because of problems with a computer system, equipment, supplies, and so on, work can only continue if people do something else. The most natural thing is to revert to the old practice if that is still possible. While the consultant is well advised never to stop anyone using the old method until it can be completely replaced, he or she should also make sure that after the new method has been proved it is impossible to revert to the old one.

The way this is done will depend, as always, on the function of the assignment and the nature of its problem. A few examples are given below.

Paperwork. When a new documentation procedure is installed, the stock of old forms should be destroyed. One official should be made responsible for maintaining stocks of new forms and signing orders for reprints. The purchasing clerk should not pass on orders for printing signed by any other person.

Filing. When a new filing system becomes operational, old files should be closed and their contents inserted in the new files, moved to archives or destroyed. Provisional and parallel filing outside the new system framework is undesirable.

Operating standards. The maintenance of factory work standards requires vigilance. Working to standards must be made easier than working to nonstandards. Any work outside the specification of the product or method should not be feasible using the standard forms and documentation. This is not to say that departures from standard are never allowed, but when they are, they should be made self-evident.

Drawings. In an engineering drawing office it must not be easier to make a new drawing for a part than to find whether an existing part may be used. When a drawing is permanently changed, all old prints should be tracked down and removed. An adequate control system would prevent unauthorized prints being in circulation at any time.

All these measures are, of course, preventive. In their absence, the alternative is often not a cure but a temporary expedient with a strong likelihood of a recurrence of the problem.