Symptom: The people who develop products also are responsible for manufacturing them (keeping them running day to day).
Engineers should not be distracted with ongoing responsibilities, since operational tasks bury inventiveness.
There are a number of reasons for this. Operational tasks can absorb all of one's time, and leave no time or energy left for innovation. The "short-term" swamps the "long-term" issues. And it's tough to be a world-class expert in a discipline when that is just a part-time job.
Of even greater concern, there is a conflict of interests between innovation and operations. Since significant changes disrupt operational efficiencies for a period of time, those with operational responsibilities are paid to resist innovation (at least until they are sure that the new idea is stable and safe).
If the Engineering functions are mixed with ongoing services, innovation will suffer.
Root cause:Structure, organization chart (rainbows) copyright 2024 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc. All rights reserved.
