To Control, or Not to Control - That Is the Question

Yes, that really is the question. Everyone is familiar with the question that was proposed by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the 1600’s: “To be, or not to be”. This is a very famous literary quotation and some would argue that it may be the most famous. You see if you read further into the soliloquy from which this quote is extracted, you see the question is much greater. In Hamlet Shakespeare was really referring to life itself. Should I continue to live this way or should I end it by taking my life? This was the question proposed by the fictional character.

The line directly following this famous question is:

“Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?”

What if you take that same question and apply it to a single aspect of life or business? You can replace the word “be” with things like “control” or “manage” and all of a sudden it becomes much less depressive and much more encouraging. In fact if we were to re-write the first couple of lines and tailor them to current business challenges, the answer becomes obvious.

What if it read something like:

To control, or not control: that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the workplace to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous mis-management,
Or to take arms against a sea of poor workplace habits,
And by opposing end them?”

You see the question simply becomes: should I stand up and change something that my company does poorly or should I just live with it the way it has always been? Should I recognize an area for improvement or should I simply ignore it and go about my ways? Should I continue to waste money on inefficient means of doing things or stand up and make a change? Well, of course, the choice is always yours but so is the fruit it bears.

OK…OK…if choices were really that simple we’d all live perfect little lives and be incredibly efficient at everything we do. That is not the case. Many of use are very efficient at certain things and not so efficient at others. As a whole, I have seen companies that are very good at managing their direct supply chains yet they fall short when it comes to the indirect side of things. I have seen companies that are very good at making product but not very good at forecasting demand. The bottom line is that there is always room for improvement.

The first step to improving anything is establishing the right process and controlling the process so that you achieve the desired result. This article is really discussing the control of indirect material, MRO supplies, PPE inventory, tools, haz-mat, and other supplies. The question that is proposed in the title of the article is really aimed towards managing this type of inventory. So the questions should really be, “To control indirect material better and manage the supply chain or not to control and waste time and money?” I bet you can tell from the tone of that last question what my answer would be. You’re darn right you control it. So little focus is put on this inventory and yet so many dollars can be saved. In fact a recent corporate user of our management system reported a 10 million dollar savings in the first year alone. That was direct inventory savings alone. It didn’t even take into consideration things like less purchase orders cut, less time searching for tools, less stock outs, reduced travel time, and on and on.

To control, or not to control: that is the question. You know what my answer is. Take control and love it.