I live on Brisbane’s bayside. One of my favourite things is to go to the waterfront. When the tide is high, it is magnificent.
To me, it doesn’t matter whether the water is so smooth that it is like glass or so choppy that the waves burst out over the footpath, splashing unsuspecting pedestrians. I could look at it for hours.
And if I look long and carefully enough, I can see fish launch themselves out of the water. A marine biologist friend once saw a dugong. A volunteer Coast Guard told me to be careful, as he had seen sharks quite close in to shore.
But it’s easy to forget about things that can hurt you when the view is so good.
When the tide is low, the waterfront is not so good looking. The mangrove mud smells of rotten eggs – certainly an acquired taste for some. I have come across a dead turtle and baby stingray on separate occasions. I always wear shoes as the exposed rocks and shells poke uncomfortably into my feet.
It was during one of these low tides that my friend and I decided to join a bootcamp exercise session that was being held at the waterfront. “What a great idea!” we thought. “Best of both worlds!” we congratulated ourselves.
It was one of the longest 45 minutes of my life.
After a “quick” warm-up with soft sand runs, the instructors sent the group out into the mangrove mud. First, it was just running (slurping?) through the mud. I began to miss the soft sand runs. But the climax of the session was crawling through the mud, through the other participants’ legs in some sort of weird team activity.
I emerged at the end of this session, completely covered in mangrove mud. Blood was running down my legs and arms from the multiple cuts that the shells and rocks had given me.
I found out later that weekend that I would have to throw out every single piece of clothing that I wore that day as, irrespective of how many times I washed them, the stink would not come out.
Inventory levels remind of me of the tides at the waterfront. Yes, the high tide does make for better photos, but they mask that the shells, rocks, sharks and dead turtles are still out there. High inventory levels are great as it helps fulfil customer orders in a timely manner but can hide real operational issues such as:
Inventory management: such as lack of cycle counting, handling products out of rotation and obsolescence
Demand planning: including inadequate forecasting, economic order quantities and new product development
Supplier management: quality issues, DIFOT
Cross-functional communication: including non-alignment of goals and lack of communication.
Low inventory levels can make working life uncomfortable. It exposes the above issues and often forces you to address them. But just like cleaning up the bay of things can kill turtles and baby stingrays, it makes for a healthier environment in the longer run.
What would the inventory levels in your company expose if you lowered the tide, or do you prefer to risk swimming with the sharks?