Behind him, a glossy sticker on his door catches the afternoon sun. "This place was built from chaos," it reads, "into a shining example of disorder."
-- E.J. Kahn III
* * *
VICE-PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS
Joe Avery
Back ramrod straight. Eyes that seem to see 360 degrees. Just the hint of a smile. When 46-year-old Joe Avery walks across the Adept factory floor for his 9:15 daily tour, you can see the Air Force sergeant he used to be, 20 years and 20 pounds ago.
On this morning he begins at the shipping department -- speaking, by name, to everyone he meets, starting with John Leatutufu, the 26-year-old Samoan in charge of shipping and receiving at the loading dock. A jovial giant who shares Avery's aversion to slow pacing and shipping schedules, Leatutufu is riding high today. On an average month Leatutufu's department packs and ships some 80 units, most in the last week of the month -- and last month, once again, his department broke its own efficiency record.
"We like the action -- and the technology does no good till we get it out the door," Leatutufu explains. But he won't take the credit for himself, or even for his department, insisting instead that it's the way everyone in the company works together that enables him to keep breaking records. "I've worked for lots of companies where you don't know what's going on. But we're set up so we know where everything is. Everybody shares the same information, and we all know what it takes for each of us to get the job done.'
Just as important, they all share responsibility for doing the job better.
These are Avery's people. In Silicon Valley companies, like in the military, it is the stars who grab the glory: the hard-charging CEO, the iconoclastic engineer, the venture capitalist in his Italian suit and mirrored sunglasses. But the foot soldiers win the battles, men and women working on the line to turn designs and specifications into product.
Avery's formal title may be vice-president of operations, but his work is in the trenches, 10 hours a day, six days a week. It's his job to communicate the corporate goals to the factory floor and the problems of the floor back up to the executive suite, and to make sure Adept's 106 manufacturing employees have what they need to do their jobs.
"People need to feel that the work they do is really important," he insists. "They need to know their ideas and suggestions can have an effect, and that they will be rewarded for that.'
Not everything runs as smoothly as Leatutufu's department, however. Moving over to the test area, Avery's face turns grave as he watches the company's newest robot -- the AdeptThree -- run through its paces under the watchful eye of Les Browne, the main engineer behind the product.
It is not a satisfying sight. The mechanical arms keep shutting down, bedeviled by excessive friction in the slider stop. Perhaps a new, reconfigured part will make the difference, Browne and Avery agree.
Through most of the Valley "engineers look down at operations folks like so much excess baggage," Avery says later. But not at Adept: Browne will work under Avery as the new robot goes into production. "The engineering people here are very different from what you usually see," Avery explains. "They like to interface with operations -- everyone's interested not just in designing the neatest product, but in getting that product out the door and into the customers' hands.'
Getting the product out the door isn't a process he can completely control, at least not yet. Walking over to the kitchen-table-clean assembly and test area he talks about how he hopes to turn Adept into "a world-class manufacturer" someday -- complete with its own Adept robots on the line. But for today it is still a low-volume assembly facility, and therefore at the mercy of its vendors, particularly the manufacturer of the printed circuit boards -- the "electronic guts' -- that run the robots.
For 42-year-old George Vara, busy putting together a robot arm, such glitches are an inevitable part of any assembly operation. What makes the difference is how Adept's managers react.
"Joe is great," Vara says. "If you have a problem he's right on it; he'll get you answers, and he'll get you answers that day. And Brian [CEO Brian Carlisle] is a real down-to-earth guy; he'll take our word for things, too.'
One of those "things" was the organization of Adept's factory floor, Vara explains. "When I started two years ago, we all did specialized jobs, but Brian asked us what we should change to make things run smoother." The workers suggested cross-training, then setting up each employee at an individual station, with responsibility for the assembly of an individual robot: "It makes people really put forth an effort. When you've got your own workstation, it's yours, it's up to you to keep it up -- and you can take pride in that.
"But what I like most about Adept is that they tell us everything -- what we're making, how we're doing. I've worked for a lot of companies where that's none of your business.'
"At most places they treat you like an object; I've worked at places where I didn't even know what we were building," Maria Viramontes, the lead in production control, agrees. "It's different here. We all feel responsible together.'
Viramontes can see the payoff firsthand on her inspection table. "Quality is one of our main objectives; we all fight for that," she says. "When we purchase anything we want good quality; our customers have a right to quality, too. "But we don't have to inspect anymore; the quality is there. Everybody concentrates. Everybody cares. I know it's unusual, but it's the way things should be.'
That's the kind of talk that makes an old Air Force sergeant smile.
-- Curtis Hartman
* * *
DISTRICT SALES MANAGER
Jim Mattis
Jim Mattis strides under the "Assembly Technology Expo" banner and into a cavernous hall resonant with the chunk, hiss, and whoosh of machines. It is mid-morning; Mattis's step is still lively after flying in at first light from his base in Detroit. But he has eight hours of standing to come; by mid-afternoon he will feel the fatigue rising from his shins toward his shoulders.
