Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Leakage

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Leakage

As a football fan, I have found it interesting to note that some defense-minded coaches have used the term “leakage” to describe situations where a team’s opposition had been able to gain more yard than expected based on the team’s less-than-perfect defensive scheme. In other words, Leakage describes an instance where, although a total breakdown did not occur, the system did not function as “tightly” as planned. There are many analogous situations in work and personal life where leakage occurs.

For instance, We intend for a repair to be completed today, but it slips into tomorrow. Is the leakage a catastrophe? No. It is, however, a sign that your systems are not as well controlled as you had hoped. 

 

Another example is repeat failures. The repeat failure would not have occurred if the failure-causing defect had been removed, or if another failure-causing defect had not been introduced during the repair. Again, this may not be a catastrophe, but it is a leak in your system.

Still another example is when you find that although a repair restores functionality, it does not restore the reliability of a device. All too often, when technicians focus on getting things back into operation as quickly as possible without paying enough attention to restoring the inherent reliability. This practice allows defects to leak from the past into the future. This causes the future failure rate to increase. 

Returning to the football analogy, when a defensive coach recognizes that his team has a porous defense, he knows the problem is one of two things: either the defensive scheme is not putting the players in the right place at the right time, or the players are not performing. The first is a systemic problem and the second is an individual performance problem. 

Good managers recognize leakage when it occurs and take decisive action. They are not afraid to blame their own systemic problems or to deal with poor performers. Individuals who manage leakage seldom have to worry about managing catastrophes.

—Daniel T. Daley