The Pickle Jar Mystery                                          

by Enrique Bekerman

Dr. Gordon W. Fuller*, consultant to the food industry, relates a story of a major pickle processing plant that went into a crisis mode when they received a large number of complaints for smashed pickles in their gallon jars. At first, this appeared a big mystery to everyone since such high incidence of mashed pickles was unheard off. Investigation revealed the real cause.

Sometime before this incident, the Quality Control Department complained that the gallon jar production line was producing poorly sealed containers. The line Supervisor found his own solution to this sealing problem. He had assigned an employee to stand on the production line and use a big rubber mallet to push down every pickle that extended over the rim!!  The results on the sealing test improved. The Quality Control Department was satisfied not realizing how the problem was “solved” or that a new problem had been created.

Dr. Fuller notes that the root cause for the mashed pickle problem was a lack of communication and teamwork between production and Quality Control. The QC analyst appeared to “wear blinders” as he walked to and from the air conditioned lab to the production line.

Some points to keep in mind about this example:

·         The Supervisor was left to solve a quality problem on his own and took the most expeditious route to “solve” the problem.

·         The QC analyst view of his job was to report the problem, not help with the solution

·         The Supervisor saw no obligation to report his corrective measure for the original problem nor did he exhibit any ownership for Quality

·         The QC analyst was only responsible for a small part of the job, had no ownership for the rest of the line, and spent little time on the production floor.

The Quality Control Department viewed its job as the enforcer of rules and specifications, not as part of a team that must be involved in process problem solution. In other words, QC believed themselves to be “the good guys” and they viewed manufacturing the “bad guys”. After the mashed pickle problem was solved, a more cooperative work relation between departments developed.

You don’t have to wait to get “into a pickle” to determine your own organization’s vulnerability to this type of problem.  Look for attitudes of “we” versus “they” in the way your people think. What kind of territorial thinking is going on? It is essential that barriers between departments are demolished in order to engage in any serious effort towards long-term improvement. The term “we” should apply to the entire enterprise and “they”  should only refer to the competition

Regardless of the type of organization you lead, incidents of lack of cooperation and “throwing” problems over departmental walls abound.

Article by Enrique M. Bekerman, Quality Manufacturing Associates, January , 2000

Adapted from a story in Getting the Most Out of Your Consultant: A Guide to Selection Through Implementation, Gordon W. Fuller: CRC Press, 1999, p. 129.