As a newly hired machinist trainee, I found myself looking with interest at all that was happening around my machine.
The tall gentleman in charge of outside sales, wearing non-shop work clothes, walks by. He’s headed into the building for his weekly meeting with management. The disheveled forklift driver toots the horn twice as he passes a blind corner, just as he’s trained to do. He’s scruffy, but efficient. My coworker, seeing the green light on his machine flash, opens the door, takes out the completed parts, replaces them with a new batch, and starts the machine up again for another ten-minute programmed cycle. The light on top is green, meaning that the correct amount of coolant is washing over the parts, metal chips are flying, and all is well. The rest of the management team walks by, heading to the company boardroom. Here comes the friendly, semi-retired, talk-to-anyone janitor. It is time to haul away the full chip bins. The supervisor for our ten-person department comes, asking if the parts will be done soon, as the welders need them after lunchtime. In turn, the shipping crew will need them by 10:00 p.m., when the night shift completes them, as they will be loading one of the trucks for a 5:30 a.m. departure.
There is so much happening. I enjoy the daily buzz all around me. There is talk, rumor of course, that the co-owners are in negotiations with the bank for a big loan. It has something to do with branching into a new venture. Too much for my head…
I find myself at my first all-employee staff meeting. Paid sitting time is nice for a change, after the higher paced week. The general manager, in his easy going style, chairs the meeting sitting on the lunchroom counter. He extends a welcome to all the new guys. There’s the invitation (as there always is, we found out later) for the new hires to sing a song… …no? Okay. He was just asking… …There is laughter and the meeting moves on. This initiation rite happens every time.
About twenty minutes into the meeting, he looks at us and asks, “Who’s the most important one on the crew?”
Silence… …and more silence.
He goes on to talk about how we all integrate and work with each other, handing off and receiving tasks all day.
“When are we making money?” He asks.
Again, silence…
“All the time,” someone ventures.
“No, it’s when the light on the milling machine is green and the machine is running. It’s when the welder is actually making sparks fly, and when the saw is in the process of cutting.”
He explains the concept of touch time. The customer isn’t paying for the salesman. Nor for a clean shop. He isn’t paying for the executives’ salary, or for the delivery truck repair, or for the numerous forklifts in the shop. The customer isn’t paying for the time spent cleaning around the machine or taking parts out of it. He’s only paying for parts that he ordered. In reality, the only time we are actually making money as a department is when the lights on the machines are green, and the parts are being made. The rest is only support work. As important as everything is to the whole, there is an added emphasis on the touch time, which is the actual, direct production.
That means even though I’m the newest and one of the youngest guys here, I’m a big factor in the overall survivability of the company. This is a new thought. It brings a whole new element to my day as I continue my training.
This was my introduction to the concept of touch time. Though my job has changed from machinist to principal, the concept of touch time has stayed with me.
In my daily work at school, I’m busy with many seemingly unrelated tasks: book a spot for the school field trip, hold parent meetings, keep the bank accounts straight, assemble a table, find a water leak, and “Oh, a laptop is acting up again? I’ll be right there.”
Then there are the buses. It is always unpleasant when one or more of our three buses are out of service, either from breakdowns or the cold weather. A car holds four students, plus a teacher as a driver. We usually have one or two teachers who can squeeze in the time to do an emergency student pickup. That’s eight students getting a ride. Not very many in light of the fifty that need transport. Anyway, the point is that a good portion of my time goes to making sure the buses are fueled, serviced, and happy. If I neglect that, we have chaos quite quickly.
As much as my daily work involves practical tasks, the reason Hosanna exists is to invest spiritually in a child’s life. With as much priority as I need to give my tasks, I’m often reminding myself that I am simply a support worker for the critical work happening in the classrooms. Compare the value of a second-grade story about Jesus to my making sure the bus tires aren’t under-inflated. The tire won’t matter in twenty years, but the investment in the heart of a child is spiritual touch time. Whether the bank account will be alright until next week won’t matter in eternity. The council towards God with a high school girl in the side classroom will matter. My work is support for the more important work.
We are a school, and if I may say so, a really good one. We use academics as a vehicle to bring about what really matters: the guiding of a young life towards God.
Touch time is when you are directly doing what will bring the core value to your overall endeavor. Working with buses, corrections, learning disabilities, old-laptop glitches, teacher shortages, government restrictions, and finances are necessary aspects of running our school. However, it is good to realize that although these things are needful, other things are critical. Comforting a downcast child, explaining what a Bible lesson means, showing what God’s kingdom looks like, motivating students to apply what they learn in school at home, and drilling Bible memory are the crucial aspects of having school. These are components of spiritual touch time: the actual, direct fulfillment of our mission.
Sometimes, without noticing, I get the two switched around in mental priority. Opportunities that are crucial from a touch time perspective can be crowded out by things that want to come first in a “making this place run” viewpoint. The brain space needed for the practical can crowd the spiritual.
What has God placed in front of you today? The practical things do need to get done. In fact, the touch time often can’t operate without the practical. (Someone needs to drive the bus or there will be no school.) As we do our part, we should put what is of eternal importance in first place. We need to have a mindset that motivates us to engage in spiritual touch time whenever possible, and remember that the rest of what we do should contribute to that end.
Jason has served as principal at HCS since 2014.
One Response
Good word! Thank you for that.