Communication, not skill or technology, is the real bottleneck on most factory floors. That’s according to fitter-turned-business-owner Ian Cooper, who argues it’s lean manufacturing’s unspoken eighth waste: when maintenance and operations don’t understand each other’s constraints, Band-Aid fixes quietly become permanent and trust erodes.
Ian grew up inside the trade, but deliberately didn’t start there, choosing to complete his apprenticeship outside his father’s business so no one would see him as anything but another young guy in industry. Now running his own safety, reporting and communication company, Workex, and working across manufacturing sites nationally, he’s spent years on the tools as a fitter and machinist, giving him a firsthand view of the widening skills gap in Australian trades.
Ian discusses with Ishan what operations and maintenance consistently misunderstand about each other, and why upskilling existing operators and simply opening factory doors to young people may do more for the trade deficit than any formal training pipeline.
Ian’s book recommendation
The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0884271951/
Workex
https://www.workex.com.au/
For a copy of Ishan’s book, Unlock, please visit:
https://ishangalapathy.com/books/
More About Ishan Galapathy and to access his ‘Chaos to Excellence’ White Paper:
https://ishangalapathy.com/
