Micro and macro problems

I am writing in response to Attila Rahayoe's letter of Dec. 19, 1998.

I would like to congratulate Mr. Rahayoe on his assessment of the Indonesian situation and the main reasons there of. I am a guest in this beautiful country that I love dearly. Since my retirement, I have been here on and off since 1990. I have been privileged to observe life in general here and more specifically the operation of some government enterprises and the completion of several projects.

I have no doubt that the people responsible for those activities are skilled and well-trained, but the "half-baked" results, as stated by Mr. Rahayoe, are clearly visible. I am, of course, stating general facts. I have also observed exceptions, where jobs were completed professionally and problems were researched thoroughly.

We can look all around Bandung and find it difficult to see a pavement in good condition, usable to walk on without being afraid of spraining an ankle. "Not enough money to buy spare parts" is often used to explain less than reliable work or operation. Somebody, or the government, is conveniently blamed if things go wrong.

The above statement may be perfectly true. Most companies, here and abroad actually have a similar problem. Blaming all inefficiencies and improper operations on this stated fact is, however, not right. We may be able to pinpoint the real problems by finding and researching answers to the following questions. Why is there not enough money? Are we buying parts at the right price? Are we buying parts in the right quantities? Are we over- specifying spare parts? Are we insisting on expensive products? Are we satisfied that we are using parts prudently? Are we making efforts to reduce the use of parts? Are we using our equipment properly? Have we tried to produce parts ourselves?

As Mr. Rahayoe said: Let's get to the core of the problem.

When making or repairing something, we are sometimes satisfied with less than 100 percent results. This may result in a short operating life or a high probability of premature failure. It may increase our yearly costs, repairs or total cost of operations.

In more macro problems, we tend to forget big problems consist of dozens or hundreds of micro problems. It is, I believe, very hard to find the correct solution to the macro problem. If we do not address the micro problems diligently, we may end up as Mr. Rahayoe states: half-baked solutions and half-baked work. We may ultimately end up a half-baked nation.

If I may, I would like to offer my very simplified solution: Let's start trying to do a job right every time and let's think through all our problems all the time.

DJOKO SOEJOTO

Bandung