Case Study
Ask the crew, then act on it: an operating climate assessment at a fuel distributor.
- Industry
- Fuel Distribution
- Operation size
- Multi-plant regional distributor
- Engagement
- Ongoing on-site work: employee survey
Anonymized: Client name withheld; no approval for named publication is on file. Supplier, system, site and staff details are generalized. The work, the checks and the current status are reported as they stand.
By Jacob Johnston | Published | Updated
Summary
Before recommending a single change, TNDS asked the drivers and plant and office staff of a Colorado fuel distributor how the operation really runs. A purpose-built survey protected small groups, the results became a 30, 60 and 90 day plan, and a companion report showed what was already under way for each finding. Along the way, the assessment found that the missed-delivery measure used at the start of the engagement was overstated, and corrected it, including TNDS's own earlier figure. That established a corrected baseline; it does not demonstrate a reduction in missed deliveries.
What the operation looked like before
The plants were spread out and coordination ran through one-on-one phone calls, so each plant heard its own version of the plan. Leadership had a sense of what was wrong but no way to hear from the crew directly, and the headline problem, missed deliveries, was being measured off a report that was never built to measure it.
What was actually broken
No direct line to the crew
Leadership heard from the plants one call at a time, so there was no picture of the whole operation.
Small groups are easy to identify
In a company this size, reporting results by small team would have exposed who said what, and people answer honestly only when that cannot happen.
The headline number was wrong
The open-orders report counted some gallons twice and treated orders that were open, but not missed, as misses, because invoicing runs a day behind delivery.
What TNDS did
Build the instrument, protect the people answering it, turn the answers into dated actions, and correct the record where the data said to.
Step 1
A survey built for this operation
Thirty-four core items plus role-specific questions for drivers and for everyone else, on a five-point agreement scale. Not-applicable answers were excluded, and any group smaller than five was never reported on its own.
Step 2
Results into a plan
A results report with 30, 60 and 90 day recommendations, and a companion report, What We Are Already Doing About It, that tied each finding to work already in flight: procedures, the shared drive, the operations board, the dispatch workbook and the fleet register.
Step 3
Correct the baseline
Rebuilt the miss measure so double-counted gallons came out and orders aged on working days, then reported the corrected figure, including the old number TNDS had used too. The operations board was rebuilt to that definition, with acceptance tests written first.
Step 4
Feed it into the structure
Low scores on direction and cross-plant alignment shaped the structure review that followed: a required weekly operations meeting, a single owner for training, safety named outright, and one supply and pricing desk serving every product line.
Tools used
Simple tools, careful handling.
- Google Forms and Apps Script for the survey and the scoring
- Small-group suppression built into the scoring
- Results and recommendation reports plus a leadership deck with a speaking script
- ERP order and invoice exports to rebuild the delivery baseline
What changed
- Leadership heard from drivers, plant and office staff in one picture, with small groups protected
- The lowest scores clustered around clarity: direction, how pay works, and whether plants hear the same message
- The strengths sat closest to the work: supervisors, dispatch-to-driver communication, and feeling safe to speak up
- The overstated missed-delivery measure was corrected, including TNDS's earlier figure. This established a more accurate baseline for a later comparison.
- Every finding was tied to dated work, and the decisions that belong to the owners were left with the owners
- A re-run of the same survey at 90 days was recommended, so the change can be measured
Why it was built this way
An assessment is only worth what it changes. Protecting the people who answer, tying every finding to work with a date on it, and correcting the record when the data disagrees, even when the old number was ours, is what earns the crew's trust for the next round.
If your operation looks like this
Start with an Operations Assessment. TNDS works with your people to understand the operation, then provides a written priority order and a quote for the fix work.
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