Mabel

So I’ve been thinking a lot about Mabel. Mabel, you ask? Let me explain.

On Wednesday I spent the day in our New Jersey natural gas supply office. It was our annual winter post mortem. Since 2000 we have been holding these day-long sessions, deconstructing the prior winter’s gas supply picture.. Winter gas supply is an art form, requiring constant attention 24/7 --including, mind you, Thanksgiving afternoon and Christmas morning and New Year’s Eve. Every summer we look back at the prior winter and review how successful we were in meeting our customers’ needs during the summer, moving gas in and out of storage, and responding to weather emergencies and pipeline congestion. In our first meeting seven years ago we discussed supply behind a single utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric. That was where we served our first customers in December 1999. Now we serve natural gas to customers behind 29 different utilities. The analysis is a bit more complex. But we’ve become smarter about our business and the “to do” list for next winter has shrunk to a couple pages.

Now back to Mabel. During our meeting one of our most experienced natural gas schedulers – no, her name is NOT Mabel -- observed that we are deluged each day with notices from all the utilities we serve. She explained that in the past we would go through the announcements in the order in which they were received. Since many of the notices are routine, this process worked pretty well. Unfortunately, once in a while a notice can be a real zinger. It may contain urgent information about, say, an interruption of pipeline capacity or a critical weather event that results in a spike in gas demand. Because the notices all look alike, the process of going through the notices in order of receipt may result in our missing an important one.

In fact, this happened last winter. An important notice came out late in the day. It was more urgent than others. It reported that pipeline flow had been interrupted in Appalachia and we needed to find replacement supplies for our customers in Ohio. Because the announcement was preceded by so many other notices, we didn’t get to it. At least, until it was too late. Then, we had to scramble to cover the shortage in supply.

To correct this problem, our scheduler came up with an ingenious solution. From now on, she said, we will review each notice through a “triage” system similar to what is used in a hospital emergency room. If the notice is important, it will be dealt with immediately. If not, it will be left for after hours.

“Eureka,” I said. “Ingenious. You faced a problem and in stead of continuing to do it the old fashioned way you came up with a new approach.”

And that got me thinking about Mabel. Remember when Alexander Graham Bell spilled acid on himself and yelled into his new invention, “Watson, come here! I need you!”? Within a few years, telephone lines connecting offices and homes were laid out. Down at the country store, or in the basement of the building, an operator stood ready to connect dialers. Her name was Mabel. “Operator, can I help you?” she asked.

At first, Mabel had, say, 25 phone lines to work. Then 50. Then one day Mabel came to work and there were 250 lines and she didn’t have time to say “Can I help you?” and pretty soon she didn’t have time to say “Operator.” She was moving so fast she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I suspect her boss came by and seeing Mabel working up a sweat said something like, “Mabel, tell you what I’m going to do? I’m going to get you some help.” And so the boss probably hired another Mabel. And when the two Mabels couldn’t take it any more they hired two more Mabels. Then four more. Then eight more.

Until one day somebody came alone and said, “This doesn’t work any more. “We can’t hire any more Mabels. We need an automatic switch.”

That’s the way it is with our business. We start out doing something and as our business grows we do more of it. And then one day one of our smart people says, “THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE ANY MORE.” And we change.

Thanks for the memories, Mabel. While it would be nice to find you on the other end of the line now and then, I do enjoy getting a dial tone when I pick up the phone!