Maintenance or Production, Rethinking the Meld

[Pat Brockwell]

Lately I've been thinking that maintnance is not really what we do as Supers.  We produce a golf product, daily, that is consumed.  We maintain infrastructure but produce playing conditions.  Anyone who spends alot of time on a course knows that you do not maintain the same conditions day in and day out, it varies. What I'm getting at is that we do not just run a maintenance operation, we also are charged with running a production department.  If you look at a factory they maintain the tooling but produce a saleable product.  So called "maintenance" budgets  are based on a false premise.  "Maintenance" budgets are what it takes to keep the machines running, producing playing conditions are costs of goods sold.  I'm sure that the auto makers give a bit more respect to production than maintenance. How 'bout the same for golf. Just my musings, not a mission.

[Dan Herrmann]

Pat, you bring up a very interesting idea.  Let me know if I got it right - that the Superintendent is responsible for a product, that being the golf experience.

Did I get it right?

A lot of the US Governemt agencies like the National Weather Service use the term "product" to describe what they deliver.  While I hate buzzwords, I actually like its use here.

PS - - My two most hated buzzwords today are "space", as in "This solution provides the best results in the widget space",  and "in flight" as in "My Sarbanes-Oxley project is now in-flight".  Don't you just love corporate-speak?  

[Kyle Harris]

Scott Anderson at Huntingdon Valley considers himself a "Playability Manager."

[RJ_Daley]

The maintenance VS production distinction all makes sense to me.  But, how many 'infrastructures' do we see go to pot because we live in a mindset of a disposable society were maintenance of infrastructure is often ignored or neglected.  Take the concept of how many bridges are not maintained to get maximum use and longevity or maintenance is chintzed on only to see the lifespan deminished greatly.  Oh well, we will just build another one to nowhere-we can raise the tax money, seems to be the mentality.

How many great golf courses were left go, due to poor, or chintzy maintenance?  I'm asking, not declaring...

[James Bennett]

Pat

your 'production' work has a shelf-life (or perhaps a half-life) of a day to a week.  Cutting holes, raking bunkers, shifting tees, cutting grass.  

your 'maintenance' work has a shelf-life (or half-life) in excess of 6 months.  Coring, aerification, scarifying, tree removal, rebuild work, machinery overhauls.

Do too much of production at the expense of maintenence, and you will be a hero at your club, for a year or two.  Do too much maintenance and not enough production and your replacement will thank you for the legacy that you left when you were replaced.

James B

[TEPaul]

Pat:

Say a factory produces cars. Cars are the product. A golf course maintenance department's product is the golf course and their job is to maintain it in a certain way. So maintenance is the product.

The "maintenance meld" is a way of analyzing particular areas of various types and styles of architecture to get as much out of the architecture in play as it was designed to be played. The "Ideal Maintenance Meld" is simply a way of upping the function of the various options and strategies of architecture and bringing those various options into a form of functional balance or equilibrium.

[Adam Clayman]

Golf rarely fits into neat little formulas or categories and this thread highlights that.

I see problems when any presentation doesn't accentuate the style, or, it precludes certain shot making opportunities. Soft collars are my newest pet peeve, as an i.e. But poorly managed tree programs is most pervasive.

Pat, You and the whole team at Black Mesa sell a product with Baxter's name on it. As super, you are the caretaker of that product, and the revenue streams, will in hindsight, depend a great deal on the quality of that turf, and, the experiences the design allows. Since you were integral in the design and are integral in the maintenance presentation, your perspective is unique and valued.
Thanx

[mikes1160]

Is it a product? Or is it the most important asset that a club owns? Superintendents are responsible for that asset: preserving it, maintaining it, enhancing it.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Pat,

I follow your thinking here and agree. I think you have expresed very well a topic that I have struggled with in the past. Every golf course has infrastructure to one degree or another. To be a golf course all you need to do is identify a starting point and cut a hole for an end point. Everything after that is a product or a production. The production is directly affected and dependent on the expectations of the customers and the amount of money availble to use to meet the expectations. Maintenance is only required to meet an objective or a standard requirment.

[Pat Brockwell]

Dan,
At the end of the day the solutions we provide create oportunities to improve the experience in order to grow the asset and keep our brand space in flight.
 
James, TEPaul
Yes! I've always had a thing about balance; agronomy, relationships, skiing and the blend between maintenance and production all require some degree of finnesse to achieve the desired results.  
 
Mike,
The golf course can be seen as a factory.  Its made up of pipes, wires, soil, plants, pumps,valves, nozzles and stuff. It requires special tools like tractors and mowers and more stuff.  That is the asset. The product is golf, and it is perishable. I hate to see it go to waste, come on out some weekday and don't eat breakfast till you get here, the breakfast burrito is wicked good. Pardon my shilling.

[Ray Richard]

  This is an interesting topic,I agree that golf maintenance produces a "product". You need to think every day how the consumer  (golfer) will be utilizing the product. When I was a super at a daily fee course we had constant discussions with ownership, our professional and consumers about playability or "product" based issues. The Owner often said "maintain with marketability" and adjustments were made to height of cut, rough limits, green speed, mowing frequency and other issues to insure that the daily fee player would return.

 When I moved to a private club, the angle changed-the "product" was based on what influental members thought the "product" should be. In the end the "product" had to be what they wanted it to be.

  I often thought of the golf business as similar to the restaurant business. In both businesses the clientele are sensitive to subtle changes, and if the "product" is above average than the clientele will return.