Learning through Frustration

To me frustration is evil, it affects the way we think, it alters our attitude and the end result is not usually positive, however I see people in shops live through it everyday rather than learn through it.  When I was in a shop I had frustrating days, more than I want to count but the way I moved forward was by learning from the things that frustrated me.  Was it the customer that came back five times to get their car right?  What about instituting a quality control program that inspects the repair through each phase eliminated comebacks.  Then there was the repair that needed a different part everyday, developing a blueprint process resolved that frustration.  Of course while you are dealing with the customer that returned for the fifth time and the tech that found the another part need the painter was coming towards you telling you that pearl white tri-coat on the Lexus bumper he painted yesterday wasn't even close.  As you walk back towards the paint shop and ask the painter to gather up his spray out cards so you can see where the problem is he gives you the deer in the headlights look and says "They only had one color position so I just used it."  Time to take the painter back to basics and review the paint process with him to eliminate this frustration.  The key to eliminating frustration is identifying the source, educate the people involved in the right process and develop a review system to verify what the process defines.  More of a check what you expect activity than a fire-fighting action.