Apr 7, 2011 | Collaboration, Leadership, Lean
Management structures have flattened and globalised at the same time, radically changing the way collaboration happens. Now virtual teams work across all sorts of boundaries, and have created a new set of challenges.
Traditional management simply does not work effectively, so new sets of behaviors are evolving to enable virtual teams to be managed, and to manage themselves. The tools all revolve around mutual obligation and trust, a recognition that the direct and control management style has outlived its usefulness, and it is the outcome of the team activity that is important, not necessarily the way you get there.
The foundation of successful self and virtually managed teams is a very solid framework of shared objective, collaborative behaviors, and stable processes that can be continuously improved. Sounds easy, but it is very hard, and takes a long termview and great leadership to achieve anything worthwhile.
Mar 30, 2011 | Lean, Management, Operations
The clarion call for improvement, in everything from the minor shop floor activities to big picture strategic implementation is clear. We all need to do more with less, and this requires that we identify which bits of our current activities should be changed, redirected, or trashed.
In effect, there are three questions that should be answered:
- What are the underlying drivers or causes of problems?
- How can we build predictability of outcomes from any particular activity, and group of activities?
- How can we ensure the mistakes of yesterday are not repeated today?
These seemingly simple questions lie at the core of all improvement I initiatives.
Mar 28, 2011 | Lean, Operations
Another story about a US company going against the trend and “on-shoring” to shorten supply times, improve quality and certainty, and gain control over their operations.
Forward thinking companies in developed economies are starting to recognise that manufacturing is a foundation stone of innovation, that manufacturing really matters, despite the decades of being told it does not.
Previously, I have made the point that labor costs alone do not make the case for producing product off-shore, largely in China, and the message seems to be filtering through, as firms start to rethink and bring manufacturing home.
Labor costs are easily measured in the P&L, so can be cut, but time is not measured by traditional accounting, making cutting it a less obvious benefit to many, but if you ask a consumer when they want a product, the answer is usually “now”.
Besides, the bean-counters do not mind inventory, as it is in the books as an asset, not usually measured by cycle time, and the velocity of cash through a business. Not checking item level inventory and cash velocity through a business is like a doctor not taking your blood pressure and heart rate at in a check-up.
Mar 27, 2011 | Customers, Lean, Marketing
Last week I had a problem with my mobile internet connection when changing plans. Usually a simple process, something went array in the supplier, and I could not connect and as the “new improved” plan rolled into service, I had nothing, at a most inconvenient time.
I got onto the carrier, and their technical help desk fixed it quickly by stepping me through a process on my computer. All that is OK, but it seemed that the problem should never have been occurred, so fixing it quickly was good, but it was just bolting the stable door.
The following day I got a call from a researcher setting out to get my feedback on my experience with their techos. A very polite young lady, whose first language was not English took me though a series of 1-10 options ranging from outstanding to poor along a number of parameters, each sought measures of my experience with the technician. He scored very well. However, she did not have any questions about the cause of the problem, or how I felt about the fact that it happened, and when I tried to explain that my high marks for the tech assistance should not be confused with the dismay at having had the problem, it all got too much for her.
Customer service is all about preventing problems in the first place, when you cause them your customers are grateful that they were fixed, but will not necessarily forgive you for causing them. To be effective at improving service, they should have investigated the cause of the problem, so they could take steps to prevent it happening again, not check that an empty stable had been well cleaned.
Mar 21, 2011 | Innovation, Lean, Marketing
This is an expression I have used for many years, it is just a metaphor for never throwing out an idea, leave it available for scrutiny later when you know more, or for parts to build something different, or just for inspiration when building the portfolio of projects
The brainiacs in Silicon Valley have now come up with a better expression, “Strategic Pivot” which is essentially the same thing, but geared specifically to innovation in the digital world. Perhaps unfortunately for silicon valley, not every innovation is a new app, most are far more mundane.
A new way of moving a product WIP from one production station to the next can be an innovation, as can an improvement in the process of collecting data on that movement, and further improving it by removing excess time and effort.
In either case, the metaphor, whichever one you choose, works. Never throw out an idea, just because you cannot see the value now.
Mar 3, 2011 | Customers, Lean, Operations
Articulating a Customer Value Proposition, understanding which activities add value to the customer, and which do not, is core to any successful marketing activity. However, so many CVP’s I see are a bunch of words dreamt up over a beer, and have little to do with how a customer interacts with, uses, and values a product 0r service.
There is a relatively simple way to measure a CVP, a ratio of the Money spent that adds customer value, divided by total money spent, a CVP ratio! I am indebted to Bill Waddell for the idea, and like most great ideas, it is simple.
The notion of waste is a foundation to Lean thinking but can get tangled up in the definition of what activities are necessary to run an enterprise, but do not add value to the customer, and those that are just waste. However, having made the distinction, and done a bit of customer research, you can now put a number on the value added, and track it over time.
Should keep the accountants and MBA holders happy, and unlike many measures those numerator driven types grasp, will add value.
