Apr 20, 2010 | Management, OE, Operations
Working my way through a book on the implementation of “Lean” called “Manage to learn” an interesting book that further evolves the textbook as a story genre started by Eliyahu Goldratt’s best selling book “The Goal” originally published back in the early eighties, I saw the list of questions reproduced below.
The book itself is about the learning how to use A3 method of problem solving and teaching that has come out of Toyota and is very useful, but it struck me that the list is a generic list of sensible questions that should be asked in a wide range of circumstances where solving a problem is the task at hand.
1. What is the problem or issue?
2. Who owns the problem?
3. What are the root causes of the problem?
4. What are some possible countermeasures?
5. How will you decide which countermeasures to propose?
6. How will you get agreement from everyone concerned?
7. What is your implementation plan—who, what, when, where, how?
8. How will you know if your countermeasures work?
9. What follow-up issues can you anticipate? What problems may occur
during implementation?
10. How will you capture and share the learning?
Answer all these, and the path will be very clear.
Apr 19, 2010 | Management, OE, Operations, Personal Rant
All you hear about currently is the Australian “health debate” a debate the pollies have decided to have as a political exercise, are discussions about who gets to spend the money i.e. exercise the power, it has little to do with the health outcomes of Australians, that is just the excuse.
Cynical perhaps, but if it were otherwise, you would be hearing real discussions about the manner in which the billions were spent, not how just much, and by whom. We do need more to be spent, but more importantly in a society where health costs are increasing rapidly, and will continue to do so, we need debate, and importantly action, on the effectiveness of the spending, and the means by which that effectiveness, measured by patient outcomes, can be improved.
Applying proven process improvement, Lean, and Six Sigma commercial disciplines to public spending should be a priority, but perhaps that would impinge on vested interests a bit much, so we leave it alone.
The parody via the “Lean” hyperlink above has a scary resonance, and we leave discussion about the effectiveness of spending alone, to the great cost of to our community over the medium & long term.
Apr 13, 2010 | Leadership, Management, Operations
Getting collaboration when you really need it, when the interaction can add value is usually at the beginning of a project. The closer you get to the completion of the project, the more the parameters tend to be set, it is the detail that changes, a much more mechanical process of executing what has been agreed through the early collaboration stages when things were more flexible and creative.
However, it is often towards the end of the project, particularly when the outlook is positive, that it becomes easier to attract those who may have been useful at the beginning, but whose contribution later will only cause hesitation and changes that result in a slippage of delivery dates for the project.
Of course, the worst “collaboration” is when someone exercises institutional power after the point where it is useful.
Towards the end of a project, it is co-ordination and project management that is needed, not collaboration, which should have happened at the beginning. How often it gets all arse-about!
Apr 11, 2010 | Demand chains, Management, Operations
Developing a forecast of what you need to make to sell is a different proposition to doing a demand forecast, it is much more than a semantic difference.
A forecast is usually an extrapolation, sometimes very sophisticated, but an extrapolation nonetheless, of the past, and the only thing we know for sure, is that the future will be different.
A demand forecast looks at the drivers of demand, essentially looking backwards through the supply chain from the customer, and anticipating the level of demand by factoring in all the things that drive the customer to order a volume of product in any given period.
ERP systems are driven by forecasts, they are the core of any system, and the more accurately the forecast, the better the system works within the limitation of the rules written in. However, when the forecasts are informed by the drivers of demand, not just the inventory levels and automatic restocking rules in place, the value that can be delivered in vastly enhanced.
Apr 7, 2010 | Branding, Marketing, Operations
Toyota has been lined up for a maximum fine of $16.4 million by US regulators for failing to report a fault within the statutory time. In the scheme of things the fine is a flea bite for Toyota, but the impact on the hard earned brand reputation of the current quality issues will be substantial.
It is paradoxical that Toyota is being fined for a quality failure, as the impact of Toyota in the quality of the auto industry over the last 30 years has been immense, Toyota has led the “Lean” revolution in manufacturing, and has been remarkably open and prepared to assist all comers, especially competitors.
Years ago, the US quality guru, W. Edwards Deming who was the primary architect of the quality revolution in Japan after the war, noted that as companies focus on increasing market share and profitability in the short term, customer service and quality will suffer in the long term. It would appear that this is what has happened to Toyota. As they consolidated as the largest auto manufacturer in the world, demand for their cars and light commercials outstripped supply, simply because of their superior quality and the way they met customer expectations in a range of areas. Under commercial pressure to meet demand, Toyotas increase in production capacity outran their increase in management capacity. I’m pretty sure that the fine will be an internal wake-up call, and the quality culture of Toyota will re-assert itself.
Apr 3, 2010 | Alliance management, Change, Operations
Whilst we observe the rather sudden tarnishing of Toyota’s quality aura, it is easy to lose sight of the enormous value Toyota has given to our understanding of efficient and flexible manufacturing. The lessons are everywhere, there would not be a manufacturing operation anywhere in the dev eloped world that has not benefited from the expertise developed and shared by Toyota.
Our understanding of the TPS began when Toyota began manufacturing outside Japan, its first foray was a JV with General Motors in their Fremont California plant, in a JV called New United Motors Manufacturing Inc, or “NUMMI” as it is commonly called.
This JV is a milestone in our understanding of manufacturing, the link is to a Sloan Management Review article written by one of the modern gurus of lean manufacturing, john Shook, who was a key employee in the development of NUMMI, and its subsequent success.
Anybody unfamiliar with the story should take 10 minutes and come up to speed, and this article is the quickest way.
