Nov
16
A Sense of Urgency?
Filed Under Human Architecture, Leadership, Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
I saw Steve Forbes Friday night and listened to a fairly compelling argument that our current financial crisis is a series of bad decisions. President elect Obama, you should talk to him. The rest of you should find what he has been writing over the past months because his knowledge and depth were wasted on my short-term memory.
Four things that did stick with me –
1) We need a policy of a strong dollar. This is not negotiable.
2) We need to help our domestic auto industry in ways that will help their sustainability. Simple question we all need to understand is why are GM and Ford phenomenally successful outside the US? Forbes made the point that if GM and Ford would close down their US operations they would be seen as world-class companies. Wow – something to think about and it has little to do with unions, although the unions need to get their workers to work more often. Ten percent absenteeism is obscene – if the UAW deals with that they will be seen as more relevant. The work needs to be made more interesting as well, which is on the leadership of GM, Ford and Chrysler.
3) Taxes cannot be raised in a crisis. This means that spending must be cut. This is combination of stopping dumb things like bailouts that don’t address root causes. It also means efficiency in government vs the current placebos. Cut non-entitlement budgets across the board including the Pentagon and hire consultants that know how to implement and advise - instead of the mass training houses. Also buy all managers in government agencies a copy of Kotter’s latest book. Fire all who whine or block instead of seeing the opportunity. Efficiencies will be found and the work will be more interesting.
4) Health care has to be addressed with efficient system wide solutions. Piece-meal solutions will not cut it which means expansion of existing programs won’t do. Forbes’ example was that of medical tourism – why is a flight to Singapore and surgery to have a knee replacement one-fourth the cost of doing it in the US? How can these hospitals offer first class results with infection rates that are nonexistent? Lasik surgery is another example – success rates are up and costs are substantially reduced from a decade ago. Why? Understand the answer and you will be looking at what efficient reform looks like.
Forbes says it is time for Obama to turn into a pragmatic politician to make sure he is there for 8 years. Steve has some good thoughts, take some time to understand them and encourage your government officials to understand them as well. I personally would like to keep a smart person in the White House and have them surrounded by smart people. I don’t want Steve as my President, but I would be impressed if he became a trusted advisor to Obama.
Read what Steve is writing at - http://search.forbes.com/search/colArchiveSearch?author=Forbes
Gary
Nov
7
People and Processes
Filed Under Human Architecture, Leadership, Lean Enterprise, Six Sigma, Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
These are interesting times we live in.
An economic crisis bigger than any in my lifetime.
Job losses in the US at catastrophic levels and it’s even worse in areas dependent on the US Big 3 automakers. Reports of GM buying all or part of Chrysler and the cascading effect on employment. Optimistic views talk in terms of 30,000 displaced in the metro Detroit area. Some reports say it will be 124,000. I think it is like what we have seen with the bank and credit crisis, it will be worse than current projections. GM announced just in the last few minutes that they will lay off 30% of their work force and stop funding 401K’s.
How are companies responding to this? They have stopped spending money. They are looking for cost savings in 2009. This will mean more job loss and it will mean many okay processes will be broken.
It is a time of hope and opportunity.
At a macro level in the US, it is the presidency of Barrack Obama. Many, many are willing to take the risk that he is real and that he can move us out of these troubled waters.
On a smaller level, many companies can use this time to redefine and reinvent themselves. Some companies get the opportunity of high risk investment by the government, some get the opportunity to take advantage of grants for business development in areas like alternative energy.
On a personal level, if you have been displaced in banking or the auto industry, it is a reasonable assumption you will not be going back to your old job. The opportunity is to learn new skills, to go into new industries, or maybe to start your own business.
What is the role of people who have dedicated their life to teaching, mentoring, and making companies processes better?
I think there are three distinct areas in which we should play –
1) For those displaced and looking for new skills, we should help find the grants and teach them new skills. This is not confined to training as Lean Masters or Six Sigma “belts”, but how about things like taking the person who has been working in Quality and has been taught the “real world” approach and getting them certified as a Quality and/or Reliability Engineer?
2) For companies that are in survival mode, we should go in and help them make quick gains by leading the improvement projects. Many companies will not be worried about training their internal resources in 2009, it is hard to think that way if you don’t know if you will be in business in 2010. I will offer a company gains on a focused project in one month or they do not owe me any money. They just have to commit the time and team on their end.
3) On the companies in the emerging sectors, they will be making the transition from startup to fulfillment. Many companies struggle with that. They also will not see clearly how to go to the outside for help since they have limited resources. Again grant money will need to be found, but we can go in and teach them to set up an efficient business system that can comply with things like ISO 9000 or 14001. We can go in and help set up their processes to flow and we can teach them best in class methods to run their processes with efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness.
How does this impact the traditional Lean Six Sigma consulting model?
In short, I think the model is dead.
Few companies will go for the idea of adding infrastructure and diverting 1% – 5% of their resources. Of those that have been doing it, many will pull back. For what it is worth, the original model had process improvement being everyone’s job where everyone got trained.
Does the focused full time model have merits? Of course, especially where is an apprenticeship every professional serves as they transition into a company or as we transition from professional to manager. But the idea of setting aside a significant portion of a scant resource in 2009/10 – companies will be running away from this idea in mass.
What is the new role?
The new role is the ability to give companies very focused help on people and processes.
People – two factors here, knowledge and behavior. Both can be assessed fairly succinctly. Companies will need to know if the remaining people in their enterprise are right people in the right jobs.
Processes – Are they efficient and effective at least with respect to their competition? If they are not, how do we offer to make significant gains in a very short amount of time.
This means we need new skills with respect to people and we need to be people who know how to really do what we have been teaching.
My opinion.
Gary
A special thanks to my friend and mentor, Elmano Nigri, of Arquitetura Humana in Sao Paulo, Brasil for helping me talk through this.
Sep
15
Tools and Labels
Filed Under Strategy Execution, irRelevant Reflections | Leave a Comment
There is a continuing discussion about tools and labels. Which tools are six sigma tools, lean tools, Shainin tools, … Do we call our program Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Lean, Shainin, TPS, TQM, …
Tools -
The only new tools are software tools – PC (but usually not Mac) based and affordable. The good new for Mac users is with the true dual core Intel chips used by Mac today, you can have a PC side to your Mac. The bad news is that it runs like a PC on the PC side (I think of it as my Mac’s evil alter ego).
All of the statistical tools have their foundation no later than 50 years ago. F tests, t tests, normal distributions, … are from the 19th century. The tools of Shainin are slick packaging of existing tools and even some ideas from the Gilette company back in the 1950’s. Shainin’s contribution was to simplify and make them cookbook at a time when we did not have good automation. That time is past. The tools of Taguchi are simplification of Fisher’s tools, again in a time where we did not have good automation. Taguchi also contributed the ideas that we may want to run processes at some ideal target rather than to spec – it’s implication is in how we train and set up to run processes.
All of the knowledge sharing tools – process maps, C&E diagrams, C&E matrices, FMEA, brainstorming, …. have their foundations in the 50’s and 60’s. The advances I know of other than just getting people to take them serious again are software. Tools like Quality Companion (there are others, look around before you buy) allow us to bring technology into our knowledge sharing sessions and also allow us to reuse common thoughts across all of these tools.
In all cases the technology only makes it simpler and faster, not better.
Simulation tools are also very nice although I will tell you I could do as good with a 1989 version of Lotus 123 – today’s simulation packages are again just simpler and faster.
Just remember it’s tools, usable and used. All that means is all tools are welcome – you just have to show how its useful and be willing to use it. All tools are welcome where I work, I only exclude those whose purpose is to impose dogma – like sigma levels or Red X or the like.
Labels –
Who cares what you call doing something right for your company? Just don’t get boxed in by a label. The danger exists with Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, JIT, TPS.
Just remember your company has got to own it, it has to be driven by strategy and understood by all. If you do that, it’s the old zen adage – “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. Don’t be afraid to go outside to get your good people help – get rid of your bad people (read Jim Collins).
If I were to choose the label for your company, it would be one of two things – either Operational Excellence ® (full disclosure – I own the trademark) or a take off on TPS – Toyota Production System or Danaher Business System; something that tells everyone this is the way we do business around here.
Gary
Jun
5
Do McNerny and Nardelli Realize they are not successful?
Filed Under Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
I’ve had a link on why six sigma fails most of the time out there for a few weeks. I wanted to share feedback I’ve got from some folks I respect.
I agree with the following:
”Six Sigma is a set of process tools that should only be part of a more holistic process improvement strategy. Equal attention must be paid to people, innovation and customer relationships.”
In particular, the human side of change must be proactively addressed.
I don’t agree with the following:
“Examples like Home Depot and 3M show that companies cannot focus on implementing Six Sigma in isolation. ”
I don’t believe these examples serve the point very well at all. While the implementations at Home Depot and 3M may not have been ones to benchmark, I think a few things need to be considered. First, many of us know someone who came out of GE and struggled to implement in an environment that wasn’t as supportive of the change process. It is one thing to operate within the GE culture and quite another to create a culture that embraces change, demands accountability, nurtures learning, expects mistakes but not the same repeated, rewards success and makes it uncomfortable for those who stifle progress. Second, I don’t really believe that Nardelli and McNerny implemented Six Sigma in isolation. I heard McNerny speak at a leadersip conference where he went out of his way to explain how Six Sigma was being implemented in consideration of the heritage of 3M being an innovation company. Finally, let’s not overlook that both McNerny and Nardelli have been anything but unsuccessful, moving onto bigger and better than 3M and Home Depot.
Also sent on 3M -
I’ve had discussions with (name withheld), who was responsible for DFSS implementation at 3M, and in his opinion the problem was 3M attempting to apply Six Sigma to the innovation process itself, specifically addressing why “we have to start 100 innovative ideas to get a winning product?”, in effect, reducing the defect rate (innovations that did not pan out). In his opinion the process for getting new product ideas into development became too cumbersome and strict. Something to think about.
Apr
29
Out of the mouth of babes
Filed Under Human Architecture, Lean Enterprise, Six Sigma, Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
I am putting this out there for the entertainment of some of the long time practitioners - sometimes you get something communicated to you that just makes what we do worth it.
From Ernesto Garcia’s and my good friend Patti who works in Treasury at her company -
Interesting…. here are my 2 cents worth on my thinking about Six Sigma / Lean. I will preface by admitting that I am still a rookie at this stuff compared to a “godfather” such as you but having seen the evolution at (name deleted to protect the guilty) and now being in another company who uses Lean/Six Sigma, I have boiled down what I think are the critical success factors and what, conversely, can lead to failure. I agree that labels and silver bullets won’t work…. the bottom line is problem solving, change and process improvement.
To succeed:
1. Do not ignore that this is a culture. Involvement of every individual is critical. Not all people in the organization will be the problem solvers but everyone can shed light on where the trouble spots are, have great process knowledge and, if asked, often have great ideas for change.
2. Do not treat Six Sigma or Lean as an exercise. Do not allow the “belts” to conduct data gathering sessions or process discussions and then leave the process owners without providing any feedback or evidence of what happens next.
3. Pay attention to the control phase. What is the action plan? What are the countermeasures needed should the process indicate slippage to prior state?
4. Make it fun. Use real-world examples. De-emphasize the statistical aspects unless your audience is going to actually use that information. Lots of people don’t like “math”…. go figure! (pun intended)
5. All leadership must understand and embrace the concepts. It’s even better if they believe it.
6. Don’t make it about the size of the project, i.e. the $$$$$. Lots of little projects and small successes add up to benefiting the organization plus they build confidence and momentum amongst the members of the organization.
7. Make it ok to use tools as needed without having to do a whole “project”. Get people thinking about using process maps, fishbones or FMEA’s, for example, in meetings to help focus on the problem and instill some discipline to the discussion. Additionally, make the quest for appropriate data gathering and insightful questioning routine. Do not gather data or use tools just for the sake of it.
8. Make sure your “belts” are equipped to be the teachers and change agents that you need them to be. Focus on their strengths…. not all should be classroom trainers, for example, but should all be capable of transferring the knowledge to the rest of their organization. Assess soft skills when deciding whom to send to training and provide coaching, training and mentoring on those skills to those who are seeking certification. Find a way to “grade” the soft skills as part of the certification or review process. It’s about marketing once these “disciples” are set loose into the organization.
On the surface, this seems pretty simple but it also seems to be overlooked from my observations and discussions with people who have been doing this for a while…. kind of common sense if you ask me. Ask anyone…who doesn’t want to “make his or her world a better place?”
Patti, for what’s it worth. I’ll bet you just made a friend of some old friends of mine. Specifically Mike Carnell.
Well said.
Gary