Part I
I was asked by a dear friend of mine to offer guidance on how companies in Guyana can achieve rapid success in improved quality of product and services while exceeding customer expectations. My hope is that this article will encourage owners of small and medium sized businesses in particular, to engage in outside-the-box thinking by integrating quality, performance and customer satisfaction to engender opportunities for positive and sustainable change to their profit margins.
There is a saying in the quality business that “If you keep on doing what you have always been doing you will continue to get what you have always been getting”.
How often have you heard CEOs, GMs and senior management express that if managers do what they are suppose to do then all will be well, and that profitability will some how be enhanced if only the management function could be properly executed?
The assumption is that the manager, based on his years of experience and traditional training is well prepared to apply his knowledge to address the complexities of the quality conscious, well informed and cost sensitive technophiles called customer-public. Often overlooked when these proclamations are made are the reasons why many managers struggle at the higher levels of organizations.
Managers, more often than not, have worked their way up through the ranks, and are well versed, practiced, and conditioned to the function of traditional management. They have not been educated nor trained in the new methodologies required to achieve customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, top management has not as yet recognized that education (teaching people how to think differently) and training (teaching people how to do differently) are vital elements in the success of any improvement efforts and that the information gaps resulting from lack of knowledge and exposure to a customer centric approach to doing business will lead to flat, or worse yet, declining levels of profitability.
Education and training are needed to ensure everyone in the company understands:
– Why the programme is being implemented
– What is involved in the implementation process and what each individual is expected to do to support the programme
– How the implementation plan will proceed, how the projects and teams will be defined, and how the results will be measured
This education/training process should start at the top and cascade through every level of the organization. The presented material should be as clear and concise as possible and should be deliverable over focused three to five day sessions. Senior managers or a consultant should give the presentation to middle managers who, in turn, should give it to their work groups, and so on. The senior managers should be present at the sessions offered by the middle managers to answer questions and to show their commitment to the programme. The presentation should include the following.
Why
In the “why” portion of the presentation, the forces driving change should be described: customers, competitors, and technology. The trainees must understand that customers are more demanding, want better value, are better informed and prepared, and have more choices than ever before. Also, in light of the new opportunities offered by the CSME, that competitors can come from anywhere in the world and are better prepared to fight for business.
What
In the “what” portion of the workshop, the strategic vision should be presented and along with targets for the business, and the mission and key goals for each function and sub-unit. The objective here is to drive alignment of purpose within the organization.
How
The “how” portion of the presentation, explains the purpose of projects and their relationship to the key strategy.
In my experience, I have found that it is important to fill the fundamental training gaps that might exist in an organization. I have found that basic skills are often not well established. Sometimes tasks are taught by example, such as an operator watching another operator perform a task, with no standards or testing.
I have also observed that people generally have poor knowledge of the products they make and of the overall production processes, so they do not understand how their jobs
After the training gaps are identified, they can be incorporated into an accelerated training program along with the business improvement skills. The training to correct shortcomings in the areas I just described should be short, simple, and as hands-on as possible.
In my approach to training one strategy I have found to be most successful involves the use of a quality toolbox. When a carpenter goes to his job site he often carries with him a toolbox containing several tools. A tool is a device for doing work. It is an object designed to do a particular kind of work, for example, cutting or chopping, by directing manually applied force or by means of a motor. Similarly, the quality toolbox is one carried in the minds of the team. The team, which is generally made up of quality inspectors, manufacturing, customer service and marketing personnel, must have command of the quality tools necessary to achieve product and service quality, process efficiency and delighted customers.
Now, what tools should one have in his or her quality toolbox?
Although the advanced techniques of Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing have proven effective, many organizations do not have the resource base to go through the extensive training programs required to establish advanced quality programs. By starting with just the essential tools, a company ought to be able to make significant gains over the first year while its various teams learn more about which of the advanced techniques could be incorporated into its program at a later time.
Just like the aforementioned carpenter’s toolbox, the team member’s toolbox should start with simple tools and build over time. The tools that are the easiest to use and that will be used most frequently are personal time management (PTM), process mapping, the seven simple statistical tools, and simple problem solving methods. These tools, along with a little team training and facilitation, are sufficient to start a business improvement project that goes after the low-hanging fruit.
Just like apprentices, team members should master the basic tools before advancing to complex tools. These basic tools are the platform for all business improvement and are the starting point for all of the advanced techniques. Here is a quick overview of the contents of the toolbox.
The PTM Process
The PTM process is a commonsense approach to finding the time for teams to work on problem solving. It is based on the statement: “In order to start doing something new you have to stop doing something old.”
In many companies, stopping non-value-added work is very difficult. Employees might know that some of the reports they generate never get read, that some of the work they do is repeated by someone else, and that the invoices they send out will be returned by customers because the invoice software does not present the data the way the customers want it, but the employees are powerless to change the situation. Led by senior management, the PTM process can eliminate unnecessary work and reporting within weeks. It can free up time for those involved with process improvement to work on important tasks.
Process Mapping
Process mapping is a tool that is used to help understand what is happening in a process. Essentially, it is a method to produce a diagram that depicts the activities occurring in a process.
The critical activities are identified first and put down in sequence on a large sheet of paper. The diagram should start out as simple as possible because everyone working on the project reviews and amends it. I like to have the team draw the diagram on flipchart-sized paper that can be pinned to the wall of the team r
oom. That way, the diagram can be continuously reviewed and revised during the team’s work periods. After the team agrees on the overall picture, the detail is slowly filled in as the team gathers data about what is happening within the process.
The Seven Simple Statistical Tools
The seven simple statistical tools are used to gather data about the process, prioritize problems and provide inputs to the various problem solving methodologies. The simple statistical tools are:
Flowchart
Pareto chart
Histogram
Run chart
Correlation chart
Fishbone diagram
Control chart
Simple Problem Solving
Once the process is well detailed and the facts are out on the table, the problem-solving stage is entered. For many problems, the clarity of understanding the issue through process mapping, data gathering, and presentation in the simple statistical charts leads to commonsense solutions. For others, a more structured approach such as the Plan-Do-Check-Act or PDCA cycle is recommended.
With the above quality tools companies will have the knowledge base and techniques to realize rapid improvements in product and service quality, delivery time, cost of doing business and profitability.
It is vitally important that top management recognizes that training must be the primary method used by management to develop increased capability in job performance. Training must be a continuing process that includes effort by both the trainer and the trainee toward the goal of acquiring new information, attitudes and skills on the part of the trainee. The attitude of the leadership must change significantly if basic product and service quality will ever be achieved. This change can only occur with a committed leadership, a clear vision and through a campaign of education and training.
