Catalyzing Change: A Turnaround Success

Working conditions and poor safety records are usually coupled with weak performance in other areas. In this case; not only did the company have poor employee morale, but they also had performance in the bottom quartile relative to similar organizations with respect to:

◈ Production cost
◈ Quality
◈ Environmental compliance
◈ Worker injuries

Add to this the fact that many customers of this enterprise were automotive Tier 1 suppliers and they had already been short-shipped numerous times. There were many hungry competitors that could fill the void; especially as excess capacity existed in the market and price-cutting abounded.

A wholesale change was desperately required and a new senior manager was appointed. Not wanting a “band-aid” approach, he knew that he needed to enlist the brains….and more importantly, the hearts of his new team. Although occupational health and safety laws were clearly violated, this disruptive event was the catalyst to address other underlying problems such as communication, alignment, teamwork, productivity, customer focus, training and competitiveness. The manager also wanted to induce change in a way that meant there was a new way of working…..motivated employees that came in to work each day with a mindset to improve their processes, gain new skills and share their knowledge.

The first course of action was for “management” to purge out its old ways (and some senior managers) and simplify the expectations for all employees as an immutable foundation for the tough path forward. To keep it simple, meant it was easy to remember and articulate. All employees were expected to “Live the Values & Deliver Results.” The respect for both personal dignity and safety were two of the fundamental values that were non-negotiable. Managers took every opportunity to repeat this message; one-on-one with employees, midnight shift meetings or larger sessions.

The following table shows the key processes used. Brief descriptions of some of the systems and the associated metrics are presented later in the article.

Figure 1: Major Reinvention Programs

The Approach

Given the dire situation, a change management process was clearly required. A haphazard attack on the many issues would have probably exacerbated the problem. John P. Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process of Creating Changewas used as the guide to induce the re-invention of the team. The first stage of establishing a sense of urgency was already in place due to the threat of closure. The stages are:

1. Establishing a sense of urgency

2. Creating the guiding coalition

3. Developing a strategy and vision

4. Communicating the change vision

5. Empowering broad-based action

6. Generating short-term wins

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture

In addition to the change management process, an investment in critical thinking skills was absolutely required to give the team uniform tools to make efficient use of information; especially in the area of root cause analysis and rational decision making. Previous investigations, if done; were often shallow and dealt with “fire-fighting” tactics as opposed to true root cause analysis based on scientific process with validated findings. Therefore, all managers, supervisors and quality control staff were enrolled in a systematic course on problem solving and decision making given by Kepner-Tregoe.

With the above change process as the overall guide and enlightened critical thinking skills entrenched, listed below are the other key components to the successful real-world transformation that saved the company.

Safety Excellence: The organization had strong safety specialists that were already in the company – but who were greatly underutilized. They very quickly took charge of the legislated safety requirements and became true internal consultants who provided training and health and safety knowledge for the production team. The commitment of the whole leadership team to safety became abundantly clear as safety excellence was discussed at every business meeting and during everyone’s performance appraisal.

A process based of systematically observing work behaviors, charting the data gathered, involving employees in collecting the data and problem solving and providing feedback was the foundation for the behavior-based Job Safety Analysis. Thorough safety procedures were developed by the production operators with the strong support of the safety specialists. One of the first comprehensive processes was to complete a formal Risk Analysis of the unit operations based on the HAZOP process. HAZOP is a systematic and powerful process engineering tool used to identify hazardous deviations from an original or existing intent. Participants in these exercises typically included a seasoned production employee, a safety specialist, a professional engineer and an employee at an arm’s length to ensure objectivity. Further risk analyses were conducted whenever a significant change occurred – such as new equipment, equipment modification or new chemical agent.

Figure 2: Lost Time Accidents

As a result of these and other efforts listed below, lost time accidents dropped dramatically and reached two million man-hours without a lost time event. In other terms, there were no accidents for over 7 years (see Figure 2). Awards and citations were received from all levels of government. Most rewarding was the request from the government to act as a mentor to poorer performing companies; a huge change for a company that had received 21 orders and one of the worst accident ratings in its peer group.

Cost Reduction: The production cost of the site was one of the highest in the peer group of similar global units. Obviously, there were inefficiencies in every area: high labor input, bloated inventories, slow changeovers, unacceptable off-spec production, excessive overhead and long lead times. The new manager did not want to shoot from the hip on bits and pieces of the operation in Kaizen shot-gun frenzy. Rather, he wanted to create a sustainable and agile operation and thus chose to follow the principles of Lean manufacturing. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Structure: The organizational structure was flattened and all employees were given the authority to make decisions at anytime provided they consulted with their immediate co-workers and stayed within three boundaries. These boundaries (or risk guidelines) pertained to personal injury, environmental impact and financial impact of the decision. Decisions with sizable impact were subjected to the more thorough decision making process based on the Kepner-Tregoe technique.

2. Knowledge Sharing: Systems were put in place which allowed the sharing of information regarding defects, tests, investigations, equipment malfunctions, customer feedback and other essential experiences. A key measure to improve the efficiency of a 4 crew rotation was this open and efficient transfer of knowledge. This was done in a variety of methods which included concise learning from accident investigations, quality issues, equipment troubleshooting, new product introduction, etc. Most of the newly gained knowledge was stored electronically in a shared file and reviewed by all team members. This incremental approach to knowledge sharing became a powerful tool as it formed the basis for future training, new product development and improved equipment reliability. Over the course of the first year of the journey, the production unit went from fighting fires to obtaining the know-how of why things happened. But the real power came at the next stage, from the scientifically based “know-why”! Once a team knows why things work, the potential of what can be achieved is spectacular.

3. Customer Focus: The needs of the customer and the relevancy to future progress were addressed by training operators on how the products were used by different customers. Supporting this were customer events that put the manufacturing team in direct contact with customers. These customer interactions were carefully planned during quality audits, new product introductions, customer complaints or client visits. Members of the sales staff were also encouraged to visit the production area at any time and explain the needs of the customers in a direct communicative style.

4. Operating Capability: Strength in problem solving, hypothesis development and testing were all encouraged. For example, changeovers between products meant shutdowns of between 6 and 48 hours. Within a year, changeover times were cut by 70%. In year one, there were only six products but after four years, there were more than 40 products, and there was less absolute changeover time in a given year than there was originally. This amazing improvement was achieved by production operators working with quality control technicians and maintenance staff who questioned old paradigms and attacked the former lack of agility with fervor. They created smart tools such as custom rigs, tool boards and on-line QC to permit efficient turnarounds.

5. Evolutionary Operation (EVOP): All production plants have three outputs: saleable product, off-spec product and information. This plant stored its daily log sheet of operating settings in a filing cabinet and nothing was really done with the data except for investigating customer complaints. Since the process had at least 10 adjustable parameters, how was one to know if the process was running anywhere near optimal? Through the use of a statistical approach known as EVOP (Evolutionary Operation), data was entered into a process which had a powerful statistical base coupled with EVOP know-how from a consultant and the process knowledge from senior operators. The net effect was to make tiny incremental daily changes to the parameters in a controlled fashion that ensured quality did not suffer while seeking the optimal process conditions. With this powerful tool, the line speed of the largest volume product increased by more than 15 percent. Using this tool repetitively, as raw materials changed or for new products, the overall productivity of the plant continued to increase year over year. Not only did this improve unit cost in the early years but it gave the plant an extra 25 percent capacity, saving a substantial capital investment for expansion in later years.

Figure 3: Unit Production Costs

With the combined effect of cost containment and a continuous zeal for improvement, unit production costs dropped 43 percent over the course of five years! It is vitally important to note that from a compensation perspective, the cost reduction was not done by slashing hourly rates, but rather by paying for performance which meant above average raises for hourly rates and handsome annual bonuses.

Communication: The Achilles heel to most companies is the ability to take strategy from a well articulated document to the real world of action. To ensure that all the programs were bundled together with synchronicity, the vehicle chosen was a carefully structured balanced scorecard.

Traditional “lagging” targets such as cost and volume were measured, but so were “leading” indicators such as training completion and other personal development actions. The Scorecard was updated monthly and posted throughout the building – and every employee could understand how their individual input was affecting the corporate results. Every three months, all employees were able to attend meetings where current scorecard results where reviewed, what obstacles laid ahead and what needed to be done to achieve the business strategy.

Two-way communication was encouraged at any time without the typical hierarchical barriers. All managers had frequent, attentive, concerned and truthful (FACT) discussions in any forum they saw fit for the circumstance. Consistency in purpose and personal accountability were essential for credibility.

Figure 4: First Pass Quality

Quality: At first, the notion of implementing Six Sigma was construed as a means to improve quality beyond the ISO 9000 standard. But it was soon learned that it is a system of management to build top performance, put the customer first and achieve sustainable business leadership. By concentrating on the fundamentals of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC), on-spec quality rates went from 88 percent to 99.5 percent. For those familiar with Six Sigma, this translates from 2.7 sigma to above 4 sigma. The same principles used for root-cause analysis for personal accidents were also applied to whenever unacceptable product was produced. One variation to the approach to project selection/ prioritization was the use economic value added rather then the traditional net present value. This was done to ensure the net worth of the organization was increasing rather than just the project return.

Figure 5: Environmental Performance

Environmental Performance: The principles of ISO14001 were adopted once the first six months of turmoil had settled. It was introduced in a stepwise fashion to ensure the organization was not overwhelmed. Evidence of progress was seen in the hazardous waste (RCRA) output. We were able to drop to a quarter of the original amount which meant a corresponding improvement in production yields. An example of change in perspective was the identification of each waste stream with its own SKU number and tracking all movement within the ERP system. This simple action gave a whole new meaning to waste – handling it like a raw material or finished product.

Raw materials transformed into useful product rather than waste is certainly a simple formula for success – benefiting both the planet and the bottom-line.

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Differences between Six Sigma & PMP (Six Sigma Vs PMP)

SIX SIGMA

Six Sigma is a quality management methodology aimed at performance improvement by reducing the no of defect to 3.4 or few defects per million items produced and a subsequent increase in profits and decrease in costs. It mainly targets to remove the obstacles in a process which are resulting in defects.

PMP

Project Management Professional (PMP) is the one of the most significant Certification for project managers. It is an International Designation offered by Project Management Institute (PMI). PMP certified project managers are employed by organisations all over the world as they seek to improve the success rate of projects in all areas, by applying a standardized and evolving set of project management principles as contained in PMI's PMBOK Guide.

It contains over 42 processes which can be adopted for successful completion and implementation of the projects.

Where the difference lies?

The main difference between Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma lies in the Methodology.

PMP uses various project management principles and processes to improve the success rate of the projects. On the other hand, Six Sigma leverages statistics to identify the defects and remove those defects for improvement in quality of the process.

LEARNING

Under Six Sigma Certification, the learning is imparted with the main focus of reducing defects as much as possible in order to reduce time and improve quality as per the standards set by the Company whereas in PMP Certification, learning is imparted to the practitioners with the main focus on how to properly plan and execute projects in order to ensure a high success rate for the projects.

DESIRE

The desire for PMP certification generally arises in an individual himself in order to develop his competencies in the challenging world whereas the need and criteria for Six Sigma Certification is specified by the company to makes its employees more efficient and capable of performing in the organisation.

NATURE

Project Management Professional is broad in nature as compared to Six Sigma which is much more specific and conceptually broad in nature.

WORK-CYCLE

Most of the Black Belts after the certification have to work for minimum 12-24 months in full time employment but there is no such obligation for the Project Management Professionals. However PMP have to complete 60 PDU’s in next 3 years to maintain certification.

COST ESTIMATION

Average Cost Incurred in completion of Six sigma black belt is quite high as it ranges between 25000-50000 US $ whereas the estimated costs in certification of PMP is significantly low at just 1500-3000 US $.

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Five Tips for Effective Project Management

Project Management has come a long way in recent years turning a loosely-tied community of practitioners into a growing and thriving industry through governing and certifying organizations like Project Management Institute (PMI), and others. Today’s project manager can benefit from training and knowledge sharing through these organizations and their members across the industry. Project managers enter the field with much stronger preparation and training than in years past. However, as we all understand, formal training, while beneficial, cannot fully substitute for years of experience. This is true in most professional fields and project management is no exception. While there are no shortages of tricks of the trade from experienced practitioners, these tips provide both new and experienced project managers opportunities to look outside of their formal training toward more effective project management.

Tip #1 – Understand Your Team

Project Management training consists of many topics; however, one of the most difficult functions to understand is the team dynamic. Effective project managers must understand the individual characteristics of all of their team members in order to utilize them in a way that capitalizes on their strengths and helps develop their weaknesses. Team members may not be forthcoming with or completely understand their own strengths and weaknesses, so the project manager must be in tune to his/her team. The project manager must also understand the different personalities that comprise the team and the dynamics of how they work together. This is where solid interpersonal skills like communications and conflict management are beneficial.

Tip #2 – Stand Firm on Project Scope

Projects may have many different competing influences within an organization as well as externally. Effective project managers do significant amounts of work early in the project’s lifecycle to define, document, and communicate the project scope. Effective project managers also implement a strict change management process is in place in order to ensure any proposed changes to the project are within the original scope. Project managers who fail to implement such measures or are easily swayed by out of scope changes are rarely effective as projects tend to get off course and fail.

Tip #3 – Truly Understand Your Stakeholders

Much like understanding their team personalities and dynamics, effective project managers understand the influence and relationships of their stakeholders. Stakeholders will vary in number depending on the size and complexity of the project, but their influence is always present. In addition to understanding and managing stakeholder influence and relationships, effective project managers understand how each stakeholder is impacted by the project. This allows the project manager to proactively manage the project by anticipating questions and concerns various stakeholders may have as well as ensuring impacts to them are considered.

Tip #4 – Don’t Work in a Vacuum

In all aspects of project management communication is the key to success. Effective project managers understand this and know that the importance of communication permeates all knowledge areas and process groups. The effective project manager understands this and uses communication to help achieve project success. Implementing a thorough Communications Management Plan is one key to successful project communication. In order to communicate effectively, there must be a documented process for who communicates, how they communicate, when communications are needed, and what information is communicated. Informal communications outside of the plan are also necessary for the project manager to understand the pulse of the project, conflicts, morale, and team expectations.

Tip #5 – Understand and Use the Organizational Structure

Organizations and project teams may be structured in any number of different ways. Project teams may be a matrix structure wherein team members work on a project but report to different functional managers. They may be projectized in which team members report to the project manager. Effective project managers understand these structures and how to manage their pros and cons to the best possible advantage. Establishing positive relationships with functional managers and creating and communicating clear requirements and expectations are examples of how effective project managers can leverage the organizational structure to their advantage.

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10 Reasons To Use PMP Exam FlashCards as a PMP® Exam Study Material

In this article, we are going to discuss 10 reasons why you should use PMP exam flashcards as a PMP exam study material.

You should consider using PMP exam flashcards because:

1. This PMP exam study material allows you to study any time & anywhere

◈ Flashcards are portable and flexibly. They can go anywhere with you and can be used when you have some free time such as waiting for a doctor’s appointment, or the cable repair technician.

◈ You can print flashcards and take them with you, or if you prefer PM Flashcards are also available to be viewed on mobile devices.

2. It provides an active method for learning PMP concepts

◈ When you use flashcards as part of learning a concept, you are not just passively reading information; you are asking yourself questions and actively answering them.

◈ When you pick up a flashcard that reads “What does WBS stand for?” you have to think about what the question is asking and recall details related to the question. Apart from asking what WBS stands for, you might then ask yourself what does it mean? What was the context in which I learned about WBS? What is the significance of a WBS?

◈ You are more fully engaged in learning, which helps make the information “stick”.

3. It allows you to think about how much you do or do not understand a concept

◈ Flashcards can be used to reflect on what you are learning, which is also known as metacognition, i.e. “Thinking about thinking”.

◈ If you pick up a flashcard that reads “How do you calculate SPI?” you may remember what SPI stands for and that it involves earned value and planned value, but cannot recall the formula.

◈ If you don’t have clear understanding of a flashcard question, then you know you may have to read more about it or review what you have learned about the concept. So this may mean looking up the SPI formula, study and work through an example to ensure that you know that you calculate SPI by dividing earned value by planned value.

4. It breaks studying down into small chunks

◈ One flashcard covers a single topic so flashcards overall break studying down into small single concept chunks.

◈ For each chunk, you can determine which ones you understand and those that you know you need to review more.

◈ In other words, flashcards allow for you to focus on one question at a time. When you pick up a flashcard that asks “What does WBS stand for?” and you think to yourself “I have no idea” then you know you need to set that card aside, so you can spend more time on specifically on the topic of the WBS.

5. PMP exam flashcards provides repetition

◈ Flashcards ask questions about concepts in a variety of different ways and are intended to be used over and over.

◈ Knowing how to answer questions about a concept that is presented in a variety of ways ensures you learn, not simply memorize, the concept. In this way, you will find it easier to recall the information.

◈ If you answer a flashcard question correctly, don’t just set it aside. It is useful to not only see the cards you have not mastered more than once, but also it is good to review cards you got right the first time. Answering correctly a few times ensures you have learned the concept.

6. This PMP exam study material allows for distributed learning

◈ Distributed learning is the practice of spreading out your studying over time and quizzing yourself on the concepts over time; in another words…not cramming.

◈ Take a break between study sessions to learn other concepts or do other non-study related activities to allow for the information time to “sink in”.

◈ Spreading out studying for the PMP Exam is a much better method than cramming all of the information “en masse”.

7. It provides immediate feedback on progress

◈ With flashcards you know immediately if you are on the right track with a specific PMP concept, either you can answer the question correctly or not.

◈ There is a growing sense of accomplishment with a growing pile of mastered flashcards.

◈ There is no waiting time. You can immediately reprioritize your studies to learn more about topics on flashcard questions that you got wrong.

8. It allows you to control your learning

◈ You can order the flashcards randomly, by subject areas, by how much you have mastered a topic, or in any order you would like.

◈ You can learn at your own pace; set your own personal goals such as to review 5, 40 or 100 flashcards a day.

◈ You can easily sort the cards in to groups of what you do know and what you need to spend more time studying.

9. PMP exam flashcards uses both visual and auditory senses

◈ Memory improves when you use more than one sense to learn information, which can be done using flashcards.

◈ It is useful to have cards where you can draw an image or graph on (visual) that you associate with the concept on the flashcard. For example if the concept is Maslow’s hierarchy, don’t just rely on the text to learn the concept – draw it out.

◈ It can also be good to have someone else read the questions to you (auditory).

10. It works well in a group format

◈ You can make a game out of using flashcards and create a contest or casual competition within the study group, so you can introduce some fun while learning, discussing, and debating questions and answers.

◈ Hearing and discussing the questions in a group format can help you to reinforce PMP Exam concepts.

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The Effectiveness of Various PMP® Exam Study Techniques

If you are just beginning or are in the middle of studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP)®, you probably already know that in order to pass, you need to fully understand both A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI)® and the (PMI)® Code of Ethics. You have probably spent some time thinking about the many study techniques available to you. In this article, I examine four PMP® Exam study techniques, their effectiveness, and some possible alternatives, you may not have considered.

Technique 1 – Reading and Highlighting / Underlining the PMBOK® Guide and PMI® Code of Ethics

Reading text and highlighting or underlining as we go is a technique many of us learned and used during our high school or college days, so it is a familiar technique.

Verdict:

Studies have found that although 84% of students at elite colleges use this technique, they have also found it to be ineffective. It is kind of a security blanket, in that it makes the student feel that they are learning, but the student is actually more focused on highlighting or underlining rather than learning the concept.

Passively reading is a great first step, so don’t discount the need to read the PMBOK® Guide and PMI Code of Ethics; however, highlighting or underlining likely adds very little to your learning.

It does little to enhance understanding of the material and long term recall of the material, which makes this technique ineffective overall.

Alternatives:

Try to find other methods to learn about PMP concepts other than just reading, highlighting, or underlining them such as:
Be more active while reading. For example, ask yourself “why” a concept is relevant, or try to relate the concept to a real world example you can recall when it comes up on the PMP® Exam.

Technique 2 – Using Flashcards

Flashcards are a compact quick use study aid that typically covers one question, formula, or tidbit of information per card. This is another technique you may be familiar with from your high school or college days.

Verdict:

Spreading study sessions out over time, also known as distributed practice, has been found to enhance student performance. Flashcards provide a great method to be able to spread out learning and use the distributed practice method in a controlled and flexible way. You can easily breakdown PMP concepts into smaller “bite sized” chunks to ensure you review and master the material one concept at a time.

Flashcards have been found to be a very effective learning technique. You can pace yourself and easily use the flashcards as many times as you need in order to solidify the concepts in your mind.

Technique 3 – Taking Notes on the PMBOK® Guide and PMI Code of Ethics

Taking notes is the act of write down important information while reading the material to be learned. This is another technique many of us have learned while in school.

Verdict:

Taking notes is a better technique than highlighting or underlining, but can be very time-consuming. If you use this technique wisely then it can be very effective to use while reading the PMBOK® Guide and PMI Code of Ethics. Be careful not to take notes that simply regurgitate information, or your learning will be adversely affected and taking notes would be similarly ineffective as highlighting or underlining.

Alternative 1 – Use Notes to Create Flashcards:

When taking notes, do it in a manner where you can hide terms and definitions easily. For example, create two columns on a single page where the left column contains the terms and the right column contains the definitions. Writing it out this way allows you to hide the definitions with one hand as you try to repeat them to yourself. Or you can leave a lot of extra white space that you can use to rewrite the concept later to “test” yourself.

Then you can compare what you wrote verses the note you took. Using a notebook is not as flexible as using flashcards, but you can use any notes you take as a basis for creating your own flashcards.

Alternative 2 – Use a Brain Dump:

Create a brain dump. After reading about a concept, take a sheet of paper and write down all of the details you can recall about that topic. Don’t forget to verify that the details in your brain dump are correctly recalled and that you did not miss anything.

This is an effective technique for learning a concept since you are actively filtering for the most essential information. You also end up with a way of actively recalling the information over time and most importantly you can recreate the brain dump on the day of your PMP Exam.

Technique 4 – Taking Practice Tests

Taking practice tests can include anything from testing yourself one question at a time or sitting in a quiet location and taking a full length four hour two hundred question simulated PMP Exam.

You can self-test while reading PMP related material. For example, if student A was re-reading a PMBOK® Guide chapter straight through and student B hid some text from themselves purposely as they read in order to recall the information prior to revealing the text (taking a self-imposed practice test) then student B would be more likely to recall the information long term. As student B was going through the self-imposed testing, when he failed to recall information, he simply went back to re-study the concept.

Flashcards are also a form of practice tests as each card poses a test question. Flashcards are not ideal in the sense that the format of the PMP Exam is not necessarily the same as flashcards, but are still effective.

Verdict:

Practice tests are definitely recommended and studies have shown that taking practice tests is a very effective learning technique in a wide array of situations. Self-testing as you read PMP- related study material and using flashcards are both effective methods, but most effective is taking full-length timed practice PMP Exams.

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Teamwork and Creativity Help to Identify Root Causes

In problem-solving methodologies, identifying potential causes is a crucial step between process mapping and data collection and analysis. It involves the best available process knowledge, as well as creativity. Creativity and team management tools, more often employed for solution finding than for root cause finding, can generate deep understanding of the process mechanics and help the team prepare for the distilling and data-based validation of the essential few root causes of a problem.

Problem-solving teams can increase their chances of success by using a consistent methodology for identifying a problem’s origins. Such a methodology must be based on the very nature of root cause analysis. This form of analysis:

◈ Is a process that needs to be understood from the bigger picture.
◈ Is a team exercise that focuses on people and on meeting facilitation.
◈ Uses brainstorming to combine best expert knowledge with out-of-the-box thinking.
◈ Delivers measurable factors and a data-collection plan.
◈ Uses data to derive potential causes.

In the light of one specific example, it is possible to see how creativity and team management tools can be used to look deeper into the first four elements of root cause analysis. Using data to distill significant causes, both from a statistical and then from a practical point of view, is typically covered in Lean Six Sigma training classes. The example considered here is a delivery process where lead time had recently degraded with respect to customer expectations.

Working Through the Process

After carefully describing their problem, the team started the analysis by mapping out the delivery process. Then they brainstormed for potential causes for variation in lead time. To validate those causes, they collected and analyzed data. At first, only a small share of the total variation could be explained with these factors. The team then further elaborated the process map for the steps estimated most critical and revisited the cause-and-effect analysis to collect data for more potential factors by using the 5 Why’s analysis technique to drill down further. This process is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Process of Root Cause Analysis

Preparing the Team

To understand the observed variation in delivery time, the team mapped out the delivery process in greater detail. The team interviewed customers to determine their requirements and the rationale behind those requirements. They also analyzed how the process interfaces with suppliers; for several team members this was the first time they perceived the “big picture” of the process they were working in. Such first victories set the team on track for the next steps.

In preparation for the brainstorming meeting to identify potential causes, the team leader carefully:

◈ Conveyed a high sense of urgency and made participants feel “pain and pleasure” – Competitors had taken market share in line with their lead in delivery speed. A smooth flow of the process would also free up resources and reduce overtime work. Management actively supported the initiative.

◈ Secured creative diversity and included process and business experts and people with different personal styles.

◈ Made the team curious about “creativity tools” to be used – He also checked with experienced team members to find out which tools might be best suited for the specific team.

◈ Removed barriers to a free flow of ideas – The facilitator ensured that rules about inter-department finger pointing was clarified offline. He also verified that stakeholders were analyzed and approached accordingly.

Brainstorming Potential Causes

Like any other brainstorming activity, identifying potential influence factors is a team-thinking process. At the beginning of the meeting, management aligned the participants behind the business criticality of the process through a short intervention. The team also agreed on a schedule and ground rules. Then they went through the process map again, printed on an sheet of paper, which served throughout the meeting.

To capture the team’s experience on what might influence delivery time, the facilitator asked participants to write their thoughts on sticky notes and paste these on a flip chart. As people saw their peers’ contributions, they eventually generated new ideas. The walking and talking involved in the brainstorming set a relaxed atmosphere. Even so, after about 20 minutes, the team reached its first dead point, the time in brainstorming sessions when the team momentarily runs out of ideas. To keep the momentum alive, the facilitator decided to use a fishbone diagram. The facilitator asked participants to come to the flipchart and cluster the different potential causes into major groups.

The facilitator steered the team around a common trap that can arise when using fishbone diagrams. The team had started by writing the defect (“Delivery is slow”) at the “head” of the fish. This would have reduced the continuous variable delivery time into pass/fail information. Doing so would also have generated repercussions when capturing potential causes. A statement such as “insufficient headcount causes slow delivery” can lead a team in a different direction than a study of the influence of allocated work hours on delivery time. Thus, the team investigated the primary metric, “delivery time.”

This clarification, as well as clustering the ideas into major groups, helped generate discussions about the relations between different potential factors, which again generated new ideas. Participants also translated their original statements on “roadblocks to success” into “tunable factors,” imagined as “steering wheels to influence delivery speed” (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Potential Causes of a Problem Can Be Captured as Steering Wheels

The clustering exercise generated several major groups of factors. The team sensed some of these were underrepresented because they comprised only one or two potential factors. A quick re-brainstorming made these groups more complete. Then, the facilitator used printouts of traditional Ishikawa diagrams, the basis for fishbone diagrams, which helped them realize that price aspects had been overlooked and could now be collected through another round of posted ideas.

The facilitator decided not to have the team rearrange the posted notes into any of the traditional Ishikawa diagrams. This would helped the team consider the collected potential causes from still another angle, revealing other relations between factors, and generating new ideas. However, with the team dynamics that had unfolded, the facilitator sensed such an additional exercise as a drain to people’s creativity. Note that if this rearrangement does take place, the original state should first be documented with a camera.

The facilitator used a dead point to take a short break to prepare a creativity boosting game. These games often kick people out of their thinking box by first kicking them out of their seats. Typically, human resources departments can help in selecting creativity games. Searching the Internet also delivers many leads.

A short wrap-up of the game helped understand what defined the borders of the current thinking box: policies (written and unwritten), experiential boundaries (“At the current maturity of our logistics system, improvements must be the result of major investments”), firm convictions nobody knew the foundation of (“We will only find things we have seen in the past”) and several other limitations to creative thinking. It was the first time the team had seen the boundaries of their own thinking explicitly on a white board. They decided to creatively challenge some of these boundaries to discover new factors, such as “If we had no performance reporting to management, the delivery time might depend a lot on the affinity of the personnel for a given customer.”

Delivering Measurable Factors

The brainstorming resulted in 47 potential influence factors on delivery time. Green dots, on which the source was noted, were glued on the sticky notes of the factors where data was already available. Yellow dots stood for factors where data could be made available with some effort. Factors with no measurement system in place were marked with red dots. The result turned out to be a surprise: Data was easily available for only for a few factors. The team conducted a vote, in which each participant had five votes, to decide which of the red factors’ measurement systems were high priority.

The team then drafted a data collection plan: determine factor, (potential) data source and owner. They placed sample size determination, operational definition of the measurement and capability assessments of the underlying measurement systems as action items.

Wrapping Up

After agreeing on a follow-up procedure, the facilitator closed the meeting with a wrap up and a short feedback round among the participants. The team felt that the somewhat-fuzzy objective to identify root causes to their problem had been transformed into operational tasks. The use of creativity tools and a game had also made this work more fun. The facilitator added: Facilitating root cause identification is an art that can best be learned by exercising it.

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Sustaining Results From Six Sigma

Now, more than ever, Corporate America is suffering from a growing lack of commitment, loyalty, creativity and ideas from its own employees. Called employee engagement, this unseen, unquantifiable and unbudgeted influence has long been a powerful contributor to American business success. Sadly, with more than 2,000,000 employees lost to downsizing in the last 18 months, Six Sigma leaders must address the fact that employee engagement is declining.

Six Sigma initiatives are at risk of losing the discretionary effort and intellectual capital that workers once supplied willingly. Discretionary effort is the amount of effort individuals’ expend over and above the minimum they need to do to keep their jobs. Intellectual capital, is knowledge and ideas that advance the organization’s ability to compete. Discretionary effort and intellectual capital drive innovation, product and service quality, customer satisfaction and ultimately, profitability.

The cumulative impact of downsizing, mergers, acquisitions, and corporate restructurings has created a growing “engagement gap” in Corporate America.

Organizations trying to improve operating performance through the use of methodologies such as Six Sigma are under even more critical pressure to close the engagement gap. Why? Because these initiatives are unsustainable unless a significant percentage of the workforce is “in the game.”

A Major Threat to Business Improvement Initiatives

Discretionary effort and intellectual capital are essential to successful business improvement. The risk of not getting more employees engaged to willingly provide discretionary effort and intellectual capital is to become one of the 7 out of 10 organizations whose initiatives have traditionally failed to deliver promised results.

Surveys of younger workers indicate they would rather work for themselves or a small company than a larger corporation. Aon Consulting reported in a research study of about 1,800 workers that employee commitment is declining in every industry, age group, income group and job classification. The Gallup organization also recently reported evidence of declining employee engagement in a major survey that found only 26% of employees consider themselves “actively engaged” in their work.

Have you noticed how many employees today are becoming increasingly cynical? The infamous “flavor of the month” business improvement initiative, always subject to employee skepticism, is now often openly dismissed. How can a company close the engagement gap and achieve a sustained commitment from its workforce so that Six Sigma, Lean or CQI business improvement strategies are successfully executed?

The solution is simple in theory but difficult in practice.

On an organizational level, a company must adopt human resource and management practices, which create a corporate culture that motivates workers to create long-term customer loyalty and shareholder value.

At the individual employee level, the fundamental driver of increasing employee engagement is whether people can fulfill personal values and goals through work. As people have less control over their work environments, they seek other ways to meet personal wants and needs.

The most prevalent values that impact employee engagement are: Empowerment, recognition, respect, self-development, creativity, achievement, advancement, economic security (or wealth), freedom, integrity, family happiness and enjoying co-worker relationships. Although many employees value job security, most no longer believe it’s a realistic expectation.

Ultimately, the more individuals perceive their top values being fulfilled through their work, the more “fully engaged” they are. This leads to giving discretionary effort and intellectual capital beyond the minimum requirements of the job.

A New Mandate for Six Sigma Deployment Leaders: Attention to Engagement

The engagement gap requires business leaders to recognize and embrace the importance of developing strategies to increase employee engagement. For Six Sigma deployment leaders, the need is even more urgent to integrate engagement-building strategies into their initiatives.

In order for a company to create the culture required to implement Six Sigma, deployment leaders must deal with the potential schism that can occur with the development of a caste system of “have” (i.e. “the Black Belts”) and “have-nots” (i.e., the rest of the employees). While “the Belts” may be fully engaged, they typically represent a small portion of the employee population. If the non-Belts are not equal contributors to the desired culture change, they will feel even less engaged than before.

The solution to this dilemma lies not in the Six Sigma methodologies used to solve problems but rather in the approaches used to implement solutions. The usual prescription of more Six Sigma training or communication is not the answer. The reason is simple: People get engaged in improvement efforts when they believe their participation is actually making a difference for themselves. Sitting through a class on Six Sigma doesn’t stimulate engagement. Nor does participating on a project team that drags on for months of analysis before solutions are considered.

Organizations can break the impasse on increasing employee engagement and get more of their people “off the sidelines” and into the improvement game by engineering their improvement strategies around a few core principles:

1) Simplify the Process!

Make it easy for employees to put their best ideas into action and easy for managers to support them. If it takes more than one meeting for employees to see how they can make a difference, it won’t happen.

2) Build Confidence to Take Action!

Employees and managers need a safety net to feel comfortable as they offer ideas that challenge the status quo. Small teams with defined, meaningful assignments and clear criteria for success gives employees freedom to innovate, while providing managers with a way to limit risks.

3) Motivate Employees with Faster Management Decision-Making!

Nothing creates disengagement more than indecisiveness and inaction by managers. Managers must be ready to make decisions quickly once the engagement spigot is turned on.

4) Speed Everything Up!

Motivation to change is perishable at all levels of an organization. Each individual must experience some personal gain to stay in the game. The faster real results are achieved, the more likely people will stay engaged.

Our observation in working with hundreds of organizations has been that most business improvement initiatives, including Six Sigma, have not adequately focused on developing effective tools to increase employee engagement.

All Six Sigma professionals should be mindful of the issue of employee engagement when asking a workforce to travel the extra mile. Not much in the way of improvement is likely to be achieved and sustained unless the employees are fully engaged with their organizations.

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7 Keys To A Change Deployment Process

Launching a continuous improvement initiative of some kind has become the norm for a large cross section of organizations throughout the world today. The aim is often to reinvent themselves as superior competitors, fine-tuned to customer needs and robust to adverse changes in business conditions. Depending on which sector of the world of business one looks at, these efforts have been given different names such as TQM (Total Quality Management), Six Sigma, Breakthrough Management, Lean Transformation, Reengineering, Operational Excellence, etc. Yet, at the heart of each of these programs remains the ultimate goal of achieving breakthrough by fundamentally changing the way business is executed.

In spite of each of the improvement methodologies offering a clear and consistent roadmap to implementation (e.g., DMAIC for Six Sigma, DMADV for Design for Six Sigma, 7 Wastes of Lean, etc.), different companies have experienced varying degrees of success in implementing such programs. In many cases, the benefits, in terms of employee morale and culture, customer satisfaction and the bottom line have turned elusive. The question is — why is there this variation in levels of success amongst adopters of these programs?

The answer lies in the fact that most methodologies offer steps that are necessary to achieve success; they are neither sufficient nor exhaustive. This article explores some of the potential issues that need to be addressed during a change process that can make the difference between a successful and a not-so-successful deployment.

1. The House (Of Quality) Needs Foundations

Underestimating the need for a support structure can be a big mistake in the process of deploying Lean or Six Sigma. It is important to first assess the gap between your current state and the future, desired state. This activity produces a list of things that need to change and, in addition, those that need to be positively reinforced. In the change process, this is not an either/or proposition. Both need to be done. As an example, if one has the fortune of having an army of talented Black Belts but a broken Champion support system, the program can fail in a heartbeat. Again, if both are present and yet, executive support is absent, then that can lead to disastrous results for a program as well.

The role of a consultant is potentially huge in this case. The superior knowledge base can be helpful in foreseeing roadblocks and addressing them at the very outset.

2. Speed Can Be An Illusion

One common trait of all change initiatives is that they go through a series of necessary steps that have their own lead times. Failing to recognize this fact often leads to skipping essential activities that only create an illusion of speed and never produces desired results.

Sticking to an overall game plan and building steady momentum over time brings change that is more coherent and permanent than islands of excellence resulting from scattered activities.

3. Sustaining A Shared Vision

Most executives do a good job of communicating a strong sense of urgency to effect change and move people out of their comfort zones. This often launches a flurry of activities in the right direction to start with. However, sustaining the quality and level of activities is a different ball game. For the abstraction that is called business, it requires more than organizational structure, incentives and job descriptions to have a multitude of people work in a concerted manner towards a common objective — it requires a shared vision. It is one, in which everybody has a role to play, everybody clearly understands his or her role, and everyone knows “what is in it for me?”

Having a shared vision and communicating it well are essential in galvanizing a workforce to come together and stay together, during the process of change..

4. New Vision, Old Contraints

Doing the same old thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. As much as new tools and a new roadmap empowers people to do things differently, systemic constraints — be it organizational structure or reward system — if not addressed adequately can seriously damage the credibility of the effort and make cynics out of employees.

Actions to confront big roadblocks early in the deployment phase can do the magic of boosting morale and providing momentum to overcome psychological hurdles throughout the organization.

5. Show Me The Money

In all fairness to the shareholders, every initiative should aim at producing measurable economic benefit to a business. Care should be taken to ensure that there is correlation between the metrics used to monitor improvement efforts and the bottom line. This may warrant adjustments to the accounting procedures2 to enable the identification of reform opportunities, drive the right activities and calculate project benefits consistently. In many cases, gains are realized only after a series of project segments (like a step function).

It is important in such cases to make sure that cost accounting doesn’t disincentivise the very activities that culminate into a breakthrough.

6. Success Breeds Success

Every large initiative can appear potentially daunting and overwhelming if not split into manageable chunks. A process always runs the risk of losing steam if there are no short-term goals and short-term wins defined. Short-term wins create enthusiasm and confidence amongst people and aid in team building.

This makes the ultimate goal look realizable to participants and helps garner support even from those who have been erstwhile resisting change and sitting on the sidelines.

7. Leaders Wanted

More often than not, management is incentivised to minimize risk and preserve the status quo. Change on the other hand requires creation of a new state of business, which naturally requires leadership. A paralyzed decision making process (often the biggest impediment to change) is a symptom of having too many managers and not enough leaders.

Great leaders transform cultures and stimulate breakthroughs. It is vital to have a good number of them on one’s side as champions of the renewal process.

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