Continuous Improvement is one of the backbones of Lean Thinking but it is extremely difficult to maintain that focus over any length of time. Part of the problem is identifying what needs changed, how to change the process and finally, implementing the identified changes. Of these, the most difficult is identifying what needs changed. In physics, Newton’s First Law states that objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless an outside force is applied. It is the same with processes. Any existing process will tend to continue unless an outside force such as Process Review is applied to it. (I’m sure someone has expressed that as a Supply Chain law somewhere.) The trick, of course, is to identify those processes that require review and change. How can we do that? One good way to accomplish this is to change the Corporate Culture so that everybody in the organization is constantly asking themselves the same three questions:
- Is this really necessary?
- Is this the right way to do it?
- Am I the right person to do it?
So let’s look at each of these questions separately and try to understand what they mean and how to apply them.
Every time you start a new process, whether it be in an office or on the manufacturing floor everybody involved should be asking themselves whether this process is really necessary. Are you doing the process simply because you have always done it or has something changed to invalidate the need for that particular process? As a specific example, do you send out reports to people within the organization that are not even looked at? There is always a reason why a process was created, such as a request for specific information but is that information still needed. If not, then the report should be discontinued or at the very least the number of recipients reduced. Far too often processes just keep rolling along because no one ever questions the need to continue them.
If the process really does need to continue then the next question that needs to be considered is whether the current methodology is the best one. Has technology, process or other changes invalidated the current process? Is there a better way to achieve the same result? For instance, very few companies would consider sending a telegram to a customer. While that technology still exists there are other, better ways, of achieving the same results such as an email or even a phone call. Note that a telegram may actually be the best way if the recipient is not connected to any other direct communication system and a quick message or answer is required. That is however, a very rare occurrence. More often the legacy methodology continues because no one has ever questioned whether there is a better way.
Finally, if the process needs to be done and this is the correct way to do it…are you the best person to be doing it? Companies, departments and even sub-groups are constantly being re-organized. When I first started in production scheduling it reported to the purchasing department. I strongly doubt there are many companies left where that is still true. As organizations get re-organized the different processes move around in the company. Certainly, with new technology the methods change, sometimes dramatically. How often does your organization sit back and look at the bigger picture to determine if the right department or people are assigned to perform any given task? Since many companies today, as through most of history, are still afflicted with some managers that are empire building, the answer to that is very often, no.
So there you have it. You need to develop a corporate culture where everyone is encouraged and required to be constantly asking themselves these three questions and if the answer to any of them is no then changes must be made. This, of course, highlights one additional aspect of this corporate culture. It is critical that people feel empowered to actually bring any issues up and make suggestions on how to change the existing process. If they feel they will be ignored or worse, considered to be trouble makers, then nothing will change and your organization will slowly (or maybe not so slowly) become less and less competitive in your market. And how do the people in the organization become capable of both identifying areas of improvement and in implementing these changes? That would involve a process called Root Cause Analysis and will be a topic for different posting.
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