Customer Dynamics

The sixteen steps can be separated into two categories. The first seven determine the path to world class while the remaining nine are the detail steps to travel it. In this paper, I'm going to concentrate on the first seven:

• Audit and Assessment-paragraphs.

• First Cut Education—to make the decision on how to proceed, the senior management team needs to know enough about what it takes to become a world class company, what the processes are, who does them, how they work, and how they fit together. Gaining this level of understanding comes from attending classes and/or visiting world class companies. This step also contributes to doing the next five steps effectively.

• Vision Statement—Joel Barker summarized the importance of creating a vision as follows: "Vision without action is just a dream; action without vision is just passing time; vision with action can change the world!" It's a challenge to create a concise statement of what you would like the company to become. Equally difficult is for the senior management team to gain consensus. Until there is a shared vision, one that can be communicated throughout the company and rally everyone to its cause, the job is not done.

• Cost-Benefit—before launching a major effort you need con­fident numbers of what it will cost and what it will payback. If the goal is to gain significant improvements, the return on investment should quantify it.

• Project Organization—three groups of people form the action teams. The steering team, consisting of the senior management team, needs to assume responsibility for the success of the effort and hold monthly meetings to ensure adequate progress. The project team, consisting of department heads, must take responsibility for design specifications, for educating every­one within their areas on how it will apply to them, and meet weekly to monitor progress. The third group is the spin-off task teams. This is where work actually gets done. The goal is to involve as many people as possible by assigning small groups specific tasks. In the planning and control process, examples would include: sales and operations planning, master scheduling, inventory record accuracy, supplier scheduling, etc., etc.

• Performance Goals—establishing the goals that define success is the purpose of this step. It's important that they be quantifi­able and that you know where your level of performance is today. Without both of these ingredients, there's great risk that confusion will be the outcome of the project, frustrating everyone.

• Reengineering—this step defines how sales, logistics, and the manufacturing processes need to operate in order to achieve world class performance. Innovative solutions are needed for breakthroughs. The company has to operate differently to reach its vision and produce the performance goals.

These seven steps are the road map leading to world class performance.

Someone once described the running of a business as being similar to running in a marathon that has no end. In the race there are three groups of runners: leaders, learners, and losers. No need to worry about the losers as mother nature will cull them out. The learners are highly motivated, trying to figure out what to do differently to catch the group up ahead. The leaders cannot afford to be complacent. If they're simply doing the same thing, the learners will pass them. The ideal racer is a learner who is never satisfied even when he becomes a leader.

Gaining the ability to respond to the marketplace faster, more reliably, more economically, and with higher quality than your competitors is what it takes to become a world class performer. Applying Continuous Improvement and making a profit are what it takes to stay there.

Lean Six Sigma Consulting   World Class Manufacturing   
Balanced Scorecards  Strategic Tactical Planning  
Supply Chain Inventory Management  Principles of Total Quality Management
  Manufacturing Process Improvement