HOW TO KEEP STANDARDIZATION
WHILE
IMPROVING
During the evaluation of
potential standards, benchmarking
will be done. This
benchmarking will be between
the systems and processes
being compared as
well as some that are not
being considered for standardization.
Once you have standardized
on a system,
take the areas that the
other systems were superior
in
and add that functionality
into the standardized
system (if the additional
functionality is of benefit
and
does not prove to be too
costly to implement). Going
through this exercise will
increase the time of the effort
but will assure that all
systems chosen will are
best-in-class
in all areas.
Standardization is not a
one-year initiative. It must
continue or you will be in
trouble again two to three
years from now. The
challenge is getting
everyone together,
keeping them focused,
keeping on task, and
providing the time required
for the standardization
process. The standardization
process requires a combination
of inside and outside
benchmarking of systems
and processes. Once you have
standardized a
process, how do you keep it
standard and still improve
the process? What you must
do is to define your systems
as D, C, B, or A systems.
•
AD system is one in which
you will not standardize.
It is slated for removal or
sundowning.
•
AC system is any system that
has the possibility of
becoming a standard. It
either meets technical re
quirements or soon will be
evaluated from a techni
cal standpoint. A C system
has not yet been evaluated
as a possible standard.
•
A B system is a C system
that is in a defined pilot
phase.
•
An A system is the
standardized system. It has
been
either grandfathered as the
standard system or suc
cessfully moved from the
defined pilot.
The next step is to
establish criteria on when
and how
a system can move from a C
system to a B system. Some
of these criteria are the
following:
•
It must have an owner,
customer, be funded, have
infrastructure/supportability,
and defined and tan
gible benefits.
•
A definition of what
constitutes a successful
pilot.
This would be length of
time, support, and benefits
expected.
The next criteria to
establish is how to move a
system
from a B system to an A
system. These are some of
the following:
•
The system must be evaluated
to see that the pilot
criteria was successful.
•
Evaluation of the system to
see if it has better suc
cess factors than the
current standard.
Without a detailed plan,
systems often immediately go
from C to A because someone
does a good presentation.
Keeping something standard
is like the old
reengineering
arguments—it is pain only if
you let it get out of
hand—if
you have continuous "tweaks"
as opposed to massive
changes infrequently, you
will have less pain and
cost.
Continued