1. Work harder— find ways to increase your task focus.

Work when you are working.  Spend less time socializing and focus on what you need to get done today.  Focus on the tasks at hand and don’t wander into new tasks, multi-task, or get distracted.  The key is to focus and not waste your precious time at work.

2. Work Faster—find ways to pick up your work pace.

Develop a work rhythm and maintain your tempo (in lean we call it your takt time).  Find ways to increase your tempo and get on with the job at hand.  If you are tired or slowing down, then stop, and get a cup of coffee.  Keep your tempo up, up, up.

3. Work on Higher Value Activities—find ways to prioritize your tasks.

It’s important to understand what tasks will bring you more results.  Think quality over quantity.  Less is more.  Doing fewer higher value tasks will increase your productivity more than performing a greater quantity of low value tasks.  Using a visual management system can help focus your company on what is adding value.

4. Do The Things You Are Better At—find ways to focus on results.

You probably are better at the things you like doing.  As a result you get better at those things and do more of them more often.  So focus on what you are good at and you will be more productive.

5. Group Your Tasks—find ways to focus on related tasks.

Focus.  Don’t multi-task!  Group related task together and do them at the same time.  Answer your email, make phone calls, or write letters together at a designated time.  By constantly switching between tasks or stopping to read email, you will lose small amounts of time that make up the “switching costs”.  You will lose time because you have to wrap you mind around a new task and understand where you left off.  This learning curve time is waste and can be eliminated by grouping related tasks.

6. Work Smarter—find ways to simplify Your Work.

AS the number of steps to a task increases, so does the complexity and therefore, the time required to complete the task.  This is called the Law of Complexity.  Find ways to remove steps and reduce task complexity.  This simple process improvement plan will greatly increase your productive work.

7. Work Longer Hours—find more minutes in the day.

Arrive 16 minutes earlier, leave 16 minutes later, and spend 16 minutes less time at lunch and breaks created 48 minutes a day or 4 hours a week, which increase your available time by 10%.  Use this time to get organized for work and plan or review your day.

Every day you should review your day’s results to learn how to focus your time on the higher value tasks you are better at.  Use your extra time to plan, review and focus.  This is all part of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) that drives continuous improvement in a learning organization.

Seven Ways to Increase Your Productivity at Work

1. Work harder— find ways to increase your task focus.
2. Work Faster—find ways to pick up your work pace.
3. Work on Higher Value Activities—find ways to prioritize your work.
4. Do the Things You Are Better At—find ways to focus on results.
5. Group Your Tasks—find ways to focus on related tasks.
6. Work Smarter—find ways to simplify Your Work.
7. Work Longer Hours—find more minutes in the day.

Implementing a system of policies and procedures will help any organization get organized, focus on the work at hand, group tasks, and as a result, work harder and smarter.  Download free sample procedures to see how its done.

Have you gained quality improvement expertise over the years working with many manufacturing, information technology, and service organizations?   Bizmanualz understands your ongoing challenges of building a Quality Management System, implementing Lean Thinking, or the day-to-day struggles to maintain your ISO registration.   ISO 9001 assistance is close at hand.  Bizmanualz can provide quality management support either with onsite or remote assistance.

Policies, procedures, and forms documentation.  Now you can develop a simple ISO system in as little as 12 pages that requires less overhead using Lean ISO 9001:2008 conforming policies, procedures, and forms documents.  Each document is easily editable in MS-Word to customize to your situation.

Procedure management software. Once your documents are drafted you can simplify your document version control and management tasks using online software that ensures document reviews and approvals are completed prior to release.  Deliver relevant documents to every point-of-use or to your auditors via the internet.  Improved document access control, search and retrieval ensure your users have what they need.  Using an online procedure management software means no more back-up, retention, and document control findings too.

1^st and 2^nd Party audit support.  You don’t need to have a full-time internal or supplier audit staff.  Just contract experienced auditors to oversee the internal audit process, schedules, and audit plans, as needed.  You will receive timely audit reports for your supplier audits, pre-assessment audits, internal audits or full system audits.

Quality Management Support. Obtain fast answers to your quality management system questions from experienced, certified quality managers that can lead management reviews with complete records of results, follow-up on management review action items, and oversee nonconformance, corrective and preventive action processes.  Technical advise on quality policy, quality objectives, and overall QMS performance is readily available.

Continuous Improvement Support. Trained and experienced Lean / Six Sigma facilitators are available to organize, lead and document Lean / Six Sigma improvement events (like 5S, Preventive Maintenance, Set-up reduction, line balancing, etc).  Contract for a only the ISO quality, lean, and six sigma training you need.  Having problems with SPC, calibration, FMEA, control plans, customer feedback processes?  Training programs, advise, and guidance can be yours.

Using Bizmanualz provides competent and cost effective resources that reduce common audit findings and management stress related to the quality management system.  Now you can quickly resolve common audit findings related to:

• Qualified personnel and training
• Working document and record control
• Timely internal audits and management reviews
• Viable Nonconformance, Corrective and Preventive Action system

Bizmanualz maintains competent, qualified (ASQ Certified) personnel available as Lean / Six Sigma facilitators, part-time quality managers, and part-time lead auditors.  Now you have a cost effective solution using less than a full time quality staff that are available as need demands and you pay only for what you use.

Bizmanualz quality system services offer less stress for management using a working QMS to retain your ISO Certification.  Your management just reviews and approves actions on a scheduled basis.  Now that’s easy.

The Five Areas Bizmanualz can Help with Your Quality Management System

1. Policies, Procedures, and Forms Documentation Examples
2. Document Version Control and Management Software
3. 1^st and 2^nd Party Audit Support
4. Quality System Management Support
5. Continuous Improvement Support

Call us to find out how Bizmanualz can help you with your Quality Management System today.

A few — such as high-level, or corporation-wide — policies are designed to promote desirable consequences for an organization, as well as prevent undesired ones.  In this article, we’re going to stick with the first kind.  In any case, the best policies give everyone in the organization a sense of purpose and direction.  So…how do you write a good policy?

Undesirable outcomes are best solved by taking corrective action.  And how do we take corrective action?  Or, to put it another way, how do we develop good policies?

ONE – Describe the problem in clear, concise language.  Get several views of the problem — no one sees everything and everyone sees the same thing differently.

“Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report.
Run out and find me a four-year-old…I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
(Rufus T. Firefly, “Duck Soup”)

TWO – Once you’ve begun to understand the problem, delve into it further by looking for its root cause.  A commonly used tool for discovering root cause (because it’s simple, effective, and time-tested) is “5Y”, or “the five whys’”.  You know how children wear you down by continually asking you “Why?” (“Why?…Why?…Why?…Why?…”)  That’s sort of how you use “5Y” — you keep asking “Why?” until you’ve found the root cause of the problem.  It’s called “the five whys” because nearly all root causes are identified by the fifth “why”.

“You can look it up.” (Casey Stengel)

By then, it should be obvious that a one-time “quick fix” won’t  solve the problem.  The bigger challenge is how to keep the problem from recurring.  Well, that’s where policy comes in.  It’s a high-level look at the situation.  What are we going to do (or not do), what do we want to achieve (or avoid), and, most of all, why?

What happens when you tell your child, your spouse, or your coworker, “Just do it!”  First thing out of their mouths, of course, is “Why?”, as in, “Why should I do it?”  It’s a reasonable question, so why not answer the question before they ask? Doing so at the outset will save you countless (and sometimes massive) headaches.  When you get buy-in from stakeholders, your compliance rate goes way up.

THREE – A policy merely summarizes the corrective action system.  You might call it the “cornerstone” of a corrective action system.  The corrective action itself is the heart of the system, a system that follows the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” model:

• PLAN the corrective action;
• DO, or implement the action and collect data;
• CHECK the corrective action – see if the data prove that the corrective action is effective or not and if not, change what doesn’t work…or make changes because “good” isn’t “good enough”; and
• ACT – continue with the system unchanged, because it’s yielding the desired results, or implement the revised system.

In case you didn’t notice…document that corrective action process and – voila – there’s your procedure!

FOUR - Identify roles and responsibilities with respect to the policy.  Don’t just say “the company” or “we” (unless, of course, you’re dealing with a high-level policy, which we’ll get into at another time).  The last thing you want to hear is, “I thought you were going to do it!”

FIVE - Once you’ve developed a policy draft, have a reasonable number of stakeholders review it.  You might think those who are responsible for carrying out the policy and enforcing it have the greatest stake…and you’d be right, but you can’t overlook the other employees, including management.  No one’s working in a vacuum.  For instance, let’s say you’re working on a purchasing policy.  Give them time to make comments but make the end of the comment period absolute.  You can always change it – nothing, not even policy, is set in stone. Focus on continuous improvement, not delayed perfection, especially if it takes forever getting a policy “perfect”.

“Don’t worry about perfection — you’ll never achieve it.“ (Salvador Dali)

SIX – Revise the policy as needed and get Management’s approval – which should be easy, since you’ve had them involved in the policy-making process.  (You did get them involved, didn’t you?)

SEVEN – Not part of the development process, per se, but its logical conclusion: Distribute the policy, instruct your employees on it, and put it into practice. Do, check, and act.

You may have noticed that each of our Bizmanualz procedures has a policy statement.  Those are purposely vague because we don’t know our customers’ exact situations, requirements, or objectives. As we often say, “We’ve laid the foundation — you build on that.” Obviously, your policy statements can’t be vague.  Your employees need to know exactly what to do and why.

To quickly sum, you need to identify the problem, figure out what caused it, develop a system to prevent the problem from recurring (or lessen its likelihood) and enact it, and summarize that system in a policy statement.  And don’t forget — you need to review your policies regularly to ensure that they reflect the current and future state of your business, not what used to be.

One more thing…

“Have fun storming the castle!” (Miracle Max, “The Princess Bride”)

Document Map

A Document Map is an expanded SIPOC format.  Each row is an individual SIPOC flow representing the:

• Supplier ->
• Input (yellow) ->
• Process Step (light green) ->
• Output (blue) ->
• Customer

Effectiveness criteria and performance objectives are listed at the bottom.  Your effectiveness criteria represent your Key Performance Indicators (KPI), metrics, or measures for your process.  If you are planning on continuous improvement (to conform to ISO 9001) then you should identify your metrics and your performance objectives.

We have also introduced PDCA or Plan, Do, Check, Act structure to the process steps:

• “Plan” is performed as part of the prior “Act” step where credit criteria are determined.
• “Do” occurs when the sales person gets the order and starts entering it in the system, credit checks are performed and terms calculated.
• “Check” occurs when the credit issued is reviewed along with the credit criteria.
• And finally, “Act” occurs when new credit criteria are issued.

Bizmanualz Credit Approval Document Map

Document maps provide a lot of data detail but can be short on activity details.  Text based procedures are much better at depicting individual tasks and methods.  But we can also use an Activity Map.

Activity Map or Value Stream Map

Activity maps or Value Stream Maps are used in lean implementations to depict process tasks as single-piece flow and with as much detail as you can capture.  The whole purpose of an Activity Map is to capture enough information so that you can identify the tasks that are clearly adding value and those that are of questionable value.  Activity maps are helpful for architecting and organizing the text before writing a new procedure.

Each of the five activities in the Credit Approval process (figure 2.) are listed along the top row in light blue.  Next, an optional tally field totals the number of tasks below each activity (i.e. 4+1).  The first number represents the task total and the second number is the lean value-added (green tasks) total.  Then the person or department responsible for the activity is listed with a departmental color code.  And finally, the detailed tasks are shown, one per box.  Value-added tasks are color coded green, clearly wasteful tasks are coded red, and all the white boxes represent possible waste, or steps that can be eliminated through lean process improvement events.

Figure 2: Value Stream Map - Activity Map

Activity maps provide sufficient details for process improvement and can also be augmented with task timing data, which can be used to quantify time and cost savings.  All you need is a spreadsheet and you can start making activity maps.  Unfortunately, activity maps are just OK at training or communicating how a process works. Work flow diagrams are much better for training workers and communicating processes. We will discuss workflow diagrams and rendered process maps next week.

Continued in Part III (Work Flow Diagrams and Rendered Process Maps).

Now look at quality in light of behavior change.  What do you design and develop that causes behavior changes.  Certainly that would include teaching methods, but also the curriculum, course length, how the day is structured, homework, grading, extracurricular activities, grade levels, meals served, etc.

Consider a factory that makes a product.  The factory worker uses work instructions, methods, and tools to create the product.  The system the worker uses consists of these very same work instructions, methods, and tools.  Problems or defects with the product produced, as a result of these work instructions, methods, and tools, require changes to the system.  The product is not the work instructions, methods, or tools.  Seems obvious but, how would this work in education?

Let’s take a look at the teacher in a school.  The teacher uses work instructions, methods, and tools to create the product we call learning, just like a factory worker.  If the product produced (learning) has problems or defects (i.e. learning is not occurring as expected) then the teacher must change their work instructions, methods, or tools in order to decrease the defect rate and increase the quality of the product.  Teaching is to a school as working is to a factory.

There was a European study done in 1997 regarding the Application of ISO 9000 Standards to Education and Training.  Although it references the old ISO 9000:1994 standard instead of the current ISO 9001:2008 standard, it is still a worthy interpretation of ISO 9000 for education.

People Don’t Create Defects. Systems Do.

People use the system (made up of work instructions, methods, and tools) to create products.  Neither teaching nor working is the product.  They represent the system used to create the product.  The consumers consist of the students, parents, and society whom all consume or benefit from the learning.

The effectiveness of any system is a function of product flow.  Variations and defects obstruct the product flow causing rework, delays, and unsatisfied customers.  The work instructions, methods, and tools need to be aligned to deliver maximum learning at a maximal product flow (progression through the grade levels).  Effectiveness occurs when the two are aligned to produce the highest composite result.

Education Quality Basics

Purchasing – Think about art supplies, books, equipment, meals, sporting goods, or furniture.  If there are purchasing specifications that are important to learning than those items need to be controlled.  Do you have an obligation to provide safe and healthy meals?  What about sufficient supplies, equipment or furniture for learning?

Production & Service Provisions – Think about the work instructions or teaching procedures to ensure some type of consistency or uniformity.  How are these controlled, revised, distributed, and validated (how do you know they worked?).  Can you trace or track learning (or the lack there of) to a specific teaching method or event?

Customer Property – Think about what kids bring to school: coats, notebooks, books, supplies, etc.  Do you have an obligation to care for their property, provide lockers, or control access?  What do you do if an item is damaged or misplaced?

Control of Non-Conforming Product – A non conformance can be in the teaching methods, student behavior or performance, or purchased items needed for learning.  What do you do with broken furniture, equipment, or lockers?  What is your process for removing it from the learning process so that it does not hinder other students from learning?

Corrective Action – What is the process for monitoring, reviewing, and adjusting the learning system as a result of complaints, comments, or audit findings?  Each incident should be tracked, investigated and resolved.  A good complaint handling process is the best ways to instill a culture of continuous improvement in your organization.

Preventive Action – Do you review your methods and make changes BEFORE you receive complaints?  If you get a complaint your action is corrective, if you fix it before you get a complaint than its preventive.  So what are you doing to prevent complaints?

A class is like a manufacturing cell in a factory.  The batch size is the number of students.  But one class does not make a graduate.  A student must pass through numerous classes or manufacturing cells in order to come out an educated student.  How your students progress through the cells in your facility determines the learning effectiveness of your quality system.

Be Consistent with Corrective Action Terms

Let’s review, from an ISO 9001 perspective, how to handle resolving non-conformances and other problems, and discuss some common misconceptions.  First of all, we should make sure we clearly understand the definitions of the terms we use to discuss this facet of the improvement process.

Nonconformance: A requirement that is not fulfilled.

Correction: The action taken to eliminate or correct a detected nonconformance.

Corrective Action: The action taken to eliminate the cause of the nonconformance

Using these definitions, the first thing you might notice is that not all customer complaints should be considered nonconformances.  Not all customer complaints are due to nonconformity.

Not all Customer Complaints Call for Corrective Action

For example, you sell a computer application geared toward very experienced and knowledgeable users.  Someone who is not very knowledgeable buys the application, and then complains because they don’t understand how to use it.  Is that a nonconformance?  Probably not.  So perhaps no action is taken because there is no nonconformance.

But what if the same complaint occurs on a regular basis?  (Recall that we should be encouraging and analyzing feedback).  We may decide there is a nonconformance after all, but a sales or marketing nonconformance not a product nonconformance.  There should be a requirement that we clearly communicate what the product does and who the intended user is.  If we get regular complaints from people for whom the product was not intended, then that requirement is not being met.

The second thing that should be apparent from the definitions is the difference between correction and corrective action.  Correction is done to make an immediate fix of the nonconformance.  Corrective action is done to address the cause of the nonconformance so it does not reoccur.

Alternate Paths of Corrective Action

Once we decide that there is a nonconformance, there are actually two alternate paths an organization should follow when a nonconformance is found.  The first path is:

1. Correction
2. Analysis of cause
3. Corrective Action

The alternate path is

1. Analysis of cause
2. Correction
3. Corrective Action

Why the difference?  Because the situations surrounding a nonconformance are different.  Sometimes the correction or immediate fix is obvious and needs to be done right away.  For example, a customer was sent the wrong item.  We want to send the customer the right item immediately.  We don’t want the customer to wait while we investigate the reason that the wrong item was shipped.  Or, in another example, a jig was installed incorrectly on a metal stamp machine, and parts produced are defective.  Do we want to shut down production while we figure out why it was not properly installed?  No, we want to fix it and resume production first, then investigate the reason.

Sometimes the immediate correction that should take place is obvious, and there is no reason for delay.  Make the needed correction immediately.  That is when the first alternate path should be taken.

Other times, the immediate correction is not obvious.  If there is a problem in a complex computer program, for example, the immediate correction needed may not be apparent, and rushing to implement a fix before it is understood may cause more problems than it solves.  In such cases, correction should not take place until the problem is understood.  Here, the latter path should be followed.

Consider the Situational Factors for Corrective Action

The point is that there are situational decisions to make when employing the corrective action process.  While it is important to have a process to follow to deal with nonconformities, not all problems and nonconformities can be dealt with in the exact same way.  They need to be handled on a case by case basis.  If you routinely put every customer complaint or problem into the corrective action process, then you will likely overwhelm the corrective action process and it will not function properly when there are issues that need to be resolved through corrective action.

There are a few important points to reiterate.  First, correcting a problem is not taking corrective action.  Corrective action is when you analyze the problem to determine the cause, address the cause, and then, importantly, verify after an appropriate amount of time that the problem does not reoccur.

Second, correction and/or corrective action may not always be required.  This is especially true if the problem or nonconformance is identified as a special case that is rare and likely to never to reoccur.

Finally, either correction or corrective action may alone be sufficient.  Not every problem that needs correction requires corrective action.  For example, if the wrong item was shipped because both people who fulfill orders called in sick on the same day, then the cause is obvious.  And if it is determined that it was a rare occurrence not likely to happen again, then there is no need to address the cause.  On the other hand, sometimes a problem or nonconformance does not require a correction, but there is a need to investigate the cause and prevent reoccurrence.  Again, these decisions should be made on a case by case basis, depending on situational factors.

And remember, if a nonconformance occurred, then we are using the corrective action process.  Preventive action is taken to prevent a potential nonconformance that has not occurred.

In the next article, we will cover methods of analysis to determine the cause of nonconformance, commonly referred to as root cause analysis.

Finding Root Causes: Phase Four – Corrective Action Phase

The Corrective Action Phase is either about process re-design to address common cause variation, or it is about root-cause analysis to address special cause process variation.  Deming pointed out that about 85% of process defects are the result of common cause variation, so it is important to understand this concept.
All processes have variable output (not completely consistent).  The question to ask is, “Is the variation we experience common variation?”  In statistical terms we call this random variation.  (If it is not random then the variation has a special cause.)  This expected variation is really the capability envelope or capability range of the process.  If you are unsatisfied with the capability of a process, then the only solution is to make the process more capable through a process re-design.  The original design or documentation was done in Phase Two.  Phase Three, which we call Process Stability, is basically the check step for Phase Two, where you ensure the process’s capability and take action to improve it as necessary.

A Cycle of Continuous Improvement

In Phase Four of the process maturity scale we are tweaking the process design in a cycle of continuous improvements.  There are several methods you can use to accomplish this process improvement.  Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a design tool that can be used to understand and rank the customer’s needs, wants, and desires, which make up the basis of your value proposition.
Six Sigma uses a host of quality tools to manage the whole corrective phase.  DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) is the acronym for the Six Sigma process of corrective action.  But corrective action is internally focused on how we correct common or special causes of variation.  If we continue down this path we will eventually realize a diminishing return on our efforts, as we focus on smaller and smaller problems.
Once we start reaching diminishing returns (i.e. the investment of time and money needed to correct the problem outweighs the benefits gained) through correcting problems, the goal should be to move past the Corrective Action Phase.  We need to start thinking more externally and about what could go wrong, but hasn’t yet.  We are ready to employ tools used in the Preventive Action Phase:  Benchmarking, Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA), Design For Six-Sigma (DFSS), or Poka-Yoke.

Phase Five – Preventive Action Phase

The Preventive Action Phase is all about preventing defects and errors before they occur.  We need a really good system for customer feedback, benchmarking, and external data collection.  In addition, our employees need to be flexible, be willing to try something new, and be unafraid of mistakes or critical comments.

The organization as a whole should be spending more time on preventing defects than correcting them.  Management, however, has to be careful not to harvest the profits from all of our good work using job cuts (known as the Iron Law of Layoffs).  “When product quality is bad use quality engineers, when product quality is good lay off the quality engineers.”  If we lay off the quality engineers, then who is going to focus on problems that have not occurred yet?  After all, isn’t that why there are fewer defects?  Once you lay off the quality engineers then the defects will start coming back, and you have started a vicious cycle.
We may start to use Hoshin Kanri for strategy implementation and we may start new market development.  As we venture into uncharted waters, we are actually reentering Phase One again with new processes and methods.  Now we are back to the Reaction Phase.  The cycle is complete.

Implementing Effective Management Systems

Now we have discussed all five phases of management system maturity.  It starts out as reactive, moves into documentation, and then stability before we can really have corrective and preventive actions.  Yet, many companies try to implement it all at once and get overwhelmed, or they get stuck somewhere in the first two phases.  Few organizations are able to implement a truly effective management system of well-defined policies, procedures and processes.
Have you figured out which phase your organization is in?  If you are like many, you might think your organization is a composite of all of the phases.  This could mean that you are trying to do a little bit of everything.  Or maybe some of your processes are farther along than others.  Either way, it is a good idea to align the organization to the same goals and try to get all of your processes to the same maturity level.
Remember, you are only as strong as your weakest link.  It will be more important to have all of your core processes complete Phase Two, where all processes are documented and you began to keep important process records, than to have a collection of processes at different phases.  Your weakest process could hold the others back.
But that shouldn’t stop you from implementing your strategy now that you know how it’s done.  Step through the phases one at a time.  Do your best to get out of the reactive phase as soon as possible. If you need help, give us at Bizmanualz a call.  We can start with a simple Gap Analysis that will identify what where you are in your process maturity and clarify what your next step should be.  With a little help from a company like Bizmanualz, you could achieve the effectiveness you are looking for in your management system.

Collecting Management System Data: Phase Two – Documentation Phase

It is time to determine which processes are core to your business and which ones are subordinate or support processes.  To move past the Reactive Phase you must start to document your processes, start to write procedures, and think about more effective training.  Some teamwork is required because you need to agree on what your processes are:

• Where do they start and end?
• Who is the process owner?
• Who is really the customer or supplier?
• What is important or critical in terms of process success?

To understand your processes, you can start with a process map, build value stream maps, or write policies, procedures and work instructions that help create understanding about the process.  Of course, one concern is that creating a system of documented process could become an overblown bureaucracy, but the goal should be to keep it basic, and build on it as you go along.  It is easier to add critical pieces when identified to a basic process map than it is to simplify an overwrought process document or procedure.

As a starting point, we only need enough documentation to get the job done.  The intent of the documentation phase is to create operational definitions for your processes.  Well-defined processes have clearly identified suppliers, inputs, outputs, and customers (SIPOC). 

Policies, Procedures and Forms

Procedures define who does what, when, and where.  Work instructions explain how a particular task within the process is performed.  Forms are created, controlled, and distributed and should be re-enforced with training so that workers know how and when to use them.  Completed forms create the records that capture key process data – important information needed for improvement.

This is the beginning of a quality management system.  The intent of the Documentation Phase is to collect data (records) from your processes that you will employ in the next phases and lead to real improvement.  To move out of the Documentation Phase you will need to chart, trend and analyze your data.  Typical tools used to get out of this phase include Pareto charts, histograms, run charts, and SPC (Statistical Process Control), all critical pieces for phase three.

Separating the Common from the Special: Phase Three – Stability Phase

Now is the time that we need to start to think about continuous improvement with control charts in order to move through the Stability Phase.  Stability is how we want our quality management system to be characterized. Stabile processes allow us to drive real improvement. 

That’s because there are only two real actions you can take in process improvement.  The first is to make unstable processes stable (our goal for phases two and three), and the other is to make a stable process better (our goal for phases four and five), which is also referred to as improving process capability and results in shrinking the control limits of our stable processes. 

Data Analysis

In both cases we need data recorded (these are our ISO records) describing such things as process defects, process metrics (we also call these effectiveness criteria or key performance indicators) and of course process targets (could also be called our quality objectives derived from customer requirements).  As you can see the Stability Phase is all about data analysis, which is used to derive knowledge and wisdom from information.  Using this information we should be able to identify common cause and special causes of process variation.

Common causes result from the process design.  If we see common causes of failure then we need to redesign the process in question.  Special cause results from something identifiably or special occurring.  We need to isolate the identifiable cause and eliminate it using root cause analysis.  Using control charts we can ascertain whether either common causes or special causes of process variation are present and then take the appropriate actions.

To get out of the Stability Phase and move into the Corrective Action Phase we need to start using cause-effect, scatter, and fishbone diagrams as part of our root-cause analysis.  In lean we may use takt time to balance production lines or Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE, which could also be called manufacturing effectiveness).  In Theory of Constraints we look for the one constraint to flow.  Many quality tools are at our disposal.  The trick is in learning which one to use and in deciding which business process you should improve first.

You may recognize your organization as stuck in phase one or two, the two most common process maturity levels in many organizations.  Some organizations are able to advance farther up in management system maturity to the stability phase.  Moving up the process maturity chain can mean big organizational improvements.  As you gain process maturity, processes become more effective, and eventually more efficient as you focus on what customer’s value, thereby eliminating waste. 

Next week we will look at phase four – Corrective Action Phase and Phase five – Preventive Action Phase, and see why they are more difficult to reach.  Have you seen which phase your company is in yet?

How do you ensure your company doesn’t fall prey to the hype or the financial crisis and actually maintains — or even grows! — during this economic downturn? How can you use this time to focus and develop more sustainable customer relationships to increase your customer satisfaction or customer quality?

Those very questions are what our new article series at Bizmanualz aims to answer. We have created new Strategic Growth Web pages and article sections not only to help your company grow despite the economic downturn, but to help you grow strategically so that you can maintain that growth in an uncertain future.

So what can you do to ensure your company stays on top and pursues the right opportunities?

The areas of operational improvement we will be rolling out in several articles over the next months include: Quality Management, Value Proposition, Lead Generation and Quality Training. These are tools you need to grow.

Quality Management can mean a variety of things, but it centers on achieving your vision for your company. What is your growth strategy for your company, and what tools do you have in place to get there? Quality Management can start right now with a Gap Analysis to show you the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Your improvement process can be formal, such as implementing an ISO Quality Management System. Or it can be informal and start with whatever elements you have already identified for operational improvement.

The benchmark for all operational improvement should be customer quality, which comes from discovering your Value Proposition. A Value Proposition is simply a statement that captures the customers’ perception of what your company does that they value. What makes you unique among your competitors? Understanding customers’ perceptions of your company—and aligning your strategy to meet those perceptions—will lead to increased customer quality, the ultimate goal for any company.

Once you have established a Quality Management System and sharpened your understanding of your customers, what is left? Well, all that improvement should lead to increased sales and increased profit. That’s where Lead Generation comes in. You don’t want to waste time cold calling and selling to people who don’t want or need your products. Lead Generation uses what you have learned about your customer to create highly focused, customer-centric, often visual marketing campaigns. Creating a website with the right message—and proactively getting that message into your customers’ hands—means they will come to you, not vice versa.

So now you have established operational improvement, you have increased customer quality, and you are selling more. How do you make sure your company continues running at a high level? Quality Training enables continuous improvement throughout your company so that all of your employees are equipped to work smarter, reduce waste, and work more closely with customers. Regular Quality Training leads to an empowered workforce, buy-in across all levels, and continual improvement.

Over the next few weeks we’ll examine these topics in more depth and also offer advice on how to establish and maintain strategic growth using these tools, regardless of the current economic situation.

If you have any questions about any of these services, please contact us or visit our new Strategic Growth Services pages.

Due diligence means you are collecting the proper information and ensuring you are aware of all the relevant facts. As the term transparency implies, it means there is a degree of openness and honesty. The recurring theme of October’s articles illustrate how important due diligence and transparency can be to business success.

Manage Your Business Banking Relationship

Part of financial due diligence in operating a business is having a financial representative (i.e. Owner, CFO, Controller, Business Manager) meet regularly with a bank representative. Prior to the meeting, create an agenda of topic areas. These should include things like:

• Future financial needs for expansions or acquisitions, like lines of credit or loans
• Best use of cash accounts like sweep accounts to maximize return and minimize expense
• Short and long term investment options for a practical liquidity tree
• Use of merchant accounts

Plus, in these times it may not be a bad idea to discuss the bank’s liquidity and financial stability, especially if you have money in non-insured accounts. Be prepared to ask questions that require details, not unresponsive platitudes. The bank sure doesn’t hesitate to grill you about your business when the money flows the other way.

Read more about managing business banking relationships;

Is Sarbanes-Oxley Improving Corporate Governance?

Again we find ourselves in middle of economic turbulence due in a large part to a lack of business ethics and sound business practices. Without the necessary transparency and due diligence, lies and deception can go unchallenged, particularly when people are being dishonest with themselves.

But wait a minute! Wasn’t Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) supposed to put an end to all that? Aren’t public companies, financial or otherwise, supposed to have internal control systems in place as well as checks and balances to prevent unrealistic, overly optimistic projections and reporting? Obviously, though well-intentioned, SOX has not been as effective as it should be in preventing fraud, abuse, and intentional ignorance. Also, it apparently has not been successful at encouraging organizations to implement effective financial internal control systems and improve corporate governance.

Read more about whether SOX is improving corporate governance;

Managing Financial Strategy Means Business Success

A clear strategy and plan not only incorporates goals and the activities needed to reach these goals, but it also addresses risks. Obviously, the risk of handing out loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars without the proper due diligence and transparency was not accounted for in managing the financial strategies of those lending/financial organizations now failing or on the brink of failure.

Read more about Managing Financial Strategy;

On That Note;

Answer to this month’s question: Due diligence and transparency are important because being aware of the facts and avoiding deception (including deceiving yourself) can mean the difference between success and failure; between staying in business and going out of business. As the theme of this month’s articles point out, the current state of financial crises may have been avoided if those in charge of banks, lending institutions, regulatory offices, and even elected officials would have exercised appropriate due diligence and transparency.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments. Also, please let us know if you’d like any specific topic addressed in our future articles.

Regards,
Chris
Bizmanualz