Does Lean Apply to You?

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Walter McIntyre

Lean Applied to Non-Manufacturing Areas

I am assuming that most management employees have heard of Lean concepts as applied to manufacturing. At the same time, in my experience, most outside of manufacturing will say that Lean does not apply to them.

In nearly 40 years of professional life, I have found that some of the largest gains brought about by Lean are in the support areas of manufacturing, not in manufacturing itself. Manufacturing cannot be Lean without its support functions also being lean. Lean principles applied to IT, HR, Sales, Engineering and Logistics have a snowball effect on manufacturing and a business as a whole.

COPQ and COW

Let me introduce you to the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) and the Cost of Waste (COW). They are similar in scope and evaluated in the same way. COPQ leads to COW. Basically, to measure either, simply ask “What would change in the facility’s financial performance if everything was done perfectly correct?”

Consider the following within the context of the cost of poor quality:

What would the financial result be if we never had unplanned mechanical down time?
What would the financial result be if we never had unplanned IT related communication down time?
What would the financial result be if communication between Engineering and Operations was so tight that Engineering was able to always anticipate Operational problems before they happen?
What of Sales and Operation never miss-communicated?
What if we never hired the wrong person?

Before anyone gets defensive, understand that each of the considerations mentioned above involves cross functional communication, cooperation and accountability. This brings me to the most important step in the Lean journey to reaching our potential as an organization. The elimination of silos.

Silo

Silos divide an organization into independent operating groups with their own goals and objectives, that may or may not be in alignment with other operating groups. Silos sub-optimize an organization by creating competing objectives, poor interdepartmental communication, and interdepartmental conflict.

If you identify more with your department than the organization that contains the department, you are silo’ed. Where you are meeting your own departmental target metrics, you are probably not meeting the organization’s target metrics.

Things you hear and experience from a silo’ed organization:

That’s not my job, or that is someone else’s job.
It works fine, or looks fine here. (It is never fine, by the way, if it doesn’t work fine on the production floor.)
You have to go door to door (department to department) to get help.
Lack of a sense of urgency when the customer is at risk. (a customer can also be another department)

High Performance Teams

There is a adage that you hear in highly successful businesses, “When the ship sinks, everyone gets wet, even if it isn’t their fault.” High Performance teams have the following characteristics:

When things go wrong, or when the team thinks things might go wrong, everyone “runs to the fire” to see if they can help.
There is a sense of urgency to do better.
Individual and departments see their success as being intimately tied to the success of the organization as a whole.
It is easy to hold each other accountable, because it is about performance not personality.
Every individual in the organization can tell you where the organization is going and how their department and their own efforts are helping the organization be its best.

Be Your Best

Questions you need to answer to be the best you can be.

What kind of organization do you want to work for, the Silo’ed organization or the High Performance Team?
How well aligned are your objectives, your department’s objectives and the organizations objectives?
What can you do to facilitate needed change?

I know what I want and I believe that it is not that different from what you want.

The Importance of Listening Skills for Managers

Posted on July 29, 2017 by Walter McIntyre

The Importance of Listening Skills for Managers, by Jackie Edwards

Listening. Today, around 40% of employees do not feel valued or appreciated, and around 70% would be willing to accept an offer for another job or are actively looking. This issue stems from a difficulty in communication within the workplace which, as a manager, it is important to address.

While it is widely recognized that managers must be excellent leaders and problem solvers, a very important and often underlooked managing skill is also listening. This skill can make you a better and more effective manager; employees will strive hard to do their best for a manager who actively listens to them, leading to a more productive and motivated team. Here are our tips to help managers improve their listening skills.

1) Focus on Your Employees (and Avoid Electronic Distractions)

When an employee is trying to have a conversation with a manager, all electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets or computers are distractions. A manager may not realize this, but checking their emails during a conversation does not come off as respectful to the employee trying to convey a specific message. The speaker will probably feel unimportant and underappreciated and the manager might miss out on important information. Ditch the electronic devices to avoid distractions and focus your attention on the speaker.

2) Be Patient!

Even if you are dying to jump in and express your point of view, allow the person who is speaking to you to finish. It’s probably hard for the speaker to come in and start the conversation in the first place, and they may feel devalued if interrupted continuously. Listen quietly and express your views after the speaker has finished.

Furthermore, research has shown that managers that respond too quickly to statements made during meetings and discussions usually miss the point of what their employees are trying to say. When your employees have finished talking, repeat the key points back to them to make sure you’ve understood their message correctly and to reinforce it yourself.

3) Be an Active Listener!

Don’t focus only on the words that your employee is using; nonverbal cues can convey essential information if one knows how to read them. Look out for changes in intonation, volume, pace and flow and keep an eye on facial expressions and body language. All of these can be quite informative and reveal a lot.

4) Avoid Misunderstandings

We’ve talked about body language; just as you can gather information from the speaker’s body language, they can do the same by looking at you. Resist the temptation to roll your eyes, grimace or make a face.

Ask your employee to clarify if you really don’t understand what they’re trying to say and remain focused for the whole duration of the conversation. Selective hearing leads to misunderstandings as you hear only portions of what the speaker has said and you might miss important parts of the message.

An Effective Management Strategy

Remember, listening skills enable a manager to understand intentions and feelings of their team, an essential skill for team management. Your employees will be more open, positive and motivated if they feel they are being heard and will strive to do their best for the team.

The best managers don’t give orders; they are first of all excellent communicators, and effective communication starts with listening.

Objectives and Agendas

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Walter McIntyre

Whose Objectives are You Pursuing, by Walter McIntyre

Every person and every organization has objectives and a purpose. I am not speaking of the ones individuals profess or those an organization posts on their lobby wall. It is the ones you observe in action that count. These objectives, which are always related to an agenda, are not that hard to see and hear if you are paying attention.

I am fortunate to have been involved in leading a business turn around twice in my career. In both cases individual agendas and objectives were subverting the business’s success. In both cases, changing the focus of specific individuals, or removing the individuals from the business, became the turning point for business success.

You have to pay attention to what people say, and what they do, to see past the facade. To hear someone say they want to see certain business metrics improve, but their actions are about promoting themselves, is a dead giveaway. These folks will sub-optimize the business to accomplish their personal agendas.

It is a characteristic of highly successful individuals that they work hard to be the best at whatever they are doing. They move up the ladder by way of out-working and out-learning everyone else. They build a group of faithful followers who trust that the individual will give credit where credit is due and share in the benefits that success provides. They also take ownership of failures instead of blame shifting or excuses.

If want to build a successful organization, staff it with folks that share your vision and are willing to fulfill their own objectives by way of making the vision a reality. Avoid folks who are looking to promote themselves at the expense of others and the vision.

As for advice, I tend to avoid folks who are seeking a title or pay level. They tend to see the business as a means to an end. They check out as soon as they believe their agenda looks unattainable. Even though I have held the titles of COO and CEO in my career, I never sought them. They came as a result of working my tail off to make vision a reality and business successful.

Project Management Problem Solving

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Walter McIntyre

Project Management Problem Solving by Walter McIntyre

I hear the following a lot. “He (or she) is a good problem solver.” This is a great quality to have, but it is less than half the needed skill. It is better to be known for preventing problems. From both a time and cost prospective, a problem prevented is best, because solving a problem typically adds more time and money to a project, than a solid plan to avoid the problem in the first place.

In my current role I manage a project management team with a portfolio of between 40 and 50 projects. as Project Management Office team, we keep a list of problems we have encountered and spend a portion of our time each week developing plans to eliminate the problems from future projects. We address everything from scope creep, to time and cost overruns, to office politics, to known performance issues with specific groups and individuals.

The result has been a decrease in project cycle times, cost and defects. This, in turn, has increased the volume of projects the group can manage over time. Remember that successful project management means fulfilling the following:

What the customer wants/needs
On time
In budget
Defect free
Safely
Make a profit

We view each project from a value stream point of view. We even value stream map projects in advance, and update the map in the middle and at the end of the project. We can quickly tell what went right, and what didn’t, on every project. Using this information, we can build a control plan for project management.

So, don’t just be a problem solver. Be a problem eliminator.

Culture of Process Improvement

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Walter McIntyre

Cultural Aspects of Six Sigma Process Improvement by Walter McIntyre

Whatever the process improvement methodology used, when properly applied, it produces a change in a business’s culture. Outlined below are some behavioral changes necessary to sustain a customer focused process improvement effort.

View the business as an organization of processes:
• If you view the business as an organization of processes, then managing the business becomes managing processes.
• Processes are interrelated and, as a result, they interact with each other. Changing one affects the others.
• If the appropriate processes are in place, managing those processes is managing people. Not the other way around.

Data driven business decisions:
• Business acumen without data is ineffective.
• Data without business acumen is ineffective.
• Measuring the right things.
• If you are not measuring it, you are not managing it.
• If you are not managing it, you are at the mercy of chance.

Voice of the Customer:
• Customer focused: Recognize that business success depends on customer satisfaction.
• There is a line of site from the customer to each business process.
• Customers see our outputs differently than we do.
• What we value should be in alignment with what our customer’s value.

Continuous Improvement:
• If a business is not continuously trying to improve, other businesses are either closing the gap or passing them.
• Using data to see where improvements are needed and taking action to make the appropriate changes.
• Avoiding change for change sake. Change is good when data indicates a need for it.
• Changes are in alignment with corporate values.
• Change requires empowerment. Both require trust.
• Improvement strategy is focused upon changing the processes. Changing people is a leadership issue.

Employee Culture:
• People change as a result of leadership.
• Employees are the most valuable asset in the business.
• Employee empowerment is the engine that drives process improvement.
• Employees must “buy-in” to the cultural vision.
• Employees need to see leadership “buy in” to the cultural vision.

Listening and Speaking Skills

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Walter McIntyre

Listening and Speaking Skills by Walter McIntyre

A process improvement team is from the beginning a team of investigators. They investigate process performance by looking for improvement opportunities and the root causes of problems. All of us have seen detective programs on TV where a sleuth investigates a crime. They ask questions, listen, set up stakeouts, and eventually discover what really happened. Process improvement teams follow the same strategy. They ask questions, listen, and monitor processes. All of this to discover the root causes of process problems. An improvement team will use all four basic communication skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. These skills become the lubrication that allows a diverse group of team members to work through an improvement project successfully.

We are taught early and often in school to read and write while constantly being told, not taught, to listen. The result is that we are generally poor listeners. If you are not a good listener, you will miss much in life. In the case of a process improvement project, asking questions and listening will take up the bulk of your time. In fact, listening skills may be more important than your statistical prowess. Much of the contextual information surrounding a process will be obtained through interviews and simply listening to the “shoptalk” of process owners.

Here is an exercise to help develop listening skills. The next time you are at a group function like a party or meeting, try not talking about yourself. Instead, try to learn specific and detailed information about as many people as possible. This will require you to listen carefully and ask many questions. It will not be hard, because people like to talk about themselves. All you have to do is be quiet and listen. The next time you interact with these people, you will be in a superior knowledge position because you will know a great deal about them, but they will not know much about you.

Getting the support and resources necessary to move forward in an improvement project also requires well-developed speaking skills. This is because of the need to ask questions and to tell the process’ story. The best discoveries and ideas in the world are worthless if they cannot be expressed to others. Here is an exercise that will help improve speaking skills. The next time you have a presentation to make, videotape yourself giving the presentation beforehand. When you view and listen to it, you will see and hear what others see and hear when you are speaking. You will find that you neither look nor sound like you might have thought. With this visual and audio information, you can make adjustments and increase your chances of a successful outcome.

Additionally, successful public speaking involves subject matter knowledge, good diction, projection, and some knowledge of the target audience. All of these boil down to being prepared. You must know what message you want to deliver and what terminology your audience is used to hearing. You must also anticipate the questions that will be asked and what personal motivations will be in play. A prepared speaker will know how to answer these questions and what threshold of value will be needed to sell the audience members. This way, the presentation will speak with its own merits and not be held up by the skill of the presenter.

Good diction and pronunciation are a matter of practice and feedback. Listening to yourself and getting the feedback of a test audience will be of great value. As far as pronunciation goes, make good use of a dictionary. Don’t make the mistake of having your audience thinking about how you mispronounced a word rather than the merits of your business case. It is also a good idea to use words that you are comfortable using everyday. Trying to impress by using big words that are not generally part of your vocabulary will trip you up.

Projection involves two things: speaking loud enough to be heard without being too loud and speaking with conviction. You should know the layout of the room where the presentation is to take place and what audio or visual aids will be available. A strong confident voice will go long way to building and conveying conviction. Not sounding confident or being difficult to hear will be like blood in the water to the sharks that are looking for a reason to not provide the resources you need in order to be successful with your project.

Lastly, the knowledge of who your audience is and what their value prepositions are is critical. Do not forget that you are trying to motivate them to action on behalf of your project. This means that you will need to frame your presentation around their interests. A little research ahead of time before you build the presentation can give you this information.

All of the above is meaningless if you do not believe in what you are doing. Participating on an improvement team for political reasons is unproductive and can hurt your career rather than help it. People can hear conviction, or the lack of it, in your voice. Be engaged, be productive, and have fun with the process. Being a change agent is not easy. You will make friends and enemies. Do not confuse friends and enemies with allies. An ally is simply someone who shares a similar value proposition as you do. Much of your time will be spent building strategic alliances that can help your team succeed.

Government and History

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Walter McIntyre

Government and History by Walter McIntyre

Our current day politicians seem to want to berate Washington, our government and everyone that is there. Don’t be fooled, all of them are trying to become what they criticize, insiders. These naysayers have lost site of the importance of knowing and understanding history. Actually, they should be embracing the history and talent that resides in our nation’s capital. Many decisions that shaped our history, and the modern history of the world, were made by men and women, in desperate times, showing great courage from political office or appointment. There is much we can learn from them. The same cannot be said of any other city in the United States, or any demographic involving corporate headquarters.

The fact is, decision making in a business is simpler, the purpose of a business being mostly two dimensional. The bottom line business metric of profitability and taking care of a small demographic of stakeholders is the focus of a business. Government must consider all demographics, on shore and off shore. Government is about “We the people…” (All the people), business is about “we the stakeholders” (not all the people). You will never see “We the people…” in a corporate mission statement.

Decisions in government are multi-dimensional. What might help or solve one problem can create problems elsewhere, which can be a big problem for government and can impact the trajectory of would events. Business,on the other hand, may want to be disruptive to other businesses for their own benefit. It is a completely different paradigm.

Regardless of your political persuasion, don’t be fooled into following “want to be” leaders that are either ignorant of our history or or want to run the government like a business. History is the map we followed to get here and government is not a business. It is much messier, by necessity, than a business and must represent all demographics. It’s is the government “of the people, by the people, for the people”. That means all of us.

Voice of the Customer

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Walter McIntyre

Voice of the Customer by Walter McIntyre

Typically, there is not a single voice of the customer. They are fractioned into multiple groups, each with their own perspective. Each group may also have different voices in different circumstances.

For the Six Sigma team, identifying the customer involves more than collecting information about who is purchasing the business’s products or services. Those who purchase the products and services are just one of several customer groups. Some other classifications are internal supplier/customer hand-offs, customers of competitors, former customers, and potential customers.

Internal customers are those who are involved with supplier/customer hand-offs within the process. Even though these hand-offs are easy to see in a detailed process map, the process owner often overlooks them. By taking a process point of view, we capture all of these hand-offs and are able to measure how they ultimately affect the end user (customer) of the process. Six Sigma tools such as process mapping and SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers) maps are tools designed to capture these hand-offs. We will cover these tools later.

Your competitor’s customers are another important source of voice of the customer data. Some automobile companies, for example, send surveys to their competitor’s customers to learn why they made their choice. The surveyor can use this information to drive changes in products and services. The ultimate objective is to gain market share.

This leads us to substitute customers. These customers use substitute solutions to meet their needs. They can affect your business in one of two ways. They can use your products and services as a substitute for that provided by an indirect competitor. Conversely, they can use an indirect competitor instead of you. An example would be using a passenger train to travel instead of an airline or a rental car. All three of these business segments compete indirectly to provide the same service to the customer, transportation. These potential customers can provide an increase in market share achieved through market development rather than direct competition.

In short, there are many ways to view the voice of the customer. The process improvement team needs a high degree of thoroughness and creativity to collect pertinent and complete information about customer needs and wants. You must view your business or organization from the perspective of the customer. What do they see and feel?

Each group may also have different voices in different circumstances.

Operational Excellence Teams

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Walter McIntyre

Operational Excellence Teams by Walter McIntyre

In Operational Excellence, Innovation teams and production teams have different functions and purpose. They also have an area of overlapping responsibly. Both play a critical role in improvement efforts.

Production teams are typically made up of the production line employees, the doers, and have the responsibility to optimize the existing production process within existing SOP’s. They see the production process at the ground level, in fact, they experience it. It is this closeness to the work that makes their engagement so critical on a daily basis. Their’s is the domain of continuous improvement in small, but critical steps.

Innovation Teams operate outside the lines of the production environment. They are the dreamers, looking for stepwise improvements in performance by way of completely rewriting SOP’s, re-engineering existing processes, or creating new production processes. Their composition is more focused on engineering and financial metrics, and less on the actual nut and bolts that line employees must focus on.

Innovation and production teams need each other to succeed. Innovation teams need the production team’s product, customer and process domain knowledge to succeed. Without the doers there is no way to see if an innovation really works.

Production teams need innovation teams for more complex and cross functional problem-solving, and larger scale changes to the production environment. Innovation teams typically have technical and monetary resources beyond the capability of a production team.

Working together, production and innovation teams make up the continuous improvement effort that make operational excellence a reality. Bringing these two groups together is one of the Operational Excellence Manager’s more important duties. Building synergy, cooperation and engagement has the effect of lubricating the entire continuous improvement process.

Being Fearless

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Walter McIntyre

Being Fearless by Walter McIntyre

The lens we view the world through can lead us to incorrect and destructive decisions. Perspective is everything when we face difficult problems. It is the difference between being fearful or being fearless. This is true in our personal lives and in our professional lives.

If you are going to tackle the most difficult problems and opportunities at work, or face down Iife’s most trying events, you must move quickly from asking why the problem exists to what you are going to do about it. Not that the “why” is not important, just that it is only the beginning, not the end of successful resolution. Asking why is only a lens to see that the problem exists. Asking what we are going to do about it is a different lens that leads to action.

Making this change in lens, or perspective, allows you to be fearless in the face of tough problems. I am not the wisest or smartest person in the world, but I am fearless in the face of difficulties. It allows me to surround myself with people smarter than me, without feeling threatened. It allows me to give credit where it is due and to call out poor performance when needed. It doesn’t make you safe. It may do just the opposite.

You can’t always control what comes your way in life, or its seeming unfairness. What you can control is your response to these challenges. It is simple, when you don’t fear failure, you can dare to succeed.

Walter McIntyre Lean Six Sigma