The Big Question

Over the last few months we have witnessed a sizeable increase in activity and turnover. At the moment the increase is manageable. There is seemingly more work developing though which isn’t through any marketing efforts – it is purely from our reputation.

An increase like this is fantastic but it poses an issue. For example, when demand increases our resources need to coincide. So the question is, does the increase in activity represent a spike or is it a new normal?

Should we continue working harder temporarily or should we recruit? Add the fact the recent economic conditions have distorted our historical data and you get a less than clear picture from our statistics.

To compound the issue we have limited information on new accounts (gained in the last year) to analyse their trends. Perhaps we should just ditch the analysis and do something old-fashioned like rely on instinct?

My Fault, I Did It

Last week I wrote about implementing 5S and bringing problems to the surface. This week we discussed it at our monthly management meeting and it led to a much deeper conversation about our approach to mistakes.

Now, in an ideal world there would never ever be a mistake by anyone, anywhere. However, we are all human and occasionally we have to accept that introducing a new process and growing a business will possibly lead to a mistake occurring.

I personally believe the way we deal with mistakes as individuals and as an organisation is what really makes a difference in our development. It is all too easy to create a blame culture or defensive attitudes.

In contrast, creating an environment where people can hold up their hand and openly admit something went wrong without fear or blame is something I want for DrivenByQ. The reason is ultimately that culture will develop to excellence.

Muda To The Surface Please

Most people are familiar with the term ‘mass manufacture’. Henry Ford was a pioneer in implementing the production line and achieving economies of scale. However, I am not sure if as many people are as familiar with ‘lean manufacture’? Since the 1970s Toyota has been associated with its increasing popularity.

After reading ‘The Machine That Changed The World’ I became aware of lean and the effects it had in reducing costs, improving quality and enhancing performance. Terms like ‘Just-In-Time’, ‘Kaizen’ and ‘Right First Time’ have a lot of deep theory and cultural changes behind them.

Part of the ‘lean’ approach involves a practice called 5S. The five parts are Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardise and Sustain. Implementing 5S can reveal waste (or Muda) by bringing problems to the surface so they can be examined, understood and eliminated.

Our new Duty Manager System has increased our admin work and some errors have occurred. The most important thing here is to encourage the admitting of mistakes when they happen. Only then can we find solutions which standardise our approach and ensures the same mistakes cannot happen again.

Management Philosophy

When I was younger, the first time I recall someone having a business strategy was watching the BBC Trouble Shooter series with Sir John Harvey Jones. I was hooked on his objective insights and the improvements he made to businesses.

 

Later in life, I studied manufacturing and became aware of strategies in the automotive industry. ‘The Machine That Changed the World’ was a book by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which introduced ‘The Toyota Way’.

 

Of the fourteen principles in the Toyota Production System one is Heijunka. It means work levelling. It is something we have previously tried implementing to reduce response times when processing customer information.

 

Finally with our new Duty Manager system it seems Heijunka is working for us. In hindsight all we needed was to think bigger and bolder in the implementation. With it in place we can go further and implement the 5S philosophy.