Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Chicken or the Egg: Six Sigma and Lean - By Joseph A. De Feo

Companies debating the relative merits of these practices should instead learn to combine both.......

How many times have you heard, “Lean is in and Six Sigma is out” from a colleague? The funny thing about this is that I used to hear the same thing 23 years ago. Only then it was, “Lean is in, and quality improvement teams are out.” Little has changed since then.

 Everyone is looking for a simple answer to cost reduction and quality improvement. My biggest concern, and it should be yours, is that both are needed, not one or the other. It is not about which came first, or which is better or even easier. It is about what problem your organization is facing today. Do you have customer dissatisfaction, product or service complaints, defects, high cost of failure? Or are you trying to improve speed and throughput, and reduce cost of waste? These are the questions one needs to ask before arguing about whether to use lean or Six Sigma.

Organizations have a number of methods available to deal with process and performance problems. Six Sigma and lean have become two of the most widely recognized and effective methods for creating breakthrough improvement. Both have evolved from the basis of prior methods, such as Joseph M. Juran’s universal sequence for breakthrough quality improvement, Walter A. Shewhart’s and W. Edwards Deming’s plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, and Toyota’s specialized focus on driving out waste. Lean and Six Sigma both take different approaches in the quest for greater effectiveness, efficiency, and cost reduction.

Six Sigma: improvement by putting customers first – Focus on Defect Reduction:

The quality improvement methods on which many Six Sigma projects are based—define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) and define, measure, analyze, design, verify (DMADV)—focus on identifying and meeting the needs of customers first, and the organization or business second. In this way, revenues increase and costs decrease, improving results.

Lean, by contrast, is the process of optimizing organizational systems by eliminating or reducing the “waste” within them. Anything that does not offer value is considered waste. Lean methods and tools can provide significant improvements in organizational efficiency. During the past decade, lean has experienced a rebirth in manufacturing-based industries, as well as service- and health care-based organizations. Lean is not a replacement for Six Sigma or vice versa. It focuses on different problems. It is typically an internally focused means of cost reduction. It is badly needed but should work in concert with a systematic Six Sigma practice.

More than just a formal program or discipline, Six Sigma has become an operating philosophy that can be shared beneficially by everyone: customers, shareholders, employees, and suppliers. Fundamentally, it is also a customer-focused methodology that drives out customer dissatisfaction, raises levels of quality, and improves the financial and time performance of organizations to breakthrough levels.

The term “Six Sigma” means to attain a target for quality that is close to perfection, to achieve 3.4 defects, errors, or mistakes, whether that involves the design and production of a product or a customer-oriented service process.

Many large organizations have experienced great success employing Six Sigma and lean Six Sigma methods. Today, many organizations combine lean and Six Sigma as their improvement methods of choice. These methods help both traditional manufacturers of goods, as well as producers of services and information, to improve their bottom lines and increase customer satisfaction.

Lean: improvement by waste reduction:

Lean in particular is based on creating a “pull system” to produce faster, rather than the traditional “push systems” used by most organizations. One of the main goals is to always pull from the customer demand, not push to the customer.

Lean methods and tools have made their way into most industries. A method that was used in manufacturing to reduce waste is now used to improve cycle time, flow, and velocity, improve workplace department performance, and reduce waste in hospitals, insurance companies, and financial services. Value-stream mapping is another important lean tool. It maps and documents all the tasks (material and information flow) and the metrics associated with them (cycle time, costs) within a process, including inherent waste. This provides the guidance to select the right problems and solve them as process improvement projects. There is a standardized approach and set of tools, such as rapid improvement events or kaizen (a Japanese word for “improvement”), to attack embedded wastes and increase the velocity of a process. Improving velocity exposes the problems—or waste—so that they can be eliminated, thereby making the processes faster, better, and cheaper.

6S (actually called 5S, but we add one more S for safety) is an abbreviation for “sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain, and safety.” It’s a lean tool for achieving a highly effective workplace that is clean, well-organized, and standardized to enable all employees to perform to the best of their ability. The benefits of an efficient workplace include prevention of defects, prevention of accidents, and elimination of time wasted searching for tools, documentation, and other elements to produce goods or services.

One key component of being lean is the need to create “value” as seen from the eyes of the customers. The operational definition of value is the benefit the customer gains from using the product or service. Value is created by the customer. Providing value to the customer is why the producer exists. Lean starts with defining value in terms of products or services and customer benefits provided at the right time at an appropriate price. Anything that does not provide value to the customer can be considered waste.


Lean Six Sigma: the chicken-or-egg phenomenon

In the Six Sigma methodology, the two primary methods are DMAIC to improve processes and products, and DMADV to help ensure that products and processes function well starting with the voice of the customer through to the delivery of goods.
The DMAIC steps are:
  • Define the problem as clearly as one can (for DMADV, define the design goals).
  • Measure the current level of performance and the voice of the customer.
  • Analyze collected data to determine the causes of the problem or the failures of existing designs.
  • Improve by selecting the right solutions to solve the problem or create new designs.
  • Control to hold the gains, for both the improved process or newly designed goods/services.

Organizations worldwide are continuously under pressure to control costs, maintain high levels of safety and quality, and meet growing customer expectations. This improvement process has been adopted by many large organizations, like Samsung Electronics, GE, and smaller organizations like Molex (electronics), A. Schulman (plastics), J. R. Simplot (food processing), and Highmark (insurance) to name a few.

“Lean Six Sigma” is quite simply the integration of lean and Six Sigma methodologies. Lean’s focus on efficiency, and Six Sigma’s  focus on effectiveness can lead to faster results than either method applied independently of the other.



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Thirteen Fundamental Truths Related To Quality

The Quality Guru Mr. H. James Harrington speaks:
(He documented these in 1986 and still they are true whether we implement ISO 9001 or TQM or Six Sigma).

Back in 1986, I documented a list of 13 fundamental truths that applied to all organizations.

I ran across these statements recently when I was looking for some comments made by a past IBM president that I wanted to use in a new book I am writing. As I thought back over the past 25 years, I realized that as quality professionals, we have spearheaded a lot of new approaches: total quality management (TQM), ISO 9001, ISO 14000, lean, Six Sigma, business process improvement, process reengineering, knowledge management, organizational change management, theory of constraints, and many more.

But to my surprise, there has still been no change in the fundamental truths I wrote about 25 years ago. Even the latest trend, innovation, was incorporated in the fifth truth.

The following are the 13 fundamental truths as defined in 1986:

1. All organizations, companies, divisions, sections, departments, units, teams, and projects  should have a documented mission that links them into a chain that holds the
    organization together, keeping it directed at pulling in all the potential customers that
    they can handle.

2. All processes should have a defined customer whose needs and expectations are
    understood and are being met.

3. No process is so good that it can’t be improved, although some processes need more
    improvement than others.

4. There is always a better way of doing everything.

5. The greatest competitive advantage is knowledge that leads to innovation.

6. People who understand why they do something, do it better and faster.

7. When something gets measured, it gets attention.

8. There is a direct correlation between internal customer satisfaction and external
     customer satisfaction.

9. Every organization has an obligation to provide value to the people that invest their hard- 
    earned money and time into the organization.

10. Expending resources related to the organization’s employees is an investment, not a
      cost.

11. The elimination of waste is everyone’s job.

12. Management needs to set the example and walk the talk.

13. Each individual needs to be sure that his or her suppliers understand what are needed
       and not ask for things that won’t be used.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Simple, Brilliant, Mistake Proofing at the Amazing In-N-Out Burger --- by Mark Graban


A little help for the not-so-common sensible:

I was in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and I had a little extra time on my way to the Burbank airport, which meant a rare treat—lunch at the famed In-N-Out Burger. I don’t mean to be that guy who tweets what he eats, but my lunch is pictured at right.
 
The main picture I wanted to share is a simple example of perfect mistake-proofing (aka error proofing or “poka-yoke”). There is a possible customer error that could be made in many fast-food or deli restaurants: throwing the reusable tray into the trash bin.

Ineffective organizations post signs, warning, and exhortations. Smart organizations plan for mistake-proofing. Here is the error proofing—the hole that you throw your wrapper, cup, and food waste into is round and smaller than the rectangular reuseable tray.


I didn’t really fight or shove the tray while staging this photo, but it was clear that the tray would not fit into the round hole. Problem prevented : It is physically impossible to trash the tray.
 
Yes, I know you’re not supposed to throw away the tray. I think this is obvious to most customers.
In comparison, most Quiznos restaurants merely admonish the customers with signs saying, “Please Do Not Throw Away Baskets.”
 
The Quiznos tray fits into the trash hole (which is huge). I wonder how many trays they lose.
 

Does Quiznos really believe that its customers think the hard plastic trays are disposable? If you do accidentally drop the tray into the dirty trash and food scraps, are you likely to want to retrieve it? I suppose I could have titled this story, “Quiznos Thinks You Are Dumb,” but of course that isn't true, they are just shifting the mistake proofing onto the customer rather than deal with it themselves.
 
If Quiznos had followed In-N-Out's lead of mistake proofing the trash, they could have filled that high-visibility space with a “Thank You for Your Business” message.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Grow the Bottom Line With (VoC) Voice of the Customer Research - by Laura Pattersons


Only 57% of large North American firms have a formalized Voice of the Customer (VoC) program, according to a 2010 study by the Temkin Group.

The premise of VoC is that if you collect and analyze customer data, you can transform an organization into a truly customer-centric operation by taking action based on your findings.

VoC is a market research technique designed to help a company better understand customers' wants and needs and prioritize those concerns (by importance and satisfaction level with current alternatives) to positively affect the customer experience.
 

When executed well, a VoC program enables you to acquire business insight about customers and what is important to them. You can then use that information to enhance the customer experience.
 

Maybe it seems obvious why it's important to have such information. But if it were so obvious, more companies would be deploying a VoC program. So what are the business benefits to making this type of investment of time and money?

Forrester finds that a better customer experience drives improvement in three types of customer loyalty:

  •    Willingness to consider another purchase.
  •     Less likelihood of defecting to a competitor.
  •     Likelihood of recommending to a friend or colleague.
Improvements in those areas directly affect a company's bottom line as a result of incremental purchases by customers, lower churn, and new sales from referrals.
 

Once you decide to move forward with a VoC study, the question to consider is this: What do we ask? Typically, VoC studies are designed to learn the answers to these kinds of questions:

  • What are your customers saying about your company, brand, or product/service?
  • Where are they saying it?
  • How do your customers feel about your company, brand, or product/service?
  • How does that affect their intent to buy?
  • Why do they feel the way they do, and what is the root cause of their sentiment?
  • Are there differences among different types of customers? If so, what are they, and which customer segments?
  • Who or what influences your customers' perceptions and feelings?
  • What are your customers' needs, wants, desires, and intentions? How do these relate to your company, brand, or products/services?
  • What are your customers saying and feeling about your competitors? How well do the competitors meet their needs, wants, and desires?
Though many VoC studies are qualitative, they should ideally consist of both qualitative and quantitative research steps. VoC research is typically more than a customer satisfaction study, which is designed to measure how an organization's products and services meet or surpass customer expectations.

VoC research should enable you to make customer-focused decisions.
 

To succeed with your VoC studies, you'll need, at a minimum, these two things:

  •     A robust VoC process.
  •     Properly trained people to implement the studies.
One of the challenges of analyzing the results of a VoC study is that customer voices are diverse. Most organizations—even those that work in only one market—have multiple customer voices, such as the voice of the procuring organization, the voice of the user, and the voice of the supporting organization. Those diverse voices must be considered, reconciled, and balanced during the analysis of the study. One technique for doing so is to set, in advance of the study, different priority ratings associated with each customer voice.
 

The next question often raised is this: How many customers do we need to talk with? Though there is no hard-and-fast rule—because the number depends on the complexity of the product, the diversity of the market, the use of the product, and the sophistication of customers—experts suggest that you can capture 90-95% of your customer needs by speaking with 20 customers.
 

Your first source of information, if you are trying to address your current market, should be current customers. But it is also a good idea to talk with prospective customers, especially if you're hoping to address a new market. (And I often recommend talking with competitors' customers.) Use ranking and paired comparisons to aid in prioritizing customer needs.
 

Remember, the ultimate objective of a VoC initiative is to understand how satisfying a particular need influences the purchase decision.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

OHSAS 18001:2007

OHSAS 18001:2007 is the International Occupational Health and Safety Management Standard.

The revised version was published in July 2007, superseding OHSAS 18001:1999, and is intended to address occupational health and safety (OH&S) rather than product safety in the organization.

OHSAS 18001 provides a framework to the effective management of OH&S including compliance with the legislation that applies to your activities and identified hazards.
 
Who is OHSAS 18001 applicable to?
 
The standard is applicable to any organisation that wishes to eliminate or minimize risk to employees and other stakeholders who may be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its activities.
 
Many organizations will have elements required by OHSAS 18001 already in place which can be supplemented to provide a more cohesive management system to meet the requirements of the standard.
 
Organisations that implement OHSAS 18001 have a clear management structure with defined authority and responsibility, clear objectives for improvement, with measurable results and a structured approach to risk assessment. This includes the monitoring of health and safety orf the employees, reporting of incidents / accidents, learning lessons for preventions in future, auditing of performance and review of policies and objectives.
 
What are the benefits of OHSAS 18001 registration?
  • Customer satisfaction - through delivery of products that consistently meet customer requirements whilst safeguarding their health and property.
  • Reduced operating costs - by decreasing down-time through incidents and ill health and reducing costs associated with legal fees and compensation.
  • Improved stakeholder relationships - by safeguarding the health and property of staff, customers and suppliers.
  • Legal compliance - by understanding how statutory and regulatory requirements impact the organization and its customers.
  • Improved risk management - through clear identification of potential incidents and implementation of controls and measures.
  • Proven business credentials - through independent verification against recognized standards.
  • Ability to win more business - particularly where procurement specifications require OH & S certification as a condition to supply.
How to gain registration?
 
The process of registration follows six steps similar to the ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System
:
  • Application for registration is made by completing the OHSMS questionnaire.
  • Documentation is prepared for approval  by the certifying body.
  • After documentation is approved, the people implement the same in the organization.
  • The implementation is evaluated by an internal audit and non-conformities are discussed in management review meeting to ensure timely corrective action.
  • Assessment to OHSAS 18001 is undertaken by certifying body. - this consists of two mandatory visits by the certification body.
  • Certification is granted by the certifying body after a successful on-site audit.
  •  Maintenance is confirmed through a programme of regular internal audits,  annual surveillance visits and a three yearly re-certification audit.
Initial Certification Audit by certifying body:

Stage 1 - 

the purpose of this visit is to confirm the readiness of the organisation for full assessment. The assessor will:
  • confirm that the documented OH&S management system conforms to the requirements of the standard
  • confirm its implementation status
  • confirm the scope of certification
  • check legislative compliance
  • produce a report that identifies any non-compliance or potential for non-compliance and agree a corrective action plan if required
  • produce an assessment plan and confirm a date for the Stage 2 assessment visit.
Stage 2 - 

the purpose of this visit is to confirm that the OH&S management system fully conforms to the requirements of OHSAS 18001 in practice. The assessor will:
  • undertake sample audits of the processes and activities defined in the scope of assessment.
  • document how the system complies with the standard.
  • report any non-compliances or potential for non-compliance.
  • produce a surveillance plan and confirm a date for the first surveillance visit. 

If the assessor identifies any major non-conformance, the organisation cannot be certified until corrective action is taken and verified.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Key Lean Concepts

www.aiqmindia.com

Continuous Flow:

Producing and moving one item at a time (or a small and consistent batch of items) through a series of processing steps as continuously as possible, with each step making just what is requested by the next step. It is also called one-piece flow, single-piece flow, and make one, move one.

This is the PULL system invented by Toyota. Previous section (process) will not produce
till the next internal (or external customer) demands.

Jidoka:

Providing machines and operators the ability to detect when an abnormal condition has occurred and immediately stop work is known as Jidoka. This enables operations to build-in quality at each process and to separate men and machines for more efficient work. Jidoka is one of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System along with just-in-time (pull system). Jidoka is sometimes called autonomation i.e. combination of ‘autonomy’ + ‘automation’.
i.e. The machine has the freedom (autonomy) to stop the process automatically.

Just-in-Time (JIT) Production:

A system of production that makes and delivers just what is needed, just when it is needed, and just in the amount needed. JIT and jidoka are the two pillars of the Toyota Production System.

Kaizen:

Continual improvement of an entire value stream or an individual process to create more value with less waste is called kaizen. There are two levels of kaizen: (1) System or flow kaizen focuses on the overall value stream and (2) process kaizen focuses on individual processes.

Kanban:

A signaling device that gives authorization and instructions for the production or withdrawal (conveyance) of items in a pull system is termed Kanban. It is the Japanese word for sign or signboard.

Lean Production:

A business system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, and customer relations that requires less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products with fewer defects to precise customer desires, compared with the previous system of mass production.

Lean production was pioneered by Toyota after World War II and, as of 1990, typically required half the human effort, half the manufacturing space and capital investment for a given amount of capacity, and a fraction of the development and lead time of mass production systems, while making products in wider variety at lower volumes with many fewer defects. The term was coined by John Krafcik, a research assistant at MIT with the International Motor Vehicle Program in the late 1980s.

Lean Thinking:

A 5-step thought process proposed by James Womack and Dan Jones in their 1996 book Lean Thinking to guide managers through a lean transformation.

The steps are:

1.    Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer.
2.    Identify all the steps in the value stream.
3.    Make the value creating steps flow toward the customer.
4.    Let customers pull value from the next upstream activity.
5.    Pursue perfection.

Obeya:
Obeya in Japanese means simply “big room.” At Toyota it has become a major project management tool, used especially in product development, to enhance effective and timely communication. Similar in concept to traditional “war rooms,” an Obeya will contain visual charts and graphs depicting program timing, milestones and progress to date and counter-measures to existing timing or technical problems.  Project leaders will have desks in the Obeya as will others at appropriate points in the program timing.  The purpose is to ensure project success and shorten the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle. 

Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA):

An  improvement cycle based on the scientific method of proposing a change in a process, implementing the change, measuring the results, and taking appropriate action. It is also known as the Deming Cycle after W. Edwards Deming who introduced the concept in Japan in the 1950s.

The PDCA cycle has four stages:

1.    Plan: Determine goals for a process and needed changes to achieve them.
2.    Do: Implement the changes.
3.    Check: Evaluate the results in terms of performance.
4.    Act: Action to remove the root causes for non-conformities.

Production Lead Time (also Throughput Time and Total Product Cycle Time):

The time required for a product to move all the way through a process from start to finish. At the plant level this is often termed door-to-door time. The concept can also be applied to the time required for a design to progress from start to finish in product development or for a product to proceed from raw materials all the way to the customer.

Takt Time:

It is the available production time divided by customer demand. For example, if a widget factory operates 480 minutes per day and customers demand 240 widgets per day, takt time is two minutes. Similarly, if customers want two new products per month, takt time is two weeks. The purpose of takt time is to precisely match production with demand. It provides the heartbeat of a lean production system.

Takt time was first used as a production management tool in the German aircraft industry in the 1930s. (Takt is German for a precise interval of time such as a musical meter.) It was the interval at which aircraft were moved ahead to the next production station.

The concept was widely utilized within Toyota in the 1950s and was in widespread use throughout the Toyota supply base by the late 1960s.  Toyota typically reviews the takt time for a process every month, with a tweaking review every ten days.

Toyota Production System (TPS):


The production system developed by Toyota Motor Corporation to provide best quality, lowest cost, and shortest lead time through the elimination of waste. TPS is comprised of two pillars, just-in-time production and jidoka. TPS is maintained and improved through iterations of standardized work and kaizen, following the scientific method of the plan-do-check-act cycle.

Development of TPS is credited to Taiichi Ohno, Toyota’s chief of production in the post-WWII period. Widespread recognition of TPS as the model production system grew rapidly with the publication in 1990 of The Machine That Changed the World, the result of 5 years of research led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The MIT researchers found that TPS was so much more effective and efficient than traditional, mass production that it represented a completely new paradigm.

 
Value Stream:

All of the actions, both value-creating and non value-creating, required to bring a product from concept to launch and from order to delivery. These include actions to process information from the customer and actions to transform the product on its way to the customer. 

Value Stream Mapping (VSM):

A simple diagram of every step involved in the material and information flows needed to bring a product from order to delivery. A current-state map follows a product’s path from order to delivery to determine the current conditions. A future-state map shows the opportunities for improvement identified in the current-state map to achieve a higher level of performance at some future point. 

Waste:

Any activity that consumes resources but creates no value for the customer is considered waste.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Interpersonal Skills – Good Boss

by Archna Khurana Sharma
 
So you have got your promotion, moved up the ladder, have a larger team to handle now – well many congratulations to you. But the question is, are you prepared for such a role right now? With the skills you possess, the knowledge you hold and the great insights you have, are you able to encompass interpersonal skills and pay heed to the needs of your team? or allow me to  put it this way- Do you have the appropriate interpersonal skills to become a good boss?

As we move up the ladder we believe that all the things that we have acquired so far along with all the success will continue to foster further success in the future as well, though this might not be the case always. With growing success and positions we need to cultivate certain behaviors or skills which will help us in managing the large work force with a high success ratio.

We have had enough discussions on bad bosses, bosses who abuse; as they are the legends of the game :)…but why not for a change talk about those who played a key role in making us what we are.

I have been fortunate enough to have some good bosses too, and will share some of the experiences with you all.

Here is a Story: I met Patrick during the interview, immediately after the first meeting we both decided to work together, the jellying was such that the enthusiasm could be seen in the eyes. Even when we were in a different locations (he was placed in Germany (HQ) and I was in India), he made sure that the learning curve grew consistently over a period of time. He never interfered in any of my decisions but made sure that I did an analysis of all the pros and cons; helped me in understanding global HR practices, so that I could prosper in the company. With high EQ, he taught me to empathize with people and then reconsider decisions, policies and procedures. He was truly a people’s person - humble and very popular amongst all the employees in various regions as he was the Director HR Asia Pacific.

Similarly, have you ever considered what are the qualities you appreciated in your ‘good’ boss? In order to inculcate the same in yourself just enlist them and start working. Some of these are:

Communication skills: As a boss how you interact with team members can be seen from your communication skills and it could either make or break the interpersonal relations. The tone, pitch and choice of words can easily express the behavior and interpersonal skills. Special emphasis on honing listening skills is empirical to be successful with people around you. Team members want to know if they are being heard.

High on EQ (Emotional Quotient) : In order to progress, one must have shown all the intellectual skills with consistency, now is the time when one needs to sharpen the skills of being a people’s person, and the best way out is empathy and genuineness. Think from their viewpoint, what would be best for them and also for the company. Provide solutions keeping in mind the team member’s welfare and growth. Appraise them- just a pat on the back may be, or occasionally sitting with them and having lunch, just like Mr. Adi Godrej started taking lunch once in a week in the Company’s cafeteria with all the employees.

Proper delegation : Delegating the right amount of authority with responsibilities is actually an art, and very rarely are people connoisseurs of this art. It only comes when the Manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of his/her team members properly, and then delegation happens with appropriate skills. Practice also makes people perfect in the art of delegation, initially there are times that one might not get the desired results and make mistakes but it does not mean that the chosen one is not the right person for the assigned work. Give them another chance and then rate them on the scale of success.

Cheering :  Encouraging taking of initiatives, thinking out of the box and every time you have given an idea instead of refuting it down (S) he ensured that you understood the repercussions and then decided to go ahead with those ideas. Cheering reflects the vision of a person, how he plans to take his team ahead and thinks about their growth path and succession planning too. As I say, a compliment a day can make your employees happy and gay!

Decision Making : Though it has been talked about in delegation, but we will deal with it as another interpersonal skill required in a ‘good’ boss. They not only take good decisions themselves with people’s participation but also inculcate the same in their teams as well. Learning comes from trial and error and such bosses will always encourage taking some ‘not so good’ decisions too, although not at the stake of their business.

Less Interference : Personally, I really liked this in my boss that he hardly ever interfered in my work areas, however he taught me a lot, and still he used to manage to keep himself away from many things which now a days is a difficult task for some insecure managers/bosses or the legends referred to as the ‘bad’ bosses.

Sense of humor : One should know how to keep healthy humor flowing in the team, with some witty remarks, sometimes sharing of anecdotes and good jokes. While giving feedback to the team one should always keep some humor handy so that things can be handled positively.
Interpersonal skills depend a lot on your intra-personal skills! So make a preference and instill these aforementioned qualities and skills in yourself and who knows you may end up being the next ‘GOOD’ BOSS!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Unification: The Key to Improving Organizational Culture by Angelo Lyall - Canada


In 1776 Adam Smith claimed that the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what’s best for themselves.

During the early 1950s, John Forbes Nash revised Adam Smith’s claim and stated that the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what’s best for themselves and the group. It took us 174 years of examination to realize that an individual in a group often attains the best possible outcome for himself not by a segregated pursuit of the outcome, but through a unified sense of purpose and a cooperative effort for accomplishing it.

Let it not be another 174 years until we understand the cultural implications of this claim for organizations and the people that they are composed of.

Establishing a desired culture within an organization is a complex task. The call for mass cohesion requires an individual not to set aside her personal pursuits, but to realize that a unified effort in which all members share and pursue a single organizational purpose will bear the best individual result. It is the responsibility of organizational leaders to define and communicate purpose to their executive and management teams so that they may be further communicated to front-line staff members. This is why sharing of top management’s vision with employees is very important through the use of a ‘quality policy’ or a ‘vision statement’.

The worlds of music and athletics have known this, even if only intuitively, for centuries. In music, one conductor of an orchestra may consistently elicit a superior performance compared to another conductor, even though they are given professional instrumentalists of equal skill level. What is it that one conductor does that makes the performance noticeably better than the other? The answer is simple yet profound. The successful conductor unifies the group to achieve the purpose of putting on the best possible performance. The successful conductor is able to make the musicians realize that by understanding the balance and relationship that each instrument should have with one another, a far better sound is produced than if they were to all play single-mindedly at the same time.

The unified sound produced by a musical group is more powerful than any individual player or collection of individual players could hope to achieve.

In athletics we see examples of extremely talented, hard-working individuals who cannot find a team that will accept them because coaches are simply uninterested. The experienced coach would much prefer to protect the unified group than jeopardize the team’s cohesion by introducing a high-performing individual who acts as a silo and disunites the group. The successful professional coach knows that the collective unified team can accomplish much more than any one self-interested player.
 
Group musicians, athletic clubs, and business organizations win and lose as teams. High-performing individuals, as well as others, must be made to realize that their efforts and their individual desires will be better fulfilled by serving the team than by simply serving themselves.

In generating this understanding, most business leaders fail. Leaders must intimately know and demonstrate a strong sense of purpose. This purpose must be articulated and well communicated to every corner of the organization, as well as reflected through its actions. Leaders must provoke a profound experience of improved functioning within the organization by enlightening people about how each of them, as single instruments, must understand their role in the context of the whole, and best contribute to the overall performance of the business. When leaders are able to enlighten people to the uplifting feeling of unified functioning, people become attached to it, crave it, and are motivated to contribute to it. This trend of contribution to a unified purpose is commonly referred to as business culture.

Leaders must not be too afraid or indecisive to lead. It is time for today’s organizational leaders to make concrete decisions about their purpose and to take the lead in influencing culture. Leaders must initiate and stand behind a strong sense of organizational values, driving collective performance, and giving their people a sense of purpose that is much more emotionally powerful than reporting revenue numbers.

Quality Management System (QMS) Overview:


Every organization would like to improve the way it operates, whether that means increasing market share, driving down costs, managing risk more effectively or improving customer satisfaction. A quality management system gives you the framework you need to monitor and improve performance in any area you choose.


ISO 9001 is by far the world’s most established quality framework, currently being used by 1,064,000 organizations in 178 countries worldwide, and sets the standard not only for quality management systems, but overall management systems.


It helps all kinds of organizations to succeed through improved customer satisfaction, staff motivation and continual improvement.

ISO 9000 series of standards:

ISO 9001 QMS standard can help bring out the best in your organization by enabling you to understand your processes for delivering your products/services to your customers. The ISO 9001 series of standards consist of:

  •  ISO 9000 – Fundamentals and Vocabulary: this introduces the user to the concepts behind the management systems and specifies the terminology used.

  •  ISO 9001 – Requirements: this sets out the criteria you will need to meet if you wish to operate in accordance with the standard and gain certification.

  •  ISO 9004 – Guidelines for performance improvement: based upon the eight quality management principles, these are designed to be used by senior management as a framework to guide their organizations towards improved performance by considering the needs of all interested parties, not just customers.
Who is it relevant to?

ISO 9001 is suitable for any organization looking to improve the way it is operated and managed, regardless of size or sector. However, the best returns on investment come from those companies that are prepared to implement it throughout their organization rather than at particular sites, departments or divisions.


In addition, ISO 9001 is designed to be compatible with other management systems standards and specifications, such as BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System.. They can be integrated seamlessly through Integrated Management. They share many principles so choosing an integrated management system can offer excellent value for money.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

How ISO 9001 enhance quality standard in ONGC: A Case Study



After rigorous and comprehensive audit by the certifying agency — International Certification Services (ICS) Pvt. Ltd., ISO 9001:2008 certificates have been awarded to 16 work centres of ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Commission) : Western Onshore Basin, Baroda, Sub Asset, Cambay, Ankleshwar Asset, Ahmedabad Asset, Mehsana Asset, Jodhpur Forward Base, Tel Bhavan, Frontier Basin, A&AA Basin, Jorhat, MBA Basin, Kolkata, CBM Basin, Bokaro, Tripura Asset, Agartala, Cachar Forward Base, Silchar, KG PG Basin and Cauvery Basin, Chennai, KG Asset, Rajahmundry and HR/ER of Delhi Office, ONGC officials said.

ONGC CMD A K Hazarika appreciated human resource/employees relations (HR/ER) for this initiative which will foster quality parameters and guidelines in the firm. According to Mr. Hazarika the greatest advantage of implementing the quality management system is that it would help inculcating a disciplined work culture for employee safety and benefits.
 

This certification will help in the following ways as per Mr. Hazarika’s expectation:


  • Work centres will have a better disciplined work disposal system.
  • A fixed guideline about the timelines of clearing various issues and files.
  • Effective grievance handling system. 

ISO Certificate was already awarded to four work centres of ONGC and with the 16 work centres to get the certification now, the tally is 20.


The documentation process under this certification would help in the following manner: 
  • Informed decision making. Its emphasis on system and processes, objectives, record keeping and measurement means that information is clearly understood and shared throughout the organisation. Since important information is part of the regular process and management reviews, everyone can see how it is used in decision making.
ISO 9001:2008 is a quality management system which provides benchmark for practices, processes and quality system of the organisation with the aim to providing services to meet the needs of our employees and other customers. It also aims to enhance employee satisfaction through effective applications of process and practices of the organisation, along with attaining regular feed back for continual improvement.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

What is the ISO 14001?



The set of ISO certifications is a group of international standards that the organisations are expected to adhere to, to do their business without any restrictions all over the world. The ISO 14001:2004 is one of those set of international standards, followed by organizations all over the world. This standard is set for environment management system. This plays a major role in controlling and managing the environmental systems of the organisation. 


The ISO 14001 certification controls all the factors of environment namely:

  •          Use of resources including natural
  •         Complete storage
  •          Handling, transportation and the treatment of the waste materials and

Contents of ISO 14001:2004 Certification

The ISO 14001 is a systematic approach to the bigger picture, i.e. environment. The law is internationally based and adherence involves planning, executing, reviewing and editing to improve the actions a company takes for successfully meeting its environmental obligations. The set of rules are followed through the complete documentation of the acts, periodic management review, relevant trainings and internal audits time and again.


Benefits of ISO 14001 certification to the organisations:

There are two sided benefits of the ISO 14001 accreditations. One is the internal benefit and other is the competitive benefit. 


  •         The company finds improvements in the overall environmental performance and the compliance. The EMS objectives are successfully met. There is successful promotion of predictability and the consistency in the obligations of managing environment. Also, it provides a good name to the company in a global market.

  •       The set of competitive benefits include significant cost cutting of the company in resource consumption. There are improved utilization of the by-products along with conversion of the waste of the company into commercially more valuable forms. There is marked reduction in the use of energy, cost of the emission and cost of waste handling.

Monday, April 11, 2011

What is a Fishbone diagram?


Fishbone diagram is a tool of analysis that provides a systematic way of finding the various causes that lead to a particular effect. It is very useful when we want to carry out brain-storming within a team.

The design of the diagram looks like the skeleton of a fish, hence  it is referred to as the fishbone diagram.
Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese quality control statistician, invented the fishbone diagram also referred to as the Ishikawa diagram.

It is also referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram.

Fishbone diagram helps in categorizing  potential causes of a problem in a systematic way which can ultimately help us in identifying the root causes.

When do we use it:

·       The team needs to study a problem to determine the root cause.

·       Want to study all the possible reasons why a process is having difficulties, problems, or breakdowns.

·       Need to identify areas for data collection.

·       To study why a process is not performing properly or not producing the expected results.

Creating a Fishbone Diagram:

1.    Draw a fishbone skeleton.

2.    List the problem (effect) to be studied in the head of the fish.

3.    Label each bone of the fish. The major categories typically used are:
 
§  The 6 M’s: Method, Machine, Material, Manpower, Measurement,
 Management
§  The 4 P’s: Place, Procedure, People, Policies
§  The 4 S’s: Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills.

4.    Repeat this procedure with each factor under the category to produce sub-factors. Continue asking, "Why is this happening?" and put additional segments under each factor.

5.    Continue until you no longer get useful information as you ask, "Why is that happening?"

6.    Next step is to collect data with respect to frequency of occurrence of each factor and sub-factor. The frequencies of occurrence are plotted on a Pareto Chart.

7.    The vital few causes appearing on the Pareto chart are the important root causes leading to the problem.

8.    Once the root causes have been identified, the team can further brainstorm to find solutions in respect of the root causes.


Sunday, April 10, 2011

CTQs in Six Sigma

Defining CTQs in Six Sigma:
After starting a project and gathering the voice of the customer (VOC), it is time to define the critical-to-quality outputs (CTQs).
CTQs are the key measurable characteristics of a product or process whose performance standards or specification limits must be met in order to satisfy the customer.

These outputs represent the product or service characteristics defined by the customer (internal or external). They may include the upper and lower specification limits or any other factors related to the product or service. Typically, a CTQ must be interpreted from a qualitative customer statement to an actionable, quantitative business specification.

Establishing CTQs is vital for a company to meet customer needs and keep up with the competition.

VOC Becomes CTQs:
The flowchart in Figure 1 provides an overview of the requirements necessary to translate the VOC into usable CTQs.
  
Operational definitions of the flowchart steps are:
·    Characteristics of product or service: A word or phrase that describes some aspect of the product or service. For example: T.A.T. (Turn Around Time to dry-clean a garment).
 
·    Measures and operational definitions: A definition of how the product’s characteristic will be quantified. There may be several ways of quantifying a given characteristic. For example: the unit used to measure time between when the cleaner receives clothes and when the clothes are ready for pickup (measured in hours).

·    Target value(s): The aim for a product or service, assuming that  there is no variation in the product - this is the value that is the desired level of performance. For example:  clothes ready for pickup in 24 hours.

·    Specification limits: How much variation is the customer willing to tolerate in the delivery of the product or service? Specification limits are performance limits that are acceptable to the customer. For example: Upper specification limit for dry cleaning process time maybe  28 hours.

·    Defect rate(s): This is how often the producer is willing to produce a product outside the specification limits. For example 3.4 defects per million opportunities for error.











Figure 1: Flowchart for VOC to CTQ


CTQ Tree:

CTQ tree is actually the abbreviated form for Critical to Quality tree. The CTQ tree indicates key measurable aspects of that process or product whose specification limits or performance standards must be met to fully satisfy the customer. It aligns developments or helps in designing efforts to adapt to customer requirements. More specifically, it is mainly applicable for decomposing broad customer requirements and change them into more easily quantifiable requirements. The CTQ Tree is often used in Six Sigma methodology.

The steps for creating and using a Critical to Quality Tree (CTQ Tree) are as follows:

Step 1

Identification of the key customer requirements - The team identifies the key requirements that the customers have for the product or service. This is done through a process of open discussion / brain storming.


Step 2

Identification of customer's first level of requirements - The team gets to identify two to three requirements which are able to resolve major customer needs as pointed out Step 1. Good customer service refers to the phones which are answered quickly by staff who are knowledgeable about the product.


Step 3

Identification of customer's second level of requirements – In this step, the team gets to identify two to three needs which further resolve each customer requirement as pointed out in Step 2. The phones which are answered quicker may be defined as being answered within 2 rings. Then a knowledgeable staff member may be able to answer 90% calls before transferring them to another individual.


Step 4

Stop after quantifiable requirements are reached - This step applies to a situation when the team reaches a level of requirement which can be measured. The team would then halt the process of identifying needs if these requirements become distinctly measurable.

 
Step 5

Confirm the final requirements with customers – This is actually the final step taken which is applied after all customer requirements over a CTQ Tree have been pointed out and identified to a certain quantifiable degree. Each of these requirements should actually be confirmed again with customers.