Do You Have The Time To Do It Right?

Last evening I was interacting with one my friends who was recently called by an organization of repute in response to his email which spoke about a very niche service that they provide. They believed their organization had an opportunity for improvement in their specific processes which the email was talking about. During the meet my friend realized they absolutely did not need what ‘he thought that they need’ instead, they were interested in making a tie up for the services that they provide to the customers!

We all do a basic research on the organization before going to meet the prospective customer. A key question to ask ourselves is why to shy away from talking to our prospect over the phone and understand their need verbally before going to meet them. We all know this is important and this remains at the back of the mind. However we forget to adhere to this fundamental step.

It is always better to ask questions and get a broad overview first-hand rather than predicting and assuming what the customer may need.. “If we don’t have time to do it right, when will we have time to do it over?”

by Krishna Kanhaiya

Execution: Understanding the Pulse of the Organisation

In any assignment in the consulting world it’s imperative that one learns to identify the ”pulse of an organisation”. Any assignment starts with a set of perceived notions and a set of facts. In our delivery mode we think that these are the ten tools which we will use and these are the things which we will do. However, during the course of the execution we find that what “actually is required to be used” and “what we plan to use” differ from the smallest to the largest extent though the end objective remains the same.  There are numerous actors which contribute to this but at this instance I would like to talk about the “pulse of the organisation”. Both diagnosis at the doctor and the diagnosis in an organization starts with the basic element of understanding “pulse”. This is the mind-set of the organization, this is the energy of the people in the organization. This leads to understanding the kind of hand-holding they would require.

Only when we are able to understand the pulse of the organisation, would we be able to steer our journey towards the goal.

by Anish K

Universal Principles of Lean Thinking

Lean, a simple 4-lettered word, may not mean something great. What comes to your mind if we use this word? Thin, or slim, or fit? Or a more organized, focussed, or lack of flab? Or for a person, little acquainted with process improvement concepts, lack of waste? Let us explore this little further.

Let us take the instance of two people staying in two different towers of a housing complex. These two people have one thing in common; both are late risers and inevitably they get late to office almost every day. Going by physical look, one person Krishna, is extremely thin person whereas other person Mukesh, is extremely fat, resembling a ‘Sumo Wrestler’.

One fine day, both of them got extremely late to get ready for office because of reason cannot be specifically attributed. One common thing for that day was the fact that some very critical meeting was scheduled at 09:30 am in each of their office and going by the time they were leaving their respective houses, it was inevitable that, they will not reach on time to attend that. Quite naturally, both were extremely anxious and going by the instinct, they were in a mood of somehow making it happen and were rushing every inch for that. Again, one common thing happened to each one to their dismay. The moment Mukesh came out of lift and tried to get hold of the car keys he realized that he forgot the car keys at home. Exactly same thing happened to Krishna. Talking about the place, there is no public transport available from that area to reach the office which is true for both. However, office locations of these two gentlemen are two different directions.  Also, they stay alone in their respective flats denying them of possibility of someone dropping the car key from their house. So, only option left to each was to go back to flat and that is what they both decided for. However, day was not treating both Mukesh and Krishna well. To their further dismay, they realized that there was a power cut now with even back-up system not working making it impossible for them to avail of lift facility. Now talking about their respective flats, Krishna stay in 30^th floor of Tower A whereas Mukesh stays at 30^th floor of Tower B. Now to question to each one of them is to plan what next? Just give up? But this is not like any other day as this meeting is extremely critical and not making this time might have severe unpleasant repercussions on professional front. So, only option left for both Krishna and Mukesh is to take the stairs and climbing 30 floors …wow…

Now question is who between Krishna and Mukesh would be able to make it faster? Answer is simple – Krishna – right?

Next question – who between these two gentlemen, would you think would consume more resources – say food? Or material for cloth ? or may be size of seating space, size of door for entry? Lets not go far beyond this. What do you think would be the answer. It may not as simple question as the earlier one; however, going by basic logic, we can infer the answer would be Mukesh- right? Looking at a Sumo Wrestler Mukesh, at least we would not feel that he doesn’t eat food..

Now the last question. With an external trigger or touch, who do you think would respond faster? Of course Krishna. For Mukesh, by the time the stimulus reaches the braining after crossing many layers of flab, and body responds, it may be quite some time when Krishna might have even completed the task and accomplished the objective.

Lets now look back…what there things we saw.

1. A Lean person delivers faster even in difficult times
2. A lean person consumes lesser resources
3. A lean person responds faster to external stimuli.

If the above three points are true. Let us now relate this to a process or an organization. What does it get translated to a process or an organization or system.

1. A lean process or an organization delivers customer requirement faster than others
2. A lean process or an organization consumes lesser resources which could mean equipment, space, working capital, people or any other relevant resource for the specific case.
3. A lean process or an organization responds faster to changing need of customer, market, and economy and hence more flexible and agile in changing environment.

So, even a commoner would understand adopting Lean in an organization, means starting a journey towards achieving above three objectives. Are these three objectives make any business sense? Talk to any CXO of any organization. What do you think would be the answer? Of course yes…Then the organization needs ‘Lean’ and it can be the strategic driver for that company for accomplishment of business objectives.

Now let us look back to the full conversation. Did we ever speak of any specific industry?  Answer is a big ‘No’. Then how do we still have every CXO saying this is applicable to their business? The reason is very simple. Lean is a thinking process and industry-neutral. The way an automobile company can adopt the concept and get business benefits, the same way we can have a hospital adopting the very essence of Lean thinking and can path-breaking improvements. Principles are universal and what differ are only Practices. So, let us look at imbibing principles and make our own practices.

by Nirmalya Banerjee

Occupy Gemba

The core idea of the “Occupy” movements across the world has tremendous value. It is a call for action and until result is promised, it is non-negotiable. This tinge of stubborn-ness can be a source of wealth of improvements in the organization if it is channelized in the right direction. If we take a leaf out of the movements and apply it in the organization, then all the senior executives decide to “Occupy Gemba” for just 90 minutes every week with a strict non-negotiable stubborn-ness to find out the 99% activities that are adding to your cost against the 1% activities that brings you the money. The sole aim of “Occupy Gemba” would be to find those 99% activities that does not count.

This war-footing would set your organization on a journey in performance excellence that would be unparalleled.

by Vishnupriya Sharma

Eliminate NVA from your life

We’ve all been in situations where we can’t get much done in a day, can’t seem to spend enough quality time with our families, can’t keep in touch with our friends, Even though we have a lot of time at our disposal.

At such a point it would be helpful to take a step back from whatever we’re doing, and ask yourself the three basic questions that differentiate VA from NVA, only this time in a different context.

1. Am I willing to pay to do whatever I’m doing right now?

Paying (in terms of either cash or time, both of which are limited) implies a choice, since we’re effectively giving up doing something else for this by paying for this. Hence, it boils down to whether this is high priority in my life or not.

2. Is it changing anything, either myself or someone or something else?

Is the world going to be a infinitesimally different place towards the way I want it to be when I’m done with this activity?

3. Is it being done for the first time?

Is this a new experience, at least slightly new, or am I being sucked into doing the same thing, over and over again, either because I didn’t do it right the first time, or just because of sheer habit.

If the answer of any of these questions is “No”, take another step back, and consciously try to fill your life with something which is a “Yes”. We are the Producers as well as the Customers of our life. And the least the producers can do is to try to serve the customers better.

by Akhil Mehta

Lean Is Not About Eliminating Waste

One of the teams we worked with on the current value stream map for a throughput and subsequently the future value stream, there was a particular question we were confronted with – how to increase the value creating ratio? We tried our might to bring the non-value creating time to as low as possible, but, the required storage of even 3 days made sure we still had to struggle to get the ratio even to a double digit.

It is at this time that one of the members asked if we have to increase the value creating ratio, then we have to either decrease the denominator (component of non-value creating time) OR increase the numerator (value creating time)! This directly translates to the question, how do we add more value to the customer? This is the core of lean – how do I add more value to the customer? How do we increase our offerings to the customer in a way that will increase the value already being added? Have you thought about this for your business or your throughput?

How much ever you eliminate waste, at the end you have to delight your customer. The core of lean does not talk about eliminating waste, but to increase value addition.

by Vishnupriya Sharma