Somrita Chatterjee

Stop-Gap Vs Quick-wins
 
 
Stop-Gap refers to the temporary action taken to fill up the current problem unless a better solution is provided.
 
Quick-wins are the solutions which are identified while going the project analysis or brainstorming sessions with the improvement team. Quick-wins are permanent and not short-fixes as compared to a Stop-gap fix. Quick-wins may not imply much technology or analysis or discussions but they are very useful to the process.
 
For example:
Considering Service Industries, The Management is planning to implement automation to a particular invoice processing process for data entry part of the process. A particular stop-gap fix can be in this scenario would be increasing the target for each employee in the process to meet the customer needs but the actual and better solution should come when better techniques and technology is implemented in the process.
 
2) Management is planning to hire a better product or app for its employment services which is currently in progress. 
Updating the current portal with designs, patterns, contacts can be a stop gap fix.
Coming up with a whole new change is the improvement.

Gemba Study
 
 
Gemba is a Process Walk, as an informational tour of the area where the work is taking place. Gemba Walk is a series of structured, on-site interviews with representative process participants and SPOCs’ with the goal of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the process. In a service based industry, interviews focus on detail such as process time, wait time, defect rates, root causes and other information that can lead to targeted improvements. It also helps in knowing the process environment and the work culture of the process.
Gemba walks should not be confused with (MBWA), a different approach in which leaders simply wander about and get involved in what employees are doing. A Gemba walk should have a defined purpose, often associated with a specific concern related to a KPI or in other words, GEMBA walks are more of process driven.
During a Gemba Walk, the concerned person asks very depth about the process being observed. Who is involved? What materials are used? What do you do? How do you know what to do? When does the task take place? What depends on the outcome? MBWA does not involve that degree of depth, nor does it usually have the same focus on asking open ended questions.
Considering Service Industries as an example:
The various steps involved in a basic Gemba Walk can be:
                  1)  Prepare the Team
        It is important that the team members get prepared beforehand. Talking about the walk before the walk happens will help everyone feel more comfortable and open to  interactions.
2)       Have a plan or a strategy
It is important that the supervisor has planned his questions before he approaches the people in the team.
                  3)      Trying to follow the Value Stream Flow
It is a good idea to ask employees about shift timings, work nature, hand offs between processes, targets, SLA, client meetings and calls. By having a fresh perspective on the old processes, it gives a perspective that it is helpful for them and not to criticize them negatively.
                  4)      Don’t suggest much changes during the Walk or in any meeting
                           It is not much a good idea to suggest changes and advice during the walk is happening. It is always better to go for suggestions later in terms of documented  work or visualization tools (photos and video)
                          5)     Document the observations
                            It is always a good idea to jot down the observations about the process, current interventions and then proposed solutions with the study. It will keep everyone on the same page before and after the study has been made.
                          6)     Follow Ups with the Employees
                    It is important that once the proposed solutions are suggested, managers and senior management should involve in the changes and should be supportive to the employees as well. This helps in establishing the workplace connectivity and knowledge enhancement to themselves.
 
Potential Areas of improvement that can be identified as:
Work Force Management & Staff Utilization
·         Resource Utilization –  Improving the Efficiency of the process overall
·         Login Leakage – Not an issue –if there is gap then agent to recover within the same month
·         Cross-Training – To mitigate the staff short fall and also in case of BCP situation 
Resourcing (Support & Management Staff)
·         Cross skill of Resources
·         Strengthen the QA calibration process
·         Quality tools and analysis/documentation exposures
·         Improvement exposures in terms of technology /Human improvements
Floor Management
·         Daily updates and dialogue with the agents
·         Visual management on floor
·         Floor support by Team Lead
·         Noise on the floor needs to be in controlled.
 Quality
·          Improvement is main focus area – Not meeting consistently the target (monthly , quarterly)
·         Attrition rate in the process
·         Customer satisfaction scores and TAT