Prashanth Datta

As we understand, the key objective of LEAN process is to eliminate "waste" or "non-value added" activities within a process. In order to achieve this, we need to clearly differentiate between what is value add vs. non-value add OR required vs. not required OR normal vs. abnormal. The process of defining what is normal or in other words defining standards or specification limits for the process is called as Nominal conditions. In order to define nominal conditions we basically need two things 1. Set the acceptance limits and 2. Able to measure these acceptance limits. As we are referring to a LEAN process, it is quite possible that we have to set these conditions across all drivers for the process i.e Material, Method, Machine, Man and Measure. The possible challenges of a Nominal condition is that it has to be frequently evaluated at every stage across drivers to ensure nominal conditions are met. While it is fair to assume that, such a condition could possibly be tried in a manufacturing set-up, for other industries and administrative processes it is difficult to implement. An example I can think through is, for a Judiciary system, it is difficult to set target for the number of trials before you acquit or convict a suspected trial. While this is an important concept, it's something not used more frequently or directly.

Enumerated below are few pointers which I potentially think can lead to a situation where a capable and stable process can suddenly render incapable 1. Absence of a Robust Control Management System Post Analyze and Improve phase, the solutions implemented needs to have a robust Control Management System The deployed solutions needs to be monitored for its effectiveness and also project owner needs to see if there is any change in business environment that can potentially drive a change in input variables which in-turn can impact the focused out put metric. Further, given today's dynamic business environment, failure in updation and hand over of actions to appropriate owners will result in rendering the process incapable. Also, the mindset of driving actions can move from Process Dependency to People Dependency which can weaken a stable process 2. Compromised Quality Management Process A Stable and Capable process with a defined Quality Management process, if not reviewed in the event of any increased demand scenario can potentially lead to systematic failure of a stable and capable process. With increased demand from client, there could be a potential rush to complete the job (say production) within stipulated timelines. If there is a compromise in Quality Management System, we could land up delivering poor quality products rending the process incapable. Manufacturing and PC industry has seen several recalls of their vehicles, batteries, motherboards etc., possibly due to aforementioned reasons 3. Shifting Business Priorities - Siloed Views by Management Is your balancing metric now deemed critical to take over as primary metric? Lets take an example where we have worked a process improvement project using DMAIC method to reduce the "Cost of Dissatisfaction" which has resulted in significant cost savings while your Customer Experience metric is kept under control. The Management is now under pressure with the revised Customer Experience goals. There could be some systematic compromises done on few of your action plans on cost savings project (which could still be under specified limits) which gradually can take the focus out as it could be the same set of contact center agents who need to drive both the actions. A conflicting and Siloed approach could render your cost saving project incapable. 4. Special Cases like Mergers & Acquisitions. A M&A situation can result in People Motivational Issues, Organization Culture differences, Business priorities etc., which in turn can result in impacting an existing stable / capable process. An Interesting Read through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster - Enclosed herewith is a Wikipedia artilce which I found during my internet reading. A direct excerpt of key call out "... where Bipod ramp insulation had been observed falling off, in whole or in part, on four previous flights: STS-7 (1983), STS-32 (1990), STS-50 (1992) and most recently STS-112 (just two launches before STS-107). All affected shuttle missions completed successfully. NASA management came to refer to this phenomenon as "foam shedding". As with the O-ring erosion problems that ultimately doomed the Space Shuttle Challenger, NASA management became accustomed to these phenomena when no serious consequences resulted from these earlier episodes...." What was successful in previous four launches with the same issue, proved fatal for Shuttle Columbia which resulted in its failure.

In today's competitive business environment, Productivity is one of the key differentiator on how you position yourself versus your competition. In simple terms, Productivity is doing "MORE" with "LESS" i.e. minimum inputs and maximum outputs. A well devised Productivity Management Principles, irrespective of industries, will not only ensure organization's profitability but also can be translated to benefit their customers by providing a more competitive and aggressive pricing against your competition. How to do more with less? ... And the guiding principle is "Shojinka" - Japanese term which has its origin to Toyota's lean manufacturing principles. Shojinka Explained - Having its origin from a manufacturing industry, Shojinka is a form of flexible manufacturing where the number of workers varies to match demand requirements. Simply stating - "Flexible Staffing" to map to your demand requirements. An example that I could relate to is outlined as below - Hypothetical Background - - Company ABC - An Outsourcing company which has its expertise to handle Customer Care business for its clients. - Client XYZ – XYZ is a Computer Manufacturing Company and has their presence spread across multiple geographies i.e. US, EMEA and Asia Pacific operations. Vendor ABC Company has signed up an agreement with Client XYZ to take care of Customer Care business for their client across all geographies. Scope of Work – Providing support for “EMAIL Queries” only i.e. end customer complaints of client XYZ will be handled by Company ABC. Billing – Client pays vendor basis per email / query based transaction Other Parameters - - Customer Relation Management [CRM] tool and Email Management System is same across all the regions - Nature of queries are same across all the regions i.e. Where is my Order?, I want to Return and get an Exchange on my Product, I want a Refunds, My Order has a Missing part etc. - Policies and Procedures and Cross functional stake holders vary and are region specific. To start off, basis the volumes of queries expected for each region, a head count assessment was made and separate teams were set up to support each geography. Agents were trained on all tools, processes, policies and procedures for their respective regions. An interesting Operational Challenge Post operations kicked off, Company ABC was posed with a unique challenge. The Volumes for APJ seemed to be far too high from January to June followed by EMEA from August to November and with US taking its Peak during its Thanks Giving and Christmas. While the driving factor for the volumes were driven by numerous backend reasons like Local Government regulations, End of Year transactions, Black Friday Sales etc., there seemed to be a spike in head count request for each of these regions during their peak period. Challenges: - Incremental Head Count Cost which can impact ABC profitability. Cannot be billed back to client owing to SOW - Hiring, Training and Ramp costs. - Challenges to have additional resources ready to map to peak seasons. - Non utilization of resources post peak periods Shojinka Comes to Play Company ABC, used the Lean Management Principles to address the issue and Shojinka [Flexible Staffing] was here to address their issue. To put it simply, the peak seasons for each geography was not overlapping and what the company had to plan was how to cross utilize the resources across geographies so as any incremental head count requirement could be minimized. What was required from ABC to achieve this? - A very strong MIS to Mangement team which provides forecast for each region by month / week etc., This enables to plan for head count for each region mapping to their peak seasons and see from where the demand could be met. o e.g. US region has its low season from Feb onwards and the considerable portion of their head count can be used to support APJ. - Identification of motivated workforce from current teams who have the ability to learn and get trained on cross functional processes - Cross training on Processes, Policies and Procedures so as agents are familiar with other region practices - A strong “Knowledge Base” or “Play books” that cross trained agents can refer during their support to other regions. The Play book should be designed, updated and support to cover policies, procedures, localized tools, escalation points etc., which the agents can simply refer to address queries from other regions. - Standardized Tools, CRM systems across regions (same in this case and if different, has to be cross trained and the Play book should be updated to support the learning’s) - An upfront cost to be budgeted as part of their overall finances which should include cost of training the agents, internal automation tools (as applicable) which can act as Play Books to enable “Self-Help” for agents and agent motivational cost as relevant. A systematic implementation of Shojinka principle should enable company ABC to drive its productivity focus of doing more (i.e. handling more demand across regions) with less (existing cross trained agents) and any incremental head count requirements hired should act as business enablers than remaining as unutilized resources. From an employee perspective, it should act as career progression options owing to enhanced skill sets. To Summarize Shojinka refers to "Flexible staffing" to map to your demand requirements. As an organization, you should look at following criteria if this Lean Principle is suitable or can be pursued a. A clear understanding of demand forecast which should help to know when and where to staff. b. Ability to cross-train your work force so as they can move in and work as demand fluctuates c. Standard tools and Standardized Processes. d. Clearly documented “Play books” which should cover all aspects of the process to enable Self-Help of work force