Alan Keith of Genentech states that, "Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen".
"Leadership seems to be the marsheling of skills possed by a majority but used by the mintority, and its smothing that can be learned by anyone, thought to everyone, denied to no one".
People working in any organization look on the leader and his attributes. Strong leadership has a positive impact on the culture and has positive impact on bottom line results. Looking at the leadership style one can make out how the organisation is moving without looking at the financial part. Great leaders have followers whos words were inspirational to climb up the ladder. Effective leadershop development is achieved through a systems approach, by incorporating on and off the job experience with mentoring, coaching or training all closely alligned to the business requirment.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Outline of thought
Obviously with many and many fans just getting mad on the play, parents dream about encouraging the kids to take the game of cricket. Before the kid starts crawling, A plastic material which is called Bat suddenly appears in the household and it gets upgraded every year from the soft toy to a great bat. When there are several indoor and outdoor games and games sets available, still all go over the great cricket bat. And once the kid holds the bat the grandparents smile get more enthusiastic, Even forget their name and start recalling the masters of cricket and sow a dream of making big in cricket.
Remember when the kid gets failed an examination. the same people who encourged him to hold and swing the bat, starts criticizing the game . If we keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry
You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?
Remember when the kid gets failed an examination. the same people who encourged him to hold and swing the bat, starts criticizing the game . If we keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry
You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?
Friday, March 18, 2011
thought on wednesday !
Many a times we think about our past and grumble, because of some or the other excuses that we narrate, we could not achieve what we wished. Life becomes a trebling wheel between the past and future. The past reminds us the failures and the future m scares about the past and reminds the failures, just because we have not seen.
Many a times, at many places we read and some say, everything in life is destiny and its the will of God the Almighty. Intellect people argue that everything could be achieved in life, by dedication and will power. Now a days high profile trainers advertise with testimony of achieving the results of our destiny. One of the consultant where i was accompanying while traveling had other view. He said we may be to intellect, have a will power and dedicated, planned etc we can just try our luck, but its the destiny that what makes what we are. We cannot raise our both legs in air and stand, Even if we try to stand on air by lifting both legs ........ off course we can try and realize
I listened to a preacher, last week in an gathering. It was the end of the sermon and the preacher said, You might have lot of money and enjoying a good life with all luxury and some simple pain in the body and consultancy with the family doctor makes you feel that days are counted. Some times we even witness our self the people walking on the footpath are just smashed by the drunken driver. Some times life is just crazy and we have no control on it.
Many a times we put our self into so called performance measures for our own activities and try to do better and better ! Thats really a sarcastic. In work places we display the performance measures and advise our subordinates saying "If you cant measure, then you cannot improve", when you can do it in a industry, off course you can practice in our own life and start measuring. Then to achieve this targets we just keep working and working and forget to take rest and even smile. One of the biggest advice we take is to take some loan from banks to achieve our dream and they pay in installments. This installment becomes burden having its effect on the health...........
I sometimes think how the families have spent their time and work as a Joint family ? Was this an good culture ? an booster for relationship and emotions ?. I share and remember when schools were used to close for summer holidays the joy of visiting relatives........... now vacation has no meaning unless its a paid trip to a unknow place to see unknow face to taste unheard food and just to put an artificial smile saying Wow taste was good, coz at home nobody cooks !
Many a times, at many places we read and some say, everything in life is destiny and its the will of God the Almighty. Intellect people argue that everything could be achieved in life, by dedication and will power. Now a days high profile trainers advertise with testimony of achieving the results of our destiny. One of the consultant where i was accompanying while traveling had other view. He said we may be to intellect, have a will power and dedicated, planned etc we can just try our luck, but its the destiny that what makes what we are. We cannot raise our both legs in air and stand, Even if we try to stand on air by lifting both legs ........ off course we can try and realize
I listened to a preacher, last week in an gathering. It was the end of the sermon and the preacher said, You might have lot of money and enjoying a good life with all luxury and some simple pain in the body and consultancy with the family doctor makes you feel that days are counted. Some times we even witness our self the people walking on the footpath are just smashed by the drunken driver. Some times life is just crazy and we have no control on it.
Many a times we put our self into so called performance measures for our own activities and try to do better and better ! Thats really a sarcastic. In work places we display the performance measures and advise our subordinates saying "If you cant measure, then you cannot improve", when you can do it in a industry, off course you can practice in our own life and start measuring. Then to achieve this targets we just keep working and working and forget to take rest and even smile. One of the biggest advice we take is to take some loan from banks to achieve our dream and they pay in installments. This installment becomes burden having its effect on the health...........
I sometimes think how the families have spent their time and work as a Joint family ? Was this an good culture ? an booster for relationship and emotions ?. I share and remember when schools were used to close for summer holidays the joy of visiting relatives........... now vacation has no meaning unless its a paid trip to a unknow place to see unknow face to taste unheard food and just to put an artificial smile saying Wow taste was good, coz at home nobody cooks !
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Brand and Brand followers
Life style and living cost creates brand. This Brand is followed by the people who are crazy on it. Whenever we interact with young people, they speak about brands and its brand ambassadors, So Is this craze on the brand is justified ? is it really required.
May be industrial products and house holds may add some advantage but in and everything that come across in our day to day activity is really needs branding? Brands create an identify of it self, value for Money ? is what is depends upon the perception.
Branded clothes comes in sizes that for some one it requires alteration and some it is over sized.
But is these actually have the durability, comfort and really Value for Money !
The thought is higher the price and greater the brand, lesser its utilization and waste of money. Some of the branded can be only worn on some auspicious occasions so why Spend much on this one day !
May be industrial products and house holds may add some advantage but in and everything that come across in our day to day activity is really needs branding? Brands create an identify of it self, value for Money ? is what is depends upon the perception.
Branded clothes comes in sizes that for some one it requires alteration and some it is over sized.
But is these actually have the durability, comfort and really Value for Money !
The thought is higher the price and greater the brand, lesser its utilization and waste of money. Some of the branded can be only worn on some auspicious occasions so why Spend much on this one day !
Friday, October 1, 2010
Life is useless - Ecclesiastes.
The book of Ecclesiastes contains the thoughts of the "the Philosopher" a man who reflected deeply on how short and contradictory human life is whith its mysterious injustices and frustrations and concluded that "LIFE IS USELESS".
1. life is useless
You spend ur life working, labouring, and wht do u have to show for it ? Generation come and generations go but the world stays just the same.
2. No one remember wise man and no one remembers fools. We must all die - wise and foolish alike.
3. A time for everything
4. I have also learnt why people work so hard to suceed; it is because they envy their neighbours.
5. if you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich you will never get all you want . It is useless.
6. A man may have hundred childrens and live a long time, but no matter how long he lives, if he does not get his share of happiness and does not recieve an decent burial, then I say a baby born dead is better off.
7. A good reputation is better than expensive perfume; and the day you die is better than the day you are born.
8. God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated
9. Righteous men get the punishment of the wicked and wicked men get the reward of the righteous.
10. Go ahead - eat your food and be happy; drink your wine and be cheerful its all right with God.
11. Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can't have either without Money
12. Invest your money in foreign trade, and one of these days you will make profit. Put your investments in several places - many places in fact - because you never know what kind of bad luck you are going to have in this world.
Whats you thought !
1. life is useless
You spend ur life working, labouring, and wht do u have to show for it ? Generation come and generations go but the world stays just the same.
2. No one remember wise man and no one remembers fools. We must all die - wise and foolish alike.
3. A time for everything
4. I have also learnt why people work so hard to suceed; it is because they envy their neighbours.
5. if you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich you will never get all you want . It is useless.
6. A man may have hundred childrens and live a long time, but no matter how long he lives, if he does not get his share of happiness and does not recieve an decent burial, then I say a baby born dead is better off.
7. A good reputation is better than expensive perfume; and the day you die is better than the day you are born.
8. God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated
9. Righteous men get the punishment of the wicked and wicked men get the reward of the righteous.
10. Go ahead - eat your food and be happy; drink your wine and be cheerful its all right with God.
11. Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can't have either without Money
12. Invest your money in foreign trade, and one of these days you will make profit. Put your investments in several places - many places in fact - because you never know what kind of bad luck you are going to have in this world.
Whats you thought !
Monday, September 20, 2010
Calculating Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI)
The Customer Satisfaction Index represents the overall satisfaction level of that customer as one number, usually as a percentage. Plotting this Satisfaction Index of the customer against a time scale shows exactly how well the supplier is accomplishing the task of customer satisfaction over a period of time.
Since the survey feedback comes from many respondents in one organization, the bias due to individual perception needs to be accounted for.
This can be achieved by calculating the Satisfaction Index using an importance weighting based on an average of 1.
Calculate the average of all the weightings given by the customer. Divide the individual weightings by this average to arrive at the weighting on the basis of average of 1. Customer's higher priorities are weighted more than 1 and lower priorities less than 1. The average of the Customers Importance Scores are calculated and each individual score is expressed as a factor of that average. To understand the calculations consider following example:
The following table shows the Weightings & Scores assigned on a scale of 1 - 10 by the Customer.
Parameter(P) Weighting (A ) Score( B)Weighting (avg. of 1) C Weighting (avg. of 1) * Score D = B *C
P1 7 8 1.17 9.24
P2 5 4 0.83 3.33
P3 9 8 1.50 12.00
P4 3 3 0.50 1.50
P5 6 4 1.00 4.00
Average = 6.00 Average = 5.40 CSI = 6.01
A = Average Weighting assigned by all respondents for each parameter
B = Average Score assigned by all respondents for each parameter
Avg. Weighting = (7 + 5 + 9 + 3 + 6) / 5 = 6
C = Weighting based on avg. of 1 = Individual Weighting / avg. Weighting
D = Weighted Score = Score * Average Weighting = B * C
Satisfaction Index CSI = Average of (Weighted Scores)
CSI = (9.24 + 3.33 + 12 + 1.5 + 4.0) / 5 = 6.01
Since the scale used was 1 - 10, CSI = 60.10%
Thus Customer Satisfaction can be expressed as a single number that tells the supplier where he stands today and an Improvement plan can be chalked out to further improve his performance so as to get a loyal customer.
Since the survey feedback comes from many respondents in one organization, the bias due to individual perception needs to be accounted for.
This can be achieved by calculating the Satisfaction Index using an importance weighting based on an average of 1.
Calculate the average of all the weightings given by the customer. Divide the individual weightings by this average to arrive at the weighting on the basis of average of 1. Customer's higher priorities are weighted more than 1 and lower priorities less than 1. The average of the Customers Importance Scores are calculated and each individual score is expressed as a factor of that average. To understand the calculations consider following example:
The following table shows the Weightings & Scores assigned on a scale of 1 - 10 by the Customer.
Parameter(P) Weighting (A ) Score( B)Weighting (avg. of 1) C Weighting (avg. of 1) * Score D = B *C
P1 7 8 1.17 9.24
P2 5 4 0.83 3.33
P3 9 8 1.50 12.00
P4 3 3 0.50 1.50
P5 6 4 1.00 4.00
Average = 6.00 Average = 5.40 CSI = 6.01
A = Average Weighting assigned by all respondents for each parameter
B = Average Score assigned by all respondents for each parameter
Avg. Weighting = (7 + 5 + 9 + 3 + 6) / 5 = 6
C = Weighting based on avg. of 1 = Individual Weighting / avg. Weighting
D = Weighted Score = Score * Average Weighting = B * C
Satisfaction Index CSI = Average of (Weighted Scores)
CSI = (9.24 + 3.33 + 12 + 1.5 + 4.0) / 5 = 6.01
Since the scale used was 1 - 10, CSI = 60.10%
Thus Customer Satisfaction can be expressed as a single number that tells the supplier where he stands today and an Improvement plan can be chalked out to further improve his performance so as to get a loyal customer.
Top Management
In bringing any change, management of the organizational undertakes or any new initiative the the company plans to implement down the line the grudge is that top management is not giving its right attention or poor involvement.
Many initiative during the startup the Management is fully involved and it hands over to the experienced and competent people in the team. This infact is the right way in doing the things.
I once met the CEO of one of the leading real estate players of India. There was an discussion about the systems failure and we say the top management involvement was low and hence the system failed. Be it Quality, Environment or any other Management systems, the fact being the failure is the benefits of the systems that the company should or ROI of the systems are not measured. However never does anyone thinks why these are not realized ? Its because everyone in the organization failed.
What is top Management means?Highest ranking executives (with titles such as chairman/chairwoman, chief executive officer, managing director, president, executive directors, executive vice-presidents, etc.) responsible for the entire enterprise. Top management translates the policy (formulated by the board-of-directors) into goals, objectives, and strategies, and projects a shared-vision of the future. It makes decisions that affect everyone in the organization, and is held entirely responsible for the success or failure of the enterprise.
This means everyone in the organization is responsible for the success or failure, because the top management delegates its responsibilities.
I was discussing an issue with Sr. Manager of one of the organization, and i informed that the system should be reviewed with help of top management. I was surprised to get an response saying yes the top management should review !
so then what is the use of Sr. Manager ? or its just an designation without any responsibility and authority. !
Many initiative during the startup the Management is fully involved and it hands over to the experienced and competent people in the team. This infact is the right way in doing the things.
I once met the CEO of one of the leading real estate players of India. There was an discussion about the systems failure and we say the top management involvement was low and hence the system failed. Be it Quality, Environment or any other Management systems, the fact being the failure is the benefits of the systems that the company should or ROI of the systems are not measured. However never does anyone thinks why these are not realized ? Its because everyone in the organization failed.
What is top Management means?Highest ranking executives (with titles such as chairman/chairwoman, chief executive officer, managing director, president, executive directors, executive vice-presidents, etc.) responsible for the entire enterprise. Top management translates the policy (formulated by the board-of-directors) into goals, objectives, and strategies, and projects a shared-vision of the future. It makes decisions that affect everyone in the organization, and is held entirely responsible for the success or failure of the enterprise.
This means everyone in the organization is responsible for the success or failure, because the top management delegates its responsibilities.
I was discussing an issue with Sr. Manager of one of the organization, and i informed that the system should be reviewed with help of top management. I was surprised to get an response saying yes the top management should review !
so then what is the use of Sr. Manager ? or its just an designation without any responsibility and authority. !
Friday, September 17, 2010
Does CB audits add value to organisation ?
I had opportunity to be an auditor for one of the leading certification bodies, I did not enjoy the job of conducting the audits at the clients place when I found the inputs which I gave were sidelined. I came to know that the Certification bodies could not raise any Non Conformity due to varied reason and main reason is that certification bodies wanted the clients in good books.
In one of the surveillance audit, the CB auditor was just dragging to find the fault. He just wanted to know the change that was due to clients and he wanted to know the exactly how we find then? He wanted to know the change in the position of cutouts. At the end of three hours of drill down they were able to exactly match.
During closing meeting, the auditor said all things are systematic and good. ?
What was the value added in this whole cycle.
Expert should accompany the auditors and external audit should give some time of value addition to the company. Internal audits at least come out with observations or non conformity that the process is deviated. When will the external audits come with findings ??
In one of the surveillance audit, the CB auditor was just dragging to find the fault. He just wanted to know the change that was due to clients and he wanted to know the exactly how we find then? He wanted to know the change in the position of cutouts. At the end of three hours of drill down they were able to exactly match.
During closing meeting, the auditor said all things are systematic and good. ?
What was the value added in this whole cycle.
Expert should accompany the auditors and external audit should give some time of value addition to the company. Internal audits at least come out with observations or non conformity that the process is deviated. When will the external audits come with findings ??
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Good definition of Quality
Came across good definition of Quality....very relevant to our way of working also.....
A gentleman was once visiting a temple under construction.
In the temple premises, he saw a sculptor making an idol of God.
Suddenly he saw, just a few meters away, another identical idol was lying.
Surprised he asked the sculptor, do you need two statutes of the same idol. No said the sculptor. We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage. The gentleman examined the statue. No apparent damage was visible. Where the damage is? Asked the gentleman. There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.
Where are you going to keep the idol? The sculptor replied that it will be installed on a pillar 20 feet high.
When the idol will be 20 feet away from the eyes of the beholder, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose? The gentleman asked. The sculptor looked at the gentleman, smiled and said, ' The God knows it and I know it '.
The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Quality is a drive from Inside not Outside.
A gentleman was once visiting a temple under construction.
In the temple premises, he saw a sculptor making an idol of God.
Suddenly he saw, just a few meters away, another identical idol was lying.
Surprised he asked the sculptor, do you need two statutes of the same idol. No said the sculptor. We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage. The gentleman examined the statue. No apparent damage was visible. Where the damage is? Asked the gentleman. There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.
Where are you going to keep the idol? The sculptor replied that it will be installed on a pillar 20 feet high.
When the idol will be 20 feet away from the eyes of the beholder, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose? The gentleman asked. The sculptor looked at the gentleman, smiled and said, ' The God knows it and I know it '.
The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Quality is a drive from Inside not Outside.
Monday, August 30, 2010
ಚೇಂಜ್ Management
Change management and implementing change in any organisation has become an painful area. The word change brings panic to the mind of people working in any area. They feel threatened about it, different methods have been put in place like creating awareness, making individual feel know the implication before it is implemented. However the fear still is left in.........
One of the main reason for resistance to change is Confusion.
Which directly or indirectly reflects or resist the change. Dale Carneige shares his experience in managing change using three principles.
1. To collect Information (Create Awareness)
2. Analyse the Information
3. Take decision and stick to the decision what ever may be the implication.
One of the main reason for resistance to change is Confusion.
Which directly or indirectly reflects or resist the change. Dale Carneige shares his experience in managing change using three principles.
1. To collect Information (Create Awareness)
2. Analyse the Information
3. Take decision and stick to the decision what ever may be the implication.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Project Quality Plan
Quality can be defined as meeting the customer's expectations or exceeding the customer expectations achieved by way of deliverables and/or activities performed to produce those deliverables.
Project Quality Plan can be defined as a set of activities planned at the beginning of the project that helps achieve Quality in the Project being executed. The Purpose of the Project Quality Plan is to define these activities / tasks that intends to deliver products while focussing on achieveing customer's quality expectations. These activities / tasks are defined on the basis of the quality standards set by the organization delivering the product.
Project Quality Plan identifies which Quality Standards are relevant to the project and determines how can they be satisfied. It includes the implementation of Quality Events (peer reviews, checklist execution) by using various Quality Materials (templates, standards, checklists) available within the organization.The holding of the Quality Event is termed as Quality Control. As an output of the various activities, Quality Metrics or Measurements are captured which assist in continuous improvement of Quality thus adding to the inventory of Lessons Learned. Quality Assurance deals in preparation of the Quality Plan and formation of organization wide standards.
Guidelines to write the Project Quality Plan
Project Quality Plan should be written with the objective to provide project management with easy access to quality requirements and should have ready availability of the procedures and standards thus mentioned.
The following list provides you the various Quality Elements that should be included in a detailed Project Quality Plan:
Management Responsibility. Describes the quality responsibilities of all stakeholders.
Documented Quality Management System. This refers to the existing Quality Procedures that have been standardized and used within the organization.
Design Control. This specifies the procedures for Design Review, Sign-Off, Design Changes and Design Waivers of requirements.
Document Control. This defines the process to control Project Documents at each Project Phase.
Purchasing. This defines Quality Control and Quality Requirements for sub-contracting any part / whole part of the project.
Inspection Testing. This details the plans for Acceptance Testing and Integration Testing.
Nonconformance. This defines the procedures to handle any type of nonconformance work. The procedures include defining responsibilities, defining conditions and availability of required documentation in such cases.
Corrective Actions. This describes the procedures for taking Corrective Actions for the problems encountered during project execution.
Quality Records. This describes the procedures for maintaining the Quality Records (metrices, variance reports, executed checklists etc) during project execution as well as after the project completion.
Quality Audits. An internal audit should be planned and implemented during each phase of the project.
Training. This should specify any training requirements for the project team.
Evaluating your Project Quality Plan
For quality assurance to be effective, two things must be ensured:
First, the Project Quality plan must be sufficient to achieve the required quality standards expected of the organization. In this regard the plan must not only be specific and detailed listing all quality requirements and standards, but also include all the steps taken to ensure that those requirements and standards are met.
Secondly, quality assurance (i.e. final product testing) should be independent of the project itself (as well as the project manager). This comes down from the project management guidelines for effective quality assurance, and builds on a broad-based, organizational approach to standards-based product testing.
The development of a Project Quality Plan is a team process that depends as much on communicating information as it does on planning. The key objective is to create a cohesive dialog and subsequently develop awareness of potential quality issues assurance. Based on this awareness, project managers can prepare plans and actions to counter any weaknesses or deficiencies in the project execution, thus ensuring that all quality standards are met effectively.
Project Quality Plan can be defined as a set of activities planned at the beginning of the project that helps achieve Quality in the Project being executed. The Purpose of the Project Quality Plan is to define these activities / tasks that intends to deliver products while focussing on achieveing customer's quality expectations. These activities / tasks are defined on the basis of the quality standards set by the organization delivering the product.
Project Quality Plan identifies which Quality Standards are relevant to the project and determines how can they be satisfied. It includes the implementation of Quality Events (peer reviews, checklist execution) by using various Quality Materials (templates, standards, checklists) available within the organization.The holding of the Quality Event is termed as Quality Control. As an output of the various activities, Quality Metrics or Measurements are captured which assist in continuous improvement of Quality thus adding to the inventory of Lessons Learned. Quality Assurance deals in preparation of the Quality Plan and formation of organization wide standards.
Guidelines to write the Project Quality Plan
Project Quality Plan should be written with the objective to provide project management with easy access to quality requirements and should have ready availability of the procedures and standards thus mentioned.
The following list provides you the various Quality Elements that should be included in a detailed Project Quality Plan:
Management Responsibility. Describes the quality responsibilities of all stakeholders.
Documented Quality Management System. This refers to the existing Quality Procedures that have been standardized and used within the organization.
Design Control. This specifies the procedures for Design Review, Sign-Off, Design Changes and Design Waivers of requirements.
Document Control. This defines the process to control Project Documents at each Project Phase.
Purchasing. This defines Quality Control and Quality Requirements for sub-contracting any part / whole part of the project.
Inspection Testing. This details the plans for Acceptance Testing and Integration Testing.
Nonconformance. This defines the procedures to handle any type of nonconformance work. The procedures include defining responsibilities, defining conditions and availability of required documentation in such cases.
Corrective Actions. This describes the procedures for taking Corrective Actions for the problems encountered during project execution.
Quality Records. This describes the procedures for maintaining the Quality Records (metrices, variance reports, executed checklists etc) during project execution as well as after the project completion.
Quality Audits. An internal audit should be planned and implemented during each phase of the project.
Training. This should specify any training requirements for the project team.
Evaluating your Project Quality Plan
For quality assurance to be effective, two things must be ensured:
First, the Project Quality plan must be sufficient to achieve the required quality standards expected of the organization. In this regard the plan must not only be specific and detailed listing all quality requirements and standards, but also include all the steps taken to ensure that those requirements and standards are met.
Secondly, quality assurance (i.e. final product testing) should be independent of the project itself (as well as the project manager). This comes down from the project management guidelines for effective quality assurance, and builds on a broad-based, organizational approach to standards-based product testing.
The development of a Project Quality Plan is a team process that depends as much on communicating information as it does on planning. The key objective is to create a cohesive dialog and subsequently develop awareness of potential quality issues assurance. Based on this awareness, project managers can prepare plans and actions to counter any weaknesses or deficiencies in the project execution, thus ensuring that all quality standards are met effectively.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Ten Step Method to Continuous Improvement.
Continuous improvement is a type of change that is focused on increasing the effectiveness and/or efficiency of an organization to fulfill its policies and objectives. It is not limited to quality initiatives. Improvement in business strategy, business results, and customer, employee, and supplier business relationships can be subject to continual improvement.
Putting it simply, it means "getting better -- all the time."
Here are the ten steps to undertaking continuous improvement:
1.Determine current performance.
2.Establish a need to improve.
3.Obtain commitment and define the improvement objective.
4.Organize the diagnostic resources.
5.Carry out research and analysis to discover the cause of current performance.
6.Define and test solutions that will accomplish the improvement objective.
7.Produce improvement plans which specify how and by whom the changes will be implemented.
8.Identify and overcome any resistance to the change.
9.Implement the change.
10.Put in place controls to hold new levels of performance, and repeat step one.
Putting it simply, it means "getting better -- all the time."
Here are the ten steps to undertaking continuous improvement:
1.Determine current performance.
2.Establish a need to improve.
3.Obtain commitment and define the improvement objective.
4.Organize the diagnostic resources.
5.Carry out research and analysis to discover the cause of current performance.
6.Define and test solutions that will accomplish the improvement objective.
7.Produce improvement plans which specify how and by whom the changes will be implemented.
8.Identify and overcome any resistance to the change.
9.Implement the change.
10.Put in place controls to hold new levels of performance, and repeat step one.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Eight steps for successful Six Sigma implementation
Eight steps for successful Six Sigma implementation.
Step One: Burning Platform and Shared Vision
In order to implement or even think about implementing Lean or Six Sigma methodologies, we need to have a burning platform. The burning platform could take several forms: "We are suffering huge quality losses and it accounts for more than 45 percent of our costs,” “our competitors are gaining our market share every quarter by 12 percent,” etc. Without a burning platform like this, organizations seldom have the motivation to implement TPS (Lean) or Six Sigma or TQM or any continuous improvement initiative.
Many are cynical about implementing Six Sigma. They'll ask: Why Six Sigma? Why Quality? Why Process Excellence? It does not help, so why do we need to do this? Often we in the Six Sigma fraternity have to meet and manage such cynics, and the only way to counter this pushback is to have a common vision across the organization, such as, “If I had a choice I would like to be best rather than biggest.”
Let me tell you how a seemingly small e-mail from a software programmer leads to a common standard across the whole of IBM; this is just an example of having a common understanding or vision across an organization.
Louis Gerstner, former Chairman of IBM, normally received almost 100 e-mails a day from employees at various levels. One day, a software programmer sent him an e-mail detailing the complicated system of internal procedures required to obtain software from another division. “Going through that much bureaucracy for a $100 IBM product is ludicrous,” wrote the programmer.
This was brought up during the next meeting, and a couple of days later a message went out from the chairman stating, “Henceforth it will be our policy to share with our colleagues enthusiastically and without added cost whatever we develop.”
Now having said that, I want to be best rather than biggest; how do I spread this vision, which is the first step in successful implementation? Let me start this with what we did in our company. When we started our journey, the Process Excellence team wanted to make Six Sigma a great success, so we ensured that the CEO was the first person in the company to understand Six Sigma and to be trained on the methodology.
With this task accomplished, everything else started falling in place since Six Sigma became a vision across the organization. Hence to drive organization vision and value across our workforce, customers, partners and suppliers, we needed to have our key leadership aligned towards a common vision. This ensures that the organization environment is amenable to change and able to drive change, leveraging innovation and technology as the key tools.
Lastly, we need to take action to attain our vision; this ensures that we gain visibility and strong support from leadership. Leadership sponsors ensure we meet our organization vision, thereby attaining excellence.
Step Two: Resources
Now let me get into step two of success. It’s pretty simple: You pay peanuts and you get monkeys, and your entire Six Sigma plan is heading towards disaster.
This is true to any resource. As Robert Bosch says, “He has lots of money since he pays good wages.” Do not hesitate to hire the right resource at the right price. This is applicable to any resource, be it man, material or technology.
Resources alone do not help us in ensuring we are successful… we need to deploy them as a team, and this team should act as a change agent. As an organization we must emphasize empowering the team to carry out the initiatives, and hence we need domain expertise and knowledge.
Let me share a personal example on selection process. We had finalized a candidate for a Black Belt position in our customer service process. During my interview I asked him, “What was the most wonderful experience in your life,” for which he replied, “The six months I spent working in a farm with no people, no telephone and no tension.”
Here is a candidate who was saying he wanted no connectivity, and we were looking to hire him for a customer service-oriented position. I ran to my boss and told him he might not fit in, but the damage was already done; he was hired, but he left within three months. The point I am trying to make is it’s not only money but also the fit of the resource which matters.
We need to take care of our resources both in terms of wages and also the resource fit and commitment to implementing the shared vision.
Step Three: Teach
As the proverb says, if you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to catch a fish he'll eat for a lifetime.
For Six Sigma to survive for a lifetime, we need to teach, or rather train, our resources to be powerful change agents. This can be attained by ensuring our leadership team is 100 percent trained as well as our grass root level team.
Hence, any amount of Six Sigma Yellow Belt,Green Belt, or Black Belt training is good to increase organizational awareness and to increase our QDNA. Ultimately, success lies in implementing at the grass root level, and for training it’s absolutely necessary that the resource has good mentoring skills. There is also a saying, “You can lead a horse to the water, but cannot make it drink.” So the resources identified for training should be the right resources and should share the organization’s shared vision.
Step Four: Prioritize
You have a vision, which has ensured you get the right resource, and now that you have organization-wide awareness at the top and at the grass root level, next comes the prioritization.
Have we listened to our customer? Is it linked to our business goals? Have we done a thorough CTQ tree analysis is what we need to first ensure that we do?
We need to learn what to overlook and where to take risk, and the question here is how good we are in terms of risk mitigation and expectation management in terms of meeting the key expectation of our organization’s goals.
Step Five: Ownership
With ownership comes empowerment and a sense of pride, and here integrity plays a key role that ensures that we have team commitment, accountability and engagement. Just like the golden rule for real estate is “location, location, location,” the Golden Rule for a Six Sigma Black Belt is “relationship, relationship, relationship.” This is the key for success in terms of driving commitment, accountability and engagement since it ensures proper ownership in the whole process.
Step Six: Measurement
Creating a measurement system ensures a proper baseline. To ensure that we achieve a set target, we must have an objective decision making analysis of variation.
The key for measurement is to get to the cost of quality right. When I had just completed my engineering degree and was working as a trainee engineer in an engineering firm, I was posted to the field warehouse to take stock of all the nuts, bolts and other parts, and now I was in a situation where I thought, “Hey, what I am I doing here? If I start counting each and every nut I will be spending weeks doing this task, which is not a right way to measure.” I did not want to spend weeks doing this since I would not learn anything, so I devised a way to count the nuts and bolts by working on a system of weighing the parts in large batches and converting the same into units. When my manager found out I took only a fraction of the time to count from the earlier method that had been followed for years, I was moved to field engineering, and I went on to handle the complete field quality within six months.
“What can’t be measured cannot be improved,” but we need to devise a right way to measure to ensure we are on a faster pace to achieving objective decision making. Having too many measures on our scorecard shifts our attention away from the critical few. We need to identify and measure the key leading indicators instead of measuring the many lagging indicators (which is a pitfall most organizations fall into!).
Step Seven: Governance (Review)
The key to project or program sustenance is to have a proper (required) governance structure. Improper governance/poor governance/too much governance can lead to the vision falling apart.
A business quality council at the top level of the organization can smooth and clear all hurdles; this would create synergy and also clear ways for adhering to timelines.
Proper governance would help us create a best practice sharing forum, which would help to replicate Six Sigma projects and would also highlight key challenges. Without governance (regularly scheduled productive meetings/reviews), course correction and guidance to the organization’s employees would be affected and ultimately the vision would be lost.
Step Eight: Recognition
Rewards and recognition plays a key role in ensuring that a Six Sigma team does not resign and renegotiate. Rewards and recognition are what create energy in the implementation system both at the top level and the grass root level and drives innovation throughout the organization.
Proper rewards and recognition ensures there is consistency in achieving excellent performance. Let me quote my personal example on reward and recognition at a grass roots level. During my days as a Quality engineer we got a note from one of our biggest customers whom we used to supply springs; they are one of the largest automobile manufacturers in India and we were supplying springs for them. The note was to reduce the price of our springs by 10 percent, and we were in a fix. We did everything possible. Many changes happened across the company; improvements ensured we could reduce the price by around seven percent but we still needed a three percent reduction. My boss who was a well know quality expert asked me to go to one of our key suppliers who supplied spring wires and work with the supplier to reduce the cost of making wires.
Let me tell you, the first day when I went for a meeting with the supplier we did a whole lot of talking for almost five hours, and guess who was there in the meeting? We had the engineering head, quality head, Operation and design chief. Every one talked and we came to the conclusion that price cant be reduced since we had to import the bearing, which we used to wind the wires and this used to wear out every month due to increased weight of the spring wires and we had to change them often increasing the manufacturing cost.
I went back and told my boss I had a brainstorming session, and we came to the conclusion we could not do anything. He was silent for some time. Then he asked who were in the meeting. I told him all the heads who attended. The moment I said that, he said, “You are stupid.” He asked if there was anyone in the room who was an operator or anybody who deals with the machine at the ground level. I said no.
He told me to go back again talk to the grass root level operators. I went back the next day and had a meeting with the operations team, which included a person whose job was just to shift the bundle of steel wires to stores. I made sure he was part of the brainstorming session. He said since we have the winding machine placed on the ground and the drawn cold wire winds on the winder, all the load of the wires gets onto the bearing. He asked us why don’t we have the winding machine installed from the ceiling so the wire load does not fall on the bearing but instead fall on the winder? Finally we did have a solution: The bearing that was wearing out in a month gave three months life, which eventually decreased the cost.
I still interact with this person; he has been promoted from a store operator to a foreman in the company. That’s recognition and he is still in the company..
Conclusion of the Eight Steps
In summary, the eight steps for successful Six Sigma implementation starts with having a clear vision (which originates from a burning platform), which ensures organizational alignment, By ensuring we hire the right resources (by not paying peanuts) we will have an organization-wide QDNA which will transform the organization into a productive, synergistic, continuously improving organization.
Complete awareness at both the top and grass root level, prioritization and ownership, a proper measurement system, and governance will be key for Six Sigma project implementation. Finally to conclude we need to ensure that the team is empowered and recognized so that we do not end up with resignation and renegotiation. (Click on diagram to enlarge.)
taken from article Author: Lokesh R
Step One: Burning Platform and Shared Vision
In order to implement or even think about implementing Lean or Six Sigma methodologies, we need to have a burning platform. The burning platform could take several forms: "We are suffering huge quality losses and it accounts for more than 45 percent of our costs,” “our competitors are gaining our market share every quarter by 12 percent,” etc. Without a burning platform like this, organizations seldom have the motivation to implement TPS (Lean) or Six Sigma or TQM or any continuous improvement initiative.
Many are cynical about implementing Six Sigma. They'll ask: Why Six Sigma? Why Quality? Why Process Excellence? It does not help, so why do we need to do this? Often we in the Six Sigma fraternity have to meet and manage such cynics, and the only way to counter this pushback is to have a common vision across the organization, such as, “If I had a choice I would like to be best rather than biggest.”
Let me tell you how a seemingly small e-mail from a software programmer leads to a common standard across the whole of IBM; this is just an example of having a common understanding or vision across an organization.
Louis Gerstner, former Chairman of IBM, normally received almost 100 e-mails a day from employees at various levels. One day, a software programmer sent him an e-mail detailing the complicated system of internal procedures required to obtain software from another division. “Going through that much bureaucracy for a $100 IBM product is ludicrous,” wrote the programmer.
This was brought up during the next meeting, and a couple of days later a message went out from the chairman stating, “Henceforth it will be our policy to share with our colleagues enthusiastically and without added cost whatever we develop.”
Now having said that, I want to be best rather than biggest; how do I spread this vision, which is the first step in successful implementation? Let me start this with what we did in our company. When we started our journey, the Process Excellence team wanted to make Six Sigma a great success, so we ensured that the CEO was the first person in the company to understand Six Sigma and to be trained on the methodology.
With this task accomplished, everything else started falling in place since Six Sigma became a vision across the organization. Hence to drive organization vision and value across our workforce, customers, partners and suppliers, we needed to have our key leadership aligned towards a common vision. This ensures that the organization environment is amenable to change and able to drive change, leveraging innovation and technology as the key tools.
Lastly, we need to take action to attain our vision; this ensures that we gain visibility and strong support from leadership. Leadership sponsors ensure we meet our organization vision, thereby attaining excellence.
Step Two: Resources
Now let me get into step two of success. It’s pretty simple: You pay peanuts and you get monkeys, and your entire Six Sigma plan is heading towards disaster.
This is true to any resource. As Robert Bosch says, “He has lots of money since he pays good wages.” Do not hesitate to hire the right resource at the right price. This is applicable to any resource, be it man, material or technology.
Resources alone do not help us in ensuring we are successful… we need to deploy them as a team, and this team should act as a change agent. As an organization we must emphasize empowering the team to carry out the initiatives, and hence we need domain expertise and knowledge.
Let me share a personal example on selection process. We had finalized a candidate for a Black Belt position in our customer service process. During my interview I asked him, “What was the most wonderful experience in your life,” for which he replied, “The six months I spent working in a farm with no people, no telephone and no tension.”
Here is a candidate who was saying he wanted no connectivity, and we were looking to hire him for a customer service-oriented position. I ran to my boss and told him he might not fit in, but the damage was already done; he was hired, but he left within three months. The point I am trying to make is it’s not only money but also the fit of the resource which matters.
We need to take care of our resources both in terms of wages and also the resource fit and commitment to implementing the shared vision.
Step Three: Teach
As the proverb says, if you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to catch a fish he'll eat for a lifetime.
For Six Sigma to survive for a lifetime, we need to teach, or rather train, our resources to be powerful change agents. This can be attained by ensuring our leadership team is 100 percent trained as well as our grass root level team.
Hence, any amount of Six Sigma Yellow Belt,Green Belt, or Black Belt training is good to increase organizational awareness and to increase our QDNA. Ultimately, success lies in implementing at the grass root level, and for training it’s absolutely necessary that the resource has good mentoring skills. There is also a saying, “You can lead a horse to the water, but cannot make it drink.” So the resources identified for training should be the right resources and should share the organization’s shared vision.
Step Four: Prioritize
You have a vision, which has ensured you get the right resource, and now that you have organization-wide awareness at the top and at the grass root level, next comes the prioritization.
Have we listened to our customer? Is it linked to our business goals? Have we done a thorough CTQ tree analysis is what we need to first ensure that we do?
We need to learn what to overlook and where to take risk, and the question here is how good we are in terms of risk mitigation and expectation management in terms of meeting the key expectation of our organization’s goals.
Step Five: Ownership
With ownership comes empowerment and a sense of pride, and here integrity plays a key role that ensures that we have team commitment, accountability and engagement. Just like the golden rule for real estate is “location, location, location,” the Golden Rule for a Six Sigma Black Belt is “relationship, relationship, relationship.” This is the key for success in terms of driving commitment, accountability and engagement since it ensures proper ownership in the whole process.
Step Six: Measurement
Creating a measurement system ensures a proper baseline. To ensure that we achieve a set target, we must have an objective decision making analysis of variation.
The key for measurement is to get to the cost of quality right. When I had just completed my engineering degree and was working as a trainee engineer in an engineering firm, I was posted to the field warehouse to take stock of all the nuts, bolts and other parts, and now I was in a situation where I thought, “Hey, what I am I doing here? If I start counting each and every nut I will be spending weeks doing this task, which is not a right way to measure.” I did not want to spend weeks doing this since I would not learn anything, so I devised a way to count the nuts and bolts by working on a system of weighing the parts in large batches and converting the same into units. When my manager found out I took only a fraction of the time to count from the earlier method that had been followed for years, I was moved to field engineering, and I went on to handle the complete field quality within six months.
“What can’t be measured cannot be improved,” but we need to devise a right way to measure to ensure we are on a faster pace to achieving objective decision making. Having too many measures on our scorecard shifts our attention away from the critical few. We need to identify and measure the key leading indicators instead of measuring the many lagging indicators (which is a pitfall most organizations fall into!).
Step Seven: Governance (Review)
The key to project or program sustenance is to have a proper (required) governance structure. Improper governance/poor governance/too much governance can lead to the vision falling apart.
A business quality council at the top level of the organization can smooth and clear all hurdles; this would create synergy and also clear ways for adhering to timelines.
Proper governance would help us create a best practice sharing forum, which would help to replicate Six Sigma projects and would also highlight key challenges. Without governance (regularly scheduled productive meetings/reviews), course correction and guidance to the organization’s employees would be affected and ultimately the vision would be lost.
Step Eight: Recognition
Rewards and recognition plays a key role in ensuring that a Six Sigma team does not resign and renegotiate. Rewards and recognition are what create energy in the implementation system both at the top level and the grass root level and drives innovation throughout the organization.
Proper rewards and recognition ensures there is consistency in achieving excellent performance. Let me quote my personal example on reward and recognition at a grass roots level. During my days as a Quality engineer we got a note from one of our biggest customers whom we used to supply springs; they are one of the largest automobile manufacturers in India and we were supplying springs for them. The note was to reduce the price of our springs by 10 percent, and we were in a fix. We did everything possible. Many changes happened across the company; improvements ensured we could reduce the price by around seven percent but we still needed a three percent reduction. My boss who was a well know quality expert asked me to go to one of our key suppliers who supplied spring wires and work with the supplier to reduce the cost of making wires.
Let me tell you, the first day when I went for a meeting with the supplier we did a whole lot of talking for almost five hours, and guess who was there in the meeting? We had the engineering head, quality head, Operation and design chief. Every one talked and we came to the conclusion that price cant be reduced since we had to import the bearing, which we used to wind the wires and this used to wear out every month due to increased weight of the spring wires and we had to change them often increasing the manufacturing cost.
I went back and told my boss I had a brainstorming session, and we came to the conclusion we could not do anything. He was silent for some time. Then he asked who were in the meeting. I told him all the heads who attended. The moment I said that, he said, “You are stupid.” He asked if there was anyone in the room who was an operator or anybody who deals with the machine at the ground level. I said no.
He told me to go back again talk to the grass root level operators. I went back the next day and had a meeting with the operations team, which included a person whose job was just to shift the bundle of steel wires to stores. I made sure he was part of the brainstorming session. He said since we have the winding machine placed on the ground and the drawn cold wire winds on the winder, all the load of the wires gets onto the bearing. He asked us why don’t we have the winding machine installed from the ceiling so the wire load does not fall on the bearing but instead fall on the winder? Finally we did have a solution: The bearing that was wearing out in a month gave three months life, which eventually decreased the cost.
I still interact with this person; he has been promoted from a store operator to a foreman in the company. That’s recognition and he is still in the company..
Conclusion of the Eight Steps
In summary, the eight steps for successful Six Sigma implementation starts with having a clear vision (which originates from a burning platform), which ensures organizational alignment, By ensuring we hire the right resources (by not paying peanuts) we will have an organization-wide QDNA which will transform the organization into a productive, synergistic, continuously improving organization.
Complete awareness at both the top and grass root level, prioritization and ownership, a proper measurement system, and governance will be key for Six Sigma project implementation. Finally to conclude we need to ensure that the team is empowered and recognized so that we do not end up with resignation and renegotiation. (Click on diagram to enlarge.)
taken from article Author: Lokesh R
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