Are we suitable for Team Based Problem Solving

I have been approached on whether TBPS is for their company.  Here I have devised 13 simple statements for you to evaluate your company. 

Answer them and if you  come off short, it simply means that some coaching and training for your colleagues would be good to come up to speed. 

As with all the companies I have given assistance; the benefits far outweigh the cost in terms of time and other upfront preparation.  Instead of having to revert when you encounter the problems with TBPS implementation midway through the scheme; I have compiled these statements for you to do a self review on whether your company is suitable: 

Take this Self-Assessment Quiz

The decision to implement a TBPS scheme should be based on more than schedules, finances, or convenience.  The following questionnaire will help you evaluate your company’s potential to be a successful TBPS company.

Just response with True or False, there is a simple assessment of your responses at the end.

TBPS projects benefits both the team members as well as improve the productivity fo the company

 

1.         The company has a basic believe to train employees in problem solving skills.  

True. This is essential. The company can’t be effective in TBPS unless there is easy access to basic training on the essentials of problem solving methodology.  A common language must permeate throughout the company’s definition of what a problem is, what a solution is, how implementation and review are to be carried out and who are involved in the process at what stage of the project. The training course(s) on problem solving should be woven into their company’s general commitment to training policy.  Training should be done right from the time an employee joints the ranks. 

 

 

TBPS approaches a problem with the context in perspective

 2.    The company has a good basic leadership structure (method for appointment of leaders; assistant leaders and members are established)     

True. Management will save a lot of stress and time if they have developed and stnadardised a basic structure of leadership appointment and membership recruitment.  The success of the first project depends a lot on the basic identification of the leaders and the chosen project leaders must be able to command the confidence of the team members; whilst the members should also know how to reciprocate with support.

3.      Company is goal oriented.      

True. Since a good deal of the projects are meant for enhancing the overall contribution to the productivity of the organization, there must be a certain clarity on the theme and goals of productivity.  Some companies have Key Performance Indicators as their first guideline to define the company goal. The bottom line? Until the management define what they want the teams will not be able to know what is expected and thus not able to achieve anything. Teams must be able to match their objective to the company’s goal.  

 

 

This is the Steven Covey 2 x 2 Matrix. Unfortunately, the priority for the TBPS project may land in the yellow quadrant (Not urgent, but important). Unless the team plans for it that project may drop into quadrant 4!

4.         Time management is a priority.   

True. The ability to manage time well may be the most important skill a team can possess. Procrastination is the worst enemy of the project. A good team should be able to set goals and priorities, have a plan for achieving them, and follow through. There is no substitute for good time management skills.   

 

 

The team must have some sense of empowerment to carry out basic decision.

5.      Teams are autonomously organize for their respective work responsibilities; they have a block of time for the project activities and another block of time for important routine tasks. 

True. While most teams would choose projects for the improvement of their work area, it is important that team members carve out blocks of time for their project activities, separating the time required for their routine work. Most teams will find the project time consuming at certain stage of its development. All projects require the members and leaders to put in some uninterrupted time each week to complete specific task along the way.  

 

 

 

The team must have a respect for deadlines. TBPS Projects are designed with timelines in mind. Success of the project is tied to others. Although it may seem that the projects are the less urgent, finishing ontime is still a success criteria

6.      Teams have no problems meeting deadlines.

True. Supervisors are usually adamant about deadlines. If a team leader (or a majority of the members) is a habitual procrastinator, TBPS projects may not be appropriate for the team.  

 

 

7.      Teams are able to work independently without direct and close supervision for many of its minor decisions from the supervisor.  

True. While training and coaching are offered to leaders and team members to give them opportunities for soliciting guidance and advice, a good deal of the work must be done independently. If the team does not like learning alone and need to have the supervisor making all the decisions at every minor stage of the project, then TBPS may not be the best option.

 

 

You need not be Bill, but his self-starter attitude is something we can learn from. I have seen projects that have made more then $500k in six months, which I think was better than what Bill achieved in his first 6 months!

8.      Team leader is a self-starter who can attempt a task after receiving basic instructions.  True. A good team leader is able to get started on a project independently. More important, effective team leaders do not get greatly “disturbed” by problems but search out answers and struggle with them before contacting their supervisors. 

 

 

 

 

Experimentation is part of the project. Build, test, refine and then test and re-fine etc.

 

9.      Teams learn well by discussion and experimentation. True. Many solutions are found by trial and error, but behind the experiments, risk taking have already been mitigated and debated by everyone before the team takes any step forward.  Team members take the responsibility for failures and ensure that even if the risk are big, it should not be too big for the supervisor to handle.  That is why discussion and experimentation is taken in small steps; and these steps may be in new or radical direction. 

 

If you do not know what to do next, go back to the question of : What is the worst that can happen; what is the maximum lost possible. Can the team live with that? If we lost can we make a come back?

10.     Team members understand exactly what they are going to achieve.

True. If the team is going to take responsibilities, they should know the risks; and that comes with knowing with certainty what they are to achieve and if they do not achieve, what kind if risks to expect. This way they exercise critical analysis throughout the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although some team members may be apprehensive about expressing their views in the begining; they soon realised the importance and usefulness of being heard. There is a culture issue amongst many local team members - they are too shy to speak up. Maintaining a non-threatening atmosphere will help members learn how to argue professionally, factually, and directed towards the overall theme.

11.        Team members are proficient in communication.

True. Whether through written or spoken communication, members are expected to communicate their ideas, concerns and express their views with passion and intensity when the need arises.  Although it is desirable for rigorous debating session to be held during some team meetings, the leaders must be able to consolidate views and opinions in amicable directions for the next step to be taken. 

 

 

Never leave to chance. Plan the time of 1 - 2 hours a week for your project. That is the only way to make sure it gets going!

 12.     Team members are willing to devote 1 – 2 hours per week for each project. 

True. One myth about TBPS project is that as long as we have 80% attendance, the meeting should proceed and everything will be fine, for the absentee will catch up later. This should not be encouraged.  Most members who are responsible would find that besides the meeting engagements, they will also put in more time in order to carry out his/her assigned task during the meeting. Therefore, at a minimum, members must have approximately 4 hours per week per project that to concentrate on the project.

 

 

Even religious leaders may benefit by taking some time to try to understand others. Their faith may not change, but understanding will deepen.

 13.     Team members are am willing to discuss the project with other colleagues outside the team proper.

Mostly True. Most projects are not necessarily independent and confidential studies. Some parts of the project may encroach into other divisions.  Many projects will require other colleagues to provide information, support and also endorsement during the experiments as well as during the course of implementation.  Therefore communication with colleagues outside the project team is often necessary.  Team members would do well to regularly discuss internally (intra-team) on how to effectively communicate with colleagues outside the project team; and even how to engage the correct people and level of participation of people outside the team. 

 

Now rate your success.     Count the number of “True” you gave as you read the statements and compared against the actual situation you have back in your company.

8 to 10: Your company is probably a good candidate for TBPS.
Less than 8: You should consider some external assistance. 

 

TBPS Projects benefit the company and the team members

STRIKING GOLD AT THE TEAM EXCELLENCE SYMPOSIUM 2009

The TEAM EXCELLENCE SYMPOSIUM is held twice a year in Singapore.  The  objective of the organiser is to provide a platform for problem solving teams to present their project and be graded by an independent panel of assessors.  After these presentation, the teams are asked pertinent questions for clarifications . 

There are many ways a team can benefit when they take part in the symposium.  Besides gaining some visibility on their success stories, the presenting teams will have a chance to validate their problem solving skill with specially trained and experienced process experts who form the assessors team.  As an assessor myself, I have also seen how the presentation build up the team members’ self-confidence; improve their intra-group bonding and co-operation, and increased the bonding between the supervisors and the team.   

The 25 September 2009 marks an important day for four teams from Hitachi Global Storage (Singapore).  Four teams took part in that national competition and all came up tops.  Imagine, three Golds and one Star!

Team Excellence Symposium Results 2009 (Hitachi)

Assessors grade the projects based on their final reports and presentations by the team members.  A set of 10 criteria are used covering all aspects of the project.  To get a Star, a team need more than 850 points out of the maximum of 1,000 points.  The maximum points possible is given below:

1. Project Selection (100 points)
2. Target Setting (50 points)
3. Problem Analysis (100 points)
4. Effective Use of Tools (100 points)
5. Solution Development (100 points)
6. Solution Selection (100 points)
7. Solution Implementation (100 points)
8. Project Achievement (200 points)
9. Sustainability (of solution results) (50 points)
10. Overall Impact on Organisation (by the project) (100 points)

From experience, a Star is only given to the outstanding projects. It usually falls on the top 3-5% of the cohort

In Hitachi, their team excellence projects started back in the 1980s.  During that time such activities were called SGAs (small Group Activities) or QC (Quality Circles).  This has become a way of life in Hitachi today.  

One of the teams that won Gold

Management had make it a corporate culture for people to solve work related problems in small groups.  To give it a framework, they have adopted the basic methodology as per the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle propounded by Dr Deming.  See my introduction of the PDCA in 12-steps in past posts (note : I have password protected it.  If you like to know more, send me an email and I will give you the password)

The philosophy behind the  SGA or QC is that when workers at the shopfloor conscientiously carry out their duties, they would know best how to carry out the daily operations.  This philosophy is easy to understand. 

Frontline operators who directly encounter whatever inconveniences will know them first hand, thus whenever there is an error or something that go wrong they immediately know it.   

However, being human, people are usually extremely adaptable.  Many times people will think on their feet and find a way to check the errors.  These ’stop-gap’ measures may become permanent changes which goes un-noticed.

Most people can improvise if asked to, and will improvise to prevent suffering

The trouble is, many times people do not report it to their supervisor, and many minor adaptations, improvements and adjustments go unnoticed.  These could be very unique ways to prevent incorrect data entries, or they could be simple rules of thumbs to prevent slips or errors.  It could be just simple re-arrangment of layout to prevent surface scratches, spillages, cracks; or simple moving an item away from a heat source to prevent discolouration, material warps; or even straightening the path of heavy items after some near misses.  To me, these adaptations, improvisions, are burried treasures.

Of course, when someone suffers a burnt, cuts a finger, calls in sick because of a back injury, the ‘red-lights’ and ’sirens’ comes on, and then the safety engineer/supervisor is alerted and rushes in to make an investigation and writes a report.  

Meanwhile, those tired fingers, blurry eyes, progressive back aches, etc are taken as part and parcel of necessary work (or labour!).  Work should not be hard to perform.

Working hard is necessary, but work should not be 'hard to perform'

I recalled a very good story told to us by our professor when I was at the business school.  This case happened at one of General Motor’s plants.  The General Motor Quality Assurance Engineer was puzzled when the windscreen on their new vehicle leaked after a few weeks. 

Logically, the first atep is to look through the manual to make sure that things are systematically and scientifically reasonable.  Next, he compared what the worker was doing against the procedures.  He found no discrepancy.   The worker was doing exactly what was stated in the manual to the letter. 

Then he reviewed several records of similar cases and realised that there was a surge in the number of cases after a certain date.  After eliminating many possibilities, he found that that was the time the old worker retired and he was replaced by a newly trained employee.  The instruction manual had not changed, and the new worker was doing exactly what is required.  

Fitting the windscreen according to standard procedure given in the Instruction Manual is still not good enough?

Finally, in desperation, he decided to invite the ex-worker back to check with him.  After tracking him down, to a beach resort, where he had taken a month-long vacation with his family, they managed to ‘consult’ him. 

Guess what. 

Although many supervisors accused their reports that they followed blindly, the reality is that most people do not follow blindly! They change to suit to what is better. But not all tell their bosses about it.

The retired worker proudly told the QA Engineer that, “Many years ago when I joined GM, I realised that when I followed exactly what the manual tells me, step by step, I had many complaints about leaks.  So this is how I did it.  I did this first and then this ……. and the leaks disappear.  Since then I had been doing it that way.”  

This classic silent movie satirized the 'production factory' of the 1930s. Charlie Chaplin depicts a worker as a 'cog' in the big production machine.

While standardised procedures and processes as well as establishing systems are important, what is more important is to know that, the micro-elements of every procedure really rest with the worker.  The workers are directly involved in the operational work. 

Government food inspection procedures (important, but is it effective??)

Adaptations, adjustments and further improvements should always be encouraged.  The QC activties and projects allow employees to study the problem more systematically; it allows trials to be carried out; measurements on success factors can be isolated and the best combination consolidated.  Using the many brains of the team working, reflecting from various angles, the best solution can be package, tested and implemented.  Such is the philosophy of QC projects. 

 

In the next few post I will briefly share with you the improvements of these four teams.

Briefing For Friends From Bhutan

Had a chance to share my experience and views on national productivity development issues with some friends from Bhutan last two days.  Here are some of the slides which I used.  A deep and perceptive lot. They did not fail to question the rationale behind the actions taken by the Government. 

In fact, I was impressed by the way they take issues on productivity so seriously.  Obviously what worked for us will not directly translate into good without tailoring and adaptation.

Meat Matters

It was estimated that there are more than 500 commercial airlines in the world.  During the 9/11 incident, it took more than 3 hours to get the planes hovering above the United States to land.  This is how it looks like on a typical radar screen of planes in the air over the United States.

Each of the dots indicate the location of one plane in the sky above United States.  That is really a lot of people in the skies!

 
Location of planes above US on 17 July 2008 

Airlines are always competing in all areas of service, meals on board is one of the things that airlines compete. Very so often we never even bother how these meals served in mid-flight are being prepared on planes.  But in reality, there is a whole industry which is concerned with catering flight meals for commercial passenger planes. 

A yummy flight meal

They supply cooked meals based on the airlines’ requirements.  Many thousands of meals are prepared – precooked, refreeze and uploaded when the planes land in airports.  The pretty stewardess just put them in microwave ovens before they serve.  (They don’t cook, just in case you think they make good cooking-wives!)

Typical flight kitchen preparing the ’snack items’

Somewhere in Singapore there was a team of dedicated chefs who were responsible to prepare thousands of flight meals every day.  The team members had been working for several years in the flight catering company and had indeed won many outstanding awards.  To make their jobs meaningful, they had form a team to challenge themselves to make improvements at their work.  This is one such project.

Taking Stock

One of the items for the main course is of course meat.  Particularly popular is the beef steak meals.  One of the challenges of preparing steaks is that the chef must make sure that not only the size and weight of the portion of mean be consistent, the shape of the meat must also be consistent.  The tough part of the meat – tendons and whitish fat are trimmed off the meat, leaving the red juicy meat.

 
Fat and tendons from meat are carefully trimmed off.

But surely, meat is by no means a cheap commodity – in fact one of the most expensive ingredients other than the sauces and spices.  The team decided to study how they can help the company be more productive in the use of meat. Through brainstorming and several sessions of investigation, and to their amazement, they discovered that there were indeed much differences in the ‘yield of the meats’.  It was dependent greatly on the chefs.  At first they thought it was the knives they used and they were not sharp.  But then, even when the knives are equally sharp a significant difference still remained.

 
Baker’s Knife, Meat Knife

They finally discovered that the reason for the meat wastage during the removal of tendons and fats is because of the way and angel the knive was positioned!

Learning Points.

If the team had not got together, they would not be able to compare their work, and who is doing it better.  Each chef will still think they each have the best skill, and the company will not even realised there is an area for improvement in meat preparation. 

Afterall, the company’s announcement in their marketing brochure is that they provide the best flight meals.  The awards they get year after year is good enough testimony.  The WIT team decided that they want to make a difference in whatever they do. They want to learn from the best in their team.  They want to learn from each other!

Today, you can enjoy the same meal, using the same material but the team had made them at a lower price.  Meat matters to them!

Meat Also Matters To Them

The Package Deal

I imagine you must have been to a hospital before.  Believe me, by my age, you have to be really very fortunate to have not had a hospital stay.  I remember once I had a fall from my new motorbike and landed in a monsoon drain and inevitably that was the first time I ended up in the hospital.  Well that was years ago.  Since then I have given up on bikes and have even convinced my sons to just be contented with what they watch on TV – Extreme Sports.  Machine on two wheels are really too unstable in a fast pace world we live in!

Today’s Untra-modern Admissions Office

Data Collection.   The first thing that they do to you when you arrive at the hospital is, of course, the first step of problem solving - collect some data. 

In this case, they collect your blood.  The doctors does it, sometimes the experienced nurses does it.  I am not sure who inflicts more pain, but I think younger nurses or doctors are slightly more gentle (be free to comment on this if you disagree!). 

Ouch!  They always ask you, if it hurts (as if it doesn’t!)

Take One.    Some years ago, a wonderful project was carried out by a group of nurses at a local hospital.  The hospital was new then, located somewhere in the Eastern part of the island.  This team of  nurses noticed that, once in a while, the blood sample they ‘extract’ from the patient is simply no-good. 

Meaning, when the sample reached the lab for assessment, it was graded ‘contaminated’.  Now when this happens, the next course of action is that the nurse must take another sample.  Most patients may not mind, but if the patient is difficult, especially those who frequent hospitals, and knows his/her rights, then making another extra prick into the vein will really upset them.  If they do not accept the nurses explanation then a complaint is coming your way! 

Sorry Sir.  We need to redo it.  The last sample was no good.
(Was it me?  How did I get bad blood??)

What is bad blood?   More often than not the blood was not contaminated by what the patient eat, rather it was due to contamination in the environment.  The place where blood is taken is generally not in a 100% sterile environment.  You don’t get the privilege of an operating theatre to have your blood sample extracted. 

 Blood sample are collected and sent to the laboratory

They are then tested
by specially trained hospital laboratory technicians

The team of nurses got together to make a study on causes of blood contamination.  By looking up some statistics and literature, the team realised that, compared to other reputable hospitals, their contamination rate was much higher.   

Healthcare service standards.    Curious and determined, they set a goal to reduce the blood contamination rate to the level of the best hospital standards. Being a new hospital, this would really be a worthwhile attempt to help it set a high standard of healthcare.  Already healthcare had attracted much attention and even the Minister for Health had made his point in the papers.   For instance, he had suggested that hospitals should be also be monitored for speed besides treatment success.  Some of you may remembered this article in the newspaper.

Hospitals need to be efficient!

Fast and good – Not so cheap.    Hospitals are busy places, doctors and nurses rushed up and down corridors to save lives – that is exactly what we would expect of hosipitals.  There are some simple rules on priority treatment.  Urgent cases like bleeding, heart attacks, poisoning, etc will be attended to first.  Obviously taking a sample of blood is low on the urgency scale. 

Saving lives is highest on the agenda

Ouch! Ouch!  Not again.    All these pressures had stretched the existing resources.  Nurses are busy, administrators are busy, doctors are busy, attendants are busy, etc.   So sometimes, the antiseptic gauze or alcohol is not replenished and the nurses or doctors had to walk down the corridor to collect new supplies.  As the seconds tick by, the bacteria did their thingi.  The blood, when left in the syringe longer than normal, is slowly contaminated by the bacteria from the atmosphere.  Too bad, the lab rejects the sample and another anoying prick had to be administered. 

Ouch! Ouch! OUCH!!

The Package Deal.   So with a good analysis of cause, and discussion, the team came up with the brilliant idea of preparing antiseptic packages for taking blood samples.  The items required for taking blood are very standard items. Therefore, once they are all complete, the blood sample taking proceedure will proceed like clockwork, and unnecessary waiting time will be eliminated.

Results.  The team tried it out, got the medical supply vendors to provide the packaging, and presto, blood contamination went down by more than 70%. 

When you include the ‘wasted lab test’ and other administration, the time to redo the blood taking, attending to complaints of customers, bad publicity, this project does go a long way in terms of cost reduction! The total savings (antibiotics, material, administration) projected for that year came up to a cool S$38,000. 

How about that kind of results from a team of five nurses working on it for six months, meeting only every other week for about 1.5 half hours each time.   I would say it was a good package deal!

A really good package deal, I would say!

 

 

Making Better Road Sense

I Love To Sit In Front.   For a number of reasons, I prefer to sit right in front when I am in a town bus.  Firstly, I can view the scenery in front, and more importantly, I can see how much further is the place where I am to get down.   

Sit In Front To Enjoy The Bus Ride Better
(unless you sit behind lovely ladies!)

Secondly, I can see if there is imminent danger – some crazy driver may just suddenly stop right in front, or a vehicle just decided to swerve into the lane.  I will then have the extra seconds to make sure I grab some something to cushion the jerk.  Finally, I may even have a chance to meet some ex-colleagues of mine … some drivers never change jobs since I knew them, that is some 15 years ago.  I had worked in a public transport company during that time.

Dangers of Sitting behind
- can’t see what is going on in front

Only Two Feet Clearance On Each Side!   I often admired how skillful the drivers are.  When you sit in front, you can see how little clearance there is on either side of the bus.   When bus drivers have screen-down windows, they can literally hand a piece of ‘kueh’ to their fellow drivers, when they came and the stop alongside, especially at long red lights junction (of course, that is illegal!).   Today I still see them waving to their colleagues at junctions.  Tightly sealed air-con buses have prevented anything more than just hand signs and exchange of basic friendly gestures.

One day, sometime in 1990 or thereabout, the company announcedd the good news of moving to a new terminal in the north.  We managers got busy to monitor and track the quality.  My Engineer colleague and I had the numbers coming after a while, and to our amazement, we discovered a steady rise in ‘tyre wall damage’ cases for those buses using the new terminal.  This generated a certain amount of concern. 

Why So Near?    I took several rides just to check out the situation, and I am impressed by their skills.   Anyway, they are supposed to go near to the kerb, so that passengers do not need to step off the platform, onto the pavement then up the bus.  The idea is to let passengers just hop from the platform onto the kerb.  So, with the tight clearance, one should really excuse them for a few scrapes on the kerbs, now and then? Shouldn’t we? 

 Engineer making sure that the kerb is not too low,
nor too high so that passengers’ can hop from platform onto the bus.

Drivers: “We Love Our Jobs”   The company had started small group activities then for a few years.  One of the teams had taken up responsibility to look into this problem.  A series of brainstorming and meetings was all it take for them to come up with several good solutions.  Some were mundane, like more training, attaching sensors to the flannels, mete out harsher punishment, station more officers to ’scare’ them into slowing down, fix additional lighting to make the place brighter, etc, etc.  But there was one that stood out. 

Kerbs – A Blessing or Curse?   You see the approach by the team is very different.  The team began with the premise that their fellow drivers are a skillful lot.  Everyone have no intention to crash onto the kerbs.  In fact, almost all drivers were proud to be the chosen ones to use this new, clean and modern terminal.  The bright flashing smiles on faces of people who had just move to the neighbourhood created a pleasent and positive atmosphere.               

Expensive Affair

Now the real problem is just that ’sometimes’ they just go too near to the sides.  When you have positive people, punishment and controls may not be the way to go.  You need to help them help themselves. 

Fact : Managers Know The Problem,
But Do They Really Have the Right Solution?

Sandwiched Position.   Less-obliging-drivers also argued that, “Management should bite the bullet, allow drivers to adjust and get used to the new driveways.  Such things you cannot be learned in a hurry.  Put our managers in the driver’s seat and see how they do it, then we talk!“ 

The team pour through the solutions one by one.  The best solution that came out was so simple yet so effective.  They team proposed to draw bright white lines a few feet from the kerb.  Instead of being guided by the edge of the kerbs, the drivers take the guidelines from the new lines on the road.  

Bright White Lines (Cheap and good)

Bottom Line.   That project saved them more than $20,000 projected possible damaged recovery cost!  Remember the cost is not just the tyres, damaged tyres also meant more maintenance work, downtime lost, and administration (recording, reporting, and management meeting time).  The team really deserve a good pat on the back.  Their project won one of the team project-awards for that year. 

 

Less Waste, Save Tyres,
Less Work, Save Gaia! 

 

Ghostly Encounter

The Problem. 

“We need to reduce cost in our production, Jimmy!  We cannot keep on paying lots of money for few seconds of fantastic digital graphics; writing fat paychecks for popular stars; carry out location shooting at famous far away landmarks in Italy, Spain, Switzerland.  Cut cost.  I do not want to be hard on you Jimmy, but what I want is a good show that has value for money we spend.  Get something out to our audience at low cost.  Something they will want more.  That is the only way out.”  This was the exact words that Jimmy heard from his Managing Director, when he had a meeting on his next years’ budget.

Jimmy was clearly at his wit’s end.  Jimmy thought to himself, “How can a movie sell if it does not include the best of graphics, stunts, car chases, stars, scenic backdrops and … Who wants anything that is a simple, cheap production these days?”  The next three days of meetings and brainstormings with the work team came to no avail. 

Bounded by artificial boundaries.   In fact some time ago, Jimmy attended a talk on how constraints should be heeded when making decisions.  He was told that before doing something, one have to choose any two.  The third will have to be managed.  He really felt that the boss should be the one attending the talk instead of sending him.

.  

The Intrusion.   Seeing all the commotion and frustration, the youngest, newest and most timid member of the team, an attachment student, raised a edgy hand to speak at the end of the last brainstorming session.  Jimmy, needing a reprieve from the stress half-welcomed the raised hand.  What came from the attachment student was really an out-of-the-box idea. 

The New Frontier.    A ghost movie!  He started to explain.  “The production is cheap.  The scenery is best kept to the familiar, simple home-like environment is most easy for people to associate with.  That is what frightens people.  The next-door neighbour is where the ghosts lies dorment all the years!  The actors are best kept to the common people – those familiar nosey neighbours is probably best, those Plain-Janes and Simple-Simons look-alikes.  Glamorous stars are just too artificial for ghost movies!  Ghost movies need really common looking people to give it ’somethings is happening right next-door’ feeling.

Graphics and modern digital touch up are unnecessary, except for simple thuds, creeking hindges, enhanced errie sounds and lighting, all of which can be achieved using simple old technology.  They will be much cheaper to produce.   A ghost serial was born on.  With all the good dialogue and imagination, it was a real hit for the local audience.  Today, it is already into its fifth season.  Many new movie stars were also discovered.

 

Learning Points.

Be ready to challenge all ideas.  Get out of the box – even the best of yesterday’s ideas will can be improved.  

As leaders, allow your members opportunities to raise ideas.  Never turn down an idea, even if it comes from someone junior or you considered shy, timid, or new.  The team needs every members’ inputs.  While every other member was enveloped in frustration with the ‘unreasonable request’ from management, the new member just looking outside the box.  As she had just arrived from the ’outside world’, getting out of the box easier for her then for the rest!  She can see a fresh perspective for the problem.  By the way, the idea really came from a lady, a seriously right brainer, guys!  Today, the popularity of the serial showed that it filled a long over-due need.  The latest I heard is that the serial is already into its fifth season!

 

 

More Valuable Than Gold

    

The Problem.    Some time ago, I came across a project by a team of five operators and supervisors of a factory that manufactures florescence tubes for commercial buildings. The process of manufacturing these tubes were a heavy investment, and so the production volume must be high enough to recoup the investment cost.

 

One of the expensive ingredients used in the manufacturing process is a powder mix used to coat the interior walls of the florescence tubes. These are sprayed like a shower as the tube envelopes the nuzzles. Immediately after that, the tube is vacuumed and then sealed. All these are done with high precision and high speed mechanical robots in clean room conditions. The tubes produced were of superb quality and last a very long time.

 

One day, while studying the material purchasing order slip, the engineers noted that the coating powder was very expensive, in fact more expensive than gold, if compared ounce-for-ounce. If only they can just reduce a fraction of a gram for each tube, the savings will be tremendous, given the high volume. The team of five set to work with this in mind.

The Alternatives.

Alternative 1.  Use less powder.  Obviously, having a thinner coat of powder will reduce material cost and that will save money.  Unfortunately, there is a threshold.  Anything less, will result in in-complete coverage, and lead to rejects at the end of the inspection station, and this is very costly if rework had to be done. 

Alternative 2.  Use substitutes.  The brightness and durability are the product advantage, and the powder (phosphor++) has ben designed through lengthy research and studies.  Another product is in the pipe-line, and all these is outside the purview of the Production Department.  Production is in no position to recommend change of material unless they can suggest a substitute and clearly Production Department has no alternative substitute material.

Alternative 3.  The Chinney Brush!  The team focus on how to reduce the overall usuage of the expensive powder, and the idea of re-cycling came to their team discussion session.  They studies the production to find out where there was splurges etc.  They found that, some of the rejected tubes had ‘extra volume of powder’ especially around the electrodes.  These interfere somewhat and eventually gives abnormal readings when tested on the current flow measuring device and had to be rejected. 

Maybe, excessive powder should be removed before sealing the electrode!  One member thought of his baby’s milk bottle cleaner, and another the chinney brush.

  

After a few versions of modification and trails, in less than 4 months, the new automated brush was ready to be installed in all the stations.  A simple three brush strokes, remove excess ‘phosphor powder’, and these were recollectd at the end of the production shift and treated before recycling.  The projected savings for that year came up to a neat S$100,000!! Not too bad for the team of five.

Learning Point.

Sometimes, the ‘gold dust’ is flying out the window right under our noses.  Just look around, think a bit, measure a bit, and there are many things we can improve.

 

The Road Tax Difference

            

    

A common task faced by logistic planners in fleet management is that of having to pay road tax when it is due.  Road tax are normally paid up to the day.  This means that to be certain that one does not run foul of the law, payment is made to the tax office a few days before it expires.   This is all well and good if we have one or two or perhaps three vehicles at home. 

However, when your business grows, the fleet grows too.  One after another, your fleet increases, first you add on the multi-pickup truck, next the heavy duty pick-up, then a van, then a minbus, then a rover, etc.  

The Problem.     One morning, one of the delivery trucks of the company was stopped for a simple traffic offense – turning on red, but the charges were compounded when the officer found that the road tax had also expired a week ago. Double whammy. 

The team of five came together one morning to think through this problem.  They felt that the penalty could have been avoided.  The obvious reason was that, the team, overwhelmed by other tasks and duties have missed out on the deadline to make payments.  It was definitely not intentional to skip – you will be caught sooner or later.  The team went through a review of the process of payment, iron out the responsibilities of each other, and of course they concluded that it was indeed a case of un-intentional negligience.  Next a serious brainstorming session was held to see if a better way to do things could be found – one that can set off an alarm.  They tried looking at others companies.  Indeed when you talk about reminder systems, there were many different ways to do it. 

One team member suddenly raised a curious remark which triggered lots of thinking.  He said that, “Reminders are lousy ways to do things!” He illustrated with his experience with alarm clocks.   He said that he always switch off the alarm when he hears it in the morning, and then turn over and carrying on sleeping!  Waking up on time is a chore for him, but having the alarm clock is hardly motivating, and something that he hates.   He suggested looking at other solutions.  

The Alternatives.

Alternative 1.   Reminders!   Set up a reminder on the calendar on the notice board, in the computer, tie a ribbon round the last finger, etc.  Any sort of reminder – as long as the people are prompted well before the time. 

Alternative 2.   Pay in advanced every month.  I am sure that the tax collectors will be happy to hold onto our money, better still, send them post-dated cheques so that they do not earn extra interest.  This really means that the ‘alarm-clock’ is now with them! Not surprisingly, they were not interested to carry our alarm-clock!

The Discussions.     Anyway, the team discussed and members feel that even with the reminder system they will still need to visit the Tax Collector’s office many many times.  And even if they managed to convince them with post-dated  cheques, it also require one to draw out cheques every now and then (this was the time when GIRO was not so common).  Therefore they will still need to have a tracking system to ensure that the dispatch rider go over to collect the tax disc regularly, in fact almost every week.  All these steps were still extremenely cumbersome when the number of vehicles has reached about 200.

Alternative 3.   “Consolidation”.   Throwing out the reminder system was the best thing the team did.  It forced them out of the ‘alarm-box’ literally.  A new trend of thoughts ensued. Consolidation was their final solution.  Someone in the team made a breakthrough.  He suggested that, if they can convince the tax collectors to consolidate all payment to four quarterly payment dates, then work will be reduced greatly for all parties. 

First the team must convinced the tax authorities that setting fixed dates, four times a year, for batch payment of all the vehicles in their fleet. Of course the company will have to first pay off all remnant fees, then set a common cut-off date. It was quite easy actually. The tax autority first computes the full-year tax payment, due a year from that date.  Of course there will also be the age of the vehicle that has to be tracked since there is the COE (Certificate of Entitlement) scheme must be adjusted. Everyone is aware of the 10 or 12 years scrap date, and the last date (prior to scrap) for road tax needs another simple adjustment. 

The tax collectors were happy, because it also means batch processing for them.  The tax collectors can even set a date when they are less busy – which co-incidentally is also a less busy date for the company (usually the second Tuesday of the different quarter.) 

This is a new and neat idea, consolidated processing, batched work, translates into less trips to the tax collector’s office.  It was indeed a win-win situation for all parties.  The company reaped 50 man-hours savings, and when converted into monetary savings, even rewarded the team with a one-off monetary reward, while the company continue to enjoy more meaningful work!  

 

Learning Point:

Do not jump at the first solution that comes to your mind.  Ask yourself and also team members if there can be some changes to work procedures, perhaps bend some rules to make work more efficient.  It may not be easy to break out of the box.  We are all creatures of habit, but when you do, like this case, the benefits from the changes are really very worthwhile. 

Honk! Honk!

The Cup That Saved $40,000 per annum

Today I would like to share with you a case where a team of three working in a local company saved US$40,000 through a simple change in operation procedures.  This is how it happened.

Several months ago, a supervisor was on his rounds checking through the operators working on the line.  This is a highly skilled supervisor.  He has been with the company for more than 10 years.  Although seniority is probably an advantage, I am sure that it is not the only thing that matter in problem solving.  I salute this chap for he has a knack for spotting problems and converting it into good money saving for the company.  I must also put on record that the management has provided the environment that liberated the fire of problem solving spirit in their corporate culture. 

The Problem.    While he was on his rounds, he noticed that some of the operators were emptying cups of lubricants-solvents into the waste bins which were later sent for disposals.  Some of the operators highlighted that the mechanical shringes were not working so well, and there were air bubbles trapped in the tubings therefore they need to flushed the air bubbles out.  Therefore the lubricating-solvent were flushed off.  Clearly a lot of good liquid had gone straight from the reservoir into the waste chute.  Even as he asked the operator – he seems to get the message, that all the flushing was for a ’good cause’ (but he thinks that it is really ‘bad cost!) and it is a standard procedure.

Together with two other colleagues, he managed to change the way work is being done to ’save’ the liquid by a simple ‘recycling good liquid’.  All the operator needs to do is to use a clean cup to collect the liquid when flushing out the bubbles, and pour it into a container for recycling.  Checking with their Chief Engineer, it was understood that within the week or so of exposure to ordinary air, there was no deterioration of quality of the recycled liquid. The success of the experiment was submitted to management for adoption and since then, the new standard operating procedures was put in place.

When management made a projection based on current usage, using the cup save them a tidy US$40,000 per annum!!  So much for a 4 months study and experimentation, which the three members invested during low production hours.

The ALternatives

1.  To ordinary operators, the air bubbles in the tubing is a problem and flushing the bubbles out is the solution.  Therefore flushing is the solution.

2.  To the supervisor, in addition to getting bubbles caught in the tubings, excessive ‘flushing’ is also the other problem.  This flushing is simply a wastage of valuable liquid.  Of course, he is aware of the cost of the liquid, which the operators may not.  So depending on our perception, we see problems where others do not.   While it is still important to solve the bubble-problem – a very difficult problem which need to be addressed at the molecular surface tension level, his interim ‘recycling cup’ is simple and gives great value for the company. I am sure eventually even better solutions will be thought off.

Learning Point.

Be practical.  The full solutions may be hard to come by, but when we just give a bit iof thought to the problem, you can find alternatives first.  The Chinese saying, ‘ride the cow to look for the horse.’  Tackle the problem stage by stage.