Apr 23, 2010 | Change, Personal Rant
It is a scary thought, but roughly 30% of our economy (Public sector expenditure) is subject to the disciplines of neither the market or democracy.
Bureaucracies are institutions that thrive on complexity, it is far easier to make an existing process more complex, than to take it apart and re-engineer it to make it more simple, and rarely is a process ditched, just leave it on the books in case it assists at some point, to frustrate somebody trying to do something useful that seeks to adjust the status quo.
This thought makes the addition of another bureaucratic process on to the management of the national health system, as agreed by our Federal and State pollies over the past week as a substitute for genuine reform of the system, even more scary.
None of the apparent root causes of the current mess have been addressed, they have just been moved around a bit, and political sweeteners (read, our tax dollars) have been added to provide the façade of improvement.
All that has happened is that a few more deckchairs have been added to the slippery sloping deck, and the colours have been mixed up a bit to make a better photograph.
Apr 22, 2010 | Demand chains, Leadership
Isn’t it interesting, when we pay for something, we have an expectation of what that transaction will deliver to us, but there is little sense of lingering obligation.
However, if we just do something for someone, any small piece of kindness or consideration, it creates a bond, and often a feeling of obligation that the kindness requires some reciprocal consideration on the part of the receiver.
This reciprocal obligation dynamic exists in the best demand chains, smoothing the path through the chain of whatever product or service the chain is set up to provide.
Any chain is a set of transactions, but the dynamics of a transaction are nowhere near as important to the individuals performing the transactions as the overall performance of the chain, and so they use initiative, alter the status quo, innovate, and generally go that bit extra, recognizing implicitly the value of the action to the performance of the chain, and it is their contribution to the performance of the chain that is the motivation, just completing the not the immediate transaction.
Apr 21, 2010 | Customers, Demand chains, Leadership
Integrated value chains are nothing new. IBM had one before it started “outsourcing” what turned out to be the future to Microsoft and Intel, Ford had one at centered around the Dearborn factory, from where the company controlled by owning everything from growing the cattle to supply the leather for the T model seats, to the end of the production line, and beyond, and even the Venetian shipyards way back in the 1400’s was an integrated chain.
What has changed are the tools by which we can manage integrated value chains, and the recognition that they do not necessarily need to be controlled by equity, the power of the customer is far more potent.
Apr 20, 2010 | Management, OE, Operations
Working my way through a book on the implementation of “Lean” called “Manage to learn” an interesting book that further evolves the textbook as a story genre started by Eliyahu Goldratt’s best selling book “The Goal” originally published back in the early eighties, I saw the list of questions reproduced below.
The book itself is about the learning how to use A3 method of problem solving and teaching that has come out of Toyota and is very useful, but it struck me that the list is a generic list of sensible questions that should be asked in a wide range of circumstances where solving a problem is the task at hand.
1. What is the problem or issue?
2. Who owns the problem?
3. What are the root causes of the problem?
4. What are some possible countermeasures?
5. How will you decide which countermeasures to propose?
6. How will you get agreement from everyone concerned?
7. What is your implementation plan—who, what, when, where, how?
8. How will you know if your countermeasures work?
9. What follow-up issues can you anticipate? What problems may occur
during implementation?
10. How will you capture and share the learning?
Answer all these, and the path will be very clear.
Apr 19, 2010 | Management, OE, Operations, Personal Rant
All you hear about currently is the Australian “health debate” a debate the pollies have decided to have as a political exercise, are discussions about who gets to spend the money i.e. exercise the power, it has little to do with the health outcomes of Australians, that is just the excuse.
Cynical perhaps, but if it were otherwise, you would be hearing real discussions about the manner in which the billions were spent, not how just much, and by whom. We do need more to be spent, but more importantly in a society where health costs are increasing rapidly, and will continue to do so, we need debate, and importantly action, on the effectiveness of the spending, and the means by which that effectiveness, measured by patient outcomes, can be improved.
Applying proven process improvement, Lean, and Six Sigma commercial disciplines to public spending should be a priority, but perhaps that would impinge on vested interests a bit much, so we leave it alone.
The parody via the “Lean” hyperlink above has a scary resonance, and we leave discussion about the effectiveness of spending alone, to the great cost of to our community over the medium & long term.
