What do can you do when process improvement is needed and there is no executive sponsor available?
You can do nothing while you and your co-workers continue to suffer the pain of a poor or broken process. Alternatively, you can take action! This is exactly what a colleague of mine did at a hardware manufacturing company where we both worked. She saw a need for improving the production process for owner manuals that were distributed with a particular piece of equipment manufactured by our employer. Knowing that the VP of Operations would probably be too busy to spearhead this effort, Sarah took it upon herself to find a way for improvement to occur.
Sarah used what I like to think of as 6 C’s for process improvement – consult, collaborate, create, calculate, communicate, and consent.
The first step in her effort involved consulting all the participants who might be affected by the change. She contacted engineers who worked on the equipment design as well as any subsequent changes, technical writers who prepared the owner’s manual, graphic artists responsible for preparing the illustrations and graphics in the owner’s manual, the assembly manager, and a production manager. Sarah explained that she wanted their help with improving the production process for the owner’s manual and would they devote 2 hours each week to helping her. Many of the participants were pleasantly surprised that she asked and were eager to have the opportunity for collaboration. During their first meeting Sarah laid out her dilemma, her plan, and her goal. The current process was flawed and involved too many redundant activities. She had created a diagram and narrative of the current process for everyone to review. Her plan was to streamline the production process with their input and collaboration. Sarah laid out a 6 week schedule and asked everyone how that fit in with their current obligations and activities. After several minutes of discussion the 6 week schedule became 8 weeks and everyone agreed that by the end of the 8 weeks there would be a proposed process change.
The weekly meetings proceeded. The participants offered ideas and suggestions to Sarah. At one point, the group had a representative from a local printer talk with about various printing options. Finally, they arrived at a streamlined process for the owner’s manual that resulted in improvements not only for Sarah’s group but for several of the other participants’ teams as well. Sarah took responsibility for calculating the anticipated cost reduction involved with the proposed process and agreed to share the results with everyone and get their feedback.
Sarah communicated with the group about her calculations. Several of the participants reviewed her work and made a few suggestions for changes. Now Sarah was ready to approach her manager and the VP of Operations with the idea of changing the production process for all the owner’s manuals for every piece of equipment sold by the company!
Sarah made her presentation to her manager and the VP and let them know that everyone had consented to begin the new process starting with a newly redesigned model that was shipping in 90 days. Then two very interesting events happened. The first event was that the manager and the VP didn’t want the new process to be implemented. They believed it involved too much change. The second event occurred when the participants who worked with Sarah heard about the result of her meeting with her manager and the VP. A majority of them went to the VP and persuaded her that the new process was a genuine improvement over the current one and that they were definitely onboard despite the amount of change involved. I marveled that Sarah didn’t need to argue her case. Her collaborators argued it for her and the new production process for owners’ manuals was implemented.
Sarah consulted her co-workers and requested their collaboration. She worked with the participants to create flow diagrams and narratives for both the original process, as well as the interim and final changes. Sarah calculated the cost reduction that could likely be achieved and collaborated with her co-workers again to ensure that everyone was onboard. She communicated the results with everyone, including her manager and the head of her business unit. Finally, with the help of her co-workers Sarah obtained consent to implement the process changes.
