No matter what sector you're working in, it's essential
to continuously assess the way you do things, to ensure you're getting
the best return possible, particularly in the current downturn. It's
our aim to bring you interesting, helpful information to help you spot where you could do better, and how to do it better.
Summary of Articles
Receiving Feedback
In the last issue we looked at how to give effective, quick feedback - a tool that can be used anytime, with no cost, which will have a big impact on performance. In this article we're going to look at how to receive feedback, and list our Top 10 Feedback Tips. Read the article here.
North East Regional Business Fair - "Improving Business Efficiency" seminar
This was a very successful event for the whole region and for Nicholson Consultancy. Our Director and Consultant, Angela Robson, gave a well-received presentation on "Improving Business Efficiency", and we had some good questions at the end of the session. You may already have a copy of the slides, but if not you can download them here. Angela's put together this article to go with the slides so even if you didn't attend the presentation, you can start to understand the basics of Lean. As there's a great deal of information to take on board, we'll continue this article in the next edition of "Better Today". Read the seminar notes here.
Business Surgery - Ask the Experts
South Durham Business Network are hosting a Business Surgery in Spennymoor providing an opportunity for businesses to explore any issues, concerns and ideas with professionals from a range of professional services. Nicholson Consultancy are participating and we will be happy to see you there if you'd like the opportunity to have an informal chat about the benefits you and your company can achieve by implementing various improvement activities. The surgery takes place on Tuesday, 28 April. To find out more information with the full range of "experts" and the timetable, visit our Business Surgery webpage.
Open Workshop - June 2009
We wanted to give some advance notice of our next workshop which is open to everyone who's interested in how to keep improvements going when times are tough. You may find your priorities are being focussed elsewhere, but out of all the times and business environments, now is when you need to be doing Lean. This workshop will look at leadership skills and getting people involved so you can maintain your focus, motivate your people and confidently lead your business through the downturn.
We'll put more details on our website as soon as they're finalised. Places will be limited so if you'd like to be sent the details first, let Carolknow.
All of our workshops can be delivered in-house to your people, including our "Improving Business Efficiency" seminar. The in-house workshops are very effective as the content is tailored specifically to your organisation giving you high quality, relevant information. If you'd like more details on on-site workshops/seminars, or if you have a particular topic you'd like covered, just let us know and we'll be happy to help.
To be really effective at feedback you need to be able not only to give effective feedback, but also to receive it. It is important to seek out feedback (even asking for feedback on your feedback). This will help you to learn and progress and ultimately lead to an improvement in performance.
When receiving feedback remember:
To listen actively
Suspend judgement and let them finish
Repeat back the main points (this will show you have understood what has been said)
Ask for specifics
If necessary gather further information from other people
Decide what you want to do next
Remember that if you ask for feedback, then you need to accept what you hear and don't begin to defend yourself. You need to understand that this is their observation. You don't have to believe it, or act upon it, but you must listen to them openly. If you begin to defend your actions, others may stop telling you the truth.
In summary, I've noted below our Top 10 Feedback Tips:
Consider the business reasons for giving feedback
Make it timely
Praise in public, criticise in private
Keep it simple
Put it in context
Focus on behaviour / results, not personality
Use objective information, not just your ownopinion
North East Regional Business Fair - "Improving Business Efficiency" seminar
Following our presentation at the North East Regional Business Fair, we were asked for copies of the slides. In response we have provided below some notes to accompany the slides and give some further thoughts on how you can improve the efficiency of your business.
When working with a business, we will often ask participants what it is that their organisation needs to do to be successful. Very quickly they will generate a long list of ideas. Inevitably these can be summarised into the following 3 things:
Happy customers
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who will repeatedly give you business
Profit
-
in order to survive a business needs to make a profit!!
Happy employees
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who are motivated, want to get involved in the business and make improvements
Lean is an improvement methodology, which if done correctly will help you achieve these three things. We abbreviate them to "Cus", "Bus", "Us". It's an easy way for everyone in the business to remember that any improvements need to either / or create happy customers, happy employees and return a profit.
But what is Lean Thinking?
Lean Thinking is about:
Understanding exactly what your customers' needs are - the only way to truly do this is to talk to them.
Design your process(es) to deliver these needs - once you fully understand your customers' requirements you need to design the process(es) in your business to meet them.
Eliminate any activities that do not add value - Value added activities change the form, fit or function of your product or service. They are the activities your customer is willing to pay for. Some exampls from our clients include entering orders, ordering raw materials, shipping goods to customers, preparing drawings, assembling, processing customer payments. Non-value added activities are those activities that take up your time and resources but do not add value to your product or service. They are the things your customer would be unwilling to pay for. Non-Value added activities need to be eliminated, reduced or simplified. We find that, typically, non-value added activities account for 95% of total lead time. Examples include inspection, testing, filing information, obtaining multiple approvals, counting parts, reviewing / checking.
Standardise- "one best way" - Once you have designed your process(es) and eliminated wasteful activities you need to make sure they become standard throughout your business. This can be done using work instructions, standard operating procedures and quality manuals (ISO standards).
Sustaining and continuously improve - we know that our clients find this is the hardest section of all, and is where most businesses fail.
Basically Lean is all about adding value and eliminating waste. It is not just about cutting costs, but about increasing value for money.
Lean, as with Six Sigma and other improvement models, is inspired by the Deming Improvement Cycle. First you select the problem / process you want to address, plan out a solution and implement it. Once you have finished stand back and review/ evaluate the results. Then finally decide on the changes needed to improve the process. This is a continuous cycle; once you act you need to start again and plan how you are going to implement the changes etc.
Previous improvement methodologies, such as Work Study, looked at the time it took a person to do an activity, and by concentrating on the value added part (e.g.actually doing work the customer was prepared to pay for - added-value activities) they found ways to make them quicker. Lean looks at the activities which do not add value (e.g. the activities the customer is not prepared to pay for - non-value added activities) and tries to find ways to eliminate them.
There are seven visible wastes which we've covered in Issue 1 of "Better Today". To recap they are:
Defects
Inventory
Over-production
Transport
Motion
Waiting
Over-processing
On top of the seven visible wastes there are three hidden wastes:
Unfulfilled customer needs - is there anything else you could be doing for your customer which they would be willing to pay for?
Time - the more inefficient your business becomes, the less time you have. By beginning to make improvements and becoming more efficient your business can create time to spend on improvement activities.
Unfulfilled human potential - Employees are your best source of competitive advantage, and the ones who are most likely to know the problem areas, and how to improve them.
What we are trying to achieve with Lean is massive improvements in productivity. This can be done by either doing the same with less resources, or doing much more with the same resources, and it's the latter which most companies aim for.
We're always keen to receive feedback about our e-zine. Is there anything in particular you'd like to read about? How
can we improve this service? Please send any feedback to Carol Hogg.
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