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Posts Tagged ‘re-engineering’

The Six Sigma Lean

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

I attended the Atlanta APICS meeting the other day. Juergen Meyer from Step 3 Consulting spoke about Lean in administrative processes. Now APICS, The Association for Operations Management, offers three certification programs, Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), and Certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM). As a result, much of the audience and much of the membership is from the manufacturing arena. I’m a CPIM member of APICS Atlanta. And, I’m a bit of an oddball in the group, since I’ve had a long career in information technology. But, I’ve also earned Six Sigma certification to assist in the process improvement and re-engineering activities that often take place in technology projects. Six Sigma utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and reduce variations in processes and ultimately eliminate defects. More and more, Six Sigma and Lean are spoken of together.

In Juergen’s talk, there was much mention of process improvement, although Six Sigma was not mentioned by name. The goal of Lean is to eliminate waste and non-value added activities. And the byproduct of waste elimination is lower costs resulting in higher profits. The eight types of waste are: over production, waiting, transportation, over-processing, inventory, motion, defects, rework. Parallels were given between manufacturing waste and administrative waste.

And, how to attack the waste? You Define, Measure, Analyze and Improve the process – key steps in the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. Often the implementation of the Six Sigma methodology or its use in projects is considered costly and time consuming. But the principles can be simplified. After all over-processing is a waste. The goal is a Lean Six Sigma.

Bottom line, improving and streamlining processes reduces defects, eliminates waste, decreases costs, improves efficiency, increases profits and provides competitive advantages.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Tags: APICS, Atlanta, blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, CIRM, Consultant, consulting, CPIM, CSCP, defects, DMAIC, Finance, Implementation, Lean, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Process Improvement, project, re-engineering, Sandra Noble, Six Sigma, Software, Strategy, Technology, waste
Posted in Business, Finance, Process, Process Improvement, Strategy, Technology | 2 Comments »

What Changed Your Cheese?

Monday, February 18th, 2008

I worked for the telecommunications superstar, Lucent Technologies, right before it’s big fall from financial grace. I was fortunate to be in the CIO organization which was lead by a very visionary executive, Earnestine Barnes-Linder. She encouraged us to prepare for the changes that she so wisely foresaw. Earnestine even distributed copies of the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson. I attended a workshop by the author and was less than impressed. But, when I finally took the time to read the book, it was indeed outstanding. Mr. Johnson is an expert on individual and organizational change. The book gave insight into how to recognize that your cheese or goal had moved and provided suggestions on how to work through the feelings and adjust to change. However, there are other books that provide more substance and detail on stress and change management techniques.

Noble & Associates Consulting and its consultants have years of experience with software and technology implementations. The whole point of any new system is to change or improve some process, capability or results. Since there is always change and people are stressed by change, then change management should always be a consideration in project funding, planning and management.

So what’s the cheese?

For an individual, it might have been owning a home. The current mortgage crisis may be moving that cheese.
For others, it might be life long employment with a company paid pension. The economy and corporate mergers, acquisitions and downsizing may have changed that cheese.
For production managers the cheese may be efficient operations and on-time deliveries. Disruptions in the supply chain, broken processes and quality problems may be crumbling that cheese.
The corporate executive may have thought that the latest and greatest system or technology was the cheese. However, cost overruns, unrealized functionality and out of sync processes could be slicing away at that cheese.
For the average employee, the cheese may be to feel like they are competent and even expert at doing the job. The introduction of a new system or technology, and the need to learn new ways of doing things, could be the last straw.

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter what caused your cheese to change. Change happens. Stress happens. Deal with it.

Consider implementing stress management and change management programs.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Tags: Atlanta, blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, Change Management, Consultant, consulting, Finance, funding, Implementation, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Process Improvement, project, project management, re-engineering, Sandra Noble, Software, Strategy, Stress, Stress Management, Technology, telecom
Posted in Business, Finance, Process, Requirements, Strategy, Technology | No Comments »

Change Management

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

GOD, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer

In software and technology implementation projects, there needs to be something called “Change Control”. And why is this needed? No matter how thorough the business analysis job or how complete the project plan, there’s always something that needs to be changed or added after the fact. Users and potential users of the system or technology change their minds. Or think of something that they absolutely cannot live without. Then from the technical side, the developers, programmers and implementers discover things that are incorrect or just won’t work. Programmers or testers find things called “bugs” – which is techie talk for errors or system glitches. After all, that’s what quality, quality control and testing is supposed to do – Find things that will cause less than desired results.

Testing and quality is key. And it needs to start at the beginning. Once the technology requirements are finalized, you have the basis for test scripts that can be used throughout the implementation process. There will be change. So, there needs to be an orderly process for incorporating changes and corrections / fixes.

One reason is that it helps insure that everyone on the project is in sync. It avoids duplication of effort. And, it’s less disruptive when there are multiple environments (development / test versus live / production) or multiple release versions. It’s an essential piece of the communications plan. Change control is a recipe for success. And, back to the Serenity Prayer: the introduction of new systems, features or functionality is something that can be controlled. And the smart project manager has the courage to mandate a change control process.

What we cannot change is people and how they react to change. Change, even positive change, creates stress – another thing we can’t change. What we can control is the implementation and use of programs and techniques that ease the pain and stress of change. And that’s called Change Management.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Tags: blog, Business, Business Over 50, businessover50.com, Change, Change Management, Consultant, consulting, Finance, Implementation, Noble & Associates Consulting, Noble Finances, Post Implementation Distress, Process, Process Improvement, project, project management, Quality, re-engineering, Requirements, Sandra Noble, Software, Strategy, Tags: Atlanta, Technology, Testing
Posted in Business, Finance, Process, Process Improvement, Software, Strategy, Technology | No Comments »

Are you voting for change?

Friday, February 15th, 2008

Barack Obama is campaigning on the theme of being the candidate for change. That’s a message which is resonating with many. And then there is Mike Huckabee who is promoting the fair Tax (not the flat tax). That’s one concrete measure, which if implemented, would cause a dramatic change in the United States. It would eliminate the IRS and more importantly put an end to tax code manipulation by Congress. One drawback to the fair tax is that the transition would be painful.

Although people may say they want change, its human nature to resist it. We’re creatures of habit. We like ease and comfort. Many people stay in jobs they hate because of fear of the unknown and fear of change. How many do not stop smoking or shed excess pounds because the process of getting to the goal is uncomfortable, painful, or downright scary.

My good friend, Rev. Angela Harrington Rice, just announced “Life Designs 2008″ which facilitates change and self actualization on a personal level. Angela’s announcements included the statement “Change is good and inevitable”. I think all would agree with the inevitable part, but there may be some debate about how good it is. And, most would agree that there are many things that other people, our country, and the world should change. I love the saying by Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see”. It puts the onus back on us.

Companies putting in new technology, software or systems would do well to incorporate change management programs. People like to feel like they’re an expert in their jobs. A change in new systems and technology will inevitably require employees to learn new skills or to do things in a different way. So, another consideration when implementing software is business process re-engineering / improvement / management. New systems may have great potential benefits. But if it is not used, circumvented or resisted, companies have wasted time and money to implement. My announcement about the cure for “Post Implementation Distress” service, highlights these issues.

Noble & Associates Consulting, Inc’s cure for “Post Implementation Distress” is an assessment, diagnosis, and remediation service. Key parts of the cure and healing process are change management, process improvement, documentation and training.

If you had good project management and governance (Independent Verification and Validation -IV&V) on the front end, you probably avoid “Post Implementation Distress”. And if you budgeted for resolving people issues at the beginning of the project, there may be some stress, but no “Post Implementation Distress”. However, if you’ve already implemented and things have gone awry, wouldn’t it be prudent for your organization to get the cure for “Post Implementation Distress”? Or, at least incorporate a change management program?

Call Noble & Associates Consulting to the rescue!

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC