Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [379]
2. When there is a major increase in company flow, new challenges in quality and waste often arise, which threaten flow. This frequently happens due to hiring more new people than the company had in the past or due to exceeding the capacity to cope with quality issues. For example, if a shop floor lead hand is used to personally deal with 10 problems a shift, and flow doubles without changing quality processes, now that same individual is trying to cope with 20 or more problems per shift. As flow increases, without increasing machine capacity or work force, the ability to deal with some underlying problems can create a bottleneck. TOC suggests applying Lean or Quality techniques now to unblock the flow. However, if these skills don’t exist within the company, the organization may be at the mercy of an outside consultant’s schedule and expertise to address the issues or at the mercy of a training program.
Due to these issues, I believe that it’s a good strategy for a company to build these skills proactively, as part of their long-term investment in their people, much as Toyota has. If this approach is integrated with a TOC strategy, the results are more predictable and sustainable. There need not be any inherent conflicts between TOC, Lean, and Six Sigma when the three methodologies are applied within an overall strategy if one follows a Throughput World focus versus the traditional Cost World focus.12 There is a great deal of potential damage (infighting, methodology zealots, and stagnation, for example) that is predictable if the organization executives don’t establish such an overall, integrated approach up front.
Dealing with Human Behavior in a Strategy
What about the human side of strategy? It was stated earlier that employee security and satisfaction are a necessary condition of having an organization built to last. While important aspects of security and satisfaction can be achieved by an organization that continues to grow and prosper, there is more to satisfaction in today’s knowledge worker age. While TOC has some ways to address human behavior with a set of processes called “Management Skills” (see the TOC TP books mentioned previously), there are some other necessary conditions of executing a great strategy that remain unaddressed.
In a book called The Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey (2006) describes documented cases of the tangible cost of poor people practices. The speed of making changes and executing decisions is greatly increased in organizations that have high trust, a measurable parameter. Another group of authors (Patterson et al., 2002; 2004; 2007) wrote a series of books that describe scientific research and confirmation of how to influence human behavior and the cost of poor communications.
My experience is TOC strategies can be implemented at least twice as quickly with double the success rate when the organization has excellent communications to begin with. Many organizations suffer from communications issues, especially during a transformation process or periods of high growth. I believe it’s vital for an organization to include the development of these skills as part of any strategy. My suggestions for accomplishing this part of the strategy are:
1. Choose one of the science-based behavior programs (e.g., Covey, Influencer) based on the most important current company needs. Read the books to determine which program best suits the current organization needs.
2. Set a tangible, measurable goal for the behavior changes desired.
3. Pilot the program in a functional area or department where the biggest need exists. Measure the before and after parameters.
4. Assuming success in the previous step, roll out the program across the organization, in as short a time as possible, starting with the top management