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Helps to avoid bad multitasking, which always leads to increased timelines and mistakes.
Combining steps lengthens the time to secure the results and puts the implementation at risk. Taking one step at a time helps to ensure that the good changes will stick, and the not-so-good changes (surprises) can be addressed immediately because the cause is known.
Appendix G contains screenshots of the hierarchy of an S&T used for many Make-To-Order companies.25 The activities under 3.1 generally fall under Operations, and the activities of 3.2 generally fall under Sales and Marketing, so the implementation of 3.11 and 3.12 can occur simultaneously. Under 3.1, the implementation goes in the order of the Level 4 entities—4.11.1 through 4.11.6. Some of these Level 4 entities are detailed to Level 5 and some are not. Entity 4.11.1 is implemented at Level 5, starting with 5.111.1, and completing with 5.111.4. Only after 5.111.4 is completed, and the strategy of 4.11 is verified to be in place, do we move to 4.11.2 through its Level 5 entities, 5.112.1, 5.112.2, and 5.112.3. After checking that the strategy of 4.11.2 is in place, we move to 4.13, etc. The same approach is used to implement 3.12. We begin with 4.12.1, via its Level 5 entities 5.121.1 through 5.121.4.
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
—Calvin Coolidge
Using the TPs to Implement an S&T
Earlier in the chapter I showed you one example of how the Cloud had been used in implementing the POOGI step of an MTO S&T. I would like to provide a few more examples of the use of the TP when an S&T is guiding an implementation.
Use of the Negative Branch Reservation
As you can imagine, implementing a major initiative requires gaining and sustaining the understanding of and buy-in to what is being implemented, and in the cases of valid reservations, making the appropriate modifications to the S&T. The NBR is used to facilitate the accomplishment of this, both before and during the implementation. The example I provide here is taken from a manufacturing company in the United States that made the decision to go on a Viable Vision implementation. The critical part of the decision process is for the top management and other key people in the company to go through a multi-day session in which they learn the relevant TOC and scrutinize their S&T. At key points in the session, they map out the NBRs that are concerning them about implementing specific aspects of the S&T. The company’s S&T is a modified MTO S&T, and one of the reservations that was expressed during the session was focused on the tactic of Step 3.1, which states:
The company manages its operations according to the four concepts of flow.
The NBR that the manager submitted is pictured in Fig. 25-37. When they looked at the NBR they had written, it became obvious to the management team that they were the key to preventing the negative effects from emerging. Their injections, which were incorporated in their implementation plan, were to ensure that education was provided to employees and management alike, and the commitment that if any existing measures turned out to reinforce the belief, they would be addressed. They were relieved that they could deal with the issue, and were energized to continue the session and move into their implementation. Eighteen NBRs were documented and addressed by the management team in that session. Some needed injections, two resulted in modifications being made to the S&T, and most were addressed by gaining better understanding of the S&T, itself.
FIGURE 25-37 NBR for “managers and co-workers believe idleness is bad.”
Use of the Transition Tree
When a company has a DCE, it is solving a significant need of its market to the degree that none of its major competitors can. A customer need that is not addressed by any of the significant suppliers in a given market is not something that the suppliers tend to emphasize in the sales process.