VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [126]
“We urgently need to change a number of policies and procedures that affect work flow. I am here to impress upon you the importance of these changes and help answer any questions you may have. You may or may not be pleased with these changes, but I assure you they are absolutely necessary.
“The most important change might not seem that relevant to you individually, not at first, but I want you to know about it anyway. Last year I stood here and talked about Lean and Six Sigma. We – or at least I – thought that these were a complete answer to improving our operations and our business overall. As it turned out, that expectation was optimistic. Who knew?
“But we are not backing away from Lean or Six Sigma. Both offer powerful toolsets of great value and we will continue to embrace the virtues of those disciplines. What we are going to do that is different is to apply Lean and Six Sigma within the context of a third discipline known as the Theory of Constraints. Instead of trying to improve everything, and remove waste everywhere, we will be applying Lean and Six Sigma in ways that increase the throughput of the entire company and deliver the financial gains necessary to sustain and grow our business.
“Now, let’s get to some changes that are going to affect your work on a daily basis. We have determined that at F&D, the efficiency of the business depends upon the efficiency of the analysts. You’ll learn why later. Just remember that while all functions are important, here at F&D, the analysts are the most important resource. The role of everyone else is to ensure that the analysts always have what they need ahead of when they need it – and to process what they produce as quickly as possible.
“And for the analysts themselves, there are going to be changes. I am told that design reviews in the past have been considered by many to be a chore and handled with a kind of ‘we get to them when we get to them’ attitude. From now on, design reviews – and speedy clearances where warranted – must be at the top of every analyst’s to-do list. In order to accomplish the turnaround in performance – not just at Formulation and Design, but for Hi-T as a company – and achieve the gains we need to be successful, we need those clearances to be reaching Oakton as soon as possible.
“F&D has had a great legacy in materials research and engineering. I firmly believe that if you embrace the changes that need to be made and we work together, F&D will climb to a new level of greatness in the years ahead. Sarah …”
The analysts, not surprisingly, were less than thrilled with Sarah’s priority system. For years they had been calling their own shots, using their own discretion as to what to work on and when to work on it. They had managed their own time, but they had managed it pretty much for their own interests and purposes. Now – the outrage! – they were being told what to do, and of course they didn’t like it.
“I do not work here to do clerical work at the bidding of lawyers!” one of them said pompously. “I am here to do advanced, meaningful research!”
Amy, standing to one side, backing up Sarah, wanted to tell him, If you want to work here at all, you need to do things our way. But she held back.
“You’ve always had to do these design reviews,” Sarah pointed out. “All we’re doing is having you deal with them sooner rather than later. You shouldn’t be spending any more time on them than before.