The Boeing Challenge

Lean Production ‘Toyota’ style is going full throttle at Boeing. As competition heats up between two aerospace giants, Boeing and Airbus, Boeing is looking at every opportunity to produce their new 777X as the most cost effective and highest quality aircraft in production. As with any other highly technical and competitive industry, success in the industry is a “game of inches.” Every improvement can equate to significant savings and quality advancement. To bring this point home, Boeing hired Walter Adisho as VP of Manufacturing and Safety. Adisho was previously with Toyota, where he oversaw manufacturing at their plant in Kentucky.  Boeing’s commitment to change couldn’t be more serious.

The Boeing Plan for Lean Production

The Boeing plan is to use newer and more standardized manufacturing techniques for its new 777X jetliner, paving the way for more significant savings as it gradually feeds the changes back into existing assembly lines. This approach will draw significantly on lean production lessons learned from outside the aerospace industry. It will also provide Boeing the opportunity to significantly impact other production lines. Standardization and efficiency will be the mantra of Boeing moving forward.

Climbing Higher at Boeing

With standardization in the aerospace industry being limited, this is the perfect opportunity for Boeing to take advantage of lean production. Typically aerospace production is at a lower rate and requires significantly more technical and custom production. Boeing’s plane making chief has challenged engineers to think about build quality when designing aircraft so they can be produced more affordably. Boeing says a clean-sheet design for a 21st-century aircraft plant would weave a single thread from the drawing board to the parts cart on the factory floor. If you look at aerospace with market demand rising, Boeing needs to start thinking differently and move efficiencies from the auto industry into this arena.

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Scorched Earth Policy

Are you really focusing on the details in your business? So many leaders and entrepreneurs are missing the details that make a difference. Business is a “games of inches” and success is measured in fine increments. Unfortunately, many business and leadership models encourage you to stay focused on the “big picture” and the little things will take care of themselves. Some believe that the small details are time wasters and not worth paying attention to. This style unfortunately is leaving scorched earth across the landscape of the business or industry. Is it time to make a change and try the Kano Model?

Redefining the Process Using Kano Model

If you’re open to a different approach that could bring a new energy to your business, the Kano Model is worth considering. The Kano Model is a technique developed by Dr. Noriaki Kano to help understand the varying levels of value that customers place on different features of a product or service. Dr. Kano, alongside with his colleagues at the University of Tokyo, established a framework that can be used to assess customer satisfaction. By using this model and focusing on the smallest of detail in every aspect of your business, you can actually address problems before they present themselves and cause disruption.

Elements of Success with the Kano Model

There are three elements of consideration when using the Kano Model. When using this system or model, everyone is involved in finding improvement ideas. That is being proactive with the Kano Model. You don’t wait for an issue to present itself, before you bring forward the issues and the answers need for resolution. Here are the 3 elements to consider:

1. Dissatisfiers – These are products or services that are expected by the customer and when not fulfilled, they create significant disappointment.
2. Satisfiers – These are elements of service or a product that can either increase or decrease customer satisfaction.
3. Delights – These are features that absolutely delight customers. These features add premier or custom value to the product or service.

The biggest challenge that businesses face is how to delight the customer with a product or service, without spending much money.

Turning the Tide with the Kano Model

Businesses and leaders that are firmly committed to improving quality and customer service utilizing the Kano Model must be able to identify challenges by one source alone – the customer. Understanding the challenge leaves you no other recourse but to implement change that reduce or eliminate the challenges addressed by the customer. You can now turn the tide of your “scorched earth” leadership and focus on what is most important. Pay attention to the smallest detail and focus on the customer.

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How many times have you heard those statements or, something very close, in your organization when it comes to making a change? The change was carefully analyzed by every expert in the organization and the rewards clearly outweighed the downside. The change would increase customer satisfaction, productivity and cash flow. The C-Suite was fully behind the change and it was announced at staff meetings across the organization.

Once word traveled through the organization, the ground swell of resistance quickly grew and opposition quickly grew. Leaders met with staff and heard their concerns, then regrouped to understand the challenges. The only objections that could be identified were simply related to change, both in process and culture. But, because of the volume of the adversity, the decision was quickly made because it wasn’t worth rocking the boat.

Unfortunately, this scenario plays out every day across all industries, within numerous organizations – even with organizations that profess to employ improvement methodologies like Six Sigma. The fact is, change is disruptive to the status quo! It is basic human nature to resist change in their surroundings. The further the change removes them from a comfort zone, the louder the protest.

Implementing an improvement methodology such as Six Sigma requires buy-in and full support of senior leaders. Typically, these leaders must understand that the process will initially be disruptive, as it will take people into the uncharted waters of change. Leaders must have 100% commitment to the process and ensure that it is clearly communicated. Leadership needs to be in a position to engage in very frank and open communication to ensure concerns are addressed while ensuring their focus is clear.

Training is required to implement Six Sigma. Everyone in the organization should be familiarized with the methodology and the outcomes expected. This will begin the change in culture and buy-in within the organization. Leaders must ensure they stay engaged with staff and encourage established conversations. As staff become more comfortable with the methodology, Leadership must stay focused on communicating support and vision for success. For some, Six Sigma will feel like SWAT teams, swooping in and raiding departments within the organization, causing significant disruption. These misconceptions must continuously be addressed by leaders. The end result will be a growing support for Six Sigma across the organization and success will be achieved.

This is a simplistic analogy, but one that cuts very close to the bone of organizations daily. Be encouraged that change is positive for your business and an improvement methodology like Six Sigma can make significant improvements across the organizations. Leaders must be champions of Six Sigma and staff must find ways to embrace change for the good of the organization. Disruption, much like change, can be a good thing. Embrace it.

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Is a 10% reduction on your Accounts Receivable enough. No, of course not. Instead, you want to make $800,000 three times as fast! This article will take you through some key ideas in disruption thinking, with links to (Lean) Six Sigma, and leadership.

Disruption Thinking and (Lean) Six Sigma

Much like Kaizen, (Lean) Six Sigma can be understood according to the following tenets:

• Know the value stream. By knowing the customer, you can identify issues early on that may affect success. By deconstructing processes to understand how they work you can decide to improve them.

• Eliminate and prevent waste. Waste causes your business to stagnate, and can ultimately lead to failure, so eliminate it where you see it. Even more effective, don’t let it accumulate in the first place, and it won’t be a problem.

• Systematic improvement. Six Sigma takes time, using accurate data, to achieve the best results, and should be used according to a systematic plan with clear goals in mind.

• Team work. Six Sigma is nothing without team work, so make sure everyone pitches in, to ensure the success of the project. Strong leadership is important to making Six Sigma and Lean process work.

With these key principles, you can become a Six Sigma pro in no time at all. But while it may seem beneficial to focus your energies on reducing your Accounts Receivable, disruption thinking is proving in many circles to be far more effective when it comes to generating revenue.

Disruption Actions

Here are some disruptive actions to help you take advantage of the market and your own business’s potential for improvement:

• Customizing your Six Sigma and continuous improvement. (Lean) Six Sigma and Kaizen are flexible methodologies, and can be manipulated to best suit the needs of your business. If your production environment doesn’t require quite the same rigorous action Kaizen offers, then slow things down to your pace. Use Six Sigma where you can to customize your improvement strategy. After all, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all.

• Does a process need to be improved, or can it be disrupted? Where most businesses will tend to stick to the standard process outline, you can do what they can’t. Disrupt the flow, break down processes and rework them from the ground up. Use Six Sigma to determine what works and what doesn’t, then make a change for the better.

• Access your deep capital. Considering the ever-soaring costs of new capital, it’s important that you not let your business waste what it already has. Often enough, we find that significant quantities of cash are trapped on many business’s balance sheets, without them even knowing about it! Use Six Sigma techniques to identify and access this extra revenue, to enrich your budget. You’ll have an added edge over your competitors, with a new stream of funds to invest, for which you are certain to see great returns!

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