1. Have we set clear and high targets? Will the target cause us to change our behavior?
2. Have we provided education/training to all involved in designing or improving the process? Are we over-communicating the “why” behind the intended behavior or improvement?
3. Has leadership made it clear that the behavior or new/improved process is mandatory, not optional? Studer Group research of over 2000 healthcare leaders indicates that when you use the word MANDATORY, 98% of employees understand that they MUST do the behavior (or follow the process). When you use the word REQUIRED, only 68% recognize that they MUST do it, and when you use the word EXPECTED, only 26% understand that they must do it. So be clear: This is mandatory!
4. Are leaders being role models of the desired behavior? Not modeling it gives employees permission not to follow it either.
5. Have we practiced behavior using role-play?
6. Do we have a good measure of success?
7. Can we report results of the verification of success transparently? Transparency reveals who is succeeding and who needs to improve.
8. Are we giving positive feedback when we see the behavior done correctly? Research shows that recognized behavior gets repeated.
9. Do we correct poor performance quickly and on the spot, if necessary?
10. Are there consequences for noncompliance, up to and including termination? Either you’re on the bus or you’re not. Some people will not change their behavior unless you tell them the consequences of noncompliance and they know you mean it.

To read more about making change happen, click on these articles:

• Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization?
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• Baldrige Model: How do you implement your strategy?
• Go to the Gemba
• Making Change Happen

Your organization needs processes for:

• Designing efficient and effective work processes to meet all key requirements, including incorporating new technology, organizational knowledge, product excellence, and the need for agility
• Determining and meeting key process requirements
• Managing your supply chain including evaluating supplier performance
• Improve processes to achieve better performance, reduce variability, and improve products and services

Best practices to consider:

• Process thinking is a cultural attribute of the organization.
• Every key process and its key requirements has been identified, the processes have been mapped, in-process and end-of-process measures have been identified, and data from these measures are analyzed and used to continuously improve the processes.
• Supply chain management involves suppliers in improving quality and cycle time.

Common problem areas:

• When problems occur, people look at who to blame rather than where a process failed.
• The organization has never tried to identify its key processes or determine their requirements.
• No systematic approaches are in place to manage and improve key processes.
• Few in-process measures are taken and few end-of-process measures are used to improve performance.
• Suppliers are not treated as partners to assist in reaching your organization’s goals and objectives.

To read more about process management, click on these articles:

• Smart Question #1: What’s the Process?
• The Benefits of Process Thinking
• Ask What, Not Who
• What Process-Centered Looks Like
• 3 Steps to Finding Your Key Processes
• Keys to Successful Process Improvement

The client was in the United Kingdom. Here’s a synopsis of how Firstsource tackled the problem:

1. It used data to define the problem: Over a nine-week period, the client offered mortgage loans in 14 days or less 69% of the time, well short of the 75% target.
2. A financial benefit estimation exercise determined that improving performance on TAT to 80% would increase revenue by six million pounds annually, create a more efficient process, and provide faster service to applicants.
3. Firstsource formed a team to improve TAT. The team received training on the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and quality tools.
4. The team started with a supplier-inputs-process-outputs-customer (SIPOC) exercise to create a high-level process map and identify stakeholders.
5. The team produced a three-stage analysis road map to assess the current situation and identify possible root causes and improvement activities. It used the road map to agree on five causes of the longer TAT.
6. The team brainstormed possible solutions and then assigned a relative rating for each solution to eliminate half of the original possibilities.
7. The team validated the impact of the solutions through a one-week pilot study with a metrics dashboard that was shared with all stakeholders involved in developing solutions. Based on their feedback, the team decided to proceed with full implementation.
8. The team used PDCA to roll out the solutions, which were grouped into three areas: process changes, automation, and performance management.
9. As a result of the improvement project, TAT improved from 69% to 83%, producing additional revenue of 6.9 million pounds and improving the application-to-loan conversion ration by 1.4%.
10. Customer satisfaction ratings rose 17% from pre- to post-project.
11. The projects’ findings were replicated in other areas of the client’s business, resulting in an additional half-million pounds in revenue.
12. The team introduced a three-prong approach to sustain performance: (1) real-time process management systems to provide performance data on all root causes; (2) process controls for standard operating procedures; and, (3) a skill-evaluation matrix for assessing and responding to training needs.

To read more about process improvement, click on these articles:

• Smart Question #1: What’s the Process?
• Baldrige and Process Improvement
• Go to the Gemba
• What Process-Centered Looks Like
• Keys to Successful Process Improvement

Minitab, an industry leader in statistical and process improvement, addresses that gap. Virtually every major Six Sigma initiative worldwide uses Minitab software, which is also used to teach statistics in more than 4,000 colleges and universities.

The great thing about Minitab software is that it turns anyone into a statistician. The latest version of its software, Minitab 16, uses an interactive decision tree to help users choose the right analytical tool and walks them through their analysis step-by-step. It can then assist with interpreting the results and producing reports.

You can see how it works by clicking on the green box on the right. A short video introduces you to the features and benefits of Minitab 16, including the ability to use the software in seven languages.

If you want to learn more, click on the “Webinars” link at the top of the Minitab 16 web page for a list of free webinars about the product, or click on “Tour” for a list of videos about the software.

If you want to take it for a spin, click on “Free Trial” and sign up for a free 30-day trial version.

To understand how organizations are using Minitab software to improve performance, check out 51 case studies by clicking here.  For example, Ford used Minitab to minimize vehicle surface defects during ocean transport, saving more than a half-million dollars on that one project. In the two years Thibodaux Regional Medical Center used Minitab, it increased its operating margin to 12% and created a cash reserve of $24 million.

Find out more by clicking on the green box on the right.

“Have you seen process owners or other organizational structures that sustain cross-functional process improvement?”

Brad Power poses this question at the end of his article, “Where Have All the Process Owners Gone?” (HBR, January 7, 2011). Anyone who’s been following Baldrige.com or been involved with integrating Baldrige or evaluating Baldrige assessments knows that some of this country’s best examples of “organizational structures that sustain cross-functional process improvement” are Baldrige Award winners.

The Baldrige model is a process model. The first six of seven categories in the Baldrige Criteria ask how you design, manage, and improve your key processes, while the seventh category requests the results of those processes. Each Baldrige Award winner has found its own way to improve processes, some of which include process owners and most of which use similar quality tools and techniques.

They have also developed systematic approaches to sustaining process improvement. Power bemoans the fact that too many organizations attempt process improvement by establishing process owners, only to revert to functional management in the end. He suggests six reasons for this; none of these reasons hold true at Baldrige Award winners.

1. Attention shifted. Organizations lose their focus on process improvement when senior leaders are distracted by new or more urgent issues. Baldrige Award winners sustain their focus on process improvement through unwavering, visionary leadership.
2. Roles were misunderstood. They botched the process for improving processes. Baldrige Award winners clearly define roles and responsibilities, deploy reporting and review processes to keep everything on track, and provide the necessary training for process owners, process improvement teams, and employees.
3. Accountability was lacking. Baldrige Award winners assign responsibility for process management and improvement and review performance on those responsibilities. More importantly, they also provide ongoing support and recognition for process performance.
4. The role had little influence. The leaders at Baldrige Award winners do not delegate process ownership: They are responsible for key processes and they hold weekly or monthly meetings to discuss process metrics and to ensure that process performance and improvement are on track.
5. The organizational structure was too complex. Baldrige Award winners use their strategic planning processes and performance measurement systems to remove the complexity and focus their organizations on those plans and measures that align with the mission, vision, and goals of each organization. The plans target key processes that will help achieve the organization’s goals.
6. Employees were uncomfortable. This last reason points to a lack of leadership. Senior leaders who understand processes and promote process thinking, who show constancy of purpose in implementing a sound process management approach, who provide training and other support to employees to help them succeed, and who hold themselves and their direct reports responsible for ongoing process improvement will transform their organizations with world-class, sustainable results.

If you want evidence of this, I invite you to read the award application summaries of Baldrige Award winners, available here. Reading just one will help you see the possibilities and the payoffs of process thinking.

In early November in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha, a 15-story hotel was built in six days. The foundation was already in place. The crew used prefabricated columns and modules to build different sections and arrange them on the foundation. The structure is soundproof and built to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake. No workers were injured during construction and, because of prefabrication, very little of the materials were wasted.

You can watch a fascinating, short video of the hotel going up by clicking here.

I have no way of knowing about the quality of the construction or of the individual rooms within the hotel, but the speed at which it was built is impressive. Add to that the facts that nobody was hurt, the building is soundproof (which is really important in a hotel), and there was very little waste, and you have a benchmark of sorts for construction projects.

A couple months ago I wrote about the implications of a movement to build a $300 house (click here). In that case, the goal is to serve the housing needs of people at the bottom of the pyramid, but in the case of both the $300 house and the six-day hotel, a broader challenge is being made: You can build these things much faster and much cheaper than most people imagined. If you don’t think that such faster and cheaper methods will affect construction in the U.S., you haven’t been paying attention to the impact of the global marketplace.

To stay ahead of this curve, American companies must continue to pursue process improvements that produce faster and cheaper products and services. They must ensure that their strategic planning identifies and prepares for disruptive technologies and approaches. They must create a boundary-less organization that involves customers and suppliers in product/service and process design and improvement. And they must pursue innovation by tapping into the insights of their employees and benchmarking the brilliant ideas that are transforming—or threatening to transform—their industries.

To read more about how to stay ahead of the curve, click on these articles:

• Challenge Your Assumptions
• Managing for Innovation
• Revolutionary Thinking
• Be Prepared
• Where to Play and How to Win

Baldrige Award winners achieve what many organizations attempt, which is to realize the benefits of process improvement in world-class results. Why do they succeed where others fail? Brad Power attempts to answer that question in “What the C-Suite Needs to Do for Process Improvement?” (HBR, December 15, 2010) He draws on 30 years of experience as a consultant to identify three reasons that process improvement initiatives fail:

1. Organizations optimize processes within functions and departments rather than across them. Your most important processes involve multiple functions and departments.
2. Frontline workers can’t properly contribute to company goals when they lack information about how to have an impact on them. Organizations that integrate Baldrige use strategic planning and performance measurement systems, as well as frequent communication, to show workers what the organization’s goals are and how everyone contributes to reaching them.
3. Top managers can’t realize the substantial benefits of process improvements if they, rather than workers, identify what needs to change. The people who work the process are in the best position to improve it.

Power proposes three deliberate actions to turn this around:

1. Listen to how well your organization meets customer expectations. The third category in the Baldrige Criteria examines how you engage your customers for long-term success. That means listening to them, measuring their satisfaction and engagement, and building relationships. From a process perspective, it means starting with this question: Who are the customers for this process and what do they require?
2. Set and monitor customer-defined performance outcomes. Measure internally what is important to your customers. If you know through customer research that quality is their top priority, measure defects, complaints, warranty costs, or other internal measures that predict customer satisfaction with the quality of your products or services. Power gives the example of Amazon.com, which found that customers contacted it when something was wrong so they worked on reducing the number of customer contacts. As CEO Jeff Bezos observed, “We want that number to move down—and it has gone down every year for 12 years. That’s big-time process improvement.” One would expect Amazon.com to see a direct correlation with measurable improvement in customer satisfaction.
3. Require managers to create an environment for continuous process improvement and learning. In other words, make process improvement everyone’s job and give them the skills they need to do that job well.

To read more about process improvement, click on these articles:

• The 3 P’s: Starting Points for Integrating Baldrige
• The Benefits of Process Thinking
• Ask What, Not Who
• The Value of Lean
• 10 Critical Questions: Process Management