Improve My Business

I can hear my mother Marge’s voice in my head, even now:  “Mary, don’t just complain about something; DO something about it!”  [Is that why I became an environmental engineer - because I feel strongly that we all should take a little bit better care of Mother Earth than we do?  Or was it my dad, who told me when I was choosing between engineering, religion, and music for a major in college, that "You'll always study religion and music anyway, to relax and keep learning, on your own; so, go to school for engineering!"]  But I digress…

So, Mom says, “Do something.”  Elections are coming up here in the United States, and these elections promise to be some of the most exciting in recent history for us, as either candidate brings something new to the platform - either we will have the first African-American president, or the first female vice-president.

Emotions are also running high on this election.  Folks who I work with want to get into political discussions; people I meet in social settings ask me who I’m voting for; and even my kids want to know who I think should lead our nation in the future.  In work, I try to carefully state a neutral position and stick with it; with friends and family, I’ll discuss more personal views.  (So, despite being really close friends with y’all, I’m going to stay neutral on this one, at least inside this blog.)

Among all this political fervor, I ask myself this question: Is voting our way of saying whether we want a change or not?  [Both candidates say that things will change; the differences come in what those changes may be and how they will affect segments of our population.]  And is this change a form of continual improvement, or is it simply change because we are mandated for a change every eight years?  If this IS a form of continual improvement, is this method effective?

But above all, DO something (as Marge would say).  VOTE if you have the opportunity.  (I already have, courtesy of early voting.)  And if you didn’t vote, well, then don’t you DARE complain about anything for the next four years - no matter WHO wins.  I’m just not gonna have much sympathy for your position.

Technorati Tags: continual improvement

Ah, the air is cooling, the leaves are turning - can the avalanche of holiday catalogs be far behind?

As an environmentalist, I prefer not to get catalogs for things I will never purchase.  I prefer to do a web search if there’s something specific I’m looking for.  I prefer not to have to recycle these catalogs - I’d like not to receive them in the first place — and this is where the good folks at Catalog Choice comes in.  If you go to www.catalogchoice.org and sign up, you can eliminate catalogs from being delivered to you.  [I found this particularly helpful when moving also.]

So do the right thing, eliminate the excess catalogs, and your mailperson’s aching back will thank you for it!

Technorati Tags: enviornment, green living, save a tree

Many folks are concerned about the state of the economy - locally, nationally, and internationally.  I see the same worries in some of my clients, but not in others; I’ve taken a closer look at these two groups of companies, and this is what I’m seeing (unscientific, but interesting nonetheless):

Worried companies — I’m defining worried companies as the ones who are not in good shape from a Quality standpoint.  Oh, their final product quality is fine; it’s the processes that could use some sprucing up.  Not sure if this sounds like your company or not:

• Your final quality product or service is fine; customers are overall happy.
• however, your company often is jumping through hoops to make this happen.  It sometimes takes extraordinary effort to deliver on time — overtime, extra work being done, or even hand-carrying the order through the line.

• When a change comes through, it requires a lot of special attention to be done ‘right’.  It’s not a normal occurrence, and really puts a strain on your organization.

• When a key person is absent (vacation or sick), the organization has trouble delivering with the same efficiency.

• Everyone spends time and energy determining who made the mistake, before asking why the mistake was made, or how to fix the mistake

By contrast, un-worried companies have a noticeably different set of situations:

• Your final quality product or service is fine; customers are overall happy.
• It’s no problem for your company to deliver top quality products and services; it’s routine for your organization.

• When overtime is needed, it’s done with the understanding that this is a temporary situation, and everyone pitches in.

• Absences, both planned and unplanned, barely cause a ripple in the smooth operations of the organization, as all critical work is documented, cross-trained, and backed up as appropriate.

• The organization is more concerned about fixing the problem than fixing the blame.

So, what are the steps that companies can take?

1. They can document the nebulous processes, review the existing processes, and ensure that critical steps in a process are documented and are correct.  (Documenting and leaving on a shelf to get dusty is a common, and useless, situation I see in some areas…sigh…)
2. They can use this time to tighten up their internal overall process flow once step #1 has been done — analyzing it for redundancies, streamlining, and ways to make it more efficient.  Do multiple areas in your organization do almost the same thing?  Are there more than one ‘right’ ways to do a certain process?  Can it be streamlined to deliver the output in less steps, or with lower defects?
3. They can spend this time to do training - formal training to bring up their employees’ skills; cross-training to ensure that absences are easier to handle; corporate knowledge transfer so when the guru goes on vacation or (gasp!) retires, the knowledge doesn’t walk out the door with him; management training to spruce up your managers’ interpersonal skills so they can handle the questions from nervous employees better; teamwork and teambuilding to let employees know that they are valued, and that working as a team is the best chance you have of staying in business; and a host of other training that I’m sure you can name immediately.

Interestingly, the client who are calling us are the ones that fall into the second group - they continue to focus on “business as usual”, streamlining, becoming more efficient, requesting training, delivering higher quality both internally and externally, etc.  The worriers?  Well, let’s just hope that they don’t lose my phone number as they run around with worried looks on their faces and gloom and doom in their hearts.

Technorati Tags: downturn, economics, efficiency, quality, Streamlining, training

Dear HKIA,

Thanks for running such an efficient airport.  I think the resting lounges are great (full length lounge chairs for sleeping) and the area is well done for signage.

One improvement suggestion — more than FIVE stalls in the ladies room in the main concourse… do you know how long that line was??!?

And, to the Indian family sitting across from me coughing your heads off - PLEASE cover your mouths when you cough - it’s grossing me out.

Technorati Tags: hong kong