4. Testing the Approach
Principal Goal
- Develop a physics of adaptability
for business practices and processes to guide
strategic, operational, and improvement planning.
Principal Objectives
- Refine a set of design principles
which effectively guide the development of
highly-adaptable business strategies and
operating tactics.
- Identify effective approaches for
implementation and management of these strategies
and tactics.
- Provide a vocabulary and
conceptual base which effectively communicates
the nature, value, and purpose of change
proficient strategies and tactics to all
employees.
Approach
- Two highly adaptable business
practices within an organization are examined in
the first day-and-a-half of a 3-day Discovery
Workshop. A structured analysis procedure guides
participants on a search for candidate principles
responsible for the observed change proficiency.
- The second day-and-a-half is
devoted to a "real problem" exercise;
applying the principles developed in the opening
period to something at the host site that is
either too rigid or yet to be designed.
- Four-to-seven people within the
host organization are complimented with
five-to-fifteen people from other organizations -
limiting total participation to approximately 20
people. Participants do the actual discovery work
and analysis, guided by a facilitated process
that drives the effort toward the objectives.
Expected Benefits
- Participants are on the ground
floor of new knowledge development and, more
importantly learn to apply it at the same time it
is developed. Hosts have the added advantage of
analysis and application suggestions for areas of
personal and direct value - and can subsequently
carry the application activity forward to a new
business solution. An application exercise is not
carried to completion in the three-day workshop -
but does illuminate paths to follow for those
host personnel interested/responsible for a
solution.
Participant Profile
Participants were recruited
continuously while open slots remained. A constant influx
of new thinking and values was actively sought to keep
the ideas and objectivity fresh. In general, this series
welcomed anyone who fit the following profile:
- Preferably a decision maker,
manager, and/or organizational influencer
involved with business practice and/or operation
process issues.
- Had a curiosity and willingness to
actively explore the activities being analyzed.
- Agreed to attend a minimum of two
workshops.
- Agreed to digest the pre-reading
and participate in the development of
conclusions.
Three-Day Structured Approach
Five to fifteen participants from other
companies joined with four to seven participants from the
host site in order to broaden the generated knowledge and
objectivity. Each workshop was three days in duration at
a single site. Participants other than site personnel had
agreed to come to a minimum of two workshops in order to
provide some "experienced" participants in the
process.
On the morning of the first day we
reviewed the basics of change proficiency and the
analysis procedures specifically related to the site and
areas to be explored; and overviewed the host-site
business context. Assigned pre-reading on workshop
objectives, analysis methodology, and host profile was
used to facilitate quick focus in this first day's
activities and preclude the need for lengthy basic
overviews. Pre-reading also included three-to-four
articles chosen from the general business literature that
addressed issues useful for the analysis and application
exercise. Participants with prior workshop experience
were assigned roles as discussion leaders for the
articles.
On the afternoon of the first day we
began the first of two analysis activities - typically
including a tour or demonstration of the area being
analyzed. Sometimes people other than host participants
would be brought in to present and discuss the area under
analysis. In the evening of the first day the group was
split into thirds to attack a one-hour homework
assignment just before a group dinner. The homework
assignments were chosen to exercise the analysis
methodology and extract key issues from the article
reviews for presentation on the second day. The group
homework session and dinner were also used to open up the
social channels of group participation, boosting
productivity.
On the second day the second analysis
was conducted in the morning and the application exercise
was begun in the afternoon. Importantly, this devoted
half of the time to actual application of the learnings
obtained in the opening half of the workshop.
The end of the third day always
concluded with a review of the process - which invariably
led to changes in the subsequent workshops. For example,
the initial two workshops had only the third day
scheduled for the application exercise, with the first
two spent in analysis and preparation. Participants
wanted more accomplished during the application period,
and also felt that the learning process was accelerated.
A structured analysis approach was
employed to ensure that the objectives were met, and that
the necessary data and knowledge were identified. Each
participant had responsibility for personal conclusions
at the end of the workshop, and received comprehensive
documentation of the workshop proceedings in real time.
The facilitator's documentation
responsibility occurs at the conclusion of the entire
eight-workshop series - when a generic synthesis of all
the data will be generated. This document will deal with
the nature of a common set of adaptability principles
applied across the wide variety of business practices
outlined in the next section.
Workshop
#1, LSI Logic, Gresham, OR, Apr 15-17, 1997
Pre-reading assignments:
1) "The …… Optimal
Number of Suppliers", Bakos and Brynjolfsson, MIT.
2) Japan’s Software Factories, the
Introduction, Cusumano, Oxford University Press, 1991.
3) "Prepare Your Organization to Fight Fires",
Karl Weick, HBR, May-Jun '96.
Analysis #1: Re-Usable
Product Design— "Coreware" is a
proprietary product/service that streamlines the
development of custom-designed ASICs for any customer.
Coreware helps a designer quickly design a new ASIC by
stitching together reusable sub-circuit modules and
developing only that new material not already in the vast
reusable module library. Coreware can be employed by LSI
designers or provided to the customer's designers - at
customer discretion - or a combination of LSI engineers
and customer engineers may work together.
Analysis #2:
Reconfigurable Order-Fulfillment Teams—When LSI
started as a Fab-less (no internal manufacturing)
operation all customer contracts were satisfied by
assembling a custom team of sub-contractors. LSI
maintains and constantly updates an active data base of
internationally-located suppliers. These suppliers are
quickly assembled into a team for each
outsource-manufacturing contract taken on by LSI. LSI has
since built internal fabrication capability and these
plants are placed in the supply-chain mix along with
external sources. This quasi-virtual-enterprise assembly
and management facility is located in Hong Kong and is
the central operational unit for the company.
Application Exercise:
Large Complex Program Management— After extracting
the underlying principles we will then attempt to apply
these principles to a real problem at hand. The Gresham
manufacturing facility is a $1 Billion + project in
process, expected to begin test production in August and
revenue generation in the last quarter of '97. Developing
the factory information and control system is just one of
many major activities going on in this start-up program.
The date for scheduled production was pulled forward by
six months only a few months ago. Though all of the
various activities feel that they will be finished on
time, the concern is for the integration of the effort. A
boiling dynamic right up to the day of production. How
might the principles of change-proficient systems be
brought to bear on this program is the exercise we will
employ on the third day of the workshop.
Workshop
#2, General Motors Metal Fabrication, West Mifflin, PA,
May 6-8, 1997
Pre-reading assignments:
1) "Time-Based Competition, The
Product-Process Linkage...", Kosmala, Body Assembly
& Mfg, IBFC '95.
2) "What Really Makes Factories Flexible",
David Upton, HBR, Jul-Aug '95.
3) "How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers",
Robert Kelley and Janet Caplan, HBR, Jul-Aug '93.
Analysis #1: Flexible
Check Fixturing— Body panel check fixtures presented
a particular problem to this plant - 700 plus fixtures,
with more coming, required a prohibitive amount of
storage space. The financial climate did not permit a
capital intensive high-technology solution, like the new
laser machines offer, but relief had to be found. The
plant invented a unique modular fixture scheme that
utilizes a common grid-work base plate with part-specific
holding "details" that snap into
"retainers". Details are machined in-house
quickly and inexpensively, and then stored in a shelved
shoe-box sized tray. Classic
Reusable/Reconfigurable/Scalable concepts are evident in
the design and should provide an ideal case-study for
identifying underlying principles.
Analysis #2: Small-Lot
Assembly Lines Built Just In Time— The "A
Assembly Area" consists of highly adaptable people
and highly adaptable workstations - custom reconfigured
to assemble specific hoods, deck lids, fenders, and body
sides for 60+ different vehicle models all in the same
area - with welding, hemming, adhesive application, and
press-piercing as principal processes. Most of the
fixtures and processes were developed at the plant in
order to efficiently accommodate such high variety.
Though our analysis will necessarily look at individual
workstations and fixtures, the focus will be on the total
A-Line process concept rather than on individual
elements.
Application Exercise:
Knowledge Capture and Mobilization— The application
exercise deals with one of the most important problems
facing all companies today: how to make good intuitive
knowledge in one part of a company explicit so that it
can be taught to new employees and taken to other parts
of the company. Turning this plant's innate tacit
knowledge about highly adaptable process design into
explicit knowledge that can be transferred effectively to
new employees and employees at other GM plants will be
our focus.
Workshop
#3, Rockwell Avionics and Communications, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, June 30 - July 2, 1997
Pre-reading assignments:
1) "Sun Shines by Taking Out
Time", James Carbone, Purchasing Magazine, 9/19/96.
2) "Control in an Age of Empowerment", Robert
Simons, HBR, Mar-Apr '95.
3) "What Holds the Modern Company Together",
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, HBR, Nov-Dec '96.
4) "The Trouble With Teams", Fortune, 9/5/94.
Analysis #1: Flexible
Small-Lot Electronic Board Cell— The four machines
and 16 people who work in this Universal Process Center
are highly flexible - producing numerous printed circuit
products in prototype and batch quantities ranging from 1
to 180 per day, with a large number of component parts,
and a mixture of old and new technology. Machines include
a high speed chip shooter, a screen printer, a general
surface mounter, and a convection reflow oven. The team
that works in the center is crossed trained and
responsible for both quality and comprehensive
maintenance.
Analysis #2: Cross
Functional Teaming— Three teaming concepts will be
analyzed:
a) Integrated Product/Process
Development (IPPD) Teams combine Engineering, Production
Ops, Program Management Office, and Business
Development/Marketing to balance system design
requirements.
b) Integrated Product Teams (IPT) are
responsible for product manufacture, delivery, and
improvement. Currently nine IPTs support more than 30
different product lines. Each includes a manufacturing
specialist, facilitator, production control coordinator,
quality control engineer, industrial engineer, IE
technician, manufacturing electrical engineer, collateral
engineer, components application engineer, quality
assurance engineer, and finance.
c) Commodity Teams (CT) are one of the
linkages between the IPTs and the IPPDs. These
cross-functional teams have core representation from
Purchasing, Engineering, Applications Engineering, and
Procurement Quality Assurance Engineering; with the
ability to add other specialists as needed. CTs are
focused on best value, improvement, and long term
supplier alliances; and jointly develop technology
roadmaps with preferred suppliers that emphasize
continuous improvement, trust, and sharing.
Application Exercise:
Program Realization Process— Though significant
benefits have been realized from the above mentioned
teams, there is difficulty with inter-team interaction.
This is becoming a significant problem as customers
demand quicker time to market and want more customized
product, and technology life-cycles and product
life-cycles continue to shrink - resulting in more new
product introductions to the factory each year.
Workshop
#4, Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion, Jupiter, FL,
August 26 - 28, 1997
Pre-reading assignments:
1) "Successful Change Programs
Begin With Results", Robert Schaffer and Harvey
Thomson, HBR, Jan-Feb '92.
2) "Getting the Most out of Your Product Development
Process", Adler, Mandelbaum, et al, HBR, Mar-Apr
'96.
3) Accelerating Innovation, Chapters 2-6, Marvin
Patterson, Van Nostrand, 1993.
Analysis #1: Flexible
Engineering/Supplier Relationships— In order to
support the aggressive schedule demands of typical
development programs Pratt's engineers work flexibly with
purchasing, suppliers, and production well in advance of
final design and drawings, making many commitments from
sketches based on layout information. Procedures are in
place to reasonably mitigate the risk incurred with these
early commitments. Due to the informal nature of this
process, extremely close coordination with suppliers is
required, as well as a good deal of trust between project
engineers, purchasing agents, and suppliers.
Analysis #2: Kaizen
Improvement Process— Initial team success in
dramatically improving the ability of the Space
organization to respond to dynamic customer schedules and
reduce the cost of engine production has led to an
expanding Kaizen improvement commitment. Since then,
initiatives in cycle time reduction, procedural issues,
environmental health and safety, and others have forged
an adaptable improvement process that is constantly
improving itself as it learns and applies new techniques
with every initiative. Our focus will be on the
adaptability of the Kaizen process itself - as practiced
at Pratt - and not on any particular initiative. Issues
of particular interest include training, cultural change,
commitment, incentives, structures that enhance change,
follow through, and back-sliding.
Application Exercise:
Engineering Risk Mitigation— Though significant
benefits have been realized from the concurrent
engineering process, there are still cumbersome aspects
of early release associated with high risk areas. One
challenge is to speed up the engineering analysis
process, so that adequate information is available to
iterate the design. Technological advances and adaptable
approaches to modeling and analysis tools for thermal,
flow, fracture, crack growth, stress, and other
considerations are a major focus here, and procedural
issues are equally interesting.
Workshop
#5, Concurrent Technologies Corporation, Johnstown, PA,
October 1-2-3, 1997
Pre-reading assignment:
1) "IT Outsourcing: Maximize
Flexibility and Control", Leslie Willcocks and David
Feeny, HBR, May-Jun '95.
2) "Customer Intimacy and Other Value
Disciplines", Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, HBR,
Jan-Feb '93.
3) "What is Strategy?", Michael Porter, HBR,
Nov-Dec '96.
Analysis #1:
Management of Knowledge and Technology Development—
CTC is principally in the on-demand intellectual-property
knowledge creation and diffusion business, and deals in a
wide range of scientific and technological disciplines.
Competitively they offer major cost advantages to
alternative sources for outside analysis and development
work for two reasons: a) their low overhead permits a low
multiple on professional costs, and b) they have a strong
management of technology development discipline that
typically finds and follows the optimal solution path. It
is this latter practice that the analysis focuses on.
Important techniques employed by CTC include mechanisms
for finding the most appropriate internal professional
skills and experiences, for finding and modifying/reusing
previous applicable work, and for staying abreast of
applicable technology developments in the external
community.
Analysis #2: High-Flux
Program-Management Organ-izational Structures— CTC
currently has seven directorates - each responsible for
specific customers and programs. New incoming programs
and projects are generally staffed in a matrix-managed
structure until the next directorate reorganization
occurs (at least twice yearly), and are then assigned to
a specific directorate. Skilled resources within the
total CTC community are available to any of the
directorates according to where their skills are best
applied.
Application Exercise:
Seamless Spot-Market Knowledge Work— CTC is
expanding its focus on commercial markets and looking for
new ways to provide analysis and development services as
an outsource service provider. They wish to serve a wide
variety or industries and a wide variety of customers,
yet appear to each individually as a comfortable
extension of internal capabilities. Thus, we will explore
the design of an adaptable "plug compatible"
interface between enterprises that eliminates or reduces
all barriers to outsourcing critical knowledge work, and
delivers the full capabilities of CTC to its customers
and partners on an as-needed, when-needed basis. The
focus will be on a design that facilitates the creation
of a custom enterprise interface as each relationship
will have different barriers to overcome.
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