Enjoy the Holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS / HANUKKAH AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

Muahahaha

I am not sure why it has taken so long...but I have finally "defaced" the class wiki
: )
Wikis are a great invention!

We have transformed from Muda into Six Sigma

Everyone in our class has very much improved their presentation skills and ideas about how to drastically improve a business process over the course of this semester. I thought that the presentations today were well done and I heard some great ideas that companies should definitiely implement. Some of them more common sense than others, but all were improvements that should be implemented.

In a way, I am very glad that we do not have any more group projects, but I am also sad to think that we only have 1 more class together. Well, I have actually been ready to graduate since August, but I will definitely miss my fellow HCPers : )

Good Job Everyone!
Good luck on Friday.

The American Marketing Association Presents...

Guest Speakers:
1. Ellie Sanchez - T3 (The Think Tank)
2. Kristian Schwartz - Tribal DDB
3. Karen A. Bell, Executive Director- Fisherman's Wharf Community Benefit District
4. Mike Sanchez, Senior Brand Strategy Manager - Cisco Systems, Inc.
5. Lesley Beatty, Director of Marketing - Spongefish.com

Happy Cyber Monday

The fact that there is such thing as a "Cyber Monday" in addition to "Black Friday" goes to show how much of a trend e-commerce really is.

Google group pic + HTML

img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKDocA5nEkjyLyWVyr8xqPsVULofla7By5mVg5IrBKwH24pTULw-eL7aORXJ4fY6-IKz78FS-efDv6RNc_ChNLIRPz8TMfpf9of6zJMSI-RHGH2Jz3Di-xUaGJyg5x9NG9SQJxirVjJ8/s320/HCP+group+by+limo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134424793577851810"


Thank you to JP for teaching us HTML, I am proud to announce that I made my first Web page EVER during our last class : )

Org SIM

Today Clarissa, Stephanie, Bank, Mai, and I joined HCP '08 in a business simulation.
As I read the materials for "FoodCorp International," I realized how I could implement some of the concepts we have learned so far in JP's class. As President and CEO of the company, I decided to focus on areas that were filled with muda including the distribution process. I saw a lot of potential use fo JIT and 6 Sigma, but did not have enough time to go over these aspects of the company because we only had 5 hours to solve multiple problems ranging from employee turnover, to acquisitions, to sales mix.
I failed to implement any plans for databases, but I will admit that Mai, being on the other team, introduced a great idea for one. I especially liked the idea of having something that send e-coupons to phones when people get in a certain range of the grocery stores and products.
It was great to see how we might utilize our classroom knowledge in the real world.
Well done Sim participants! Thanks for making it a successful day.
PS- even though my team won, we would have kicked ass if we had all been on the same team : )

Web Site Creation

Before today, I pretty much had no clue how to create a website. I have always wanted to know how you register a domain name and how it works...and now I do. I thought the readings made the process and IT lingo easy to understand. IT can be intimidating if you don't know anything, but it is not as difficult to learn as one might think.
Of course, I would stick to standard Website hosting.

I also liked these tips of things to avoid when deciding on a domain name:
-dashes
-phrases that look confusing in lowercase
-names that don’t match your business
-settling for a .org or .net, over a .com

Additionally, I would like to add that intranets are very useful. I have used one at my work since I started 1.5 years ago and can't imagine what we would do without it. Although it is underused when it comes to people posting interesting articles and such, it is a great place to put company templates, hr documents, and a link to Deltek (our database that includes timesheets used by all) It is the homepage for everyone in the company.

FACE AIDS and Paul Farmer

On Saturday, Mai and I went to a FACE AIDS conference at Stanford and saw Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health. During this day, I was able to apply a lot of concepts that we have learned about so far in Systems in Orgs.

I immediately thought of JP when Paul Farmer mentioned that they had to develop their own software to keep electonric medical records and develop e-medicine (ie: scan and send x-rays). The reason they created their own was so that it could be open source (of course he admitted that he added this fact in to satisfy the techies from silicon valley)

In addition, he stressed the need for efficient and effective supply chains. Supply chains are key when medicine and food is what is keeping these people alive. PIH is a non-profit, so minimizing costs in these areas is imperative because the more money that can go to pay doctors, nurses, etc, the better (due to recruiting and retention issues).

For a majority of the day, I was also wondering what FACE AIDS and PIH were doing to actually get to the root cause of the pandemic. It seemed to me that they were primarily just treating the disease, but I learned that they are taking a holistic approach and, in fact, focusing on that root cause. PIH supplys local poverty with jobs and teaches them how to support themselves and sustain hospitals or clinics. They also provide education to children who would otherwise be working and potentially getting injured or sick, like a ten year old boy that picked up a landmine while hearding cattle. Of course, the only cure to hunger and malnutrition is food, so they supply food and clean water to help these people recover as well as simply treating them with medicine.

Tesco - come to the US!

Excellent strategy: Don't cut prices on items that everyone purchases (ie: bananas) because then even those not hunting for a bargain will get one.

EDLP strategies are not the way to go. It works for Wal-mart, but only at a price. The only way to maintain ELDP is to puch the burden to suppliers and cut overhead, both of which are not the most ethical ways to do business.

ClubCards rule. They are great for business and customers! As a customer, I love great deals and rewards for shopping. As a business owner, I would love to know exactly what each customer purchases, when they purchase certain items, and how much they are willing to pay for those items. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Some additional info on Tesco ClubCards courtesy of Wikipedia.com:

When shopping at Tesco or using Tesco services (such as services from Tesco Finance), Clubcard holders receive 1 point for every £1 (€1 in Ireland) they spend, holders can also get double points on special offers and receive 1 point for every carrier bag they reuse (UK only) as part of Tesco's green initiative. These points are stored and built up and 4 times a year the holder receives vouchers to the value of points they have saved (1p/1c per point). Vouchers can be spent instore on shopping or used on Clubcard Deals where they are worth 4 times the value.
Clubcard holders are also entitled to free access to the clubcard clubs which include: wine club, baby and toddler club healthy food club, food club, Christmas club.

"outdated and inefficient" = Bankrupt!

Wal-mart prevails once again.
I have never cared to know so much about Kmart and now I know why. Kmart is a horror show when it comes to technology, beign innovative, and keeping up with the times.
No wonder why the Kmart near my home went out of business when internet was just becoming a norm.
I think that the only good idea Kmart came up with was Bluelight.com and offering free internet to cutomers. It was proven effective when millions subscribed and they found that people purchased more items than on other sites. Of course, this went bad fast since they aquired Spinway, who was losing money. The idea and creativity was there, it was just not implemented properly.

All of this goes to show that a succesful company needs a vision and must be willing to change.
Success is all about real time data and utilizing available technology to improve business processes.

I don't Asksunday

I think that some mundane tasks should never be outsourced. I cannot see myself using these services, like asksunday.com, because it doesn't seem to be worth it. If I need to make a reservation at a restaurant, I can go to opentable or call a place just as easily as I could ask someone else to do it for me.
It is just like when people write an e-mail to someone, asking them to write another person an e-mail. Why don't you just save the time and write that e-mail to start with? In some circumstances, these types of actions are understandable, but I tend to just get those small tasks over with fast because they take so little time.
At first I thought it would be great to hire someone to wait in line for me, but thinking about it, I'm not sure I would even want to pay for that. My life is already hectic, so freeing up the little down time that I have in order ot accomplish more tasks might just make life more stressful.
Although I do not plan to use these types of services soon, I suppose I need to work on allowing others to help out with the mundane beause I can see the advantage in certain circumstances.

The world became Flat in order to eliminate Muda

I will agree with Thomas Friedman that the World IS Flat. However, I found the first chapter much more intriguing than the second. Perhaps it goes into too much detail about internet browsers and optics, but he does use some great examples of flatteners, such as PayPal.
I wonder...Are all flatteners simply new methods or technologies that were developed in order to eliminate Muda? This appears to be the case because the world became flat as result of shared standards and easier communication, both of which increase productivity and eliminate non-value added steps such as transportation.

No E-mail Fridays?

Check out this article about "no e-mail Fridays" that are being implemented as employees uproar:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119205641656255234.html?mod=djem_jiesww&reflink=djem_jiesww

Since it is only 12:00 and I have already received 21...make that 22 e-mails today and sent 14, I can totally understand why employees would be enraged at the thought of not using e-mail for a day. E-mail is the once constant in all jobs. I constantly refresh my inbox at work and love to see the icon pop up when I get new mail. I cannot imagine a day without it.
I understand the idea behind this, that is having more face-to-face conversations and relations with customers, but does this good outweigh the bad? I think not.
Without e-mail I would have to call people often, which wastes a lot of time since you generally have to speak to a receptionist first, or leave a message, or keep calling back until someone picks up. Most of my e-mails are internal, which means that I would have to get up from my desk and walk to people's offices to talk to them. It appears that e-mail is an essential factor to eliminating muda in the workplace. I'm not sure this "no e-mail Friday" idea is the way to go. Afterall, is e-mail the root cause of the problem? I think not!

Is Vertical Integration the key to staying Lean?

A great piece of lean thinking advice: “to hell with your competitors; compete against perfection by identifying all activities that are muda and eliminating them.”

Who knew that the process of making a can had so much muda.

Is vertical integration the soultion to all problems relating to lean thinking and the value stream? It seems that one can never rely on their partners, or suppliers, as much as they should be able to because each company is run differently and has different values. Perhaps the only true solution is to own all companies in a value stream so that you can eliminate muda in every step of the process. I see no other solution when looking at processes like the cola example.

inventory = muda

I have always thought that it is great to plan ahead and have things stocked just in case. For instance, I always have an extra shampoo, soap, conditioner, toilet paper, etc. in my bathroom closet just so that I am ready when I eventually run out. Oftentimes, I do this in order to ensure that I get an item on sale as well. But, is this really the best method? I am thinking the answer is NO.
Inventory may add some flexibility to life, but with it comes a lot of negatives:
-Cycle counts are MUDA, they add absolutely no value, but must be done if there is inventory.
-Shrinkage, or unaccounted for inventories, are preventable costs that can add up if not careful.
-Who likes pilferage? It seems that inventory thefts lurk everywhere.
-Not to mention the simple costs of storing inventory. Holding costs can be some of the largest costs incurred by businesses because with inventory comes insurance, building, and additional labor.
I like to think of my personal inventory items as safety stock. I am not buying 12 shampoos for the future, therefore, my personal inventory costs are minimal if not 0. As for businesses, I know that a lot, including my old employer, lose a good amount of money by holding inventory. The trick, I believe, is finding suppliers that you can rely on to provide minimal lead time so that you can get more products quick and not have to hold a very large safety stock.

Why Five Why Process?

While the Five Why process does narrow your focus in an attempt to find the root cause of a problem, I can't help but wonder if it works for all issues. I highly doubt that every time you ask five whys, you will happen upon the root cause. I think that it depends on the problem and what type of why questions are being asked. Many problems may require 7 whys to get to the root, while others may only requirse 3, so why does Toyota say 5 is the key?
I think that setting it at five can make people think they are at the root cause when perhaps they need 8 Whys to truely discover the cause. In addition, the five why process will produce different results from every person because everyone does not ask the same why questions.
While good in theory, I think this process has too many flaws for someone to depend on when trying to solve a problem.

finally, a process

Business processes surround us every day. In fact, I am personally involved in some type of business process multiple times a day; whether it be shopping, dining, running errands, or doing chores. This astounds me seeing as when our group needed to decide on a business process to analyze, we had the hardest time thinking of one. We had many ideas, yet, we struggled to find one that we could easily observe and use to complete our project.
I suppose we were able to think of one process fairly quickly, but only discovered that it was already extremely efficient. (damn Starbucks, I knew there was a reason that I didn't like you) This, of course, is a good problem to have, but why could we not think of something else easily? Perhaps it is because when you focus on one idea, it is difficult to step back and refocus on something completely different. I may never know, but what I do know is that I am glad to have finally chosen one that we are all on the same page about.
I guess I'm getting a haircut tomorrow : )

"The Big Y"

Down with averages! Averages definitely mask problems by disguising deviations.

With improvements in process performance and customer satisfaction, Six Sigma organizations seem to be a pretty good concept. But can it be too good to be true? I'm not sure that any business could achieve this status in all departments/processes. If you find one, let me know.

Oh, ya...and why 6?

Eliminate "Muda," Go with the "Flow"

Muda, or an activity that uses resources but creates no value, can be detrimental to a business.
In order to locate Muda, one must decide what value truly is. I never thought that value was too difficult to define, but I now understand how it is oftentimes defined improperly, or often based on old-fashioned standards. I agree, for example, that airlines who want bigger jets and layovers for customers trying to get to certain destinations, should focus their resources on having more direct flights on smaller jets.
In "Lean Thinking," one must make the value steps "flow."
I do not doubt Henry Ford’s production line strategy of efficiency by producing using sequential steps and finishing one product start to finish. However, I think that doing things in batches can also be the most efficient way for accomplishing certain tasks. For example, mailing a letter to 500 people. From personal experience, I believe that it is more efficient to departmentalized each step, rather than to complete one letter at a time. You can get into a rhythm when placing a stamp on an envelope, or folding a piece of paper 500 times. This practice allows you to do the task quicker because you do not have to think of all the steps and reach around for different items.
I do agree that tasks can be completed better with “flow,” but this flow can sometimes be in the form of departments and I don’t think that it is so counter intuitive.

Flowcharts...Who knew?

I never really thought about using flowcharts for anything, but I can see how they may come in useful. It is a great way to organize a process. In addition, it makes it easier to locate a problem and fix it. However, it is extremely important to provide an accurate flowchart so that potential flaws in the system will be noticed and subsequently, solved.

Fight human nature- don't "jump" to solutions

As mentioned in chapter 14 of the Toyota Way Fieldbook, a mistake that most people make is jumping straight to a solution when they discover a problem. I agree that this happens, although I do not think it is so much an "American" reaction as it is just a natural instinct of human beings in general. This type of problem solving can work on occasion, but usually it is important to spend a little time investigating the issue to get to the root of the true problem.
People base their solutions off of personal experiences and they do not always know about other potential causes of the problem at hand.
Investigating the problem is extremely important because it enables the eventual solution to be more effective. It is imperative that the true issue is solved, and not just one resulting factor of the issue, because then it will continue and possibly grow. This lack of dealing with a problem could lead to inefficiency, loss of profits, lack of safety, and even the downfall of a company.
So, next time you encounter a problem, whether it be in business or elsewhere, make sure you discover the true issue before jumping to ways you can fix it.

operational innovation

While talking to my mom last night about her problems with inventory at work, I realized that her company would greatly benefit from operational innovation, or the invention and deployment of entirely new ways of doing work. Their current system does not appear to be working because they always have too much of one thing and not enough of another because it is virtually impossible to predict what people are going to buy this year and how much the company is going to grow.
Although the end results of operational innovation can make a phenomenal difference, the problem to getting there. Everyone is busy with their own work and does not often have time to think about such big projects that do not fit into their own job description.
I propose that companies create a position that is primarily responsible for creativity and innovation, including the not so "sexy" aspects of business.

Let the Blogs Begin...

The closest I have ever come to writing a blog was on livejournal.com, but I really only used that to keep in touch with friends from highschool who used it. This, of course, was pre-facebook and myspace so I rarely go on the site anymore.
So, here I am on Blogger.com!
Although I am somewhat skeptical about using these things seeing as anyone can be reading all about you, your life, and opinions without your knowledge. Including collegues, classmates, and stalkers (though the last I would believe to be somewhat rare). I also realize the tremendous benefits of such technology, such as being able to be a "published" author so easil and being able to get your opinions and input out there for all of the world to see.