David Lengacher, Six Sigma MBB Adjunct Prof., Univ. of Maryland Principal, Concurrent Tech. Corp.

1. Improving Performance in Operations David Lengacher, Six Sigma MBB Adjunct Prof., Univ. of Maryland Principal, Concurrent Tech. Corp. dclengacher@gmail.com

2. Intro Who are you and what brought you here? Your dream job, position, or title?

3. Performance & Leadership You can affect organizational performance via… Qualitative Skills (our focus today) Quantitative Skills (Lean, Six Sigma, Ops Research)

4. Leadership: Exterior & Interior

5. Metaphor

6. Leadership “Above all other traits and characteristics…. leaders are those who are more PREPARED than anyone else” -Peter Drucker- Preparedness starts with developing situational awareness…

7. What is SA? …a perception of key details, critical to decision-makers in a complex environment. Takeaway regarding Situational Awareness It’s better to have STRONG opinions and be wrong than it is to be indifferent. Why? Because if you wait for 100% perfect info…you’ll never have a strong opinion.

8. Situational Awareness Takeaway… Good Leaders have STRONGER opinions about more organizational topics than their subordinates. NOTE: I didn’t say “more accurate opinions”

9. Test Your SA …of your organization, industry, etc. Name the Top 3 external “risks” facing your org. Name the Top 3 internal “risks” facing your org. “thing” = initiative, product line, etc.

10. Test Your SA …of your organization, industry, etc. Name the most recent thing your org has stopped doing or divested in. “thing” = initiative, product line, etc.

11. Test Your SA …of your organization, industry, etc. Name the most recent thing currently under review for divestiture or elimination. “thing” = initiative, product line, etc.

12. Accurate SA = Correct Language Definitions are IMPORTANT

13. Test Your SA …of your organization, industry, etc. How does your org define “Efficiency”? How does your org define “Effectiveness”? Future Leaders should have strong opinions about what these terms mean in their current org…

14. But…. ….my org doesn’t really use the terms “Efficiency” and “Effectiveness” at work…. Don’t be afraid to introduce these terms to your peers and supervisors. “But I might be way off basis?”  Then use industry-specific literature/publications to identify the standard definitions and applications.

15. Identify Your Information Gaps Find gaps in your awareness of your organization or field and FILL THEM! Write down 1 thing you know you don’t know.

16. SA includes History SA is not just knowing what an organization is doing or wants to do… but also what it has stopped doing. The past is as important as the present. Become your department’s amateur org-historian. Why? Not to score points at lunch, but to build confidence in your SA.

17. Growth “The first step in a growth policy is not to decide where and how to grow. It is to decide what to abandon. In order to grow, a business must have a systematic policy to get rid of the outgrown, the obsolete, the unproductive.” -Peter Drucker-

18. Leadership: Interior

19. Internal Preparedness Fear Curiosity Belief Behavior Stress Expectations

20. Fear You can leverage it, but in most cases you will never conquer it. Why? Because fear is natural and is present in every species on Earth. Proof? Just watch Animal Planet!

21. Fear Pays!

22. Fear Exercise: Write down 2 of your most recent fears that kept you up at night. 1 personal, 1 professional. Good news: What % of all of your fears have ever came true?

23. Leveraging Fear If you lie awake at night fearful of losing “X”… …then devote more of your resources to either securing “X” …or liquidate “X” or remove “X” from your life plans. Especially if you realize that “X” does not lie on your critical path!

24. Leveraging Fear If you lie awake at night fearful of your future …then leverage that fear by taking a multi-pronged approach to standing out from your peers! Ideas: Publish! In newsletters, journals, etc. Don’t just attend conferences…Present! Publish!

25. Publish Your Thoughts ….because the best and brightest people in your peer group are. Exercise: List the 3 places you think your peers are publishing.

26. Leveraging Fear In summary… You can never conquer all of your fears… But you can covert many of them into TENACITY

27. Exercise Exercise: How can you use 1 of your fears to drive action?

28. Curiosity “The single most important trait when selecting a successful player is curiosity. Because a curious person will find solutions to problems before they manifest. A curious person is a prepared person.” -Bobby Knight-

29. Curiosity Exercise: Who is the most curious person you know? If that person is a 10 on the scale, then rate your own curiosity 1 to 10.

30. Belief “Think you can or think you can’t. Either way, you’ll be right.” -Henry Ford-

31. Belief Exercise: Rate how strong your belief is in your own professional capabilities 1 to 10.

32. Stress “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s how you carry it.” -Lena Horne-

33. Stress Exercise: Rate your ability to handle stress from 1 to 10.

34. Risks “You can’t steal 2nd base with one foot on 1st.” -Frederick B. Wilson-

35. Risks Exercise: Name 2 risks that you almost took, but didn’t following through with. Are you more risk-averse or more risk-taking? Exercise: Rate your risk tolerance 1 to 10 (risky)

36. Risks Regardless of your answer, there is 1 sure-fire way to leverage your current risk tolerance...

37. Risks TELL OTHERS ABOUT IT!!!

38. Expectations “Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you’re a good person is like expecting the bull not to attack you because you’re a vegetarian.” -Dennis Wholey-

39. Expectations Exercise: Rate how aggressive your professional expectations are from 1 to 10

40. Internal Performance So how can you use these 6 principles to improve your own performance? By reallocating energy within your internal portfolio

41. As-Is Model…..To-Be Model

42. How to Take Action

43. Consider This “People don’t change much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in.” -Warren Buffet-

44. Best use of Your Time In the next 90 days, you will have xxx hours of free time to devote toward learning or skill building. Which is better for you? Making your strengths even stronger Making your weaknesses less weak i.e. Do you want to be “average” in 5 areas….or an eventual expert in 2 areas?

45. Interviewing Exercise: Write down the 1 or 2 of the most popular interview tips. What is one of your own tips?

46. Your Next Interview Don’t sell who are you today…. Sell who you will be in 6 months…especially when you take your current tenacious pace of learning and extend it inside the organization. Sell the seed……not the plant!

47. Your Next Interview Ask them this: “Every organization defines efficiency and effectiveness differently; how do you define them here? Efficiency Effectiveness You’re guaranteed to stump your interviewer and simultaneously look smart.

48. Your Next Interview Also ask: “Innovation affects every organization differently….what is the most recent innovation that has changed the way you do business?”

49. What do you see?

50. From Consumer….To Producer

51. Learning There is no substitute for experiential or unguided learning.  Classes are good  Amazon.com is better What does your book shelf look like? Does it look like it belongs to the person you want to become? Do you own at least 5 books on your field or position with highlights and sticky notes poking out?

52. Quantitative Skills

53. Performance Improvement via Quant Lean Inc Speed/Removing Waste Six Sigma  Reducing Variation Ops Research  Scientific Decision Making

54. Lean How many units enter the END stage per hour? 1 min End A Continuous Operations (aka “warmed-up”) 1 min 1 min 1 min 1 min End B 2 min 2 min 1 min 1 min End C

55. Lean Where would you focus your process improvement efforts? 1 min End A 1 min 1 min 1 min 1 min End B 2 min 2 min 1 min 1 min End C

56. Lean Reducing processing time by 50% does you no good! Why? Because the slowest link defines the speed! 1 min 2 min 1 min 1 min End C

57. Lean Reducing 2 processes by 25% does make a difference 1.5 min 1.5 min 1 min 1 min End C

58. Seven Deadly Wastes Defects Waiting Motion Transportation Inventory/WIP Over-production Over-processing Some organizations add other wastes, particularly injuries and wasted human talents

59. Defects In service, this can be: Missing information Missing deadlines Incorrect documents Mis-labeling/categorizing Usually detected downstream

60. Waiting (downtime) Delays between the end of Step 1 and the beginning of Step 2. Because service work is often invisible, process mapping is critical for finding these delays.

61. Motion Switching screens constantly or having to perform too many keystrokes to accomplish a task.

62. Inventory / WIP Excess WIP  Slower Reaction Time Look for physical piles of forms (inboxes). List of pending requests in: Email Callers on hold People standing in line

63. Overproduction Creating product before it is needed Looking busy

64. Transportation In services, manifests itself as constantly walking down hallways to collect/deliver materials or chasing information.

65. Over-processing Doing more work than your customer wants: Multiple signatures Over inspection

66. Over-processing Think of a process that requires multiple approvals. Does your customer think that each approval is adding this his/her value? Would they be just as happy if there was 1 approval so it could get to them faster? If so, then you’re over-processing!

67. Six Sigma Focuses on reducing variation in the processing of work. Examples of variation in your job? 99% Quality 1% Defects

68. Good Defects Defects

69. McDonald’s Drive-Thru Good Defects

70. How do Lean & SS Interact? What if these are average cycle times? i.e. What if there is variation from 30 secs to 1.5 mins? 1 min 1 min 1 min 1 min End Reduce sources of variation….to both decrease defects….and increase speed!

71. 99% Yield 99% Yield 99% Yield 80% Yield 99% Yield 99% Yield 99% Yield Quality Level of System 75% .99 x .99 x .99 x .80 x .99 x .99 x .99 Identify the Weakest Link

72. Discussion What is 1 information gap you could fill to help you gain a better Situational Awareness in your current role?