SUCCESSFUL PROJECT TIPS

1. Have a clear problem statement and quantified business impact

A clear problem statement can focus effort and be a rallying cry for staff. It should include a short statement of

a) What is wrong (e.g. customer satisfaction is low)
b) The performance gap (e.g. OTD slipped from 95% to 80%)
c) The “so what” for the business (e.g. resulting in 2 customers taking $1MM worth of business away).

2. Gather a fact-base for root cause
The Scientific Method underlies all methodologies. State a comprehensive list of hypotheses and then gather the minimum data needed to test. No assumptions; no conclusions without data. No analysis not directly tied to hypotheses.

3. Focus on control first, then improvement
No need to wait for the long term improvement. Give staff visibility to issues and process controls to use and they will naturally do what they can to stabilize the process immediately

4. Pilot manually to prove case, then automate
Pilot as quickly as possible the new principles and behaviors you want to see. When you have worked out the bugs and proven their value, then automate.

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EXAMPLE

I just finished an assessment at a CPG company, that was hoping to return to profitability. We said it with data to Management

  • Direct Labor productivity decline YoY; Limited use of standards to rate performance and drive staffing.
  • Raw material levels too high: Multiple weeks of inventory on hand, despite short lead times.
  • Purchasing not leveraging spending power: Limited use of contract pricing; No guarantees of capacity; a number of suppliers per commodity.

This led to focused business improvement in well-defined areas.