by tu dinh Nguyen
...A tourist was walking down the street in Washington, D.C., one night and saw a drunk up ahead on his hands and knees under a street light. Curious, the tourist walked up to the inebriated individual and inquired,
"What are you doing?"
the drunk, a bit surprised, said in slurred speech,
"I'am looking for my car keys."
the tourist, trying to be helpful said,
"Where did you lose them?"
"Over there," the drunk replied, pointing to the dark alley few yards away. Again, puzzled by the logic, the tourist asked,
"Why are you looking for your keys here then?"
the drunk replied,
"Because the light is better here !!!"
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i am not a quality expert, but i will try to help the drunk to find his keys. remember the drunk may know about Quality, and organizational changes, but he had no training in TOC.
i re-read Dr. Sink/Tuttle's book (Dr. Sink/Tuttle, 1989. planning and measurement in your organization of the Future) and try to see if his framework can be integrated with toc to enhance the success of organizational Changes.
the performance of an organizational system (The new Competition) is a function of a complex interrelationship between seven criteria: Effectiveness, Effeciciency, Quality, Productivity, quality of work Life, Innovation, and Profitability.
i will try to put these criteria in a wet current reality tree as follow: (please scrutinize it, i am sure it is not complete)
if the organization is
effective and,
efficient and,
quality then
it will very likely be
PRODUCTIVE
if the organization is
productive and,
has quality of work life and,
has INNOVATION
then
the organization will very likely make/maintain PROFIT
to response to the seven criteria (The new Competition), we must answer to the following three questions:
1. what to CHANGE?
- what does the organization need to look like in the next two to five years in order for us to compete, survive, grow, and continue to success?
2. to what to change TO?
- what do we have to do next year and in the next two to five years to become that vision of the organization of the Future?
3. how to cause the CHANGE?
- what roadblocks, obstacles, or hurdles exist or will exist to prevent us from becoming our vision of the organization of the Future?
the following Sink/Tuttle 8-steps can be used, and again i will try to integrate them with the thinking Process.
1. organizational systems Analysis
(Using current reality Tree)
(STEP #1: identify the CONSTRAINT)
2. developing planning Assumptions
(Using conflict resolution diagram and/or future reality Tree)
(STEP #2: decide how to exploit the CONSTRAINT)
3. developing strategic performance improvement Goals
(Using future reality Tree)
(STEP #2: decide how to exploit the CONSTRAINT)
4. developing one-year action items and improvement Projects
(Using transition Tree)
(STEP #3: subordinate everything else to the decision in step #2)
5. implementing improvement Projects
(Using transition Tree)
6. project Management
(Drum-buffer-rope DBR, and critical path analysis)
(STEP #4: elevate the CONSTRAINT)
7. measurement & evaluation of the impact of performance Improvement
(Using Throughput, Inventory, and operating expense as key measurement)
(STEP #4: elevate the CONSTRAINT)
8. recyle and continuously improve the Process
(Step five of the five-focusing Steps)
(STEP #5: go back to STEP-1, but avoid "INERTIA")
if we implement those step correctly, hopefully we will achieve:
- changes in Productivity/output quantities, revenue/profits
increase throughput (T)
- changes in resource, input quantities
reduce inventory (I)
- changes in cost
reduce operating expense (OE)
by now, (there are some other detailed factors involved) i hope that i have the drunk convinced that toc can help organizational changes to increase throughput (T), reduce inventory (I), reduce operating expense (OE) which in turn, can help the organization of the future to make more money now and in future.
However,
- if this is so easy, why do most organizations still fail in implementing changes using improvement models?
- from technical view point, the analysis may look good but from a practical view point what are the missing links in the integration?
(Improvement models: to name a few such as TQM, reengineering, software engineering institute capability maturity model SEI/CMM, lean Manufacturing, quality improvement paradigm QIP, PDCA...)
my own conclusion:
successfully integration of toc and other improvement models is the most effective way to prepare/bring the organizations into the 21th century to get ready for the new Competition.
tu dinh Nguyen
Jonah