What often goes wrong with what we call “wicked problems”
is that companies set the goals for solving them way too
low. Typical company goals like improving yields from 85%
to 88% or reducing employee turnover from 75% to 65% are
worthless. You put in effort, but never realize the immense
benefits of completely solving the problem. You get relief,
but you’re still sick. Stop taking half measures.
Attack what’s dragging your organization down. No
matter what it takes, make the problem go away. The improvement
to your bottom line and company morale will astound you.
Years ago, I took over an organization that suffered from
missed shipments, high customer returns and tons of overtime.
Life was tough. There were SOS calls from my staff nights
and weekends. Ugly phone calls from angry customers. Our
CFO was breathing down my neck.
The culprit? Poor and unpredictable yields. Performance
on our fastest growing product line was in the low 80% at
best and sometimes fell as low as 40%. Tackling rework and
scrap took entire teams of people. Every day was a fire
drill.
Sure, improving yields was on everyone’s annual objectives...mixed
in with a dozen other goals. We were making progress with
one percent here, two percent there. At that rate, we’d
all be dead before we saw any real gains.
Enough!
I decided to make yield improvement our only focus. We
cancelled all unrelated projects, gathered our forces and
attacked yields from every possible angle. Process settings.
Equipment maintenance intervals. Inspection procedures.
Training methods, shift assignments and even supervision.
We ran statistical analyses and simulations, installed just-in-time
production systems and an intranet to speed data collection,
analysis and communication.
Everyone, from wizened, senior engineers to fresh-faced
operators working the dirtiest jobs, got involved. The energy
and excitement were incredible. The greatest ideas came
from the unlikeliest places. We held a party every time
we eliminated a root cause. And we held a lot of parties.
The result?
- Yields hit over 99% and varied downward by only 1 to 2 percent.
- We reduced production cycle time from three days to three hours and could turn our product mix on a dime.
- On-time delivery skyrocketed to near 100%.
- Overtime fell to a few hours a month.
- We were using fewer expensive chemicals and supplies.
- Customers were thrilled.
- Our CFO was delirious.
- We developed an amazing 'can-do' attitude that carried over to other projects. And now we had time and energy to do them.
Taking the leap was a watershed event. Setting the bar so high
and committing resources to achieve it not only improved our bottom
line dramatically, but invigorated our people with energy and spirit.
We became a new organization.
So this year, take the leap. You'll wonder how, and why, you
ever suffered with a problem for so long.
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