Tag Archives: systems thinking

Not a Matter of Counting

1 Reply

Duncan was temporarily reflective. “Yes, we did get behind on our efficiency project. I guess we do need to start over, collecting our metrics again, to see where we are. I think I can pull somebody off, after their shift to begin the count.”

“Do you really thinking counting is going to get the project back on track?”

“It’s a start,” Duncan shrugged.

“Starting the count is doing. Your efficiency project isn’t off the rails because you stopped counting. Your efficiency project disappeared because of the way you think. In the beginning, you were focused on daily improvement of throughput, finding out why things got stuck in your system, how to expedite an order without gumming up the works. Then, something happened that changed the way you think. You got busy. You may have thought that busy-ness was more important than efficiency. You thought that if you could just get all the projects out the door today, we could get back to our efficiency focus tomorrow. Free beer tomorrow never comes.

“Change the way you think first. When you get busy, think how much more important it is to look at your throughput. It is not a matter of finishing all the orders today, so we can get back to efficiency tomorrow. It is all about a focus on efficiency so we can build our capacity to get everything out the door today. It starts by changing the way that you think.”

Four Levels of Work, Four Levels of Capability

3 Replies

“Okay, okay,” Elisa replied. “You are right, easy to see the number of variables in a single project multiplied by twenty projects.”

“This will help us understand the complexity of what we are asking Jason to do and Jason’s capability to actually do it. When we look at levels of work, identifying the level of work in a project, we have to look at the variables. More variables, the more complex the variables, the more difficult the task, more difficult problems, more difficult decisions,” I began to lay the groundwork.

“We understand projects and we understand variables,” I continued. “Let’s look at Jason’s capability* to effectively respond.

  • Direct Action – are variables we can deal with one at a time, that come at us at a pace where we can see it arriving and deal with it.
  • Cumulative Action – are variables that arrive together, where the pace of incoming is faster. We are required to diagnose things together (diagnostic accumulation). We can solve problems that look alike the same way, but only if we are able to see those similarities quickly enough.
  • Alternative Serial Thinking – are variables that arrive in groups, the pace of incoming groups is so fast that to effectively deal with the problems and decisions, we have to anticipate. That is why this level of work requires as much thinking (ahead) as it does action.
    We have to think of each group as a system, with internal cause-and-effect elements.
  • Mutually Interactive Groups – are groups of variables that, as they arrive, begin to impact other groups of variables. If we can see each group as a system, we have incoming systems that impact other systems, systems thinking.

“Our ability to think and act effectively is an accurate way to understand an individual’s capability. You can also see the progression in variables as we move from five simultaneous projects to twenty simultaneous projects.”
——-
*Four levels of mental processing. Elliott Jaques. Requisite Organization

Back to Work Velocity

1 Reply

Let’s get back to work. Unlocking the door and greeting your first customer feels positive, but is it enough to sustain?

As the business leader, more importantly is understanding the viability of your re-opened business operation.

Total Throughput
As operations resume, parts will come humming back, but in the background will be friction. This is not a game of spinning plates. One or two high performing departments won’t cut it, you have to look at total throughput. Restaurant kitchens always have output capacity, but throughput is constrained by the dining room. People only eat so fast, tables turn only so many time during a meal period.

Velocity
And, in the near term, dining room capacity will artificially be constrained by 75 percent. How fast does profit travel through your output system?

It feels good to open the doors, but there will be new constraints imposed that have to be accounted for in your business model. Those that survive will figure this out, now, and make appropriate adjustments.