Managing Operation Processes Summary of Exam Questions

A shadowed box indicates a more important question that is a popular topic

throughout the exams. Double stars are indicating an even more standardized

topic.

1.

Explain the four acid tests of service recovery.

A four acid test can be applied when we want to know if the service recovery

process is successful. Service recovery is the action of seeking out and deal with

failures in the delivery of the service in order to improve delivery performance.

Customer satisfaction – Does it lead to increased customer satisfaction?

The employee unwillingness to recognize and deal with

problems is known or be a driver of dissatisfaction.

A good service recovery is a key source of delighted customers.

Customer retention – Does it improve retention rates?

Recovery can lead to retention in two ways:

Through customer satisfaction, see above.

Principle of reciprocity: Because of measures taken by the

company for recovery a customer may feel obligated to stay as a

customer. A good recovery turns angry customers into loyal

ones.

Process improvement – Does it drive process improvements?

Common problem within companies: Little time or effort is put into creating

systems or procedures to facilitate complaints from customer to make

improvements possible.

Customer becomes dissatisfied when mistakes are made twice

and no improvement is shown.

Financial performance – And as a result from the categories above, does it

improve the financial performance?

Problem: Companies see service recovery as a sunk cost.

There should be increased revenues from higher levels of retention and from

positive word-of-mouth from delighted customers, and reduced costs through

higher retention, and from continuous operational improvements.

2.

Explain the content of four different tools for designing/engineering service

processes, based on the literature and the class on the topic.

Blue printing:

Goals of blue printing (3):

Visualize the interaction from the customer point of view.

Ensure all aspects add value to the customer experience, Lean?

Identify all break down points – Murphy’s law: If anything can

go wrong, it also most certainly will

Steps:

1. Flowchart all interactions with the customer:

Information

Customer and material flow

2. Identify:

The line of visibility

Problem areas

3. Identify key moments of truth:

Current fail points

Interactions/transactions with a high risk and/or cost of failure

Moments that are easy to miss:

i. Invoices

ii. Price lists

iii. Telephone enquiries

iv. packaging

Service Transaction Analysis - A tool for front office

1. Agree and specify the service concept

2. Walk through actual process and assess how customers assess each

transaction.

Delighting (+1)

Satisfactory (0)

Unsatisfactory (-1)

3. Enter the interpretation as to why customers arrive at evaluation and

register how they feel in these situations; respected, helpless or

frustrated.

Deliberate

Symbolic

Subtle messages

4. Join assessments of each transaction

5. Discuss possible improvements

Process Mapping – A tool for front and back office:

Process mapping is the graphic presentation of a service process in

order to assist in the evaluation, design and development of a new or

existing process

Essence of mapping is to capture all the activities and their relationships

on paper.

Requires a team from to understand the various aspects of the

process thus a realization of their role in the end-to-end process.

Analytical questions to gain maximizing benefits from the maps (7):

1. Does the process support the strategic intentions of the

operation?

2. Does each activity provide added value?

3. Is the process in control?

4. Who owns and has responsibility for the process

5. Is the level of visibility appropriate?

6. How efficient is the process?

7. How can the process be improved?

Fail-safing:

Fail-safing is about improving process by reducing the likelihood of failure.

Fail-safing by three types of Poka Yoke:

1. The contact method

2. Fixed-value method, determines if a given number of movements have

been made.

3. Motion-step method, determines whether the prescribed steps or

motions of the process have been followed.

3.

Explain five principles of waiting.

Given that perceived waiting time is greater than actual waiting time, the

answer is to try to reduce perceived waiting time, which can be much cheaper

than employing more servers.

Five principles of waiting (PAUnoccupiedUnexplainedUncertain):

1. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time:

o Provide distraction: music, mirrors and videos

2. Pre-process waits feel longer than in-process waits:

o Simple acknowledgements: choice of service or completing a form

3. Anxiety makes the wait seem longer:

o Giving reassurance to the customer as being a part of the system,

numbered tickets for example.

4. Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits:

o Happier customers when expected waiting time is known

5. Unexplained waits seem longer than explained waits:

o Explanation of delay reduces the customers uncertainty

4.

Explain five of the linkages in the service performance network.

1. BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY GIVES: (4)

1:1 Service delivery financial performance

Change in the service delivery may well represent increased costs to the

organization

Improving processes, increasing staff, etc increased costs

On the other hand, they may reduce cost in the long run

Managers need to understand short- and long-term issues

1:2 Service delivery customer satisfactions

1:3 Service delivery attractions

Attract new customer by having superior service delivery and advertising

the improvements. This is called “offensive marketing”.

1:4 Service delivery staff satisfaction

E.g. less failures less complaints feeling of greater control less

stress ……

2. IMPROVED CUSTOMER SATISFACTION GIVES: (4)

2:1 Customer satisfaction financial performance

Happier customers are willing to spend more for example

More satisfaction = less dissatisfaction = decreased costs

2:2 Customer satisfaction retention & loyalty

The nature of this relationship depends on the nature of the organization. If the

customer has experiences better service than earlier or better than

alternatives, he/she is more likely to be loyal. This is sometimes referred to as

“defensive marketing”

2:3 Customer satisfaction attractions

Attract new customers through word-of-mouth

2:4 Customer satisfaction customer satisfactions

Satisfaction mirror

3. RETENTION AND LOYALTY WILL GIVE THE SERVICE ORGANIZATION: (1)

3:1 Retention & loyalty financial performance (5)

Long-term revenue

Buy more

Willing to pay more

Lower marketing costs

For organizations where retention is of vital importance, it should be

used as a key performance measure (NPS = % of promoters - % of

detractors)

Retention and loyalty also applies to staff, e.g. lower costs for recruiting and

training.

4. STAFF SATISFACTION GIVES: (3)

Staff satisfaction retention & loyalty

Less stress, attrition and absenteeism retention and loyalty

Staff satisfaction financial performance

Reduced absenteeism

More productive

Staff satisfaction attraction

Word-of-mouth new customers and, new, high-quality staff

5. ATTRACTION GIVES: (1)

Attraction financial performance

Increased revenue and market share

If revenue > cost profit!

5.

Describe five aspects of the cultural web

First of all: The cultural web is centered by the paradigm – Worldview which

can be many faceted (5):

A description of the sector we are working within

Describing customer segments that we serve

States what: We are provide or the customer is buying

May contain beliefs of good features in the organization, such as risk-

taker, innovator or responsive to customer.

The way people think about the organization.

There are totally SIX aspects of the CULTURAL WEB:

Organizational structures – strong variable to make change:

The form of organization will determine how responsive to customer it will be.

The organizational structure can be determined by asking 5 questions:

Is the structure hierarchical or flat?

Is it organized geographically or by product area?

Is it function or process?

Is it bureaucratic or flexible?

Is it based in teams or individuals?

Power structures:

Important when changing the way things are done. Power structures are not

always as the organizational map is drawn. It can depend on the individual

personality and expertise.

Control Systems – strong variable to make change

Control systems are the guiding infrastructure of companies. Controlled

processes within the company results in the actual room for flexibility. “What

we measure gets managed, but what gets rewarded gets done”.

Routine and rituals – Japanese pub nights:

The activities that not necessarily are in the company procedure, but still in

special significance to company. Like celebration of success and pub nights.

Symbols – American psycho:

The physical evidence of whom or what is important in the company culture.

Symbols are material things that indicate status within the company, i.e. a large

office or a company car.

Stories – cast away:

These are also called war stories that set the tone within the company. They

can be of either positive or negative nature setting the culture in a specific

mode.

Using the cultural web (3)

Develop a common understanding of the key elements of current

culture

Examine the current paradigm, which aspects are desirable to change to

fit the future strategic direction.

Develop an action plan to influence change

6.

Excellent complaint handling involves three key operational activities. Explain

the activities involved in one of the key activities – dealing with the customer.

Describe four features of excellent complaint handling.

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Acknowledgement

Acknowledge that the problem has occurred if not major dissatisfaction

Empathy

Try to understand the customer situation and communicate this

Apology

Spoken or written apology is a way of recognizing the customer’s problem.

Own the problem

Giving the customer a sense of ownership of the fixing the problem, which

creates a positive cycle.

Involve management

If the employee is not fit to deal with the problem senior management have to

deal with the problem to satisfy the customer

Solving the problem – two key activities:

Fix the problem for the customer

Provide compensation

Dealing with problem: Find root causesolve the problemprovide

assurance

7. Marked with a double star because this is the question Mats took away from

last year’s example exam, instead he added a question regarding capacity.

Key Decision Area Matrix (KDAM) is a framework used for categorizing service

processes.

Explain the dimensions

Describe the four resulting service process types and the key

focus of attention for operations managers.

Helps us understand where the prime value is added and therefore what

should be the key focus of attention for operation managers.

First dimension – Customer involvement:

To what extent the customer is an intrinsic part of the service delivery process,

thus a resource for the organization. Notice the difference between customer

involvement and customer contact.

Second Dimension – Volume/Variety:

How much service product variety does the process have to deal with? This

aspect in relation to the volume per unit processed.

The Service Factory:

High volume, low variety

Runners, occasionally repeaters with low customer involvement.

Examples: Retail op, restaurant chains, financial services.

The key decision area for these services is in the back office, where the

prime task is efficient and consistent, and high volume operations.

For example: Faster cheque-clearing in a bank. These operations will place

as much of the value-adding activities as possible in the back office.

Do-It-Yourself Service

High volume, low variety.

Runners and repeaters, but with high customer involvement.

Tourism, sports and fitness clubs, internet and telephone banking.

The key decision area for these services are the total customer, front office

and back office. Operational managers must balance decisions in all areas.

Significant efforts lies in the design work for the initial setup of facilities and

networks.

For example: Internet based services require sophisticated users.

Service Projects:

Repeaters and strangers, with limited customer involvement.

Phases

o Initial phase: customer contact with front office personnel.

o Second phase: research work in back office.

o Final stage: results are presented.

Small market research firms, with a close link between front and back

office. Or business loans for entrepreneurs.

The key decision area for these services is in the back and front office. The

front office must have knowledge of the capabilities and capacity of the

combined front office/back office. This is crucial because of the

responsibility of making commitments to customer enquiries.

Service partnership:

High customer involvement, dealing with either strangers or repeaters.

Consultants, managing investment portfolios.

The key decision area is around the customer – a front office partnership. The

challenge is to manage the communication link between back office and front

office. The back office often provides administrative support to strengthen the

service.

8.

Explain the levels of organizational culture, as proposed in the model by Schein.

Artifacts:

Visible aspects of the organization – its structure and processes. Examples are;

celebration of good service or a control system that emphasize the importance

of customer satisfaction.

Espoused Values:

It describes the stated strategies and beliefs of the organization. Should be

stated in a honest way.

Basic underlying Assumptions:

Aspects of the organization that we are not proud of. Only recognized when

deeply held principles are challenged. The cultural web provides a method in

doing so-

9.

Describe five of the characteristics of world-class service

Great leadership:

Genuine leadership strengthens to whole organization at all levels.

Clear vision:

An ability to communicate enthusiasm to the employees. Something to strive

towards

Supportive culture:

A positive attitude that values the contribution from all employees.

Developed Strategy: There must be clear plans of how we are going to direct

us towards our vision throughout the company.

Willingness to listen the customer: Use several methods to listen to the voice

of the customer.

10.

Describe the main characteristics of both the compliant and the adaptive

organization.

Compliant Organization (4):

Found in high volume/low variety organizations.

Consistent service delivery

Low cost labour.

Front office lacking motivation and ownership

The Anxious zone - Moving towards an Adaptive organization style (4):

Management must provide a sense of ownership and motivation to the

employee:

For example – Giving customer-facing employees more discretion

When an organization wants to increase their service range they

need to be more flexible. Changes must be implemented, as

information systems and training, this causes anxiety among

employees, leaving a safe environment towards uncertainty. This

uncertainty calls for:

Providing a sense of ownership and motivation to the employee

(4):

Communication - reasons for change is communicated, feedback

from customer must reach senior management.

Involvement – foster a sense of ownership over customer and

process

Celebrations – counteract for complaints, celebrate success for

strengthening the motivation

Teamwork – organizing customer-facing staff ignites a sense of

purpose and enables job rotation, support and motivation.

Adaptive Organization (6):

Found in high-variety/low-volume organizations

High degree of creative discretion

Resistance to standard processes

Emphasis on innovation

Challenges and solutions:

Individual providers inefficient service

Emphasizing situations in need of collaboration

Dependent on key individuals, could be a weakness…

Reluctant to share knowledge, and turnover of these individuals

Develop multiple links with clients

Motivating key individuals in form of opportunities to

expand their skills and knowledge.

The frustrated zone – Adaptive to compliant:

Restricting the degree of discretion because of desired growth, systems and

process are standardized, reducing the opportunity for own approach to

service. When doing so we got characteristics of a frustrated environment:

Individuals resist the implementation of standard processes

Extremely vocal complaints about perceived or real restrictions

Employee considers himself “above” the system and goes

around standardization to “get the job done”, in accordance to

him a job done in the best way.

11.

Define and describe Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and what types of

processes are suitable/not suitable for outsourcing.

Apart from IT-services, list 4 major areas in BPO and describe and compare the

characteristics of these areas. (4)

Definition:

Involves transferring certain value contributing activities, processes and/or

services to premises of one’s own or agent primarily to save costs and/or for

increasing focus on its areas of key competence.

Key determinants for outsourcing (4):

Cost reduction

Core competence focus

Flexibility while retaining control

Competitive advantage through strategic outsourcing

Disadvantages of outsourcing (8):

Losing control

Risk of harming reputation and brand

Competence loss

Transfer of knowledge

Communication gaps

Learning impossible

Transfer costs are high

Organization changing internally

Main critic toward outsourcing:

Realized savings are a result of re-distribution of resources rather than

efficiency gains, therefore no net economic benefit.

4 Major areas in BPO:

All four areas are characterized by that they all fit into large corporations with

large internal departments. The area concerned is considering definable and

measurable tasks, and often an alien activity.

Call centers:

Mature sector with low margins

Small economies of scale

Measurable mass production

Alien activity

Logistics:

Large sector

Consolidation gives Economy of scale

Strong trend towards global players

Entry from several sectors makes it complex

Accounting:

Mature established service

Regulated

IT:

Outsourcing driven by need of competence

IT is production equipment and infrastructure for service

companies

Other areas are Human Resources and Back office services.

12.

Some people claim that BPO is just a management fad not leading to the

promised results. Is this a correct statement according to the literature?

From a viewpoint of new management techniques, the companies that

switched to outsourcing moved away from a vertically integrated organization

into a co-dependent outsourcing model to develop competitive advantage.

This development signified by a more efficient model dealing with changing

environmental factors of the market place.

Conclusions

Greater control over costs through new disciplines of centralized data

collection allows cost based accounting development of

standardization creating transparency about the actual cost.

Supports to the efficiency arguments as a reason for adopting

outsourcing.

Cost savings primarily from reductions in workforce, but in addition

through continuous improvements, access to best practice and better

workforce management was one of the major benefits.

20.

Toyota Production System (TPS) - Article

Describe the main ideas of the article and use these ideas to argue for and

against the following statement. (6)

“Lean six sigma is just a fad, designed by consultants who want to sell their

ideas to unsuspecting managers”

Paradox of Toyota: production flows are rigidly scripted, yet at the same time

Toyotas operations are flexible and adaptive.

Why? The strict specification is the very thing enabling flexibility and creativity.

Four rules

1. How people work

People should learn the rules deeper insight into his own work

Learning approach: Instead of directions from managers they

teach and learn with leading questions.

2. How people connect

Every connection should be standardized and directed

The rules create a supplier-customer relationship there is no

gray zone of who provides what.

3. How the production line is constructed

Every product and service flows along a simple specified path.

That path should never be changed, unless heavy redesign.

4. How to improve

Improvements to production activities or pathways must be in

accordance to scientific methods.

Supervisor should provide direction and assistance as teachers

when workers implement improvements.

Toyota also has a shared vision that motivates them to make improvements

beyond the current need of customers.

Arguments against that Six Sigma are a fad:

Rules enable improvements

These rules have made Toyotas improvement work very

successful.

The improvement work enables learning and motivates the

employee.

22.

Describe the conceptual model of service strategy accordingly to J&C,

consisting of critical elements and drivers. (5)

Key components/drivers

The environment gives opportunities for the organization to develop a service

concept. We identify where the value is added and state the performance

objectives. The actual Operation is based upon operational tasks in order to

reach the objectives. We can state the corporate objectives through the

operations potential and capability which hand us parameters for change in

relation to the environment.

23.

The importance-performance matrix can be used as a tool for developing

service strategies. Describe how it can contribute to this development. (5)

Y – Competitors performance/ X- importance to customers

The appropriate zone:

This zone is where the organization is better than competitors, order winners.

The improve zone:

Identifies factors that need some attention, such as order winners that are not

living up to the standard.

The urgent zone:

Requires immediate attention and improvements.

The excess zone:

Too high performance in relation to the importance to the customer.

25.

Explain the meaning of the concepts – runners, repeaters and strangers – as

applied to service processes.

Runners:

Standard activities, found in high-volume operations. They are predictable and

requires little resources

Repeaters – like runners acquiring more resources:

Standard activities requiring more resources occurring less frequently.

Strangers:

Non standard activities, Hard to forecast and required resources are hard to

predict.

26.

Describe the customer pressures on service providers.

From the organization:

Nature of the task

service design

Performance objectives

Reward and appraisal systems

From the Customer:

Expectations

Intensity of contact

Mood and anxiety

competence

29.

What are the risks involved in standardizing work practices in a service

partnership?

A key element of lean production (TPS) is standardization; standardizing work

practices and then using the standard as the basis for continuous

improvement.

However, in service partnerships, a key element is often creativity. Use the

article, How to kill creativity, as a starting point, particularly the practices that

affect creativity. First, describe these practices (3) and then use them (and the

nature of service partnership) as a basis for your argument for what you think

are the risks involved in standardizing work practices in a service partnership.

(3)

Creativity accordingly to the article is based around three components.

Expertise: How much knowledge which is brought to the table

Creative thinking skills: Determines how flexibly and imaginatively people

approach problems.

Motivation is divided into two categories:

Extrinsic motivation: Carrot or Stick to motivate

Intrinsic motivation - influenced by working environment:

o Decides what people actually will do

o Engage work for the challenge and enjoyment of it.

o Leads to far more creative problem solving, because of an inner

passion.

o Also called principle of creativity

6 managerial practices to manage creativity:

Expertise and creative thinking are difficult and time consuming to influence.

The link between work environment and creativity is intrinsic motivation (5):

Challenge:

Matching people with the right assignment is powerful. Jobs that match their

skills and expertise will ignite intrinsic motivation. Perfect match stretches their

abilities, not bored neither overwhelmed.

Freedom:

Giving freedom in how they work heightens intrinsic motivation and sense of

ownership.

Resources:

Time and money can either kill or support creativity.

Workgroup features:

Attention to the design of teams.

Members should share excitement over team goals.

Every member must recognize the unique knowledge and perspective

that other members bring to the table.

Supervisory features:

Managers recognize creative work and serve as role models. Encouraging

collaboration and communication within teams will enable creativity.

Organization support:

Leaders must put in place appropriate system or procedures that emphasize

value of creativity.

By standardizing work in a service partnership:

You will take a step backwards in relation to the challenge aspect.

The freedom might be perceived as diminishing.

People with unique knowledge and expertise might not want to share

which affects the workgroup feature dimension.

30.

Explain the meaning of the concept employee discretion/empowerment. (4)

Discretion is empowerment

Routine discretion:

Discretion regarding the basic task, may be extended by adding complexity.

Creative discretion:

This is exercised by those who develop both what and how.

Deviant discretion

Generally not approved by the organization. Sales person giving refund

contrary to company policy.

33.

Article by Åhlström

Explain the details of the proposition and why this is being proposed. (3)

Use the nature of service processes to argue for and against the

proposition. (7)

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the contingencies to the applicability

of lean practices to service operations.

Elimination of waste:

Translates well into service operations. Use ACID and in some extent we find

parallels to Business Process Re-engineering.

Zero defects:

Indeed applicable, for example hospitals. Although service is inherent to

mistakes and therefore we need systems for recovery. McDonalds is a good

example of zero defects.

Pull instead of Push:

Indeed applicable, but sometimes not acceptable as for healthcare. Here we

need to handle our coping zone as the perceived waiting time in queue.

Multifunctional teams:

Very applicable to service processes, but restricted in some areas where roles

are clearly defined, for example in hospitals.

Decentralized responsibilities – Of major importance:

Particularly applicable in contact-intensive services. Authority to make decision

has to be given to make fast decisions on spot. Decentralization is addressing

issues related to encouraging and authorizing employees to be empowered to

identify and resolve problems.

Vertical information systems:

The more geographically dispersed the organization is the more crucial a good

information system is. Important feature in service processes because of the

service is produced as they are consumed.

Continuous improvement:

Well applicable to service organizations.

Conclusions:

When eliminating what seems to be waste in the service operation it is

actually the very thing adding value to the customer.

One contingency is the nature of multifunctional teams, which is hard to

implement in many services.

Simultaneous production and consumption makes the service production

pull in nature, but this fact does not hinder the operation from queuing

people.

Decentralized responsibilities very important as well as for vertically

integrated information systems.

The main conclusion is that principles developed in manufacturing

industries are indeed applicable in service industries. The line between

service and manufacturing companies is getting blurred as we speak.

34.

Use the theory of knowledge creation proposed by Nonaka to explain what

makes a business process a strong candidate for outsourcing. (7)

Tacit knowledge:

Hard to transfer

Mental models

Know how

Explicit knowledge:

Transmittable knowledge in formal systematic language.

From tacit to tacit – Socialization:

Standardized task appropriate for outsourcing

From explicit to explicit – Combination:

Exchange of knowledge through social situations. Opportunity to combine

bodies of knowledge.

From tacit to explicit – Externalization:

From explicit to tacit – Internalization:

36.

Select five service organizations and suggest how they might measure capacity,

outlining the problems in so doing. (5)

Service capacity is measured and defined as the maximum level of value added

activity over a period of time.

Can be measured as in following examples:

Calls a customer service agent handle in a shift

Number of meals served during lunch

Number of repairs made by a computer service engineer.

Challenges:

Service product mix: runner, repeaters and strangers.

The impact of location:

For example travel times to bring service to a location

The extent of intangibility in the service product:

Capacity linked to the individual service provider. For example, in a gourmet

restaurant it’s nearly impossible to know the real capacity.

The case of identification of resource constraints:

Determined by bottlenecks

37.

What is meant by the coping zone? What are the implications for staff and

customers of a supermarket when the operation enters this zone?

Coping zone is when a service operation experience difficulties to cope with

increasing demand.

Customers have to wait long time for service

Increasing likelihood of stocks-out.

Staff feels under pressure giving poor service.

DIRECT-DEVELOP-DEPLOY STRATEGY

A cycle for strategic improvement.

When is it used?

The DDD can be used whenever you want to develop a new strategy or revise

your exisiting one. With strategy I mean the plan for matching customer and

market requirements with excellence performance. Usually you might find

separate market and operations strategies in a firm, but the DDD shows how

they relate to and affect eac other.

In short, the DDD is for developing and improving market and operations

strategy.

1. Market potential. Begin here. Collect market and customer information.

Look for opportunities and threats.

2. Market strategy. Make a Market strategy to decide on an Intended market

position. Set your market targets. They are used in the next step.

3. DIRECT – Getting the fit

right. Relate and compare

the market requirements

and your market targets

to your operations

performance. By market

requirements we mean the three importance factors: order winners, qualifiers

and less important factors. And, as you can see in the figure, performance

means how well you manage your resources and processes.

The important activity in comparing market requirements and operations

performance is the importance-performance matrix. Try to the line of fit

between those two dimensions. You want to be neither over- nor

underperforming. Once you’ve found the fit, make sure it is also understood by

the employees. Otherwise you’re going to experience a tough DEPLOY phase…

Important note on how to measure your performance

level: The estimated performance level is only valuable

in comparison to some other data. I mean always

compare to one of the following: historical data, future

target goals, competitors’ levels or the maximum level

possible.

4. Operation’s resources and processes. Nothing to see here. Move on.

5. DEVELOP – Learn. “No learning can occur if the process is not in control” – so

establish control in your processes in order to learn

and thus gain process knowledge.

In a process is control we can enjoy the following

“powers”:

We can investigate the process.

We are able to notice when changes occur.

We can find root causes to on-the-surface problems.

We can actually fix (correct) things.

Remember: without control there

can be no learning, and no

improvement. Anyway, when we

eventually have gained process

knowledge we need to be aware of

that knowledge can come in many

forms. Knowledge can be explicit or tacit and spans from existing only in our

heads to written material to manuals to scientific models – depending on

where you sit on the 8-levels-of-knowledge scale (can be found in the slides,

page 10).

6. Operation’s capabilities. Go to next phase.

7. DEPLOY – the individual contribution. It is time to roll out your process

improvements. The deploy phase is a minefield; you will have to deal with

rotating people among different roles, building a group character and

paradigm, and discovering new problems that no one has ever heard of before.

For example the deploy phase may mean shifting positions in the

Adaptive/Complaint-matrix.

The changes you want to

make should follow the 4-

stage contribution model. It

has similarities to the

Internally/Externally

Neutral/Supportive model

as seen previous courses.

1st stage: Correct the worst

problems. Internally neutral.

2nd stage: Adopt best practice. Externally neutral.

3rd stage: Link strategy with operations. Internally supportive.

4th stage: Give an operations advantage. Externally supportive

During the deploy phase the individual contribution of staff is critical.

Remember that you had better established a good line of fit and made it

understood by everyone in the DIRECT phase in order to make the deploy

smooth and encouraging… Anyhow, there are some level of contribution and,

to put it short, the most important is the following:

Roles and visits. Make sure everyone really understands their role and their

contribution in the end-to-end chain. Make the staff actually visit the next

person in the end-to-end chain. For some people that means visiting the next

function (engineers visiting the manufacturing floor, etc) and for others it

means visiting the customer (marketing visiting the customer on the site, etc).

Handing over. Never hand over unsolved problems to the next person within

the operation. Instead create a spirit of internal suppliers and customers.

I think that’s it about the DDD model. To summarize:

Direct = Importance-performance matrix

Develop = Control and learn.

Deploy = Appreciate contributions.

EFQM

Leadership:

Develops mission, vision, values and ethics

Personally involved

Reinforcing the culture

Leader must identify and champion change

Policy and strategies:

Based on present and future needs.

Based on information from measurements, research and learning’s.

Developed, reviewed and updated

Communicated through a framework

People:

Knowledge and competencies are identified, developed and sustained.

Should be involved and empowered.

Communication

Should be rewarded and recognized.

Partnership and resources:

We have to manage:

External partnerships

Finances

Buildings, equipment, and materials

Technology

Information and knowledge

Processes:

Designed and managed

Improved using innovation to generate increasing value

Services are designed and developed based on customer needs.

Customer relationship must be managed.

Customer, people and society results:

Perception measures

Performance indicators

Key performance results:

Key performance outcomes

Key performance indicators