Getting It…
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While touring Cape Canaveral, John
F. Kennedy asked a man he met in the hall what his job was. He
answered, “Mr. President, I am helping put a man on the moon”.
The man was a janitor.
Thirty years of leading change
has taught a fundamental lesson: If everyone doesn’t get it,
the effort is doomed. In a variety of cultures, labor unions,
and ethnic diversities, resistance to change melts away when
everyone understands 1) what’s in it for them, 2) what’s
expected of them, and 3) clearly how to meet those
expectations.
Supply Chain integration operating
strategies based on Build-to-Order are challenging
organizations as greatly as J.I.T. did 30 years ago. And like
the Toyota Production System, the foundation for JIT, Lean,
and continuous improvement efforts, supply chain integration
at its core is a people centered organizational philosophy
based on collaboration.
In a previous newsletter,
collaboration was defined as the sharing of resources, tasks,
responsibilities, and goals throughout the supply chain. We
group supply chain collaboration into three categories:
Consequential, Parallel, and Strategic. Consequential relates
directly to maintaining the flow of work and parallel to
improving the performance. Strategic collaboration provides
the monitor that ensures outcome matches intent. Collaboration
is actually very straightforward to describe and exceedingly
difficult to achieve. Why is that?
Certainly trust is
an issue. Getting suppliers to work hand-in-hand with the
customer in an open and transparent relationship provides
opportunities for all kinds of negative backlash, ranging from
pricing pressures to demands inconsistent with strategic
direction. No successful collaborative effort will ever exist
without a clear “win-win” for all parties involved.
But
there’s more. For collaboration to work in a supply chain, it
must first be an integral part of YOUR organization’s culture.
Instilling it in an organization where it hasn’t existed is
problematic. It can be done but it requires compelling
focus.
To understand this point about collaboration,
let’s look at Lean. As much positive press as we’ve heard
about Lean, the fact remains that the majority of Lean and
continuous improvement iniatives don’t produce sustainable
bottom line improvements. Those initiatives that do produce
positive effects have something in common: everyone
understands the processes and their roles in the processes;
and can transfer that knowledge in a clear and focused way
throughout the organization.
Clear communication about
roles and responsibilities is one indication of a
collaborative, open organization. For a collaborative supply
chain to exist, everyone in every organization of the supply
chain needs to understand what’s expected of them, how to meet
those expectations, and what the value will be if they’re
successful.
If you want a collaborative supply chain,
make sure the janitor gets it.
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