This approach was championed by W. Edwards Deming who was responsible for the “quality management” philiosophy in Japan. He taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organisations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces.
Systems Thinking is about seeing the organisation in a holistic way, approaching it as a complex and interlinked organism - if you change one part there will be consequences in other areas.
This approach differs from command and control, arbitary target driven performance, short-term reward & benefits schemes and fragmented organisational design based on silos. These approach have taken us to the edge of chaos in the West and it is time to organize and be different!
We believe in setting objectives and targets when they have been properly thought through: encouraging collaboration across teams and aligned to the overall organisational direction. Much time effort and energy is wasted in organisations when one team meeting their target is in conflict with another area meeting theirs. Overall there is a massive hidden cost to the system!
Deming’s principles are all about
- Purpose and Alignment: having constancy of purpose in continually improving products and service to stay in business and provide jobs.
- Leadership and Management: Making leaders lead and let managers give people and machines, gadgets and support to do a better job.
- Focus on continuous improvement to give better quality product and service (right first time), lower costs and happier people.
- Building in quality to the process, product and service so lots of checking, correcting and inspection is not needed
- Supply Chain Management : Stop going for cheapest price and go for overall value, build long-term relationships on trust and loyalty
- Training & Development : train people on the job and eliminate things that get in the way of doing a good job (e.g. like random exhortations to “do better”, competing priorities, hitting artibitary targets which are 10% less/more than last quarter and short-term bonuses)
- Drive out fear & threat, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
- Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee operational and customer problems in production and in use
- Dealing with under-performance - Look at the system of work and environment as the place to solve quality and under performance rather than just assuming it is the individual. Is the work environment detrimental to people doing a good job?
- Allow people to take pride in their work and be empowered to do a good job. Ensure the system supports them in doing this!
- Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.
Working with Together People will give you skills and different ways of looking at the issues, constraints and challenges of your business to be able to move forward in a different way. Examples areas covered by Together People are:
Performance Management
The processes that organisations put in place to attempt to “manage” or “control” their people’s performance are important to the success of the business. Some will support people in their desire to do good work. Together People has experience of working with different organisations to look at the processes and systems that are used and work to improve them. A key part is the skills which leaders and managers need in today’s organisations. Coaching and training are important parts of the success to ensure that whatever process you use is consistently applied but that individuals and teams are recognised for their contribution to your success.
Customer- led Process Improvement
When you're not hitting your targets, working to improve the processes that deliver those targets is vital. Together People has wide experience, using a variety of tools, of analysing and improving process in a systemic way - with a particular emphasis on involving the customer. As W. Edwards Deming himself said “The tools used are crucial but unimportant.” - the tools are only part of the answer. Equally important are the relationships that underpin your processes.
Together People can help you implement Systems Thinking to improve your processes and keep them focused on the customer. If you would like to know more - click here to drop us a line. Please put "Systems Thinking" in the Subject line. We look forward to hearing from you.
To find out more about Systems Thinking at http://www.in2in.org/ or go to the Deming Forum at : http://www.deming.org.uk/.