People, Processes and Risk II

Question 1

What is business process re-engineering (BPR)?

Why might it be unpopular/not useful?

Answer 1

The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business process to acheive dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed.

BPR can be unpopular as:

• It’s often accompanied by massive redundancy programs
• Focuses on processes and so can become internally focused and ignore customers
• It assumes the need to wipe the slate clean rather than tinker with an existing process
• Sometimes gradual change is a better approach

Question 2

What is the approach to business process re-engineering?

Answer 2

1. Develop the business vision and process objectives: the BPR method is driven by a business vision which implies specific business objectives such as cost or time reduction
2. Identify the business processes to be re-designed: The high impact approach focuses on the most important processes or those that conflict with the vision the most. A lesser number of firms use the exhaustive approach that attempts to identify all the processes within an organisation and then prioritise them.
3. Understand and measure the existing procedures: for a baseline
4. Identify IT levers
5. Design and build a prototype of the new process

Question 3

What are the typical characteristics of Total Quality Management (TQM)?

Answer 3

TQM encompasses a suite of creative problem solving techniques (brainstorming, Ishikawa etc.). All TQM approaches require the org to:

1. Know their business direction (mission/vision/objectives/values)
2. Know their customers
3. Know what their customers think of services/products currently supplied and to be committed to providing products/services which meet their expectations at the right cost
4. Provide good value, relative to available alternatives
5. Be committed to finding problem areas and take responsibility to resolve them
6. Be committed to pursuin TQM, especially at top management level

Question 4

What are the roles of employees in TQM?

Answer 4

Employees should feel free and confident to experiment and be fully trained to ensure they are equipped to deal with new challenges.

Question 5

What problem solving techniques can managers equip themselves with?

Answer 5

Managers can use problem-solving techniques such as:

• SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunites, Threats)
• PEST/PESTLE (Political factors, Economic factors, Social Factors, Technological + Legal, Environment) analysis
• Brainstorming and Nominal Group techniques
• Quality Circles
• Six Sigma
• Ishikawa/Fishbone/Cause and Effect diagrams
• 6 Thinking Hats

Question 6

How does one get the best results from brainstorming?

Answer 6

• No criticism
• Freewheel: allow wacky ideas
• Go for quantity
• Record
• Cross fertilise: use other people’s ideas as a springboard for your own
• Incubate: after the allotted time for generating ideas, each person should identify those ideas they find most useful. The team can then select the ideas which should be developed.
• Reverse brainstorm: if there is a lack of ideas e.g. if objective is how to improve customer satisfaction, change it to how to make customers complain

Question 7

What is the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) standard procedure?

Answer 7

Based on the idea that people get a sense of teamwork by working in groups of about 7 which motivates them

1. Anonymous generation of ideas, in writing, begins with the facilitator stating the problem and giving the participents and facilitator up to 10 minutes to write down any initial ideas privately.
2. Round-robin recording of ideas allows each person in turn to contribute by reading out one idea, which the facilitator writes up on a flip chart for all to view and numbered sequentially. All ideas are given equal standing. When someone receives another’s idea, it also acts as a check that the idea has been communicated well.
3. Serial discussion to clarify ideas and check communication is encouraged by facilitator. Working through each idea systematically asking for questions or comments with a view to developing a shared understanding of an idea.
4. Preliminary anon vote on item importance
5. Further discussion and voting takes place if voting is not consistent. Steps 3-4 can be repeated and any ideas that received votes will be re-discussed for clarification.

Question 8

What is quality circles, and what does the quality circles require?

Answer 8

A circle or group of people who meet regularly to discuss quality related work problems so that they may examine and generate solutions to these. The circle is empowered to promote and bring the quality improvements through to fruition.

1. Commitment from snr management, unit management, staff and of course the circle members
2. A team of 5-20 people, who need to participate freely together, to challenge assumptions and existing methods, examine data and explore possibilities
3. They need to be able to call in expertise and ask for training
4. The quality circle needs a budget so they can be responsible for tests and possible pilots
5. They need a skilled team leader who works as a facilitator of team efforts - not a dominator

Question 9

What is the 5-stage Six Sigma Improvement process?

Answer 9

• Define: senior management define what needs improving
• Measure: guided by black belts measures the existing process in terms of amounts of defects
• Analyse: using the data from the measure stage, the group challenges the existing process and ask why are we doing this
• Improve: all ideas generated by the team are implemented
• Control: controls are put in place to ensure that the new processes are used in the intended way and become the norm.

Question 10

How do you make an Ishikawa fishbone diagram?

Answer 10

1. Identify and define the effect (fault/problem)
2. Draw the spine of the fishbone and create the effect box (furthest right)
3. Identify the main causes leading to that effect
4. Write the main categories in cause boxes above and below the spine and connect them to the spine diagonally
5. On each branch identify other factors and add details to the fishbone
6. Analyse the diagram and circle the causes you can take action on

Question 11

Name the 6 thinking hats and what they are.

Answer 11

1. White Hat: Focus on the data available - look at the info and see what can be learnt from it. Look for gaps in knowledge and try to fill them or take account of them. E.g. analyse past trends and extrapolate from historical data.
2. Red Hat: Look at problems using ones own intuition, gut reaction and emotion and from the perspective of others. Try to understand the responses of people who don’t fully know your reasoning.
3. Black Hat: Look at all the bad points of the decision. Look at it cautiously and defensively and try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan and allows one to eliminate them, alter them or prepare contingency plans to counter them. This makes plans ‘tougher’ and more resilient. It can also help spot fatal flaws and risks before embarking on an action. This us particularly useful thinking for those successful people who tend to think mostly positively.
4. Yellow Hat: Think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps one to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. This thinking helps one to keep going despite the circumstances.
5. Green Hat: Think creatively. This is where one can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking in which there is little criticism of ideas. There are many creative tools to help here.
6. Blue Hat: Process control. Worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties as a consquence of few ideas, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking.