Guest Post: Five Deadly Sins of Project Management and Their Remedies

Today I am pleased to introduce a guest post by Aileen Galsim, who works for Comss, who offer Lean software for Lean Businesses.  She writes about project management mistakes and how to avoid them to be successful.

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If your business has just been awarded a project that you’ve worked hard to obtain, congratulations! It’s a great feeling to be selected over your competitors, and it can be a big step forward for your business.

But don’t go celebrating just yet. Before you can call this project a success, you actually have to complete it. And to do that, you need to make sure you avoid major mistakes that can cause a would-be successful project to become a failure. Here are five deadly sins of project management, and the remedies that will allow you to avoid them:

1.  Poor Planning (Or Lack Thereof)

Quite simply, this is the biggest and most avoidable of all the deadly property management mistakes. It’s the biggest because if you do not plan adequately, the project has almost no chance of succeeding at the highest level. And in a lot of ways it’s the most avoidable because, well, you often have the opportunity to plan ahead without having to deal with the minute-by-minute issues that a project might throw at you when you are in the midst of it. The best way to deal with this mistake is to not make it. Plan ahead… then plan some more. You obviously need to be adaptable to issues that come up during the project, but if you don’t a have both a template to adapt from and an overall strategy, you will be lost.

2.  Unrealistic Timelines

Whether you are bidding on a project for a new customer or trying to keep a current client happy, it is often tempting to provide the shortest timeline imaginable. However, committing to timelines that you cannot keep will do your company a lot more harm than good in the long run. Will saying you can complete a project in a shorter timeline than your competitors get you new work? Maybe. But once you fail to meet the deadline on your first project, it will be significantly harder to get the next one. A solution to this is to spend time getting to know the process before committing to a timeframe  You can also use project management software to come up with a realistic estimate.

3.  Micromanagement

As the boss, you can sometimes feel like if you don’t do something, it won’t be done right. But in reality, this attitude is counterproductive. Spend more time working on the overall direction of the business as opposed to babysitting each project yourself. That’s not to say that you shouldn't establish appropriate ways to assess the project at different stages, but in general your focus should be on the big picture.

4.  Using the Wrong Project Manager

This goes hand-in-hand with number three. Since you are not going to micromanage the project, you’d better make sure you assign a project manager with the appropriate skillset to make the right management decisions on a day-to-day basis.  Having a project manager you trust will allow you to focus on other things, and will ensure that the project continues to move forward efficiently and effectively.

5.  Over-extending Your Business

This is a major sin that many businesses realize but ignore. Over-extension can apply both to taking on too many projects at once, and to committing to a project that is too big for your current abilities. As a business owner, it is often very difficult to turn down work because you don’t think you can handle it. But just like with offering a timeline that’s too optimistic, if you are unrealistic about your business’s capabilities, the costs will far outweigh the benefits.

About Author: 

Aileen Galsim is a business blogger from Comss. Comss is a software company with a difference – their products are designed by business people to be used by business people. They offer Lean software applications for construction, distribution, retail and project-driven businesses.

Lean Quote: The Vital Few and Trivial Many, Doing More by Doing Less

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The Vital Few and the Trivial Many." — J.M. Juran

Quality guru J.M. Juran referred to Pareto's principle as "The Vital Few and the Trivial Many". If you are running a company the 80/20 rule has powerful implications for every area of your business.

Pareto's postulate says 20% of your effort will generate 80% of your results. There is also a corollary: 20% of your results absorb 80% or your resources or efforts.

Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of you work that is really important. Don't just "work smart", work smart on the right things.

From your long list, identify the top three to four and focus all your energy on those. When one is complete, pull another up to the top, but hold no more than four at a time. You will find that you get more done (and at a higher quality) by working on only four priorities at a time than you did when you tried to juggle ten or twelve.

The most effective leaders are those who can cut through the clutter to focus on what is most important. Anyone is a leader who can help others simplify and focus so that more of what matters is what gets done!

Production: You may find that 80% of your products or services are created by 20% of your people, 80% of your problems are fixed by 20% of your people, team, and, 80% of your problems probably come from 20% of people. All a different 20%! Wouldn't it be helpful to know which 20% is doing what?

Quality: 80% of your defects are found in 20% of your product units. Also, 80% of the defects come from 20% of the defect types. Spend lots of energy figuring out how to prevent those 20% and you've made huge gains in quality.

Of its many applications, its strongest interpretation suggests that 20 percent of actions accounts for 80 percent of results. Dr. Juran also identified, on the flip side, that 20 percent of defects accounts for 80 percent of problems.

 

Talking Lean (Episode #1, 6-14-2013)

Welcome to Episode 1 of “Talking Lean” with Jeff Hajek (Gotta Go Lean Blog) and Tim McMahon. This show is intended to be a buffet of Lean bites. Jeff and I both have a variety of features that we regularly post on our websites. Unfortunately, great content such as this can get lost in a sea of Lean noise.

This podcast is intended to cut through the clutter and give you a manageable chunk of some of our favorite recent content. If you want to dive deeper into anything that we talk about click the links at the bottom of this page.

As this is the maiden voyage of this feature, we would certainly appreciate your comments and feedback. You can either posted at the bottom of this page or email me at Tim@ALeanJourney.com.

To play the MP3 simply click the link below. If you would rather download it, right-click the link and follow the directions in your browsers pop-up window.

Enjoy the show.

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PODCAST: Talking Lean Episode #1 (6-14-2013)

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Links from the Show

• Quote of the Week (Using PDCA to Develop People)
• Run Charts (+ 9-Page PDF and Video)
• 10 Signs of a Non-Lean Manager Who Disengages the Workforce
• PDCA: Predict-Do-Check-Act?
• Lean Tips
• Lean Strategy: Leaders Abandon Lean When the Road Gets Bumpy

Advancing Quality is a Matter of Customer Focus

Paul Borawski, CEO of ASQ, asks the influential voices basically how to advance quality so it’s value is fully realized.

I pose two questions for your consideration.

• What is the most important challenge the quality community faces in ensuring that the value of quality is fully realized for the benefit of society? (I could write a book on that question.)
• And, what question does the quality community most need answered in order to advance the state of quality practice in the world?

I realize these are big questions, but then you are big thinkers. 

Over the last 40 years, the quality management discipline has undergone steady evolution from internally focused command-and-control to more proactive, customer-focused functions. The market certainly encouraged that, as economies shifted from dominance of product-based manufacturers to more heavily depend on service-based solution providers. It seems reasonable that service economies will naturally tend toward customer-focus, since much of the service involves direct customer contact. Feedback can be bitterly honest, yet also quickly addressed (compared with poor manufacturing quality).

Aspects of quality management are becoming integral to business operations; quality ratings and awards are a competition, and success is marketed as a sign of commitment to the customer; innovation is a constant refrain in business journals and even advertisement; customer surveys are endemic; data is rampant, so differentiating between real change and random variation becomes a core competency; and so on. The cost of poor quality is realized in real time as loss of market share or profitability.

The manager in today’s world must implement cost-reducing quality initiatives that increase market share in spite of competitive forces. There are two basic ways to become (or remain) competitive: achieve superior perceived quality by developing  a set of product specifications and service standards that more closely meet customer needs than competitors; and achieve superior conformance quality by being  more effective than your competitors in conforming to the appropriate product specifications and service standards. These are not mutually exclusive; excellent companies do both simultaneously.

Customer “satisfaction” does not simply happen; it is an effect. Quality is one important cause of the customer satisfaction effect, along with price, convenience, service, and a host of other variables. Generally businesses do not seek customer satisfaction as an end in itself. The presumption is that increased customer satisfaction will lead to higher revenues and higher profits, at least in the long term. To best serve customers, the successful quality program will apply specific principles, techniques, and tools to better understand and serve their firm’s royalty – the customer. The Customer is KING!

I believe the answer to both of Paul’s question lies with customer. Those organizations that are customer-focused will be the ones who fully realize the value of quality.  This practice or focus is what has advanced quality to it current encompassing approach. It is in the pursuit of satisfying the customers that future advancements will be made. However this is not easy and therein lies the challenge.

I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own. 

The Right Order of MUDA, MURA and MURI

When you ask a number of people to explain Lean Manufacturing in one sentence, most of them will answer: “eliminate waste”. The reason is that eliminating waste, or Muda is a relatively easy way of identifying the low hanging fruits for improvement in an organization. However, Muda is not the only ‘M’ Toyota has built its famous Toyota Production System around, there are two more: Mura (Variation) and Muri (Overburden).

Muda, in lean thinking, is defined as: all activities that do not add value from a customer perspective and that can be removed.

Mura is any variation leading to unbalanced situations. In short: unevenness, inconsistent, irregular. Mura exists when workflow is out of balance and workload is inconsistent and not incompliance with the standard.

Muri occurs whenever people or equipment are being overburdened or overstressed. Any activity asking unreasonable stress or effort from personnel, material or equipment creates waste.

The three M’s, Muda Mura and Muri are influenced by each other. Most organizations only focus on eliminating Muda because they can be found by using a number of tools, but also by close observations, but in Lean, if we want to take step to eliminate wastes, the order should be:

1. Mura: We have to first set up a system with no Mura, therefore, when we set up the processes, they are all following a standard Takt time, and the capacity of all the processes must first achieve a reasonable level of evenness by capacity and takt time,

2. Muri: When Mura is in place, Muri will quickly surfaced, there are areas where Muri can occurred beyond the consideration of Mura such as high defect ratio, bottle necking due to difficult operation,

3. Muda: Once the Mura and Muri had been sorted out, then it will be time to identify Muda in all the operations, material usage, defects etc.

Simply wastes are not desirable, they need to be identified and eliminated, therefore by knowing MUDA, MURA and MURI, the whole organization can take meaningful steps to eliminate wastes and hence improving cost.

To establish a lean process, the traditional system must be fundamentally changed and the right process must be established. Once the new way of working has been established, waste and variation must be systematically eliminated. The process is hence incrementally and continuously improved. In sum, establish the right process first by removing overburden. Then empower and encourage the teams to eliminate waste and unnecessary variation relentlessly.

Lean Quote: Build A Culture of Empathy

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer." — Peter Drucker

As management guru Peter Drucker said, “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.” Empathy is an important component of keeping a customer.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes and walk a mile.  It’s the ability to imagine what it might be like to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions, and experience of the other person. Empathy is more than simple sympathy, which is being able to understand and support others with compassion or sensitivity. 

Some people naturally exude empathy and have an advantage over their peers who have difficulty expressing empathy. Most leaders fall in the middle and are sometimes or somewhat empathetic. Fortunately, empathy is not a fixed trait. It can be learned. If given enough time and support, leaders can develop and enhance their empathy skills through coaching, training, or developmental opportunities and initiatives.

When empathy is not practiced within the organization—with all constituents—it’s impossible to expect it to happen with customers. It has been said, “You can’t truly love another before you learn to love yourself.” Organizations are no different. If we don’t love and respect and admire the people we work with every day, we can’t collectively give our customers the love they deserve. Empathy is an inside-out job.

Transformational leaders need empathy in order to show their followers that they care for their needs and achievement. Empathy is a powerful antenna for understanding the experiences of those around us. It helps good leaders become great leaders and is a key to business success.

Customers want to feel that we understand and appreciate their circumstances without criticism or judgment. Customers have simple expectations that we who serve them can put ourselves in their shoes, understanding what it is they came to us for in the first place.

Build a culture of empathy. Empathy is an essential component of caring about your customers, your employees, and your company, and its absence signals larger problems in organizational culture. Empathy can’t be plastered on like a fake smile, but it can be cultivated from within.

 

Book Review: Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement

Jeffrey Liker is at it again with another addition. Building upon his international bestselling Toyota Way series of books, The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement looks critically at lean deployments and identifies the root causes of why most of them fail.

The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement by Liker and Franz is a result of decades of practice trying to help companies on their operational excellence journeys. The book starts with some theory, focusing on what makes anybody excellent in anything. Then the book draws on what Dr. Deming taught Toyota about becoming excellent which it took to practice diligently with Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) at all levels of the company all the time.

The book is organized into three major sections outlining:

1. Why it is critical to go beyond implementing lean tools and, instead, build a culture of continuous improvement that connects operational excellence to business strategy
2. Case studies from seven unique industries written from the perspective of the sensei (teacher) who led the lean transformation
3. Lessons about transforming your own vision of an ideal organization into reality

The book begins with a short synopsis on the Toyota safety recall issue that has plagued the company in the last couple of years. Liker wrote a detailed account of this already in Lessons For Turning Crisis Into Opportunity. Then they go into detail using the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) methodology.  Liker and Franz contrast true PDCA thinking to that of the popular, superficial approach of copying "Lean solutions." They describe the importance of developing people and show how the Toyota Way principles support and drive continuous improvement.

The second section brings together seven case studies as told by the sensei who led the transformation efforts. The companies range from traditional manufacturers, overhaul and maintenance of submarines, nuclear fuel rod production, health care providers, pathology labs, and product development. The contributing writers' experiences, and philosophical and technical views of Lean takes the reader on a comprehensive journey beyond any superficial and limited coverage of Lean tools and processes.

The final section comprises of a composite story describing a company in its early days of Lean implementation, where the authors describe what went right and wrong during the initial implementation efforts. The authors bring to light some of the difficulties the sensei faces, such as bureaucracies, closed-minded mechanical thinking, and the challenges of developing lean coaches who can facilitate real change. The book ends with a discussion on how to make continuous improvement a way of life at your company and the role of leadership in any Lean transformation

The value in this book for me comes from the case studies that look at real people in real industries that aren't automotive along their real lean journeys. The case studies demonstrated not only what was done well but what wasn't. There were varying levels of successes in the stories, but all showed the power of developing people into problem solvers. They teach us just like at Toyota there is always opportunity to improve and learn more.

You won't read it in one setting. It’s a long book at 432 pages but it’s packed with value.  It took me almost a year to read this book because of all the information the authors distilled within its pages. This is a book you can continually refer to for advice along your own journey.

This book shows the evolution of Lean and demonstrates how anyone can adopt these principles and philosophies in their environment. The authors explain Lean is not a set of tools but rather a business philosophy around developing people as problem solvers who continuously learn and improve.

The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement is valuable reading for anyone seeking to transcend his or her tools-based approach and truly embrace a culture of continuous improvement.  It is definitely written for the practitioner with a good mix of theory and case studies. Lean enthusiasts will certainly enjoy Liker and Franz’s addition but so will anyone that wants to lead lasting improvement in their organization.

The authors were awarded the Shingo Research Award at the 24th annual Shingo Prize Awards Gala this past year. The Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award recognizes and promotes research and writing regarding new knowledge and understanding of lean and operational excellence. Awards are given in four categories: (1) books (monographs), (2) published articles, (3) case studies, and (4) applied publications/multimedia programs.

Disclosure: The publisher provided a copy of this book for the purpose of reviewing it.