14
EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION…
What other project . . . will deliver $12M to the bottom
line and free up $15M in cash?
line and free up $15M in cash?
When our old customers come back to us, we’ll
know we’ve been successful.
know we’ve been successful.
An opportunity to participate in a change effort
of this magnitude may come along only once in a person’s career.
of this magnitude may come along only once in a person’s career.
Integrated Business Management . . . must be led
from the top, passionately.
from the top, passionately.
The two weeks between the teams’ self-assessment and the overview education (Three-day Business Excellence Overview) couldn’t have passed more slowly for Greg. During the two weeks, there were additional product launch problems and customer service issues, but Greg could already see that the people who participated in the Capable Planning and Control Milestone Assessment were beginning to respond and work more effectively across functional boundaries. There was a noticeable effort to develop customer-focused solutions to problems instead of functionally expedient solutions.
On a previous visit, David had been impressed when he saw Roxanne taking notes in an electronic, web-based version of the Checklist, called the eList, already tailored for Cosmetics Products’ milestones. She demonstrated the tool for David and told him that, with a license, he and his Initiative Coordinator could use eList to document progress against every definition and description, and record internal assessment scoring results. Before each visit, she would then be able to review their latest status update from her office and conduct interim facilitated assessments to help them calibrate their scores. Later David explained the value of the system to Greg, and informed him that he had already purchased a license for the eList, at an insignificant cost, to enable the milestone teams to track their progress and scores.
David received notes from all the Kick-off meeting assessment teams and compiled the results on a spreadsheet, applying some judicious editing to the internal supply team’s rosy view of their planning and production operations. To create a baseline in the eList, Roxanne agreed to have the scores and notes entered into the tool. From this point on, design and milestone team members and leaders would be trained to enter their own data into the tool. David later logged into the eList, reviewed, and then printed what Roxanne had called the “Cosmetics Products Baseline,” the starting point from which all progress would be measured. The bad news was that most definitions scored between 0 and 1; the only good news, the People definitions scored 2.5, a reassuring assessment of this important organizational attribute. Cosmetics Products would need the continuing goodwill and support of its people to weather the early changes. They would need to bring along the silent majority to overcome the resistance to change that was bound to surface.
The Leadership Team used the two-week period to finalize team structures and to ensure team members could devote the time needed to support the initiative. Roxanne worked with the team to finalize the Capable Planning and Control Milestone structure and its links to the Integrated Business Management Milestone to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort. At a steering committee meeting, Roxanne asked who would be the overall Integration Leader for the initiative to coordinate the combined work of both milestone teams. David immediately replied that he had thought he would fill that role, but Roxanne challenged his conclusion. “David, this is a lot of work. Usually when we have two milestones supporting an initiative we find that one person can lead the initiative and one milestone, but no more. It’s a full-time job. You’re an executive; you still have to run the business and work on Integrated Business Management. I don’t think it’s feasible for you to take the Integration Leader role; do you, Greg?”
Greg responded. “I was thinking it would be David, but there’s no way I can lose him to a full-time position. I do need someone I can trust to get the job done. Give me a moment.” You could almost hear the gears turning as Greg mentally sifted through possibilities. Suddenly his face lit up. “Got it! The person for that job is Peter Bertrand. He fits the requirements of Initiative Leader and has the capacity to lead the Planning and Control Milestone as well. He’s the perfect candidate for the job.” Greg looked over at Matt Rutherford (VP Engineering, IS, and Product Development), who was also Pete’s boss.
“Not a chance, Greg. Peter is managing several major projects. If I pull him off those, we risk delaying some important product introductions. I can’t possibly give him up now. If that role took an hour a day it might work out, but I’m not even sure he has that much time.”
“You know as well as I, Matt, that the Integration Leader role needs to be a full-time position. Remember, too, how Roxanne cautioned us that if the person were easy to give up, he or she probably would be the wrong person to lead this work? There’s no question in my mind that Pete is exactly the right person. What do the rest of you think?” There was a little discussion, but none of it sympathetic to Matt’s concerns. They all supported Greg’s choice. Greg continued, “He has project leadership skills and some Class A experience from his last company, although that was about 10 years ago. Let me ask you two questions, Matt. What other project is anyone working on that will deliver $12M to the bottom line and free up $15M in cash? And is there anyone else in the organization who could lead that effort better than Peter?”
“You’ve got me there, Greg! Conceptually, I know you’re right, but I have to tell you that this move is really going to hurt. I can’t dump his projects onto the other project managers; they’re already working 10-hour days. I may need your agreement to hire another experienced, and I mean really experienced, project manager.”
“I’m not against hiring a project manager, Matt, but I don’t think we can afford the time it will take to hire an experienced replacement for Pete. Remember our cost of delay is about $50k per day, which means delaying Pete’s move into his new assignment will cost us big bucks. I agree that Pete’s projects are important; that’s why Pete was assigned to them. So let’s not delay their progress and use the Class A work as an excuse. We can’t afford more problems with product introductions. The only way I can see to get into the milestone work quickly and still have his projects move forward without delay is to give Pete’s projects to someone already in the organization. You must have someone who’s capable of leading those projects and is ready for promotion. When you’ve moved the appropriate people, hire a coachable, high-potential person at the starting level. You should be able to find someone with those credentials quickly, even right out of school. Forget trying to find that experienced, professional project manager who can take Pete’s place; promote someone, Matt. We need Pete in the leading the Customer Service Initiative now!”
“That’s absolutely the fastest and easiest staffing decision I’ve ever been a part of, Greg, even though it’s not exactly what I had in mind. I can’t argue with you about the difficulty of finding the right person quickly for a senior project management position. Last time I tried that, it took months and even then the person didn’t work out. The guy had all the right qualifications on paper and talked a really good game. But he didn’t work well with others and wasn’t a good leader. Those are intangibles that are sometimes hard to detect during interviews. I agree with you; we don’t have time to experiment.
“I’m going to have to sell this to Pete. What’s in it for him when this initiative is over? Have you thought about that?”
Greg responded without hesitation. “When we successfully complete these two milestones, I expect we’ll establish another milestone and push ahead. If Pete does as well as I believe he will with the Planning and Control Milestone and coordinating the Integrated Business Management Milestone, we’ll probably want him to lead the next initiative and another milestone. And a pay-grade increase at that time would be a just reward. If we continue on the entire journey to Class A Business Excellence, we’ll be at it may be five years or more, according to Roxanne. When we complete the journey, I don’t think we’ll have any issue with Pete’s next assignment. Our business will be expanding so there will be plenty of room and some choice assignments available to him. If we’re as successful as we think we will be, we’ll be promoting lots of people—including Pete. If we aren’t successful, Pete will probably get your job because you and I will be history!”
A wry grin crossed Matt’s face. “You know, Greg, I’ve always been confident, at least on an intellectual level, that we would be successful in this Class A work, but I have to tell you that on a gut level I had some concerns. I wasn’t absolutely confident about our commitment to do what it takes to transform the culture of this organization. You just eliminated most of my concerns about commitment with that staffing decision. It’s always taken us months to make a decision like that. It’s just like they say with the ham and egg breakfast: the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. Never thought of myself as the pig before, but I am now. Guess giving up Pete makes me committed!
“I’ll talk with Pete first and then the rest of my staff about freeing him up, rearranging assignments and hiring a new person. We’ll have all the bases covered by the end of the week, somehow. I’ll review all the projects again and talk with you about postponing or even dropping some of the lesser projects. We’ll minimize the impact. I’m thinking that this change might really get the development group energized again. It’s been a long time since we’ve promoted someone and brought new blood into the group. It’ll also send an unmistakable message that we are dead serious about improving customer service. I’m getting more excited about the work just thinking about it!”
Greg turned to Alexandra and said, “Now about the Integrated Business Management Milestone Leader.”
Alexandra was way ahead of him. As soon as the conversation began, she knew where it was headed. No use trying to fight a losing battle. “I think that Bart Billings would be the perfect candidate for that.” She had already made plans for his replacement anticipating that Bart would be consumed full time for several months.
Greg turned to David, “Talk to Roxanne and get Pete and Bart into the earliest public ‘Business Excellence for Executives’ course. We need to get them up to speed quickly.”
“I agree with your intentions, Greg, but we need them in our own Business Excellence Overview three-day course and the workshops to follow as their top priority. They can pick up the executive course later.” Greg agreed with that. Matt excused himself as he now had some personnel matters that needed his urgent attention!
Greg was thinking about the work ahead. The Integrated Business Management Milestone work would begin with a two-day Integrated Business Management in Practice course for the managers participating in the process, either in the preparation steps or through the monthly cycle of meetings. The would need two separate classes of about 20 participants each. There were five separate reviews (Product Management, Demand, Supply, Integrated Reconciliation, and Management Business) in the process. Each would need a small team to translate the concepts learned in the course into a process designed specifically for Cosmetics Products. The Product, Demand, and Supply Review work overlapped to a degree with the Planning and Control Milestone teams’ work. The combination would deliver the integrated Customer Service solution. It had been difficult to set the course dates, but with few exceptions everyone adjusted their calendars in order to attend. The course would be followed a week later by four facilitated one-day design workshops led by Roxanne.
Roxanne’s voice brought Greg back to the present. “From what I’ve heard about Peter and Bart, they sound like a good choices. I’ll need to spend some time with them before the first initiative and milestone team meetings.” Greg agreed and soon brought meeting to an end.
Greg wanted to add his personal encouragement and communicate his expectations to the milestone and process design teams as soon as possible. Although he would have preferred it, time constraints prohibited a face-to-face meeting. Instead, he sent an e-mail to all team leaders and to the people who would be doing the design work:
We are now entering the education and process design phase of our Customer Service Initiative. Collectively, you and we on the Leadership Team, have a great deal of work to do to improve our processes, to improve our customer service and to lead Cosmetics Products toward our ultimate goal of Class A Business Excellence. I know that together we will create a much brighter future for our company. One of our primary objectives is to overcome the resistance to change that we’ll encounter throughout the organization and even within ourselves. I suggest you use the milestone baseline scores, and notes posted on our intranet <cp.csp/baseline> to help make your case with others. We’re asking you—actually we’re asking all of us—to become champions of change; to be inventors, creators, problem-solvers, teachers, facilitators, subject matter experts, entrepreneurs, and agents of change in this effort. At the same time, we’re asking you to continue carrying out your responsibilities back in your home organizations. That’s a tall order, as I know from my own involvement; but it can also be a rewarding one. I’m also asking you to consider putting many minor projects on the back burner for a year or so to free up people’s time for the Customer Service Initiative. Let David Simpson have a list of projects that will be delayed, and projects that you believe should continue. David will help with priorities if necessary. We are asking you to help us transform Cosmetics Products into a preferred supplier to our customers, those same customers we’ve been losing recently. When our old customers come back to us, we’ll know we’ve been successful. An opportunity to participate in a change effort of this magnitude may come along only once in a person’s career. It will be a challenging and an exciting time for all of us as we continue our journey to business excellence.
Greg Sanders,
President, Cosmetics Products Division
President, Cosmetics Products Division
Peter Bertrand, now in his Integration Leader role, had invited the leaders of the milestone and process design teams to the first Executive Steering Committee meeting at Greg’s request. “I know you’ve all seen the announcement, but I want to introduce Peter Bertrand officially as our Integration Leader for our Customer Service Initiative. On behalf of the Leadership Team, I want to thank Peter publicly for accepting this important role—and also to thank our VP of Engineering, Matt Rutherford, for jumping through hoops to free up Peter for this assignment. Peter is, from today forward, a member of the Steering Committee for this work, and he will also lead the Capable Planning and Control Milestone Team.” Turning to his new Integration Leader, Greg said, “I’m counting on you, Peter, to keep us moving and on schedule.”
He then turned to Bart and said, “I also want to introduce Bart Billings as our Integrated Business Management Milestone leader.”
“You’ve undoubtedly noticed that Susan Barnett, our CEO, is also here for the start of this meeting. Welcome, Susan.” They were impressed that she’d taken the time to attend the meeting and offer words of support.
“Thanks for the welcome, Greg, but I should be welcoming all of you to this effort. Your work will make a huge difference to Cosmetics Products and to Amalgamated.” Susan reinforced the business situation and the urgent need to improve customer service. She explained to everyone how success with the first milestones would improve customer service and bottom-line business results, begin to meet the expectations of the Board and shareholders, and improve the quality of life for everyone in Cosmetics Products. Susan used a set of talking points that Greg prepared for her, but elaborated on them in a way that demonstrated her commitment and passion for excellence in managing the business. Her remarks reflected an inherent understanding of the concepts and principles described in the Class A Checklist. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that improving Cosmetics Products’ customer service was important to Susan, and that she had a solid grasp of the significant challenge ahead.
Susan commented specifically about her team and its own education. “In fact, I am so interested in your Customer Service Initiative and what it can mean to Amalgamated that I’ve scheduled Roxanne to provide some education for Amalgamated’s Executive Management team. I want them to understand what you’re doing so they can be as supportive as possible. Even more important, I’m hoping they catch the excellence fever to the same degree as Greg.”
Susan took a few questions primarily about the Board’s support and management’s willingness to change. She also dealt with some questions and concerns about the amount of time people on the process design teams would need away from their primary jobs to accomplish this additional work. Susan acknowledged the additional workload that would be placed on all team members. She assured everyone that Greg and Zachary Zellers, VP of Human Resources, had already spoken to her about adding the new responsibilities to their job descriptions and personal goals. She also assured them that they would be rewarded appropriately for success, as would their customers and the entire company. She then deferred to Greg, thanked the group, and left the meeting.
“Pete and Bart are the only people currently assigned to a full-time role in this work. Some of you might have full-time responsibilities for a short period to complete a critical portion of the design, but then you’ll return to your regular work. We’ll do this from time to time to get those critical tasks completed quickly. Pete will oversee the integration of both milestones. Okay, let’s move on. Time is money; this Class A journey is making that very clear to us. Now, David, please continue.”
“Thanks, Greg. Pete and Bart will attend all executive Steering Committee meetings for the overall Initiative, and I will try to attend at least one in four of your Planning and Control Milestone team meetings so that we hardwire our communications. Alexandra will do the same with the Integrated Business Management Milestone meetings. Please note that Pete, as the Integration Leader, is the primary contact for all of us and will schedule and facilitate Effective Management visits. Each of the plants also has a local Integration Leader, working under Pete’s guidance. They can also arrange the details of coaches’ visits to the plants, through Pete, and coordinate the efforts of the plant business process design teams. They will keep plant teams focused and on schedule, while Pete will coordinate their efforts as well as the overall efforts of all teams and coaches. Pete will also manage education and project activities, keeping them moving and on track when the coaches are not on site.
“He’s the key person for tracking costs against budget, benefits against commitments, with help from Finance and Accounting, of course, and for establishing a method of communicating progress. He’ll facilitate the monthly executive Steering Committee meetings. He and Bart will lead respectively their weekly milestone team meetings, and coordinate the schedule of weekly business process design meetings.
“Finally, as Initiative Integration Leader, Pete is responsible for making recommendations to the Steering Committee for budget and organization changes and, as a last resort, for changes to milestone schedules. Now, does anyone not understand why Pete’s job is a full-time role?” There was laughter in the room and a few good-natured jibes directed at Pete.
“Both milestone teams will meet at least weekly, as will the business process design teams, at least until their designs are completed. The milestone teams will monitor progress against project plans, design and formalize all business processes associated with their milestone, and ensure their work is supporting all the design teams engaged in their milestone. Integration of all efforts so they fit together properly is key to our success. The milestone teams will oversee the cut-over to the new processes, develop and track essential measures, and track achievement of committed bottom-line business benefits.
“Occasionally, a design team may need to charter a spin-off task team to wrestle with specific questions or problems and to bring back their recommendations. As design teams incorporate those teams’ recommendations into new procedures, we’ll need to finalize, document and approve the procedures, and have all affected groups agree to follow them. Getting people to agree to change may be a challenge. And that’s one of the Steering Committee’s responsibilities—to support you. Pete, want to say a few words?”
“Thanks David. First I want to thank you for putting so much trust in me; I’ll not let you down. I’m in catch-up mode at the moment, but already see the need and logic behind the Customer Service Initiative. I’ve spent a day with Roxanne, so I’m getting up to speed on the next three steps. Let’s say they’re education, education, education.” This brought a few smiles from the group.
“Following the team’s education, we’ll go through the detail assessment process to re-establish our baseline from a more enlightened perspective. It’ll help us focus on the gaps we’re going to be working on closing. Then I’ll be driving the team to create what we’ll call the Cosmetics Products Planning Spine, the core of Capable Planning and Control. I’ve already e-mailed my milestone team a schedule covering the next few weeks, as has Bart; We’re asking people to make sure our meetings take priority over other events. If there are any problems, bring them to me and I’ll try to clear the way. I’ve also included a team list giving everyone’s contact details.
“At the top of your schedule are the Business Excellence Overview course dates. We’ll be running this twice, so you’ll have some schedule flexibility, but attendance is mandatory. As process design team leaders, I’m asking you to have as many of your team members as possible attend with you. By the end of the week, we’ll have our own ‘war room’ assigned with all the space and technology we’ll need to work together away from our regular jobs. David, I don’t know how you did it, but I’ve never seen such quick response from the facilities group.”
“Unless there are any more points . . .” Greg looked around “. . . we’ll end there. Thanks, everyone. This is going to get exciting very soon. I can smell it in the air.”
Roxanne arrived the following Monday to present the first of the two Integrated Business Management courses to be run in the Atlanta Marketing Headquarters auditorium for the Integrated Business Management Milestone team. As planned, half the Leadership Team attended the first class; the other half attended the second class on Thursday and Friday. Peter and David arranged to be in the first class. The day between classes gave Roxanne an opportunity to coach Peter and Bart on the structure of the two milestones and to explain the templates to be used as the basis for their project planning, or program planning as Roxanne described it. Roxanne’s personal coaching also alerted Peter and Bart to some common problems, such as the manager who behaves supportively in public, but who resists behind the scenes, or just doesn’t get anything accomplished because of a reportedly “heavy workload,” a major issue for many implementations.
Greg attended the first two-day course; Alexandra attended both courses in order that the two key players in setting up Integrated Business Management could have maximum exposure to the comments and concerns of the other executives, process owners’ managers, and other key functional area leaders. Greg wanted attendance to be as inclusive as possible to help create a critical mass.
Roxanne led the participants through an agenda beginning with a high-level perspective of business excellence, through the key concepts, elements, and processes of Integrated Business Management, to the details of the monthly executive Management Business Review. The course took the attendees from concepts, the “what needs to be done and why,” to the application of the concepts in Cosmetics Products, the “how to do it” in practice. The interaction among all present was lively and addressed many concerns and misunderstandings. Greg noted that he, Sharon, Alexandra, and David would have to agree early on who would fill the various process steps’ coordinator/facilitator roles: Product Review Coordinator; Demand Manager; Supply Planning Manager; and Integrated Business Management Process Leader—this latter role includes Integrated Reconciliation and facilitating the Management Business Review. While it was clear that Greg would own and chair the Management Business Review, the other roles were less clear. They learned that Marketing had overall responsibility for Demand, as expected, but also for Product Management. This started a discussion about where Product Development, currently under Engineering, should fit in the process. Roxanne suggested they take that question offline as a design team issue that she would facilitate. She pointed out that Cosmetics Products did not currently have the Product Manager role properly defined, a subject for design consideration. Matt looked uncomfortable and said he’d make sure he was well represented in that discussion. Reluctantly they agreed to postpone that debate.
After some off-line discussion, the Integrated Business Management Process Leader role was assigned to Bart Billings. This role included responsibility for coordination and facilitation of the monthly Management Business Review, the final decision-making step in the monthly process. Roxanne wrapped up the course with an explanation of the organization for design and implementation of the new process.
During the following week, Effective Management ran the first of four three-day Business Excellence Overview courses for the Planning and Control Milestone team, all those directly involved in the milestone and business process design teams, planners, and various internal experts and managers who needed to understand the broader picture of integrated business processes. This cross-functional education was an important step in breaking down internal barriers.
Peter introduced the presenter for each of the four courses. He then took a few minutes to explain the course objectives, why everyone was there, and the next steps for those on the business process design teams. Throughout the courses one or more of the executives would drop in to demonstrate their support of the teams and commitment to the changes the teams would be recommending. The presenters covered the same scope as the executives’ course but in much more depth and detail. Participants were encouraged to take copious notes for later reference. In the executives’ course, Roxanne had talked about aggregate plans driving the detailed plans; in this course, the presenters demonstrated the relationship between aggregate and detailed planning that led to scheduling and loading of orders on work locations and suppliers. They described dispatch lists, picking and shipping lists, and how reporting of actual transactions and results linked with financial reporting. There were descriptions of processes new to Cosmetics Products: Demand Planning, Demand Control, Master Supply Planning, and the use of time fences to stabilize schedules. They learned about the essential nature of data and transaction integrity and stock record accuracy. They called these records “enablers,” without which the planning spine could not operate correctly and effectively. The attendees wrote notes feverishly and safeguarded their course notebooks as if their lives depended on them. There was too much to remember; they would have to rely on their notes over the coming months.
In total, 80 people attended the Business Excellence Overview courses over the two-week period.
Between classes, Roxanne worked with Greg and Alexandra to schedule the executive team’s next tasks. The Integrated Business Management Team would go through a sequence of five one-day sequential workshops to determine how to prepare for and satisfy the needs of the Product, Demand, Supply, and Integrated Reconciliation Reviews leading up to the Management Business Review. Each of these workshops would involve, the executive responsible, his or her coordinator, and the key people who would actually prepare for that review each month. They would design a fixed day-to-day schedule of activities throughout each month to ensure a smooth flow of information from review to review. As an example, Roxanne explained that a key input needed to begin Demand Review preparation is the previous month’s sales numbers. If that process input were delayed beyond the first few days of the month, the entire Integrated Business Management cycle would be affected.
Workshop output would be the proposed schedule and procedures, details of the input data needed for each review, and the sources of that data. Greg asked, “When should we start the whole process?” He was surprised at Roxanne’s answer.
“You must start the first cycle one month after the workshops. This is a process that we call ‘Fast-Track.’ It works well when we have commitment from the executives. The clock’s ticking; your customers don’t have much patience left.”
“I need just a little reassurance about starting so soon. I can’t imagine we’ll be ready given that we’ll have had only four weeks to get ready for the first cycle.”
Roxanne thought for a moment and then replied, “Let me answer by paraphrasing what I heard from a client of mine. Integrated Business Management is the process that integrates every aspect of your business and gives you the tools to win in the marketplace. So it must be led from the top, passionately. The sooner you get started, the better. Don’t expect perfection in the first few cycles. Each month, you’ll get better and better at it. You’ll probably have incomplete data at first, but don’t give up. Improvement will come from persistence. The most important objective is to transform the executives from a committee to a team—a high-performance team focused on business, not functional, success.
“To achieve that objective, the process must have the support of Sales and Marketing. We’ve found that the process is a natural for Manufacturing, but often meets resistance from Sales and Marketing. Greg, you may have to push Sales and Marketing to really engage. As soon as they realize that this process gives them better results, you’ll see complete buy-in. The sooner you get started, the better. Those were my client’s words, not mine; but I agree completely.”
Alexandra interrupted, “I hear what you’re saying about Sales and Marketing, especially if they haven’t had any education on the process, Roxanne, but with us it’s not a problem. If any of my people resist, they will hear from me directly. We simply must work together to be successful.”
Roxanne smiled, “I stand corrected, Alexandra, and it’s encouraging to hear you say that. The benefits of that cooperation are well documented. Independent surveys show that Integrated Business Management improves results in all business key performance indicators (KPIs) and bottom line results.
“You’ll be able to see further into the future, steer the business better, ensure your strategy is deployed and know that management decisions will actually be executed. The last point is a double-edged sword. Your strategy and business decisions had better be good ones, because they will be executed, absolutely.”
Greg and Alexandra followed up with a few questions for clarification. After a brief private discussion with David, Alexandra said to Greg and Roxanne, “We’ve decided we need to get on with it. We’ll have our first cycle of meetings starting next month—that’s three weeks from now—knowing that it won’t be perfect. We’ll learn by doing. We were very impressed with your client’s advice; it was right on target for us.”
Roxanne was pleased with their determination. “I’m delighted with your decision and have a last bit of coaching for you. If you find you’re talking about the business over the next 12 weeks or so, you’ve got it wrong. The Leadership Team’s contribution lies primarily in months 4 through 24. That’s where you should spend your time. In your notebook from the last course, you’ll find a typical Management Business Review (MBR) agenda and the required attendees. We’ll help you determine your Integrated Business Management product families, which as you said, Greg, might be your product categories at this stage. David, you and your Supply Planning Manager will have to see if they make sense in terms of your supply chain requirements. If necessary, you’ll have to create a matrix that translates the Integrated Business Management families into production families in order to understand the resource implications. After two or three runs, I want you, Alexandra, to ask Bart to get your team to assess themselves against the milestone template. Remember, you have an eList license so you can record scores there and keep track of your progress. About four months from now I’d like to sit through all the reviews. I’ll put my assessment scores and comments into the eList so you can calibrate your own scoring with mine. Meanwhile, after we facilitate the design workshops, you’ll be pretty much on your own except for periodic visits or if I get a call to come in and help with an issue. I want you to realize that this is your process, not mine.”
“Let’s try it” Greg said, “I know where to find you if we need advice.”
Roxanne had previously reminded the Capable Planning and Control Milestone Team that their focus was on creating the integrated Planning Spine, from demand to suppliers. This would involve deploying robust and managed Master Supply Planning and Scheduling processes and driving integrated Material Requirements Planning (MRP), the heart of the Planning Spine, which was totally dependent upon absolute data integrity. The design teams didn’t grasp the full meaning of this statement, but soon would as they participated in their specialist education and design workshops.
Dan and Tom took charge of specialty education for the Design Teams, each course including the leader of the related milestone team. Peter attended as many of these as possible to help him understand the complete picture. Courses had been tailored as necessary based on the gaps to best practice already identified. This wave of education was to provide each design team enough education to start their design work with best practices in mind. Specialty education, a combination of lecture and application workshops, began in earnest and included:
• Product Management Team: Two-day Product Portfolio and Life-Cycle Management course, followed by a two-day workshop, covering a wide spectrum of processes including marketing as the overall driver, product and market planning, idea generation, selection and prioritization development and launch, and measures such as time-to-profit.
• Demand Management Team: Two-day Managing Demand course, followed by a two-day workshop focusing on demand management processes.
• The Supply Management Team: Education was incorporated into the executive Integrated Business Management Team’s education to ensure the links would be in place between aggregate and detail planning.
• Master Supply Planning and Scheduling, Capacity Planning, and Materials Planning Team: Three-day Supply Planning in Practice course, followed by a two-day workshop on Master Supply Planning and Scheduling, and for other planners two days on Material and Capacity Planning—thus providing the foundation of principles and practices for creating a planning spine.
• Production Operations Team: Two-day Operations Scheduling and Control course, and one-day workshop covering work location loading and job prioritization techniques, use of the official work location Production schedule (a.k.a. Work-to-List), and Production’s responsibility to meet the plan.
• Supplier Scheduling and Purchasing Team: Two-day Supplier Management course and two-day workshop dealing with day-to-day practical issues of communicating material requirements, and working with key suppliers to drive waste out of the supply chain.
• Inventory Record Accuracy Team: A two-day Sustaining Inventory Accuracy course and one-day workshop covering best practices for first establishing inventory record accuracy, and then maintaining it at levels greater than 95 percent.
• Data Integrity Team: A two-day Data Management course that included Sara Miles, VP Finance; David Simpson, VP Supply Chain and Manufacturing; Gabriella Jemison, VP Regulatory, Quality, and HSE; and Brion Smith and Savannah Richmond, Plant General Managers as participants. The key message was that top management owns data integrity and has responsibility for creating a culture to deliver and value that integrity. This would be followed by a two-day workshop for the non-executives on item, bill, routing, and purchasing master data integrity, and processes for improvement, and standards and auditing.
• Performance Measures Team: A two-day Performance Measures Overview course and workshop covering two aspects of performance measures and the metrics—what to measure and how to calculate results.
• Finance Team: The Finance Team members were spread through all the other courses so that, together, they would see how all new business processes will feed provide more accurate and timely data and information to the finance organization.
This was the most intensive education ever undertaken by Cosmetics Products, or even Amalgamated. Given the scope of the education and all the new concepts presented, Greg now understood the importance of education before design and before software training. Because he needed Cosmetics Products to capitalize on their new learning as soon as possible, he met personally with each Process Design Team leader to state his expectation that the design teams begin meeting within the next week. He wanted a quick translation of the learning into process designs.
A few weeks later, Sara entered Greg’s office with a financial report in her hand. “Greg, do you realize that with their latest invoices, we’ve already spent three quarters of our Effective Management budget?” Greg called David to his office for his perspective. “Well Greg, as Roxanne advised us, education is front-loaded. Don’t forget that the teams have already accomplished a good deal of their design work in the workshops. Now they just need to refine what they’ve accomplished and get it ready to test, document, and implement. I brought a copy of the expected spending plan to show you. As you can see, it’s not linear, and we’re right on target.” Sara and Greg expressed relief and now looked forward to designing and implementing the improved business processes.
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