The basic idea behind continuous process improvement is not difficult. It’s the idea of a cycle – defining the problem, investigating, determining actions to improve, implementing those actions, and then looking again to see if there has been improvement. It’s the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle of Shewhart and Deming. Or the DMAIC cycle of Six Sigma. It’s a proven approach to continually improving. But it takes time and effort. It takes determination. And it can easily be derailed by those who say “Just get on with it!” Much better to be rushing into implementation to show how you are someone of action rather than someone who suffers from “paralysis by analysis.” But a greater danger is to move into actions without taking time to analyse properly – or even to define the problem. It looks great because you’re taking action. But what if your actions make things worse?
Let’s take the example of HS2 in the UK. This is the UK’s second high-speed railway line. The cost is enormous and keeps going up. Building is underway and billions have been spent already. The debate continues as to whether it is worth all the money. During one of the many consultations, in 2011, I wrote to give my perspective. I had read the proposal and was shocked to see there was no problem defined. Here was an expensive solution without a clear definition of the problem it was designed to resolve. It talked about trains being overcrowded currently. If that was the problem, then was this the best solution? I suggested they take that problem and drill down some more – when are the trains crowded? Where? Why? And so on. Then see if they could come up with solutions. Preferably ones that don’t cost tens of billions. If they are overcrowded during commuting times, I suggested that perhaps people could be given a tax incentive to work from home. Which would have the added advantage of being better for the environment.
Of course, since then, we’ve had the pandemic. And many have been working from home. Trains have not been overcrowded. And many have found they rather like working from home. So while the case for HS2 was flimsy 10 years ago, it’s become transparently thin since then. And because they didn’t spend time defining the problem or analysing it, there is no obvious route to go back and re-evaluate the decision. Given the change of circumstances, is it still the right thing to do? We can’t answer because we don’t know the problem it is trying to solve.
I do find it odd that so many organisations (governments included) rush into implementing changes without taking time to define the problem and analyse it. I suspect motives such as vanity – “let’s implement this new, shiny thing because it’ll make me look good”, and wanting to be seen as someone of action. Interesting that Taiichi Ohno, creator of the Toyota Production System, and Lean, used to get graduates to spend time just watching production. Afterwards, he would ask them what they saw and if he didn’t think they had observed enough he would get them to watch some more. Better to pause, observe, reflect, analyse than to go straight into actions that might actually make things worse.
For process improvement, make sure you understand the problem you’re trying to solve. Solving the wrong problem can be costly and wasteful!
Text: © 2021 Dorricott MPI Ltd. All rights reserved.
Picture: pxhere.com