WK 1 – 02 DISCUSSION “Mass Production vs Lean Enterprise"

[Mike Hincks]

Looking at the table on page 10 of Lean For Dummies, for each of the categories of Primary Business, Organizational Structure, and Operational Framework, indicate whether you think your department or group at MasterControl falls more under the “Mass Production” description or the “Lean Enterprise” description. Explain why and give examples.

Please share your thoughts on this topic by responding to this discussion posting. To do so, just select this note and click on the Reply button, then after typing your response, click Send.

Thanks!

[Ryan]

To me TS screams Lean Enterprise because we are the face of MasterControl(by Jon Beckstrand), we highlight defects, educate customers on operator errors, and sometimes teach people about their organizational deficiencies in helping them better map out, roles, job codes, etc. We also definitely do problem solving and hypothesizing in an effort to resolve customer issues.

[estolberg]

Primary Business Strategy
TS is very customer-focused instead of being product-centric, thus falls into the Lean Enterprise category. Each issue that comes in gets its own customized solution per each customer.

Organizational Structure
TS falls somewhere in between MP and LE for this category in my mind. Yes, individuals are able to flow information about defects, etc. to appropriate individuals, but we have a hierarchical structure with somewhat functional alignments.

Operational Framework
TS falls into the LE category due to our significant 'problem identification, hypothesis generation, and experimentation' in day-to-day operations.

[David Healey]

Overall, TS seems to have leaned out quite a bit over the past several months from training new hires to procedure.  There seems to be ways we still training, troubleshooting and resolution procedures we have yet to modify to make us a more Lean Enterprise company.  
Examples:

A procedure change that may help new hires could be getting on the phones a week or two earlier than taking the sysadmin training.  This way they could have an idea of what kinds of questions come up on the phones as well as the overall feel and attitude of the customers in general on the phones, thus making sysadmin training more effective to the TSE trainee.

Coming from holding previous position in a tech support call center at a business that utilized a manned call filtering system (operator), I feel that using an operator is a major advantage.  Having all calls fielded through a customer service rep before coming to us would be helpful due to the need of weeding out calls that would would be best taken by specific people.  Not to mention the time we would save the customer in getting right to their specific issue.  This would be an even bigger help cause the CS rep. would be able to briefly assess the issue, create a case, and transfer/warm transfer that customer to us allowing us to hit the ground running with the customers case.  This would not only shave some waiting time off the customer's call, but it would help use be better at keeping track of all cases, thus making the customer even more of a #1 priority/focus.

[bmiller]

From what I have seen, We are more Lean Enterprise than anywhere I have ever worked before.  In our department we rely on the initiative of each individual, and expect each individual to contribute to the flow and access of knowledge.  I have also noticed areas of improvement where we are still leaning toward the Mass Production side of things where there is less standardization in case management.  I do not see this as a negative thing, but may not be the most efficient way of handling cases.

[Mike Hincks]

Good post Erik.  I was torn about Primary Business Strategy.  Ultimately, it is our job to make the product better, either through submitting bugs to development, training opportunity gaps to Sales, forms consulting gaps to Professional Services, or product enhancements to PM.  I think the category we end up in depends on how we do this.  At times we as a company have let winning a small market drive our product design rather than the customer's voice.  I ended up putting this one on the Lean side as well for support because the customer is always at the root of our primary business.  

For Organizational Structure I hope most of the team feels that we fall more on the Lean Enterprise side.  One thing I feel strongly about is encouraging individual initiative giving everyone on the team opportunity to be a part of the creation process rather than enforcing rule following.  

We define our operational framework by a set of core values, the most important of which is customer success.  We are on the Lean side here.  

[Mike Hincks]

I agree Ryan, overall we are already Lean.  Now we just have to figure out what that means and apply it :) 

[Mike Hincks]

Good points David.  Be sure to get your suggestion to Sam about the SYSADMIN training.  We have already spoken about the CSR option and you bring up some good advantages for it's implementation.  I know the model works on a larger scale, we just need to research our market and whether it will work with a company our size, fielding the type of calls that we do.  Lean will be critical here as we assess solutions and try and determine if they are scalable and sustainable.  

[Mike Hincks]

We have a lot of work to do Bryce, you are right there.  At least we have the correct order down.  We can all be a part of Leaning out the rest of our operations, rather than figuring out the power of individual contribution at the end of a Lean journey.  

[Jared Allen]

I see TS as being on the Lean side in all three categories.  We are customer-focused, driven by individual initiative, we identify defects and problems, and are constantly experimenting and generating hypotheses.

[adecaria]

I think MasterControl definitely looks more like a LE when you're looking at the two extremes of this table.  The key is to identify where our LE starts to break down and drift over to the MP side.  Organizational structure in particular is where I see the most drift.  Some of our tools and inter-departmental dynamics prevent us from getting the most out of our individual efforts to identify and document the deficiencies in our product.

On Friday, August 17, 2012 4:38:51 PM UTC-6, Mike Hincks wrote:

[Mike Hincks]

Adam, the tools should be easy to resolve.  We just need to identify what tools are slowing us down, and which ones can be replaced, and what they can be replaced by.  Do you have some examples here?  The cross functional Kaizen's are a great way to work through the departmental issues.  

[ajones]

I agree with this statement, I do believe that we are more on the lean side in our group.  We are highly customer focused, we have a array of tools to use, we are the drive force in problem solving at MasterControl.  We also have a good start to organizational structure, but this is an area that I feel we can make some big impact in and improve. 

On Tuesday, August 28, 2012 12:35:41 PM UTC-6, adecaria wrote:

[adecaria]

One example would be the use of Bugzilla.  There's got to be more functionality that we either aren't employing or aren't trained on effectively that can help make us more effective at improving the software for customers.  Colby spent quite a bit of time lecturing Erik and I on the importance of helping them implement improvements instead of just focusing on fixing our customers immediate issue.  We might not have to change tools but just learn how to better utilize the ones we have.

[emcginty]

Between Primary Business and Organizational structure I feel we are on a strong Lean side. However on the operational framework side, I feel that we have a lot of improvements to make. There is not a defined process with a lot of the issues we run into and it makes the problem solving difficult at times. Contributing to the KB from all members of our team would greatly improve the problem solving process. 

On Friday, August 17, 2012 4:38:51 PM UTC-6, Mike Hincks wrote:

[Chanse]

Definitely Lean Enterprise.  We are very customer focused since we are the first call they make when an issue arises and they depend on us to help solve the issue.  Our work in identifying the problem and finding and testing solutions defines what TS is all about at MasterControl.

On Friday, August 17, 2012 4:38:51 PM UTC-6, Mike Hincks wrote:

[Tyler Nelson]

I too would agree that in the install team we are more sided toward Lean Enterprise.  Everything that we do is customer driven and focused.  We in general are an "on demand" type shop.  That isn't to say that we don't schedule our days/time but we respond directly to the need of the customer.  We also have the tools available to us to tackle the problems that present themselves in the install process.  

[lgleason]

Primary Business- Lean Enterprise/Mass Production: I believe the installation team and the company fall into both categories. We are very customer focused and will often go above and beyond to accommodate the needs of our customers. With that said, I think some of our processes are more product focused and less customer friendly.

Organizational Structure-Lean Enterprise: I believe the installation team and MasterControl encourage individual initiative and the flow of information. There are areas of communication that could be greatly improved, but the flexible structures for value creation are in place.

Operational Framework-Lean Enterprise: The installation team and MasterControl have a culture that encourages employees to identify problems and empowers them to develop solutions. Although I believe my department has a Lean operational framework, processes could improve to identify a resolution faster and be less dependent on feedback from multiple sources. 

[csimpson]

Primary Business Strategy

TS is most definitely a Customer centric department. We are only here because of their needs and it is our responsibility to fill those needs.
Organizational Structure

We exhibit many of the attributes of a Lean Organization. However, I think that we could encourage more individual initiative. I feel we are doing well but we can be great.
Operational Framework
For the most part I feel we are a Lean enterprise in the matter but we could improve application of tools that assume standardized work. It is hard to improve this with our product being proprietary but I think we could streamline the use of our tools.

[jlongsjo]

Primary Business Strategy

We are definitely on the Lean Enterprise side here - we focus on solving the customers' problems and their satisfaction is our ultimate goal.

Organizational structure

For having only been here a short time, I can see that we are very much on the Lean Enterprise side here. I have been brough into the decision making process and it seems that my opinion counts. Each individual is depended upon for their strengths and encouraged to share them.
Operational Framework
Our operational framework falls into Lean Enterprise as well - We empoy problem-solving skills in our daily work.

On Friday, August 17, 2012 4:38:51 PM UTC-6, Mike Hincks wrote: