-
Specific approved changes
that are clearly identified
as the differences between the detailed work-steps on an “As-is” chart and
those on a “To-be” chart.
-
A team of operating people
who have developed the
recommendations and who work in the areas that are being changed.
(Note
- This differs from what is apt to be available if the Graham Methodology has
not been used in the rigor with which the specific changes are defined and
ownership on the part of the operating people.)
The
first thing needed to begin the implementation process is a change of focus for
the team. Up until now they have been
engaged in research type work. They
have studied facts, questioned them and entertained all sorts of possibilities. Now it is time to stop questioning and start
doing.
The Change from Research to Implementation
Research Skills
The
skills that have sustained the team effort have been research skills.
-
Organizing the facts of a process with
charts. (Usually done by a trained
coordinator.)
-
Studying the charts to become
familiar with the workflow.
-
Questioning the process to determine
where it makes good sense and where it doesn’t.
-
Eliminating portions of the process and rearranging what remains.
-
Recharting the process to reflect the
new ideas. (Also done by the
coordinator.)
-
Calculating the benefits and costs.
Once
the recommendations have been approved for installation, the study team must
put away their research skills. It is
time to implement and planning must give way to doing. If they persist in using the research skills
that got them this far, "Paralysis
of Analysis" will set in and the window of opportunity that was
created by the study will pass by without action. The team needs to “get off the dime” and do what they have
figured out.
The Difficulty of
Switching out of Research
Too
often teams persist in a research mode even after their recommendations have
been approved. Sometimes they persist
for political reasons, fearing that
they will not get the cooperation they need or, worse yet, that their efforts
will be sabotaged. These political
concerns may be legitimate but since the changes have been approved, the way to
deal with them is to forge ahead. Much
of the negative impact of politics occurs because decent people feel
intimidated and back off. If there are
people who would like to see the effort fail, make them stop it out in the open
and don’t simply stop for them.
Perhaps
more often teams are reluctant to move into implementation out of fear that
their ideas won’t work, that they
have overlooked some important detail, that they will be embarrassed, that they
need more time. It helps to accept the
fact that nothing is perfect. The
processes are not perfect now and will not be perfect after the implementation but
they will be better. They will be much
better and the sooner they get installed the sooner the benefits can be
realized. That is what continuous
improvement and progress are all about.
And,
sometimes the teams are simply reluctant to switch out of the comfortable,
private, introvert activities of research where all they have to do is think
about it and switch into the gutsy, public, extrovert activities of doing
it. Regardless of the reasons, the time
for action has arrived and it is up to the team to bolster up the courage to
get on with it.
Who Should Manage Implementation
Should
Implementation be done by Someone who did not do the Research?
Since
it is often hard for people doing a study to let go of it, what about taking it
out of their hands and giving it to someone who was not involved in the
research. This has advantages and
disadvantages. The principal advantage
is that changing the leader clearly puts an end to the period of research. The new leader enters with a clear
assignment to implement. The principal
disadvantage is that this change may undermine the team’s sense of
ownership. To offset this, keep the
team members involved in the implementation even if the leadership
changes.
Regardless
of who heads up the implementation, detailed adjustments will be required. People who thoroughly grasp the logic of the
newly designed processes should be involved in these adjustments. We can assure this by keeping the ownership
in the hands of the people who figured out the new process. It is easier to teach operating people how
to manage their implementation than it is to pass on their years of operating
experience to someone else.
By
keeping operating people involved in the activities of improvement, the Graham
Process Improvement Methodology develops skills in people throughout an
organization so that they can continuously improve. This assures that the resources for improvement will be available
where they are needed and helps to create an organization that is responsive
and flexible, an organization that is alive.
And, it is self-sustaining, energized by the enthusiasm and pride of the
people.
The Steps to Manage Implementation
1. Assign the
Implementation Leader
The
first thing needed to get the implementation started is to assign one person to
lead it. The criteria used to select
the team leader at the start of the project are appropriate. These are:
-
Relevant
experience that is central to the process being studied.
-
The
respect of the other team members.
Often
the project team leader becomes the implementation leader.
Management
considers and approves this assignment at the close of the proposal
meeting. In making this assignment it
should be understood that:
-
Whereas
the team leader role was part time, requiring only a few hours a week, the
implementation leader role is apt to be closer to full time. This may affect the choice of the person or
lead to that person being temporarily detailed out of his or her regular
assignment.
-
The
implementation leader may receive considerable staff support from the
coordinator who supplied the process charts and helped guide the project
through the approval stage.
2. Prepare an
Activities Check List
The actual work of implementation
begins with a form called “Activities Check List for Implementation”. (See Figure 1) The team members complete this form, thinking through the work
that will be required to accomplish each of their recommendations. They can usually complete this form in a few
minutes because they are so familiar with the project.
FIGURE 1
To
complete this form the project team first lists the approved recommendations
down the left side. Then they think
through each recommendation considering what tasks will be required. Each time they spot a task they put a check
mark in the appropriate column. For
instance:
-
Forms - If a recommendation will
require any new forms or changes to existing forms (converting a paper form to
an electronic form, changing a caption on a form, etc.), a check mark is placed
in the forms column for that recommendation.
-
Equipment - If there will be any new
equipment required or changes to existing equipment (installing a bar coding
reader, increasing computer memory, etc.), a check mark is placed in the
equipment column.
-
Training - The check marks in the
training column are preprinted to encourage the team to think carefully about
who will need to be informed. Much of
the training will not require formal classroom effort. Often little more than a phone call is
required, but that phone call may be very important. Without careful attention to the needs for training,
implementation invariably takes on the quality of “muddling through”. “To
expect performance without proper advisement is ridiculous.” Confucius.
-
Policies - The column for policy
change will usually be blank, particularly when the policies of the
organization are general, as they should be, and not detailed. However, when a policy requires change, it
is probably important to get started on that change right away. Changing a policy is apt to be
time-consuming, requiring publication, review, sometimes formal waiting
periods, etc.
-
Procedures - In some freewheeling
organizations the procedures column will also be rarely used. However, in organizations such as hospitals,
banks, and military where the penalties for mistakes are severe, there will be
procedures rewritten with almost every change.
-
Programming - Few process changes are
made without requiring either new software or customizing existing software.
-
Facilities or Work Place - If a recommendation will
require changes to facilities or work places such as building walls, work
station design or redesign, moving equipment, electrical installation, etc., a
check mark goes in this column.
The
checklist helps the team to discover the activities that will be required to
complete the implementation. The next
step is to convert the check marks to doable activities. To do this the team prepares an
implementation activity list.
3. Prepare an
Implementation Activities List from the Activities Check List
An
implementation activity list is prepared from the activity checklist by
answering three questions about each check mark.
1.
What
is the Activity?
2.
Who
will take responsibility to see that the activity is done?
3.
When
can we expect to see it done?
The
answers to these questions give us a manageable Activity List. Each task is described and assigned with an
expected completion date. (See Figure
2)
FIGURE 2
The
people who agree to see that the tasks are completed are usually the team
members. In most cases, they will not
actually do the tasks (i.e. design the form, write the program, etc.) but they
will contact the appropriate people and follow up to see that the tasks get
done.
4. Rechart the
“To-be” Chart to include only Approved Recommendations
The
project coordinator, who prepared the “As-is” process chart and whatever
revised process charts the team used during the study, including the “To-be”
chart, now prepares one more chart.
This is a revision of the “To-be” chart that was used to prepare the
proposal. It is adjusted, based on what
was approved at the proposal meeting.
Recommendations that have been rejected are returned to the way they
were. The team reviews this chart to
assure that it will work and it becomes the current approved process.
It will be used during the implementation to help keep track of progress
and to explain the new process as increasing numbers of operating people become
involved.
5a. Managing from
the Activity List
Managing
the implementation means seeing that all of the activities on the activity list
are accomplished. If there are only a
few activities, they can be kept track of quite easily with nothing more than
the Activity List. The implementation
leader uses this list like a “to-do” list, crossing off the items as they are completed. When the entire list is crossed off the
implementation should be up and working.
If
there are more than ten or fifteen activities on the list, it may be easier to
keep track of them if they are organized on a Gantt Chart or a Network
Chart. Both of these charts organize
the activities into sequence.
5b. Managing with
a Gantt Chart
Gantt
charting is a powerful methodology that has been around for many years. (Henry Lawrence Gantt, who developed this
methodology, died in 1916.) Gantt
Charts display activities as blocks of time against a time scale. (See Figure 3) They can be drawn by hand, usually on a piece of graph paper, or
they can be prepared with the help of software. There are numerous software packages available.
GANTT CHART for PROJECT PLANNING
FIGURE
3
Gantt
charts offer two primary advantages:
-
They
help the people who are planning the implementation to think through the
necessary sequencing of the activities ahead of time.
-
They
help the person who is managing the implementation to keep track of
progress. (Note the shading in the
paths out to the 4th and 5th weeks. The
darker area in the bottom half of some of the activity blocks represents work
that has been completed.)
5c. Managing with
a Network Chart
Compared
with Gantt charting, network charting is a newcomer, arriving in the late
1950s. It is a powerful methodology,
with most of the advantages of Gantt Charting plus more attention to
sequencing. (The one aspect of Gantt
charting that is normally lost on network charts is the visual sense of time
that comes from drawing the chart to scale.)
Network charts keep all of the activities in paths that can be easily
divided and combined and that can be connected with one another at any
time. Activities on one path that
cannot begin until activities on another path have been completed are
restrained automatically with a network chart.
In fact, network charts manage sequencing so well that the person
coordinating the implementation knows, for every day throughout the period of
the implementation, what one activity is the most critical, regardless of how
many activities there may be.
Here
is how it works. Using the arithmetic
outlined following figure 4, an expected time and a latest time are calculated
for the completion of each activity.
The differences between these times represent the amount of spare time
available at that point in the network.
There will be one path with less spare time than any other. This path is called the critical path. Since this path is a single series of
activities, there will be only one activity on it that will be happening at any
given time.
The
person managing the implementation checks, every day, the activity on the
critical path that happens to be active.
When that activity nears completion, he or she looks ahead to the next
activity to make sure that needed preparations have been made so that it can
begin. Then from time to time he or she
checks the current activities on the less critical paths to see that they are
not slipping and becoming critical. By
watching very few activities, at any given time, and making a few important
adjustments when one of those activities starts to slip, the person managing
the implementation keeps the whole thing on schedule. (See figure 4.)
FIGURE 4
