Page 208 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Value Engineering 179

In most cases whenever a new idea is presented to an American group, the
initial reaction is negative. The first remarks are, “It’s interesting but let
me tell you what’s wrong with it.” The best approach to this reaction is to
listen carefully. They may have some ideas you overlooked. After all
negative reaction has run out, be prepared to ask some specific positive
questions of the group that will develop positive responses. For example,
“I understand your difficulty in producing this in the plant. What do you
think we would have to do to make this practical? Do you see any changes
we might make to satisfy our methods?” This will usually work to achieve
a positive result.
Never argue. In many cases it is beneficial to solicit negative ideas, but be
prepared to develop positive questions. Our attitude is that we must begin
to ask, What’s good about this idea? How will it help us to do a better
job?

Changing people’s attitudes is difficult and may never happen, but under-
standing the reasons behind the negative reaction should make it possible to
persuade most people that they can benefit from success. Remember, there
is a risk of failure in new ideas. New ideas require change, and they may not
work. People want proof. It has to work before they will support it. However,
maybe you can show them that the benefits are greater than the risks. The
best way to change people’s attitudes is to show that top management is
interested in value engineering and expects participation and results in
achieving the stated goals.

Value Council
The value council is a small group of high-level executives who oversee
operations. In a small company, it might be chaired by the president, or in a
large company, by a division manager.

The council should be staffed with people who have the authority to make
decisions relative to acceptance and/or rejection of proposals and author-
ization of funds and work force changes. They set the attitude, develop the
environment, break bottlenecks, and by their interest and visibility create
credibility to participation and provide authority to operations.

It is important that members of the council make every effort to attend
council meetings except in cases of dire emergency. When a member is
unable to attend, he or she should authorize a key assistant to attend. If
council members’ attendance degenerates, the message sent is that they are
losing interest.