Page 296 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

264 Chapter Nine

• Force-field analysis—group discussion of the phrase “forces push in
various directions.” This team-building and problem-solving technique
is discussed in Reference 3.
• Beware of the Peter principle—every employee tends to rise to his or
her level of incompetence.
• Single union agreement.

Principle 13. The Other Way Round
A. Invert the Action(S) Used to Solve the Problem (e.g., Instead of Cooling an
Object, Heat It)
• Bring the mountain to Mohammed, instead of bringing Mohammed to
the mountain.
• Expansion instead of contraction during recession.
• Benchmark against the worst instead of the best.
• Blame the process not the person.
• “I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly
realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn’t weird at all, and it was
the people saying they were weird that were weird”—Paul McCartney.

B. Make Movable Parts (or the External Environment) Fixed, and Fixed Parts
Movable
• Home shopping.
• Home banking.
• Park-and-ride schemes in busy cities.
• Do not make changes just because they are fashionable management fads.
• “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun”—Katherine Hepburn.

C. Turn the Object (or Process) Upside Down
• The cash-till assistant is the most important part of a retail organization.
• Computer help lines were often originally set up with relatively
no-technical staff at the front end, directing calls to progressively more
technically able staff the more complicated the problem is. Latest logic
suggests reversing this trend, i.e., place the most qualified staff as first
point of contact (e.g., IBM).
• Product-rather than function-based organization structure.
• “Ready, Fire, Aim”—Tom Peters.
• Mercedes Benz vision changed from “the best or nothing” to “the best
for our customers;” i.e., shift from internally to externally focused
vision statement.