Page 308 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

276 Chapter Nine

service by having the single customer service agent have all the necessary
data easily available, so the customer only deals with the single, flexible
“shell” of the organization not the whole bulky volume.
• Card transactions instead of money—e.g., vending machines in companies
use employee ID card and charges are debited direct from salary.
• Cardboard police—two-dimensional policemen or police cars over
freeway bridges are used as a means of slowing down traffic.
• Inflatable passenger for lone drivers out late at night.

B. Isolate the Object from the External Environment Using Flexible Shells
and Thin Films
• Office workers in open areas can use flexible curtains to shut themselves
off from the visual chaos of the open area when they need to concentrate
rather than communicate.
• Use trade-secret methods to separate company proprietary knowledge
from general knowledge.
• Umbrella organizations.
• “We like to delegate and leave people as free as possible, so we try to
push management decisions down the line. We run Rolls-Royce with a
very thin corporate structure”—Lord Tombs of Brailes, ex-chairman of
Rolls-Royce.

Principle 31. Holes
A. Add Holes to a System or Object

• Think of the customer-facing layers of a company as a porous membrane
that filters information flow both into and out of the organization.
• Improve internal communications by creating an Intranet that is accessible
by all hierarchical layers, giving workers access to the CEO and vice versa.
• Trickle-down economics.
• Government leaks—used as a way of gauging public reaction to
(usually) controversial issues.

B. If a System or Object Already has Holes, Use the Pores to Introduce
a Useful Substance or Function
• Empower the customer-facing layer (information is the thing that fills
the pores—see inventive business principle 30A).
• Use mind maps, self-patterning capabilities, etc., to improve the
information and knowledge intake and filtering abilities of the brain.
• Media relations department turns spin doctor and/or marketing feedback
gatherer.