Page 195 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

180 Just Promoted!

Does your supply chain help or hinder you? For example, what are the
downtimes and delays? Are parts, supplies, and other inventory available when
needed? What types of inventory controls are in place? Is the work up to qual-
ity standards? Is raw material (input) of specified quality? What percentage
does not meet specifications? Does the process make sense and result in the
expected quality? Do individual procedures make sense? Is the workforce
trained, and do workers follow procedures?
Do procedures result in the specified quality? What is the quality of the
product or output? Where are the quality breakdowns? What problems are
uncovered by quality control? What problems come back from the clients?
What kinds of problems do long-term users have? What is the reliability
record compared to other similar projects or products, or according to client
expectations?
As part of the organizational analysis, consider three approaches to col-
lecting data about work systems: interviews, observation, and data analysis.
These three approaches can be useful for you and for the work of the task force
assigned to look at this target. Through interviews with managers and, espe-
cially, with those who perform the job day to day, you can describe the work
flow functions and the tasks that make up each function. You can also inquire
about real and ideal timelines for task performance and determine the real
and ideal quality standards. This information can be compared with industry
standards or regulatory requirements.
Then try to graphically reconstruct the entire work flow, from start to fin-
ish, using documents such as reports and sign-offs from an ongoing or com-
pleted project. Compare actual dates for performance tasks against a
theoretically ideal project management timeline to determine how long tasks
actually take with how long they should take. Examine related documenta-
tion, such as correspondence, that would indicate start and stop dates and
problems; check memos and other internal communications; and review com-
mittee actions. Compare work flow at different periods of time or for similar
projects. Compare successful projects with problematic ones or failures. What
are the patterns? Where are the problems? Hire a consultant to compare your
operation against the competition or industry baselines.
Then observe the work flow yourself to the extent possible. For a produc-
tion process, observe the different tasks and compare task performance to
what you know should be happening from the expert interviews and docu-
ment review.