Page 118 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

All for One and One for All 99

had taken more than a half-hour to complete. In the same year, 3,117 orders
had to be expedited.
The team also surveyed customers to ascertain their expectations and
problems and to hear their suggestions or criticisms. This information was
then coordinated on a flow chart, which enabled the team to change the
functions of various departments.
Participants recounted instances of needless bureaucratic paper shuffling
stemming from the fact that the tracing and expediting system was managed
by various departments. When a customer called to ask for information about
the status of an order, for example, the request went from department to
department, requiring that time be spent filling out multiple tracer forms and
resulting in the frequent need to request information more than once.
The team remedied the system’s shortcomings by allowing the relevant
departments to do their own tracing with private carriers, which saved the
company thousands of dollars annually. After investigating true transit times
of orders, the team further determined that expediting was unnecessary
because regular carriers already offered customers the quickest possible transit
time. The team decided that, except in the case of a special customer request,
normal order-taking procedures would be substituted for formerly expedited
shipments. The benefits accruing from this reform added up to about 1,140
hours and additional savings.
Deliveries that previously would have gone out on Saturdays by Federal
Express were eliminated. The team also suggested that the paperwork on
tracer forms be omitted since the information was now stored in a computer.
All in all, the team’s recommendations saved the company thousands of dol-
lars a year.
A summary at the close of the Track Team’s report underscored the
advantages of implementing change through teamwork:

This experience has opened the eyes of some non-believers and has
confirmed to others that this process and new environment is pos-
sible and will achieve success. With the proper guidance through
training and experience, a new culture of team building closely
associated with trust within the ranks will soon become the norm
instead of the exception. 33

Trust is at the core of the value system of any organization that expects
to equip anyone on its payroll at any level and at any time to solve customer