9mm bullets and Operational Un-Excellence

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1 9mm bullets and Operational Un-Excellence Duvan Luong, Ph.D. Operational Excellence Networks When the US Army went through the process of replacing its aging Colt 45 handgun, the first but most important decision it had to make was whether to stay with the.45 caliber (.45 of an inch in diameter) or to go with the more common 9mm caliber bullet size. The.45 caliber bullet was used by the US Army for more than 80 years because of its stopping power. When the bullet hits, due to its large size and heavy mass, the.45 bullet would mortally stop the enemy in their tracks. The 9mm bullet on the other hand, was popular because of a different strategy. The 9mm bullet is smaller and has a higher velocity making it move faster so that when it hits, it would go through the body of the enemy, severely wounding them. This in turn would lead to each wounded person requiring two or more other enemies needing to safely remove the wounded; hence, at the minimum, at least 3 enemies would likely be taken off the battlefield, equating to a 300% reduction of the enemy s battle capability in comparison with the.45 caliber bullet. The US Army finally adopted the 9mm bullet for its new handguns. To a company s business, the operational un-excellence of its activities is the key villain toward its success. The lacking of the leader s vision, the un-inspiring business strategy and objectives, the lack of understanding for what the company needs to do and what it can do to achieve those strategy and objectives, the in-effective and in-efficiency business operations, uncertainty toward progress and status of the company efforts, and the stagnation of the business s operational performance; these are all factors that contribute toward the operational un-excellence that always keeps a company from achieving success. Operational un-excellence are the bullets that are shot at a company every day; they are the 9mm bullets that a company should avoid and want to stop. Similar to the case of the 9mm bullets, operational un-excellence will not stop the company from functioning or stop customers from buying and using the company products, but it will make the company function less effectively and make the customer unhappy toward them; operational un-excellence is a large hassle and can be disruptive toward a business s processes and activities. It always results in the increase in expenditures, reduction in customer satisfaction and business opportunities, and is putting a large number of company capabilities out of commission for not providing the value added contributions to the company success, due to the unexpected needs to fix the Contents copyright Operational Excellence Networks 2012 Page 1

2 deficiencies caused by the un-excellence of the company operations (e.g. reworks, duplicate work, unnecessary works, etc.) It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong. Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight: A Story of Discworld Before the company can make any progress toward its operational excellence objectives, it must be very clear about its current operational status and its ability to progress toward the objectives. Identifying the Company s Operational Un-excellence A company that is in a situation of operational un-excellence usually failed to achieve desired objectives. The failures can be caused by one or more of the following five attributes of operational excellence: Objective - the lacking of an Executive s desire for success on the applicable business areas, through lacking of useable objectives, objectives are not communicated or aligned and internalized by the people related to them, or there is weak or insufficient commitment and support from the Executives for the fulfillment of the objectives. Capabilities weak efforts put toward mastering the necessary capabilities to achieve the objectives, unclear about the current capabilities, unclear about the capability gap, having no plans to fill the capability gaps, having no plans for the fulfillment of the desired objectives and not knowing one s core competencies. Performance the use of in-effective processes or inefficient execution wastes laden operations, which results in not meeting any of the objectives or customer expectations. Transparency the lacking of an effective and efficient measurement system. There is no evidence to show that a measurement system is in use; the feedback system does not exist or it is not in used; the lacking of visibility about the operations and their progress status. Improvement there is little to no attempt toward improving the needed capabilities and no visible results for the improvement efforts. Contents copyright Operational Excellence Networks 2012 Page 2

3 Identifying the Achievements of the Company s Operational Excellence When the company achieves an operational excellence status, it will have: The respect and the recognition for the works it does The optimized execution of the works to get the results The satisfaction for the achievements reached The ability to sustain its work performance and to continuously improve it by making the works better, faster, and cheaper. The mastering and achieving of operational excellence enables the company to be ready for any changes in its business environments and market situations in both the good and hard times. In the hard times, the company will be much better prepared and capable to handle any adverse situations. In the good times, the company will have the ability to amplify its achievements for even more extraordinary successes. The characteristics for the five attributes of the operational excellence achievement state are as followed: Clarity of Objectives The existence of strong Executive desire for the achieving of operational excellence as the foundation for the company to reach its business objectives. The existence of articulated, clearly defined, unambiguously short and long term objectives. The clear communication, alignment and internalization of the objectives. The commitment and support for the fulfillment of the objectives. Potent Capabilities the complete understanding and mastering of: What to do (what capabilities are needed) to achieve the objectives What is the current capability with regard to the objectives A thorough understanding of one s core competencies Contents copyright Operational Excellence Networks 2012 Page 3

4 A thorough understanding of what the capability gaps are An attainable and actionable plan to fill the capability gaps The documentation and developed training for the needed capabilities The actual effort allocated to fill and deploy the gaps Outstanding Performance includes: The availability of an attainable and actionable plan to achieve the objectives The effective and efficient capitalization of the needed capabilities (including the implementation of needed processes and procedures) The effective use of capital to improve capabilities (no wasting of time and resources) The innovative/creative use/leverage of the best practices for optimal results The leveraging of core competency for competitive advantage The fulfillment of desired objectives The achievement toward customer satisfaction The effective management of the implementation The capturing and retaining of the implementation data Transparency of Execution - includes The establishment and use of a measurement system The selection of the proper metrics The full availability and use of the feedback systems based on the defined metrics Continuous Improvement - includes The use of the failure and root-cause analysis process The establishment and use of the post mortem process Contents copyright Operational Excellence Networks 2012 Page 4

5 The creation of an improvement plan and the implementation of the continuous improvement process The introduction and implementation of new process The introduction and use of new technologies In summary, a company s operational un-excellence can be costly; and like the 9mm bullets, it can cause severe customer dissatisfaction and the loss of opportunities for business success. The company wants to avoid and to stop the operational unexcellence as much as possible. This article describes a simple way to identify the characteristics for both a company s operational un-excellence and excellence status. Once the company has the necessary information and the understanding about its current operational status, it can develop and execute an effective implementation and deployment plan for the necessary improvements so it can move toward the fulfillment of its objectives for business success. Contents copyright Operational Excellence Networks 2012 Page 5