The+Value+Chain.doc

此文档收集于网络，如有侵权，请联系网站删除The Value Chain-the difference between struggle and profitAuthor: Andrew Stewart Release Date: Dec 15, 2009“For Australian business to be globally competitive industries and organisations need a different and more effective way of delivering value to local and overseas customers. The following article by Intelog Business Performance Group is presented as a thinking challenge and solution based on its experience in working in many industries and its association with leading overseas applied research. It is our contention that greater competitive capacity will only be achieved with a radical change in thinking and understanding by an organisations stakeholders, from a customers and consumers perspective, of where and how value is created. We include the customers view as they can be a key link to the consumer eg, the retailer, although we advocate that true competitive value comes from fulfilling consumers perceptions. This change in thinking is achieved by applying frameworks and methodologies that enable “collaborative and collective capability”. We see it as engaging a value chain stakeholder group in seeing and understanding the current state at a chain and individual level and then developing a future state based on consumer value perceptions. Stakeholders must understand what is non-value adding activity and waste and how to eliminate this by focussing on what creates and delivers value from a consumers perspective. This focuses people on flow and this creates the realisation that real competitive advantage will come from not just doing things better but by doing better things.The new value proposition then comes from innovation at a product or service offer, packaging, supply chain, process performance and pricing and presentation level a total value chain proposition. This is achieved by engaging all the key Value Chain stakeholders in developing solutions and outcomes across the whole chain, as well as at the key processing or service development activities that improve productivity, reduce costs, eliminate non-value adding activities and improve the customer value proposition. This creates a model for those engaged and the industry; as well as improving supplier and customer relationships. It is our contention that the application of such things as Lean tools, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints is compromised if this stakeholder engagement and understanding of the waste and non-value activity that stops or limits flow and value creation, is not the first learning stage. The Value Stream Engagement model is based on the proven Lean Enterprise Thinking best practice models and methodologies of: Engagement of the key stakeholders - management and frontline process owners Seeing and Understanding the current state of the whole value chain the way it works now Developing a Future State based on an IDEAL vision (the elimination of all non-value adding activity) Implementing significant and sustainable performance improvements based on learning by doing Creating a shared outcome model that all the stakeholder organisations can deploy in their own business.The program is in three distinct phases - Program Initialisation, Learning by Doing, Improvement Project Development. Program Initialisation - Seeing and Understanding In a recent presentation Jim Womack, co-author of Lean Thinking Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, said that every organisation must address the Purpose, the Processes and the People. He believes that most organisations struggle because the purpose is not clearly defined, the processes are not clearly specified and the people are not fully engaged. Accordingly the program initialisation is divided into two sections. The first phase is to Engage the Senior Management, where senior managers from each of the key stakeholders attend a workshop that will engage them in understanding how Lean principles are applied to organisations and end-to-end Value Chains (supported by appropriate industry case studies), gain agreement on the current state of the selected supply chain and the opportunities for improvement, and set the direction for the program and establishing the targets and the measures. The second phase is to Engage the Stakeholder Process Owners, who are the middle managers and key frontline staff who understand the operations and the value chain performance. Following the introduction to Lean Thinking and its application in their industry, they map the current end-to-end value chain from source of supply to the customer/consumer identifying the issues and opportunities for improvement.They then develop an action plan for more detailed analysis and mapping based on the program direction, objectives, targets and measures set by the senior management. One of the current problems is that traditional organisations have a vertical focus - with managers focussing their activities in their own function, as a result optimising their own area of focus often at the expense of or cost to other functions of the organisation. The customer, however, is buying a product or service that flows through, or is influenced by all of the functions and departments of an organisation.The same applies to all of the organisations in the end-to-end value chain. The objective of the Project Initialisation is to enable everyone to see and understand the current state and how the selected supply chain creates and delivers its value proposition to their customers.This then provides an understanding of how much waste and non-value activity and costs exist and therefore the opportunity for improvement. The stakeholders can then develop a future state based on what they have seen and learned from applying the Lean principles, with a view of what needs to be changed and what needs to be put into place to improve performance. It is worth reflecting on the quote from Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton in Harvard Business Review in their article “Evidence Based Management” - Evidence-based management is practiced best not by know-it-alls, but by managers who profoundly appreciate how much they do not know. Learning by Doing Whether its Toyota, Tesco or Cogent Steel, worlds best practice is dependent on stakeholder engagement. Good organisations will say that they do engage with employees and suppliers and that they have good relationships and on the whole they are right. But there is a difference between good engagement and engaged employees. Engaged employees are actively involved in delivering the organisations strategy. They know what the strategy is and they know how they are contributing to it.They know the targets and measures to ensure performance success and they are empowered to improve their workplace. Excellent organisations engage their key suppliers in the same way. So the next step in the value stream performance improvement is to engage the stakeholders in identifying the improvement opportunities and determining and quantifying the solutions, then presenting recommendations to management. If management have played their role correctly by providing direction, internal and external support and coaching and active review support, the solutions presented will be acceptable and do-able, and aligned to the strategy and objectives of the organisation. A key element of the success of this approach is for management to provide the training of internal leaders and coaches in “learning by doing”. Sustainable continuous improvement will only come from being engaged in training in the workplace or where value is created or delivered. This therefore, requires cross-organisation team engagement when end-to-end value chain program performance improvement is the objective. John Shook was the first American manager at Toyota Japan and he thinks that the leaders job is, firstly, to get everyone to take the initiative to solve problems and secondly, to ensure that everyones job is aligned to the companys goals.It is the leaders job to develop people by mentoring, coaching and example. Mike Morrison, Dean of Toyota University, said in an interview with Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina (Gallup Management Journal, 8 August 2003): Lean Thinking is best defined as creating organisation wealth (capability). Lean Thinking:Adds value by focussing on customers Creates flow by focussing on people and processes and by developing engaged employees who collaborate to engage customers by understating and anticipating their needs Achieves mastery by focussing on personal and group leaning. This is the final element of Lean Thinking. It encompasses one of the most basic human needs: the drive for meaningful growth and progress. Objectives & Outcomes The primary objective is to improve the capacity and productivity of the selected Value Chain by applying Lean Thinking innovation - that of engaging all supply chain stakeholders in aligning the capacity and productive capability to the demand. This approach is unique in Australia, in that this is more than just improving the processes and reducing cost. It is also about developing innovative solutions by engaging the collective skill and knowledge of the stakeholders in thinking differently about the individual and collective contribution to the creation of value. Unfortunately, productivity improvement is often confused with working harder and cost reduction (head-count reduction or cutting discretionary spending).The productivity potential lies in the understanding of the work that is done to create value. Through this seeing and understanding the elimination of the non-value activity productivity improvement is achieved - the balance of the efficiency and the effectiveness of processes to deliver the desired outcome. The objective of value chain activity is to improve the use of available resources (labour, materials, land, capital, m