Ankit Patel, principal partner with The Lean Way Consulting firm while doing some work with the Cleveland Clinic, discovered Appreciative Inquiry and saw an opportunity to blend it with his work in Continuous Improvement. I found the work fascinating and this is the subject of this Business901 podcast. An excerpt of the podcast can be found on this blogpost, Connecting Continuous Improvement and Appreciative Inquiry. 

Ankit told me before the podcast, “The basic concept is use AI as the starting point (in the case of the ppt. it's the starting point to a strategic initiative) and then go into the traditional tools once there is a "pull" from staff on what they want to become. It's a great way to do strategy and other process improvements.  Basically the best way I've seen to introduce changes via an AI methodology and then go into the specifics, strategy, process improvement, etc.”

More about Ankit Patel: Ankit was a Lean consultant for Dell Inc. overseeing Dell's Manufacturing and Re-Manufacturing production processes in Lebanon, TN. He has helped guide the multi- billion dollar plant in strategic planning, coaching executives at the plant, facilitating Kaizen events, and training Lean leaders at all levels of the organization. Ankit combines a unique approach of positive psychology, culture improvements, strategy, and process improvement to get companies results. His latest venture is in bringing Appreciative Inquiry to the field of continuous improvement.

Related Information

Lean Engagement Team Book Released

Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Change

My Engagement Strategy – Appreciative Inquiry

Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative

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Is Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning the blueprint for the future and revitalization of formal planning in the 21st Century? Some people think so as Carol Ptak and Chad Smith were asked to co-author the new Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning 3/E. But more impressive are the full houses of practitioners that Carol and Chad are talking too. The one simple reason for that is that they understand the problem.

Carol and Chad both were on previous podcasts with me, In a Supply Chain, Where is more important than How Much! and Can MRP be a Demand – Driven Tool?. These podcasts were my most quotable ones this past year. For example Carol Ptak, said in her podcast said:

A lot of people have focused on the fact that the Economic times right now are really bad. What a lot of people are missing is the fact that the world around us has fundamentally changed.

A we see now across the world is that we have excess capacity when you add to that the Internet where we get on the Internet we expect to have an experience like Amazon, or order it is going to tell me instantly when I’m going to get it. If you don’t provide it at the price I want to pay and the time I want to pay then I can just go someplace else. Why can I do that? That’s because I have all this excess capacity out there.

So what companies are seeing today is volatility like they never had to manage before and at the same time they no longer have the reliability of understanding what the customers are going to demand and when they’re going to demand, because customers are increasingly fickle.

So what we’ve got is the perfect storm that has come together of excess capacity and incredible product variety.

The two of them did not disappoint me. These two people are have rewritten the book on MRP and if you don’t think MRP or even your Lean Supply Chain could not learn from this podcast, think again.

Carol has written several books on MRP, ERP, Lean and Theory of Constraints.  She is the Past President of APICS International and former Vice President and global industry executive for manufacturing and distribution industries at PeopleSoft.  Chad co-founded Constraints Management Group in 1997 after working under the tutelage of Dr. Eli Goldratt for several years.  Constraints Management Group specializes in demand driven supply chain and manufacturing solutions for a variety of industries.  Clients have included Boeing, Unilever, IBM, LeTourneau Technologies and Roseburg Forest Products.

What is Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning (DDMRP)?

Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning is an innovative multi-echelon pull methodology to plan inventories and materials. It enables a company to build more closely to actual market requirements and promotes better and quicker decisions and actions at the planning and execution level.

Related Information:

The Perfect Storm has come together of Excess Capacity and Product Variety

Will Product Managers embrace Open Innovation?

Implementing the TOC Supply Chain Solution

Transforming your Supply Chain to a Lean Fulfillment Stream eBook

Lean Six Sigma applied to Supply Chain

Application of Lean Six Sigma to the Supply Chain

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On the Business901 podcast, Lindsay Jackson Nichols discussed the business benefits of ISO Certification and how it can be used in conjunction with continuous improvement. Lindsay is the CEO of MOCG, a management consulting firm specializing in implementing process improvement and ISO based management systems. 

When you first think about, you may think that Quality Management and a continuous improvement methodology like Lean are one in the same. You may also think that they are willing partners. Many disagree with that thought. My thoughts are that I find the ISO standards as a way to involve people from all departments to ask them how you do things. As a result, procedures and documentation are created to evaluate the current method of doing things (the first step in standard work) against the requirements of a standard (ISO).  As a result, you develop performance gaps for continuous improvement. Others believe that this would hinder the development and flexibility of standard work documents and prefer that they are divorced from each other.

I probed this question with Lindsay and on a Lean Blog Post on Standard Work. The answer I believe to be correct is that ISO 9001 should not be the continuous improvement strategy just that it should be one metric by which continuous improvement is measured. However, I still believe using ISO as a standard to start the process of developing standard work is not a bad place to start.

About LJ Nichols: Lindsay’s career has been entirely devoted to management consulting, working with Grant Thornton LLP - the fifth largest accounting and management consulting firm in the nation, assisting them develop a ‘center of excellence’ for their quality, environment and regulatory practice, and P-E International plc/P-E Handley Walker the largest management consulting firm in Europe, where she was integral in establishing their ISO presence in the US.

Related Information:

Agreeing on Standards in a Lean Enterprise

Is Standard Work needed in Sales and Marketing?

Where is the path in Continuous Improvement for Sales and Marketing?

Why does sales and marketing operate to a different quality standard?

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I took a little different twist this week on the Business901 podcast and interviewed Murali Chemuturi, an information technology and software development subject matter expert, hands-on programmer, author, consultant and trainer. This podcast centered on Software Quality Assurance and what Murali considers best practice. I found his position quite different than the Agile and Kanban Software people I typically interview. I think most people in the IT field will find it interesting. 

In 2001, he formed his own IT consulting and software development firm known as Chemuturi Consultants. Chemuturi Consultants help software development organizations achieve their quality and value objectives. The firm provides training in several software engineering and project management topics such as Software Estimation, Test Effort Estimation, Function Point Analysis, and Software Project Management, to name a few. His firm also offers a number of products to aid project managers and software development professionals such as PMPal, a software project management tool; and EstimatorPal, FPAPal & UCPPal, a set of software estimation tools.

J. Ross Publishing has recently published three books authored by Murali  Chemuturi:

• • Mastering Software Quality Assurance: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques for Software Developers
  • Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques
  • Software Estimation Best Practices, Tools & Techniques: A Complete Guide for Software Project Estimators

Related Posts: Eric Landes Podcast

The differences in Lean and Agile

Kanban, could we call this podcast anything else?

Business901 Kanban Search

Kanban too simple To be Effective? Xerox Operational Excellence Program

Xerox drives Agile Processes thru Lean Six Sigma

Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or is it just a Marketing Funnel?

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Chad Smith of Constraints Management Group was the guest on the Business901 Podcast. Chad is currently writing the third revised edition of Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning with Carol Ptak (a former B901 Podcast Guest).

Excerpt from the podcast:

Joe:  My customers are not only looking for shortened cycles but they’re also looking for more customization. We need customization and shorter supply chain cycles. That is reality today. Am I wrong?

Chad:  No, you are exactly right. That is why I caution people that are in the Lean community or in the TOC community to understand that the solution is not inward facing. It is outward facing. It is the interface or the integration between linkages in the supply chain and that commonly occurs from the manufacture to distributor or manufacture to customer and then manufacture back to all its suppliers.

And let’s face it. Let’s be real here. Global capacity is exceeding global demand right now. So looking for better scheduling techniques inside of four walls, instead of looking for better synchronization techniques across a supply chain or a product structure. In my opinion, is the wrong way to go.

There is a prerequisite order here to getting better. The prerequisite order is…listen to the podcast

Chad Smith is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Constraints Management Group (CMG), a services and technology company specializing in pull-based manufacturing, materials and project management systems for mid-range and large manufacturers. Chad has a wide range of experience in successfully applying pull-based systems within a diverse scope of organizations and industries.

Since the late 1990’s Chad and his partners at CMG have been at the forefront of developing and articulating the concepts behind Actively Synchronized Replenishment as well as building ASR compliant technology (Replenishment+®). Additionally, Chad is an internationally recognized expert in the application and development of the Theory of Constraints (TOC).

This is a highly informative podcast, one that you do not want to miss!

Related Posts:

The Perfect Storm has come together of Excess Capacity and Product Variety

Is your Supply Chain practicing ASR?

In a Supply Chain, Where is more important than How Much!

Logistics Matter, even in Marketing

Implementing the TOC Supply Chain Solution

Transforming your Supply Chain to a Lean Fulfillment Stream eBook

Lean Six Sigma applied to Supply Chain

Application of Lean Six Sigma to the Supply Chain

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In this Business901 Podcast I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Wagner, co-author of Global Program Management. Paula Wagner, PMP, is a senior project manager/senior business manager for CNN Broadcast Engineering System Technology at Turner Broadcasting Systems. Her insight and knowledge of this field is outstanding. We discussed not only what it takes to run a successful Global Program but also what it takes to be successful and the opportunities in this growing field. Paula teaches Project and Program Management at the DeVry/Keller Graduate School of Management.

Paula’s book is an in depth study of today’s Global Program Management arena. Very few organizations make only local decisions. It seems in today's world no matter what size the company is that we all are somewhat global. Is your program or even project manager ready for this kind of challenge? How does a classic program and project management change as a result of this global influence? Paula did a great job of answering these questions as they applied to both small and large organizations. With the increase pressure on project managers the book provides insights on handling resources at a macro-level. During the interview, Paula appeared to be a pro (I am sure she is) at defining goals and objectives realistically no matter the multitude of environments that needed to be aligned.

Program management is growing as a discipline. So, we spent time talking about some of the decisions that had to be made as a program manager and the type of individual that makes a successful program manager. I think the book could be quite useful for someone that is considering this career path not only globally but on a local level.

Paula Wagner's Website: http://pwdita.com/

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Lean Kanban lessons from a Software Developer

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