Reflections on Excellence

"Good morning , Suzuki San , how have you been "asked Miss P when she noticed him walking through the door .

" I am fine , Miss P , how about you . Today I have want to tell something that is not going to make you happy . I am really surprised why you and many others did not attend the Learning series on WHAT IS QUALITY conducted by my good friend KJ on the 19th May . Those who attended enjoyed the program and it gave a new outlook on the understanding of Quality .

I know what you will tell . That you were busy and though you tried you couldnt make it . I cant accept that Miss P . You must know that these are great opportunities for enhancing your knowledge levels , and all that you are going to spend is just 2 hours purposefully "

Miss P hung her head in shame . "I know Suzuki San , I dont have any reasons , I was trying to complete some work that I had and felt that I was too busy . But I do realise that when we have so much TIME to spend on trivialities and gossip etc... for a purposeful learning , we can always afford time . I will tell my apologies to KJ and ensure that I attend the programs in future without giving any reasons "

Suzuki San continued " I am not surprised by this lame reasoning , Miss P . I will see if I can ask KJ to conduct this program again in the near future . Atleast you go and tell others in the Industry to take advantage of this .

Have you heard of the concept of 3 BOX MODEL by Vijay Govindarajan . "

Miss P innocently asked " No , Suzuki San , is it something related to packaging ?"

Suzuki San who was so tensed up till now , burst out laughing .
"Miss P , you made me laugh now . I was so angry with you when I walked in . This is a MANAGEMENT CONCEPT proposed by a management guru called Vijay Govindarajan .

Prof.Vijay says that most of the Organizations are very myopic ( Senior management ) . They look at handling their current chores and responsibilities as a major task and invariably lost out on the future .

The 3 BOX MODEL is as follows .

BOX 1 - MANAGE THE PRESENT

Prof.Vijay says the present is something you will have to just manage . There may be very little control on what large changes you can achieve to give new directions to what is happening currently .

BOX 2 - SELECTIVELY FORGET THE PAST

Not all things that happened in the past are good or bad . However , certain mistakes and bad happenings need to be forgotten while retaining the ones that will be useful .

I will make an analogy of  driving a car . Just imagine if one keeps looking only at the rear view mirror and driving . Will he/she be able to drive forward . But at the same time do you drive only looking in front . No . We also keep looking at the rear view mirror ocassionally .

So the idea behind this is that , the good things of the past should be a reference only .

BOX 3 - CREATE THE FUTURE

You need to know where you want to be say 10 years from now . And to be WHAT YOU WANT TO BE 10 YEARS FROM NOW , there is no point in starting to act after 10 years , but NOW .

To be what you want to be in 10 years from now , you have to start planning and acting right now .

The moral of this concept is that and what I observed is that , WHAT KJ IS TRYING TO DISSEMINATE IN TERMS OF KNOWLEDGE IS NOT FOR YOU TO MANAGE THE PRESENT , BUT FOR YOU TO PREPARE YOURSELF TO CREATE THE FUTURE " .

So , stop giving stories like you were trying to finish some job , manage the present and all that , Miss P and look at using these opportunities so that you can be in better positions in the future . "

Miss P was almost in tears . "Suzuki San , I now understand fully what you conveyed . Yes , I do want to be a Managing Director in 10 years from , and I now realise that to be that in 10 years , unless I start using these opportunities now , I can never think of nearing such positions . So I am going to do one thing now .

I will selectively forget the past , my habit of saying that I was busy , and will look forward to attending KJ's next Learning series . Thanks a Lot , Suzuki San for this "

Suzuki San smiled . " you see , you got the concept right .

Now , I want tell you something . My other friend Mr.Eric Miller is in Zambia . He is a Management Consultant and a Lean Expert . He has done consultancy in many organisations in the Europe and has also worked as a Professor .

He is currently in Zambia and is volunteering his services for the Kaizen Institute of Zambia . I met him the other day and Eric sent me an article on Reflections of Excellence , which I felt will be immensely useful to all and hence have asked KJ to post it in the blog . Eric wishes to thank the authors Keith Mobley and agency Life Cycle Engineering for this article . Please read them and benefit . If you have any queries on lean , please email Eric on millereric450@gmail.com

Copy paste link or Click on the link details below :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/66cw9iiv4e7wrm4/Reflections-15-Laws-for-Continuous-Improvement%20May%202016.pdf?dl=0

Ok, Miss P , I am running late for a meeting now , Next week I will share about the Gemba program that happened in Sakiza Spinning in  Kitwe by the Kaizen Club of Zambia - Copperbelt Chapter "

Note 1 : Suzuki San , Miss P and her company are characters  developed by KJ and has no relevance to any particular person / processes/situation    . All mention are purely for illustration purpose of the central theme of the case and are personal opinions unless cited and shall have no recourse of consequences to author . Readers can use their practical inputs to alter any of the material that may be published . Readers are invited to express their views on this continuing case study series .

Note 2: Some of the readers have mentioned that they are unable to place their comments . Please click on the "No comments"  link , and make your comments and if you do not have any prior registration , you can choose anonymous and feel free to give details or not , though it will be nice if we can have your name details in the comments .

Learning Series 2 : CUSTOMER SERVICE GAP ANALYSIS

Good morning , Suzuki San

Suzuki San turned around and found Miss P standing . "Miss P , what a surprise , how come you are in Lusaka "

Miss P says " Sorry to barge in Suzuki San , I couldn't get through on your phone , I am here to participate for the Annual Kaizen Conference on the 3rd and 4th November . I need to make some intense preparation on our Kaizen activities and have brought all information .  I heard KJ is organising a Learning session on 22nd Oct to explain on the Seven QC tools , and I wanted to attend that as well . I want to know something about Pareto analysis and a few other tools "

"Oh , I see. You are welcome to Lusaka , Miss P . I also heard of the meeting . It is unfortunate that we are not able to have these sessions in the Copperbelt , and I hope , we will start something there soon . By the way , do you know that KJ's second Learning series on Customer Service Gap Analysis was a huge success . The participants very intently learnt about the various service gaps that affect Customer satisfaction and went back with a wealth of knowledge . See these pictures  ,Miss P "

Miss P exclaims , "Wow , Suzuki San I would have loved to participate in these learning series . I also am wondering why so many companies in Lusaka are not able to send their staff for these programs . It would be a great opportunity to understand concepts and then bridge to practice "

Suzuki San sighed " Yes , rightly said , Knowledge will never let one down , It is always positive and we are pushing hard for the Top management of Lusaka Industry to understand that , and develop their staff to learn more and more .  One goodness about all this is that , one need not feel that they have missed out on anything . All that they have to do is to mail KJ to conduct another session , and knowing KJ  he will certainly help out .

Miss P , I am looking at the Kaizen Conference with great enthusiasm  . I really dont know how many of the participants are going to come with presentations that are beyond 5S , but we have to gradually move beyond that and start using the 7QC tools and real projects . "

"Understood , Suzuki San . Thanks for your time , Will update you after attending KJ's learning series on Thursday ."

"Where is it being held , by the way Miss P "

"I think owing to paucity of time to arrange with KIZ , KJ plans to have it in his organisation only , Specialised Systems Limited on Mwembeshi road , Light industrial area . Will you be coming , Suzuki San "

"Let me see , Miss P , I have to check on my diary and will certainly come if time permits. Best wishes "


Note 1 : Suzuki San , Miss P and her company are characters  developed by KJ and has no relevance to any particular person / processes/situation    . All mention are purely for illustration purpose of the central theme of the case and are personal opinions unless cited and shall have no recourse of consequences to author . Readers can use their practical inputs to alter any of the material that may be published . Readers are invited to express their views on this continuing case study series .

Note 2: Some of the readers have mentioned that they are unable to place their comments . Please click on the "No comments"  link , and make your comments and if you do not have any prior registration , you can choose anonymous and feel free to give details or not , though it will be nice if we can have your name details in the comments .

Learning Series 1 - Kaizen Starts with 5S and Red tagging

On behalf of the Kaizen Club of Zambia , I am pleased to inform you that the First Kaizen Learning series on Thursday evening (17/9) at 17:00 hrs was successful . We had participants from a few organisations , though many who confirmed their participation did not turn up .

The participants were elated at the new knowledge of the PDCA cycle and assured that this is the way forward for Zambia , to embrace PDCA in every walk of life . They appreciated the red tagging principles and the need to eliminate Muda, Muri and Mura .

I , being the first time , am uploading the presentation for the benefit of the mailer members .

 LEARNING SERIES 1 : KAIZEN STARTS WITH 5S & RED TAGGING

As is natural , please note that the readers may not understand a point or two , as much would be discussed during a presentation and hence we urge participation  . Please feel free to mail me on kj@specialised.com.zm for any doubts .

I earnestly request the top management of the organisations to permit your staff who wish to attend these programs at 16:30 hrs on the event days ( once a fortnight , Thursday evenings)  . We assure you that the time is well invested .

The upcoming event , namely the Learning Series -2 of the Kaizen Club of Zambia is a presentation and knowledge sharing on " CUSTOMER SERVICE GAP ANALYSIS" . Many a time , we all know that even if we feel we have provided good service , the customer is dissatisfied . This session will explain what are the gaps that causes such customer dissatisfaction and what can be done about it .

INVITATION TO LEARNING SERIES 2: CUSTOMER SERVICE GAP ANALYSIS

This should be one of the most desired training for any organisation that values its customers , and I wish to have more participation for this program .

SPREAD THE KAIZEN WORD ....

Yours in Kaizen Service

KJ