Operations Discipline helps to create a culture of innovation and continuous improvement in an operation, whether it is manufacturing, distribution, service, or retail. Operations Discipline is comprised of the three elements:
- Systems/processes
- Constructs/rules
- Behavior/accountability
Let’s take a look at Constructs/rules. These are the configurations, elements or design of the processes and procedures in a system. The constructs are the elements, the rules are the guidelines. Operations discipline cannot exist without constructs or rules.
For example, take part numbers and part descriptions. If there were no constructs/rules in a part numbering system, users would not be able to assign or find a part number for a product. If the description does not follow a standard format, it is useless for looking up a part in a computer system. Many companies use the description for sales people and others to quickly look up parts while trying to serve customers. If the description format is not standardized, it would be very difficult to find what you are looking for.
One of my clients ended up with almost 5 times the part numbers they needed in the database, because every time someone couldn’t find a part number, they created a new one. Duplication was extreme. If they had a standard description format, not only would their service be better, but the database in their system would be significantly smaller.
This second element of Operations Discipline, constructs/rules, is vital to the usability of processes and systems.
© 2011 – Rick Pay – All Rights Reserved
