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This Week’s Topic:
Operational Excellence by the Checklist
Topic: You may have heard the buzz about a new book on the business best seller list called “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”
Operational Excellence Application The message of the book is that simple checklists can have a dramatic impact on reducing errors and improving quality. A good example of the value of checklists is airplane pilots. The captain may have thousands of flights in a particular type of plane but the first thing that she or he does to prepare for a flight is to pull out the checklist.
In fact, “Sully” Sullenberger, the hero of the Miracle on the Hudson flight credits following the checklist as part of the reason he was able to successfully ditch his plane into the river and save dozens of lives.
Often times we hear the argument that there is not enough time to follow a checklist or that the situation is too unusual for one to be of value. Captain Sullenberg’s experience would suggest there is not enough time to ignore a well-designed checklist.
R. Michael Donovan & Co has been a believer in the power of checklists and questionaires for many years. As proof, our book Lean Supply Chain Management is filled with examples of checklists that can be applied to real-world Operational Excellence challenges that you face in your business. Here is an example of 8 checklist questions out of 25 to help you assess your Order to Delivery Process. Just answer Yes or No to the following questions:
1. Each of our products has a well defined manufacturing and inventory deployment strategy.
2. Organizational accountability for inventory performance is clearly defined.
3. Our inventory record information is “real time” and is more than 99% accurate.
4. Our bills-of-material are 100% accurate.
5. We have very little inventory obsolescence as a result of engineering changes.
6. Our forecasting process is able to integrate demand variability with a customer-
service-oriented inventory deployment strategy.
7. We have a comprehensive and effective sales and operations planning process.
8. We are able to start the assembly process without any material shortages.
The remaining 17 questions and a scoring guide are in our free book Lean Supply Chain Management starting on page XX. If you are interested in the details or more checklists that can be applied to your business challenges we invite you to follow this link to our Free Book Offer
Of course, it is without cost or obligation.
Hopefully you will never need to land an airplane in the Hudson River but the power of checklists could still make a significant difference to your Operational Excellence efforts!
If you have a topic that you would like addressed, or an insight you would like to pass along, e-mail us at: Jack.Rink@rmdonovan.com
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