Alan Pippenger
Deming Collaboration
SignPrinters, the three decade old sign and graphics company I founded in the early 1980s was managed for the first 25 years using a sophisticated, highly developed unshakeable method… that being whatever we had heard at the last business seminar.
By 2004, when I came in contact with the teachings of W. Edwards Deming, I had probably tried a dozen different management systems. I say different but truth be told, what we used, as well as the overwhelming mass of today’s management thought is woefully similar. Top down, command and control, chain of command systems are the cornerstone of American management and the sooner we rid ourselves of them the better.
Your situation is no doubt, unique, but it may help you to read some of what we learned while applying Deming style management at SignPrinters.
Most Management is Driven by Fear
Despite the beaming young faces of our employees at SignPrinters, we came to understand that fear was driving most of what they did during the day. Fear of losing their jobs on the part of the employees, and fear of going out of business on the part of management. Wait, I thought a “healthy” fear was a good thing. I don’t know if there is such a thing as healthy fear, but near the middle of Dr. Deming’s 14 Points for the Transformation of Management you will find…
Point 8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
As long as fear is the driving force in an organization you will be getting a great deal less than what is possible from everyone, employees and managers alike.
Minimize Total Costs
Pick up any modern management book and you will find at least one admonition for cutting costs. In this economy the admontion has become a scream and cost cutting is the defacto method being used by government and private sectors alike. Deming had something to say about cost cutting, namely this. Click here for excellent video on this subject
Point 4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
SignPrinters had some suppliers we had used for 20 years. A manager, no doubt being driven by fear, changed suppliers for some materials based upon as little as 3% price difference. So you saved 3% you say… not so fast. One of the new materials failed prematurely in the field. Since we had no long-term relationship with the new vendor they would not support us so the re-do was done at our expense. We still had a supply of the “new” material, and we barely salvaged the customer relationship. Don’t forget we saved a whopping 3%! Cost cutting like this can put you out of business. The lesson of Dr. Deming’s Point 4 was not lost on SignPrinters. As you can see from the example, the “Total Cost” of the new product was much, much higher than the old. Work to minimize total cost by factoring in the performance of the product as well as the benefit of a long-term relationship of trust with your suppliers.
Break Down Barriers
It is so subtle you would not notice if it was not pointed out to you. Within any organization exists a plethora of mini-businesses, each with their own agenda, priorities, needs and wants. None of them communicating except within their own group. This was found to be true at SignPrinters. Just to name a few. Ordering, Graphic Design, Print Production, Finishing, Shipping, Bookeeping. You have seen it as well in your business. All these various “departments” work toward autonomy, seeking to insulate themselves from the whole.
Deming’s Point 9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
Here is just one example. Sales has sold an order for posters. The customer, an aerospace contractor needs 20 posters to fit existing frames. The finished size for these paper prints mounted to black fomeboard must be 22″ x 28″ no less.
Sales writes the order for 22″ x 28″ prints mounted to black.
Graphic Design creates the art and since the area around the image is white, places a black line at the 22″ x 28″ size.
Production just prints the paper prints.
Finishing receives the prints and mounts them to black fomeboard.
One last detail. The black lines have to be trimmed off. Since no black can be left to show against the white background, the finisher cuts just inside the line. This leaves the finished product ?” short and they are all returned the following day. How many times must this job be done before the people from these departments meet to talk about how big to make the posters to create a finished product that will delight the customer?
At SignPrinters we have these converstions, more now than ever since we see that not having them is so very costly.
Your business can thrive in a down economy.
Drive out Fear
Minimize Total Cost
Break Down Barriers