Fourth generation management

1. Prologue

This document: The Fourth Generation Management is intended to make known the work of the American guru and consultant Brian Joiner, of whom I am proud to be his disciple and follower of his projects and teachings.

His lessons and descriptions of the problems, which afflicted and still afflict companies today, perfectly describe the inefficiencies and inefficiencies that I saw in my passage through numerous and important companies in banking, construction, agribusiness, food, health services and logistics among others.

Despite the time that has elapsed, the old administration paradigms have not yet been overthrown in many companies, which are day after day subjected to the new rules established by international competition. Unfortunately, the ideas and philosophies of Deming, Juran, Taichi Ohno, Ishikawa and Imai are limited to limited areas in the academic world, but little of them are known by those who are in charge of directing or advising companies.

When a company is not generating profits, loses market share in the hands of other companies and ends up laying off personnel, or closes its doors permanently, the first thing journalists, economists, unions and business chambers point to is exchange and monetary policies, the need for subsidies and barriers to imports, and tax pressures. Undoubtedly, the environment in which the company operates is important, but very few or almost no one points to bad decisions and business management systems. Nobody wants to take charge of their own inabilities and inefficiencies, it is much better to ask the State for support.

In South America we have seen and experienced state policies that absorbed most of the credit capacity of the banking entities, therefore they only took funds from the public, their subsequent placement was guaranteed and it was the state. They should not do marketing to place the funds, or analyze the customer's ability to pay, since this was the State and it assured the payment. Revenues were assured and high given the imperative needs of the state to finance its growing fiscal deficits and its deficit companies. Given this context, there was little concern in making management more efficient. The construction companies were governed and still are governed by constant inefficiency, covered, when it comes to public works, by acts of corruption, surcharges,and the lack of controls on the quality of the works.Given these circumstances, it is of little consequence for managers to fight waste and deficiencies. In the same way, each of the companies can be described in the South American context. These companies, these entrepreneurs and these workers are neither trained nor prepared to compete internationally, and their survival is only possible in a context of protectionist policies and mired in subsidies.

2. Introduction

Many still in the urgent need to improve the prices of their shares resort to improving the results as it results, even exposing themselves to the loss in the quality of their products and services, to reducing the satisfaction of customers and users, or destroying the bases to compete in the future.

Other companies are only feasible in a protectionist framework, they lack the ability to export, and if tariff or tariff barriers are lowered, they would quickly disappear.

A large number of companies survive despite their inefficiencies within an environment that is clearly favorable for them, as soon as there is the slightest change in exchange rates, their ability to compete is notoriously affected.

Companies have been incorporating to some extent different practices aimed at improving their capabilities to become more profitable, but they do not yet combine the need to be competitive, incorporating the various tools and systems, but also integrating these within a philosophy of action.

What is at stake here is the urgent need to develop better methods to achieve better results. The point is to focus on productivity. Does this word sound familiar to you? Very few managers and entrepreneurs talk about productivity, productivity with calculations and statistics of its evolution over time. For this reason, it is common to hear from them how much the salary of a professional or employee costs in absolute monetary terms and not how much it costs them in relative terms of productivity. Most of the time, these low-level employers and managers hire low-wage staff with horribly low levels of productivity.

Has anyone seen periodic reports on the amounts of waste, how it is made up, its evolution over time and what is planned to reduce, eliminate and prevent it? The most likely thing is that the vast majority will answer that they have not seen it. And without a doubt that if they continue with the traditional way of managing companies they will not see it in the future either, and perhaps the day will come when they will not continue to see the company standing. An organization is in the market to produce value for consumers and users of its products and services, not to generate waste.However, a notorious number of companies are serial producers of waste, total these are ultimately paid by consumers, by workers with lower wages, by owners and shareholders with lower income, or by the community with higher taxes destined to keep producers from waste, the most usual being a combination of them. In other words, bad management allows inefficient, highly paid managers to generate large waste, which is “subsidized” by workers, shareholders, consumers and the State.

The many principles and techniques useful for managers to achieve better results with less waste have become part of the framework of what is called Fourth Generation Management. This managerial approach is the result of the theoretical and practical developments of figures such as W. Edwards Deming, Peter Drucker, Kaoru Ishikawa, Joseph Juran, Taichi Ohno, Walter Shewhart, Kano, Taguchi, Shigeo Shingo, Imai, and Brian Joiner.

3. How good are we? How fast do we improve?

When carrying out the analysis and diagnosis of a company, the fundamental question is not only to know the results in terms of sales, market share, levels of productivity and quality, or profitability, but if improvements are registered and the fundamental question, to what speed relative to your competitors is doing it. Joiner tells us that the most important question is not are you making progress, but are you making progress quickly enough?

Many executives, managers, investors and owners, and even risk analysts, lose sight of the speed at which their main competitors improve and progress. Starting from having a certain position in sales volume, they lose sight of the speed at which their competitors' sales grow, competitors that, as they grow faster, eat away at their market share. A reduction in market share implies a loss in the ability to set prices and conditions.

Many entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized companies are satisfied with a certain volume of sales and profits, but if their competitors incessantly increase their sales volumes, they will register important reductions in their costs and therefore they will be in a position to displace those conformist entrepreneurs, the which will begin to have as a relevant concern to be able to survive.

Even producing exclusive goods, the speed at which new inventions and models are incorporated compared to that of their competitors will imply being able to continue in the market or having to abandon it.

In a globalized economy, it either improves quickly or is sooner or later out of the market. Entrepreneurs and managers find that if they can't find ways to improve the most important issues faster, they will soon be overtaken by organizations that do. The question that these entrepreneurs and managers ask themselves is: what to do about it? And how to do to improve more quickly, year after year? The answer to such questions is provided by fourth-generation management.

4. The first three generations

What are we referring to when we talk about the Fourth Generation Management? To understand it, we must first know what the three previous generations are. In first-generation management, only the owner works, he determines his way of doing things, when and how to do it.But this has a very important level of restriction in terms of the volume of operations. Then the owners hire personnel who specify what tasks they must do, how to carry them out, in what time and in what quantity, this being the second generation management. The increase in the training of new employees makes them take another position. They tell the owner "what do you want me to do, how much and for when? And let me take care of it." The latter is third-generation management.

We can say that the second generation management presents standardized work methods, while the third generation emphasizes the objectives, which is called management or management by objectives. Management can and in fact be given with work standards and also sets objectives for its personnel or sectors.

The problem arises when it comes to achieving higher sales, lower costs, faster production times, decreased absenteeism, smaller inventories, fewer levels of manufacturing defects, and better levels of productivity and customer satisfaction. There are three ways to achieve these types of results:

Improve the system. Through fundamental changes that improve quality, avoid mistakes and reduce waste. This way of managing is in line with the philosophy of continuous improvement, and especially with the kaizen system.

Distort the system. Achieve the required results to the detriment of other results. “Do you want lower inventories? No problem!" Inventories disappear as if by magic, but with the risk of large costs in other operations of the organization. In some cases the system is distorted by the employees to comply with the objectives that have been set for them, and other times they are distorted by the company itself as a system to achieve results.An example of this is often the construction companies. They have a signed contract and an established price for the work, when the cost of some raw material rises, they place other inputs of less cost, thereby varying the quality of the work. I've even seen it in pet food manufacturers. These foods already had an established formula, well, if the costs varied, the order that was given was to "keep the costs as it was," leading to changes in the quality of the product. Actually, what should be aimed at is to analyze the manufacturing process and improve it by eliminating the different types of waste that all they do is generate higher costs.

Distort the figures. Use creative accounting. “We no longer include that in the inventory; it is registered in the books of our supplier. "

Which of these options do you want your employees or the company to use? The first, without a doubt, is to improve the system. But the vast majority of executives openly confess to witnessing many distortions, be it the distortion of the system or the numbers. Why? Because from the perspective of the third generation, employees and managers themselves are judged and rewarded based on the results.They are rarely provided with the knowledge and skills necessary to use the first option, often receive poor advice or training to improve a system, and are generally evaluated solely on the basis of results, not improvement. Hence, to achieve the required results, they resort to distorted figures and systems.

Perhaps these days the most resonant case is given by Volkswagen and the emission of pollutants from its vehicles. It all started with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which discovered that the automotive company Volkswagen had manipulated the operation of its cars to make up the pollutant emission figures downward. In other words, when vehicles were tested to measure their emissions they did not give an exact measure of what they actually polluted. According to the EPA, in real driving circumstances, pollution levels are 40 times higher. What was the fraud? In the abusive use of a test mode that is used precisely to test the operation of cars on static rollers in a workshop.This test mode is not bad on its own, and is used by many companies, but Volkswagen manipulated it to mislead the Environmental Agency and the California Air Quality Agency. Both organizations carry out their emissions tests by placing the vehicles on rollers in a workshop, and Volkswagen altered the operation of the test mode so that the engine worked in a regime with controlled emissions during the tests. On the road this control stops working completely.We have in this example a distortion of the system, where before a rule set by the laws and regulations in relation to the maximum levels of gas emissions, the company managers instead of concentrating on improving the production processes and the products themselves, focused his attention on altering the system to pass the emission tests. This clearly represents a distortion of the system as opposed to improvement aimed at satisfying legal and consumer requirements.

5. Direction from the perspective of the fourth generation

The world lived, lives and will experience rapid and profound changes. Today, in just a few years, we see more changes than our great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents saw in their entire lives. The world has shrunk, now it is possible to communicate or have news of any event on the other side of the world instantly. The distances have been reduced, in a short time it is possible to travel great distances.

Internet has revolutionized the world of communications and also of information and knowledge. Huge databases are accessible to billions of people. The products and services offered, their quality and their cost are known in a way that has never been feasible before.

The fall in trade barriers and the notable reduction in costs and times in terms of communication, such as transport, make the globalized economy feasible today.

Companies are no longer witnessing products with long life cycles and a limited variety of products and competitors. This context forces companies to have rapid product development processes, as well as make their production lines efficient to have the ability to generate a wide variety of products for the market. Here it is clear that it is essential to be faster than the competitors if it is to remain alive in the market. Speed to incorporate new products, speed to develop more efficient production methods, Speed to conquer the market. Speed to improve staff training. Everything today is speed.

It is in this new environment that directors, managers and supervisors must fulfill their functions. It is in this context that company managers must make decisions. A world with enormous changes. Today's changing market demands a transition to a new generation of executives.

Leadership from the perspective of the fourth generation recognizes the shortcomings of the first three generations and incorporates the appropriate methods to overcome them. They avoid the limited capacity of the first generation, the micro-steering of the second, and the distorted figures and systems of the third. Fourth generation managers attach great importance to results, but they know that they must be achieved by concentrating on improving the system.

Changes in the form of leadership. Changes in what is measured and how it is measured. Changes in working methods. Changes in the way of making decisions. Changes in the way of solving problems. Changes in what is reported and how it is reported. All these changes require a new form of management, also being the result of them.

6. Joiner's Triangle

Brian Joiner designed a triangle in whose three vertices the fundamental concepts that make the fourth generation management are exposed.

The first of these vertices, which is at the top of the triangle is quality. But what quality is being talked about? They talk about the quality demanded by consumers and users. It should be understood that the user is the one who defines quality. The company must become obsessed with pleasing customers and not content only with ridding them of their immediate problems, but go further to fully understand their present and future needs, in order to surprise them with products and services that they did not even imagine. In the aforementioned case of Volkswagen, the company set aside the quality objectives demanded by its customers, society and state bodies.

The following questions should be asked:

Do we know the quality requirements of the customers? Do we know what the needs and desires of the customers are? What is the level of quality that we are obtaining in terms of products, services, customer service and contacts with them What are our competitors offering that we are not offering What systems and working methods are in place to ensure and improve quality What are the costs of quality and non-quality? How high are the losses? generated by failures and reprocesses?

The second vertex, which is at the base of the triangle and supports the achievement of quality, is the scientific method. This points to the need to manage an organization as a system, developing process-centered thinking, basing decisions on information, where the possession and analysis of statistical data occupies a primary place, also knowing the variation in the evolution of data. processes and their implications.

In this regard, the following questions should be asked, for analysis and search for answers:

Do the objectives of each area of the company take into account the restrictions and possibilities of the other areas? Is there timely, low-cost and quality information to detect problems and make decisions? Is efficiency regularly analyzed of the different processes of the company? Are there statistics of the various aspects of the organization, both in its commercial, productive, administrative and logistical aspects, which serve to detect shortcomings, waste and make better decisions? within the limits specified as normal? Do the variations respond to factors natural to the system or to special factors?

The third and last vertex, also placed at the base of the triangle, is the existence of a fully integrated team. This leads to the imperative need to believe in people, treating all members of the organization with respect, trust and dignity; ensuring that all those related to the company, be they customers, employees, investors, shareholders, suppliers, managers and the community, always win and not just sometimes.

What should the director or manager of a company ask about this?

What is the personnel hiring policy? Are there personnel development plans? Are personnel qualified according to individual objectives or according to their performance in achieving the objectives of the area and the company? Suppliers are selected by prices or by total cost, which includes both price and quality, delivery in quantity and appropriate times, payment methods, among others? Are the needs and desires of consumers taken into account and users? are customer needs taken into account? (not only from the point of view of quality, but also of interconnection, delivery times, payment systems, among others).

Both when diagnosing the progress of the company, and when planning the actions to be taken, it is critical and fundamental to take into consideration each of these vertices of the triangle, always taking them together and not in isolation. Quality is always first and foremost for both external and internal customers, taking into account the quality required by them and their needs. From there, cover at least those needs. Manage the organization as a system, concentrating on improving the operation of its processes day by day, having measurements and statistical records for said improvements. Integrate all those linked to the company in said planning and execution, so that everyone gains from the common and joint effort.

7. Quality and productivity go together

Many managers and managers still have as a paradigm that to achieve higher quality it is necessary to renounce productivity. This is the result of the fact that for years it was taught that if one wanted to increase productivity, it was necessary to sacrifice quality and vice versa. In the case of some techniques, such as a more rigorous and frequent inspection, it is true that higher quality costs more, but this is still admissible today given the incorporation of work methodologies such as poka yoke and jidoka. Many entrepreneurs claim to offer quality, but it is a quality obtained by eliminating defective products at the end of the process, or by proceeding to successive adjustments and reprocessing in them until reaching the optimal product. Without a doubt, such a quality is expensive.And it is expensive because the strategy and quality system is inadequate and contrary to quality.Quality is not controlled, it is produced, in such a way increasing quality leads to a reduction in costs, since there is less scrab, less reprocessing and greater satisfaction of users and consumers.

Many companies are still managed under the old and ineffective paradigms. These companies do not hold all participants in the manufacturing process responsible for quality, but instead hire quality inspectors or managers, who are in charge of quality measurements, evaluations and management. Today this is not admissible, if a sector participates in a process and produces goods and services, this sector is responsible not only for producing, but for doing so with the highest productivity and quality.

Does your company have a Head of Quality Control? Does your company have a sector dedicated to quality?

Another non-competitive paradigm is to select suppliers based on prices, rather than on their total costs, which includes the quality and security of deliveries in time, form and quantity. What is the use of a supplier's price being the lowest, if it is necessary to buy minimum quantities to access said prices and those quantities force to incur maintenance, insurance, financial and administrative costs. What is the use of a lower price, if the payment conditions stipulate the advance deposit of the sum of money. What is the use of the lower price, if the deliveries are not on time or have excessive delivery times for the needs of the company.What is the use of a low price if quality problems force not only to reject the supplies, but to have to return them, not having the necessary material at the time of carrying out the processes, and all the expenses and costs related to the return procedures. Not counting that the quantities stipulated in the purchase are not met or there are missing parts. Yet even today many blindly continue to select by price, neglecting total cost.

How does your company select suppliers? Do they take into account quality levels, adaptability to needs, just in time delivery, intercom costs?

In companies that follow outdated and incompetitive parameters, the emphasis is on controlling the quality of inputs and machinery, but they do not proceed to control and improve the quality of their human resources, which are essential when it comes to improving the quality and productivity. The fourth generation management not only takes into consideration the development of quality, but also of human resources, which are the fundamental factor when generating quality, productivity, innovation and services.

What criteria are taken into consideration when selecting personnel? Based on what parameters is the staff qualified and awarded? Are there ongoing plans for staff training in quality and productivity?

Another fundamental issue is the lack of participation of line personnel in detecting the causes of failures, and seeking solutions, something that in modern companies is solved through the participation of workers in the Quality Control Circles.

Do staff actively participate individually and in groups in solving quality and productivity problems? Are there Quality Control Circles in the company?

In general, traditional companies suffer from a lack of statistics on both defects, as well as consumer and user complaints, as well as the factors that originated the defects.

Are there statistics on the number of cases by type of defect, the monetary cost by type of failure, and causes by type of defect? From the global causes of defects? Are there statistics on customer complaints? Are monthly reports based on these statistics for directors and managers?

The traditional company takes the existence of defects as normal, only targeting their solution but not adopting any type of measures for their prevention in order to avoid their reappearance in the future, which is why the reappearance of defects is constant and regular.

Are the problems and defects repeated? If the defects are repeated, are there improvements in terms of their reduction and severity? Are there training and plans for solving problems? Are there standardized systems in the company for the solution Problems? When solving the problems, are they going to the root cause of them? Are improvement systems applied? Are improvements standardized? Are there work standards? Are these standards met? Are they controlled? compliance in the application of the established standards on a regular basis?

In traditional companies that respond to the old and obsolete management paradigms, more resources are allocated to control than to prevention of failures.

How much is spent on control activities and how much on prevention tasks? Is there a management accounting that takes into account quality and non-quality costs?

Not only is quality improvement not contrary to productivity and cost improvement, it is essential to achieving the latter. Both at the government level, as well as at the level of business chambers, at the level of consumer associations and the companies themselves, all the best efforts must be made in the continuous improvement of quality.

8. Deming chain reaction

Dr. Deming strongly emphasized the great importance of quality when it comes to being competitive. For Deming, improving quality generates a chain reaction that leads companies to increase their competitive capacity. His teaching came first to Japanese companies, and once they put American companies in serious trouble, the latter took into account the teachings of the great teacher.

Deming made it clear that an improvement in quality leads to a subsequent reduction in costs, thereby generating an increase in productivity.. All this makes it possible to reduce prices, which allows the market to grow, guaranteeing the permanence of the company in the business. Only compliance with all the previous steps in the chain makes it possible to create more and better jobs. This is something totally forgotten or even unknown to Latin American politicians, who have as their only and fundamental response to unemployment the incessant creation of jobs in the public administration or the delivery of subsidies to companies for the purposes of the greater generation of jobs, when in reality these jobs can only be generated with more quality and productivity in business processes.

As a final result of this process of improvements and increased competitiveness, investors achieve an increase in profitability.

As long as managers continue to cling to the outdated belief that quality and productivity are opposed, they will be unable to accept the principles on which fourth-generation management rests. If we learn to cooperate, if we apply a scientific method and conceive the organization as a system, we will have the possibility to please all those interested in the company, offering them better quality, lower costs, less waste, higher productivity, better profitability and greater competitive capacity.

9 the organization as a system

The organization as a system is configured by a set of components and processes, which operate in a joint and interrelated way to achieve a specific purpose. The end must be clear and precise, and be pursued by all components and processes of the organization. In turn, each process and area will have objectives whose realization is necessary to achieve the common objective of the organization. Without a common goal, the members of the organization lack a frame of reference that regulates their actions. They operate individually, as fiefdoms, each following its own direction.

Each sector and process has restrictions, to achieve the best functioning of the organizational system it is necessary to recognize which ones are the same, and make decisions based on them A good example of this is that the sales area does not generate more sales than the area production can satisfy.Nor can customers be promised delivery times with which production and logistics cannot satisfy. Similarly, the payment terms to suppliers cannot be less than the payment terms to customers. The only way that this could take place is through the use of financial credits, with the costs that this implies for the organization. At the personal level, it happens in the same way, if individual results are rewarded we will have a lack of collaboration between the members of the organization, where each one pays more attention to their personal benefits as opposed to the benefits of the organization as a whole.

In all the processes of the organization to achieve the best performance it is necessary to perfect the system as a whole and not the search for perfection of each component separately.

In this optimal functioning of the system, to be truly competitive requires a true teamwork of the organization as a whole. Many companies fall into the void due to the lack of teamwork and optimal complementarity within each sector and process, and between sectors and processes.

All sectors must contribute to the quality and productivity of the company. The sales and customer service area must not only have quality in the way it serves customers, but it must also register complaints due to shortcomings in the products or services that customers inform it of, so that the operational areas generating the products and services make the pertinent adjustments and corrections.

Does the company have clear objectives and are these known to all its members? Are the objectives of each area or sector compatible with the general objectives of the company? Are the objectives set compatible with the real capabilities of the company? Is there a complement and support between the various areas of the organization?

Many companies fall into the trap of treating divisions as if they were independent of each other. By imposing limits on each functional area or each business unit, and then try to improve them separately.

Do the sales and customer service staff take note and record customer complaints about product failures of various kinds? Do staff make a regular written report of customer complaints, with details of products, customers, date and characteristics of problems? Do vendors contribute new ideas to the product development area?

10. Focus on the system

It is always necessary to consider the way in which each element of a system contributes to its success.

A fairly common attitude focuses on believing or pretending that the organization's problems will disappear if employees fulfill their obligations more quickly or correctly. This concept of improvement leads us to blame them for problems.

Making use of pertinent information and evaluating it properly has led fourth generation managers to understand that performance is determined, to a large extent, by the system in which employees work; Thus, the policies, processes, procedures, training, equipment, and materials used are the ones that end up affecting the performance of employees and consequently of the organization.

The ability, ability and motivation of the individual are important, but the role they play is less than was once attributed. Thus, when problems arise, it is better to focus first on other elements of the system: hence the well-known phrase “blame the process and not the person”. We have to ask ourselves, how did the process allow this to happen? Instead of who did the work?

Almost all problems come from the system or the process, and not from the worker. At the beginning of the 50s of the last century Joseph Juran discovered that only an average of 20% of the problems in production were controllable by the employee, therefore the remaining 80% depended on the system and managers were responsible for East. This issue is unfortunately something unknown and even left aside by entrepreneurs, managers and even business consultants.

For Juran, that a production problem was controllable by the employee, meant that the worker:

He had the means to know what to do.

He had the means to know what he was doing.

And, he had the means to close the loop between what he did and what he had to do.

In this way, Dr. Juran found that the most important part of the problems was beyond the control of the worker. Therefore, if employees always performed their jobs in the best possible way, only a fifth of all problems would disappear. The highest percentage of the difficulties is in the processes, methods, systems, policies, equipment, materials, something that only managers can change.

Are workers informed of what the work standards are? Are the objectives they must meet indicated? Are achievements systematically and periodically measured, controlled and reported to workers? Is compliance with standards audited? Are workers and employees informed of the differences observed between the standards and the recorded facts? Are they provided with training, empowerment, tools and instruments to correct problems, avoid their reappearance and prevent them?

Dr. Deming stated that according to his particular experience, more than 96% of problems can only be solved by managers, which leaves less than 4% in the hands of employees. Does this mean that managers should be held accountable for 80 to 96% of problems? No, accepting it would be tantamount to falling into the same trap again. The instinct of wanting to blame someone for problems and inconveniences must be overcome. Both executives and mid-level managers need to examine themselves to find out what forces them to act in a certain way.

Out of every 100 failures, the reasons that generated them can be found, on average 20 will be due to shortcomings or errors of the employees, the remaining eighty will be due to problems with materials and supplies, operation of machines, product design, design of processes, among others. Be that as it may, there will always be a person behind it, be it the one chosen by the supplier, the one who does the maintenance and repairs of the machines, be it the person who acquires the machines and tools, or whoever hires or trains the staff. What it really is about is to generate systems that limit, reduce or prevent the generation of failures.

As long as we continue to personalize the difficulties, that is, as long as we limit ourselves to finding out who is the culprit, we will continue to have them, because most likely the causes are not in the person but in the system. Blaming employees is an ineffective strategy to achieve improvement, great opportunities, the greatest advantage, is to improve the system.

11. Levels of correction

There are three levels to correct problems. The First Level focuses on correcting the product and sometimes not even on it, but only separating it from the good products that will be delivered to customers. It is the most expensive, as it involves scrab costs and reprocessing costs. No less pernicious are all the undetected failures within the organization, which will end up affecting customers and consumers, and therefore the costs of repair services, customer service, returns and losses of future sales.

Level 2 focuses on correcting the process. This implies improving the process that made the generation of failures or problems feasible. Any device installed to avoid failures is a way to correct the process, it is also a way to look for better methods, standardize them and train the staff to put them into practice. A very common way to achieve this is through the application of Statistical Process Control, with which it is possible to monitor the operation of the process and proceed to make the appropriate corrections.

Level 3 focuses on correcting the system. It involves changing the system that allowed the faulty process to generate the failures or problems. This leads to thinking about the root cause of the problems, and therefore acting on the real causes that originate them and not on the symptoms.

The challenge in system fixes at Level 3 lies in locating the causes and then taking steps to eliminate them.

When we talk about a system that is harmful to the organization in its internal processes, we are talking about:

Lack of a clear objective in the organization Barriers between departments or businesses Administration for rewards and / or punishments when goals are reached or not reached Reliance on inspection and rework to correct problems rather than prevent them properly

Not understanding that providers are part of the system; pitting these against each other through purchases on the basis of compulsory prices exclusively.

Improving systems (Level 3) involves overcoming these harmful and destructive practices.

What are the objectives of the organization? Are these known to all the members?

Is there horizontal communication, or is it carried out only vertically following the pyramid scheme? Is there freedom and confidence in each area to share problems with the other areas of the organization? Does the sector privilege the organization as a whole? Is it managed at the fiefdom level?

Are rewards or punishments applied to motivate staff?

How are quality levels that meet specifications achieved? Is the quality of the products controlled after the processes are finished, separating those that are acceptable from those that are not, for their disposal or reprocessing? Are systems in place to prevent the generation of failures?

When purchasing inputs, goods or services, is it only taking into account the price, or is the total cost taken into account?

12. How to make use of leverage points

Any system, no matter how large or small, consists of steps, elements or components that, when perfected, significantly improve the overall operation of the system. These leverage points are lower but their effect is very large.

Thinking in terms of leverage points is critical, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. There are organizations, divisions, departments and even individuals who delude themselves that they can manage twenty priorities at the same time. Presumably, these issues take precedence because of their potential impact on the success of the business. However, if you have twenty priorities, you end up having none. Organizations that are able to focus on one, two, or three of the most important leverage points are truly successful. For example:

Most customer complaints concern only a few products or services. Budget overruns are due to only a few factors. Most process defects or errors occur only in some of its steps. There are a few types of failures that accumulate the majority of detected failures; almost all revenue comes from a few customers or types of customers.

Thus, one way to identify the areas of leverage is to isolate the vital points from the rest.For example, it is necessary to clearly determine who the main customers are and which problems explain their dissatisfaction almost entirely. Those points will provide the opportunity for great leverage. In the 50s of the last century, Dr. Juran made it very clear the transcendental importance of this type of thinking in improving quality, giving it the name of the Pareto Principle. Juran pointed out that this principle applies to a wide variety of situations. He called it the 80/20 rule because consistent with his observations and tests, approximately 80% of problems are generated by approximately 20% of the factors. This involves making the difference between the vital few and the trivial many. That is, a few factors that account for most of the problems, the cost,of waste or arrears, and many other factors that account for the minority of them.

To see this clearly at a practical level, it is necessary to construct the Pareto Diagram. Rarely can we solve a complex problem right away. Usually we need to focus on some of its elements, and for this we use the principle and the Pareto chart. In general, we are more likely to be successful in concentrating on reducing the main cause of the problem than in striving to eliminate one of the lesser causes entirely.

The idea of focusing on leverage or support points manifests itself in two other ways when we try to improve processes: critical paths and bottlenecks.

The analysis of the critical routes allows us to reduce the completion times of a project or process. For this, it is necessary to differentiate the minimum times necessary from those that are not, so attention must be paid to reducing the minimum times. In this way, not only will times or deadlines be reduced, but also costs.

In relation to bottlenecks, the consultant E. Goldratt gave them the name of restrictions. They are those points in a process that limit overall productivity. Thus, to improve total capacity, it is essential to know how to manage the process (s) in light of their bottlenecks. There will always be restrictions in any system, the fundamental question is to recognize their existence, detect them and find a way to eliminate them.

13. Thinking focused on leverage points

Knowing where the leverage points are within the business is imperative when prioritizing short-term and long-term strategies. This knowledge allows us to focus on taking and improving appropriate actions.

Thinking around leverage points involves asking questions such as:

If we improved this point, would the number of customers who gladly buy our products or services increase significantly? Would the improvement in this point contribute decisively to consolidate the loyalty of our current customers? An alliance with another company to Making the most of this opportunity, would it have a profound impact on our ability to work? If the market changed in some susceptible aspects, would this affect our most vulnerable area? If we improve this,Would we decisively contribute to reducing the total cost structure? What are we doing this for? Why are we doing it this way? Which concepts or processes centralize most of the costs? Who are the customers in the Which areas are most of the profits focused on? In which area are most of our sales focused? What products or services are most of our sales focused on? For a given type of failure, what are the most common causes What are the failures where most of the quality problems are concentrated? What are the failures that generate most of the waste?What are the most important causes? What are the failures where most of the quality problems are concentrated? What are the failures that generate most of the waste?What are the most important causes? What are the failures where most of the quality problems are concentrated? What are the failures that generate most of the waste?

Oddly enough, most of the traditional managers and entrepreneurs do not ask themselves these types of questions regularly and systematically, for this reason their companies suffer from serious disadvantages to be competitive. Not thinking of the organization as a system, and by not paying attention to the leverage points, leads companies to not require or possess information for its proper management. How to plan, control, make decisions and take action, when you lack information and focused thinking on organizational systems and processes?

14. The PREA Cycle

In a traditional or non-competitive company, no measures are adopted to ensure the proper functioning of the processes, or the quality of the products generated, in the same way there are no established measures to ensure the quality of internal information in a timely manner. Nor are measures or control programs used to detect deviations, inconsistencies or lack of compliance with standards and specifications. In many cases, although controls are available, these are not carried out systematically or adopting a methodology that ensures the detection of deviations, failures, inconveniences and difficulties in a timely manner. And if problems are detected, no measures are taken to correct the root cause of them in such a way that they do not reappear in the future.

The PREA Cycle (Plan-Perform-Evaluate-Act) must ensure the competitiveness of the company through learning and continuous improvement.When planning, not only should the objective, the means and the action aimed at carrying out the business processes be taken into account, but it is also necessary to foresee that it may not go well, and therefore adopt measures to ensure that this does not happen, and if it does take place, the measures for its immediate correction have already been planned. The next step is to carry out the activities and processes previously planned, that is, Carry out what was planned. For a good execution it is necessary to have properly trained personnel to carry out the planned activities and processes. It is also essential to have proper supervision, for which it is critical to have motivational skills. The third step is the Evaluation, which will be carried out continuously by the same performers,by the internal recipients of the products, reports and services, by the areas dedicated to management and budget control, and by the internal auditors. The question is how to ensure a good and correct evaluation? And what and to whom to report on the results of the evaluation? Finally, it is necessary with the results of the evaluation, it is necessary to Act, which implies adopting measures to standardize the processes or adopt corrective measures so that the same deviations and errors do not repeat themselves in the future. In this way, the PREA Cycle ensures learning and continuous improvement in the activities and processes of the organization.The question is how to ensure a good and correct evaluation? And what and to whom to report on the results of the evaluation? Finally, it is necessary with the results of the evaluation, it is necessary to Act, which implies adopting measures to standardize the processes or adopt corrective measures so that the same deviations and errors do not repeat themselves in the future. In this way, the PREA Cycle ensures learning and continuous improvement in the activities and processes of the organization.The question is how to ensure a good and correct evaluation? And what and to whom to report on the results of the evaluation? Finally, it is necessary with the results of the evaluation, it is necessary to Act, which implies adopting measures to standardize the processes or adopt corrective measures so that the same deviations and errors do not repeat themselves in the future. In this way, the PREA Cycle ensures learning and continuous improvement in the activities and processes of the organization.In this way, the PREA Cycle ensures learning and continuous improvement in the activities and processes of the organization.In this way, the PREA Cycle ensures learning and continuous improvement in the activities and processes of the organization.

For those of us who have been internal auditors, we know what is the waste of resources when audits are carried out and the same problems, errors and inconveniences are systematically detected, which are reported and reappeared in future audits. In other words, the officials to whom the audit reports reach do not act to adopt measures designed to avoid the repetition of problems. You are always turning around the same failures and problems, which avoid improving the performance and productivity of the organization, generate multiple waste and are a reason for demotivation.

On the basis of the PREA, the continuous improvement process is carried out. Once a product or process is improved, new improvements are planned, which begins a new Plan-Perform-Evaluate-Act process. PREA is the essence of managerial work - making sure work gets done today and creating new ways to get it done tomorrow. The manager's mission is to make sure that they, and the employees, plan the precise work that needs to be done, follow through on the plan, study the results to verify that goals have been achieved, and then take steps to address deficiencies., to understand and not forget the lessons. Of the frequency,How quickly and effectively we comply with the PREA cycle will depend on the efficiency with which the work is done and how quickly they learn to perform the tasks and improve the processes.

The entire PREA cycle is important if rapid improvement is desired. But among all the steps it is the Assessment that favors rapid learning. If it is omitted, it will be practically impossible to improve. Evaluation is something that few organizations carry out on a regular or adequate basis. On the contrary, they are limited to the steps of Planning and Carrying out, and this planning does not usually have Prevention incorporated as an action aimed at ensuring the correct functioning of the processes and obtaining the correct products and services.

PREA, and the scientific method in general, necessarily requires new ideas about how to make things work better. Without them, improvement is not achieved. A fourth generation organization wants ideas from around the world, but there are many ways to thwart them. Here are some of the most listened to:

We've never done it like this before!

If it's not broken, don't fix it!

Keep it real!

In our case it won't work!

It is too complicated!

"That is so weird"

"We will never get it approved"

These statements restrict creativity from its origins, impairing the ability to learn quickly and, therefore, to improve in a short time. It is necessary and preferable to make employees pay attention to their work, formulate theories, try new ideas and dare to be creative.

15. Generate Added Value for Clients and Consumers

The Fourth Generation Management must focus on customers and consumers, identifying and eliminating from the organization all those jobs that have little meaning or value for them. When value of excellence is consistently delivered, customers become loyal “partners”. They always stay faithful and recommend the product or service. Making these objectives feasible implies knowing who the company's clients are, for this the first step is to identify the main clients or categories of clients. The next step is to know how the company's products or services reach customers.

The third step is to recognize which characteristics are most important to various customers and how each step in the customer chain increases value for the end user.

Detecting and eliminating jobs that do not add value and therefore what the customer / consumer is not willing to pay for is essential. In reality, clients live paying the cost overruns generated by the unproductive processes, the issue is that when competition increases and competitors are more efficient in managing processes, prices begin to fall and non-competitive companies begin. to be marginalized by customers.

16. How consumers define quality

For customers, "quality" is much more than the mere characteristics of the product or service they receive. They pay close attention to all interactions with the organization. The products and services that are sold are not only the physical object or an experience through which one passes only once, but all the services that accompany them, the toll-free technical help telephone number, the guarantees, the sale from needs, reservation services, billing, among others. In reality, you sell a "set" of products and services to the public to meet some need. Poor quality of services associated with a product can drive buyers away just as quickly as if the product itself were bad. On the other hand, if both the service and the product are viewed as a good value, you will create loyal partners who will love doing business with you.

17. Model of customer perceptions according to Kano

Any product or service can, according to the Japanese consultant Noriaki Kano, have three characteristics. Two must exist yes or yes, the remainder may or may not exist, and if it exists, it increases the customer's assessment of the product or service.

Necessary features. They are those whose presence we take for granted. We hope they exist, and for that reason, we pay more attention to their absence than to their presence. Thus, its absence bothers us, while its presence is indifferent to us. In fact, all the necessary characteristics have to be present; should one fail, we will be disappointed. Even when all of them are present, our attitude is no more than mere indifference. An example of this in a hotel cafeteria is the existence of sweetener.

More is better. We will be disappointed in this category, if a need is not adequately addressed, on the other hand, the better it is served, the more satisfied we will feel. If it is a product we can say that the greater the variety of car colors the better, and the smaller the variety of colors to choose from, the worse it will be. If it is a software for the translation of texts, the greater the number of languages incorporated, the better it will be. If it is about services, a difference would be given by the number of hours of attention to the public, or by the amount of health coverage that it covers in the case of a sanatorium.

Extra details. These kinds of details pleasantly surprise customers. They attend to a need that they did not know could be solved or did not think that someone would be able to. Because they are unpredictable situations, there is no negative effect when they are absent, but when they exist they cause positive reactions. As time goes by, what today is an extra detail becomes a necessary feature or more is better. Recently the existence of Wi-Fi in hotel rooms was an extra detail, now it is becoming considered as something necessary.

For the directors and managers of a company, it is crucial to know the necessary characteristics and “more is better”, that customers demand, and analyze how well each one of them is being covered. On the other hand, it is very important to add extra details that can make a difference with respect to what the competitors offer.

What are the necessary characteristics of your products or services, which are demanded by customers? Are measures taken to ensure compliance? Is their existence controlled or audited? Is customer satisfaction measured in relation to them?

What “more is better” characteristics should your products or services have? What measures are taken to ensure maximum customer satisfaction? Are such features inspected or audited? Is customer satisfaction measured in relation to them?

What features can you add to the products or services that are something extra not expected by the customer? Do your products or services today have one or more extra features that differentiate them from those offered by competitors?

When managers and employees understand the Kano vision, this theory helps improve their understanding of customer needs.

First, it helps them prioritize their work. Working to provide extra detail has little impact, if the necessary service or product is being neglected. The essential thing is to get rid of anything that annoys or alienates customers: these are almost always unsatisfied necessary features. Then we will be able to focus our attention on the “more is better” features and the extra details.

And second, the application of this theoretical framework should help employees avoid the mistake of assuming that the absence of complaints equates to customer satisfaction. Eliminating inconvenience prevents customers from walking away, but it does not, and will never generate, satisfied customers. For the rest, the absence of complaints may simply mean that they do not know about other products or services, not that they are satisfied with those that are provided.

Never lose sight of the fact that external customers are the decisive and conclusive judges of quality. Their positive votes will imply the continuity of the company, their negative votes will first imply a wake-up call, then being out of the market, or with a meager survival in profits and continuity over time.

18. Customer-oriented strategies

A fundamental principle from the perspective of fourth generation management is that nothing happens in a predictable and sustained way if mechanisms are not instituted to achieve it. Policies and practices, whether explicit or implicit, have a profound effect on the way employees make their day-to-day decisions.

Customers should receive value for the resources they deliver to the company. Value is generated by the company as a whole. Each and every one of the components of the organization participate and are responsible for generating value. Customers belong to everyone, not just vendors or the commercial sector. In order for the vendors to fulfill their function, it is necessary for the production area to generate quality products, at a competitive cost and in the time for which they are required.

The client must stop being a number or a name only to make claims for payment issues, to become a subject of respect and consideration. How many times have we all felt bastardized by large service companies, for which we are nothing more than subjects to whom they aim to sell us services, but when it comes to making claims we count little, not caring in the least about us estrangement as customers. Among these companies we have the classic telephone companies, not to mention cell phones, banks, insurance companies, among others.

How many times do you bill for services that have not been required? How many times do they fail in their services? How many times do they really show concern and deference to complaints? For a company in which the areas are not fully integrated, the problems always belong to others. So if the complaint is about a bad product, for the sales area the problem is in the production area, and if the complaint is due to bad information at the time of sale, the problem is in the commercial area. All areas work for the same team, and problems in one area end up affecting the whole. Companies that do not understand this end up losing competitiveness and the ability to survive in the market.

19. Reach a fully integrated team

In soccer teams where the strikers are only interested in scoring goals but little interest in participating in defense, their ability to compete and win is low. But in those teams where everyone complements and actively collaborates, the ability to compete and win is high. In the same way it happens in companies, there are no responsibilities for the areas only in what has to do directly with their function, but they must collaborate in the best functioning of the whole, only in this way will they be able to compete and win in the hard fight of the market.

For a company, the quality with which products leave the production process and warehouses should be as important as the quality with which they reach distributors, customers and consumers. For this reason, a company must be concerned both with its own processes as well as with the processes carried out by transport and distribution companies, their goods and services.

In the new concept of a fully integrated company, there are no sectors in charge of and responsible for quality, others responsible for productivity, and others for sales. Everyone should and is responsible for quality, productivity and sales. Although there are tasks that are specific to each area of the company, such as accounting, management control, issuance of checks, payment to suppliers, purchase of supplies and hiring of personnel, among others, quality and Productivity is everyone's responsibility, because everyone does or performs tasks in which they must be more productive, efficient, and meet requirements or specifications.

Regarding sales, although there is a specific area in charge of carrying them out, all sectors must contribute to generating products and services, improving quality and reducing costs, providing information on customer needs, demands and complaints, improving shipping within of the stipulated terms, courteously respond to customer requirements, complaints and orders, and proceed to a correct billing process.

Without a company truly working as a team, it will not be possible to beat the best competitors in terms of service, quality and price. The survival of the company requires sectors that know not only external customers but also internal customers. To improve processes, it is necessary to know the requirements of internal and external customers, in terms of quality, quantity, response times, costs, variety and safety.

20. Have fully integrated staff

If you want to know something about the company, take members of the staff and ask them "Do you like working here?"

From the answers you have and the reasons they give you will have a clear vision of how the company is managed. The treatment that employees are capable of giving to internal and external customers, and the concentration, effort and dedication they put into generating value, will depend on how well the company treats the former.

If the company treats its people with respect and consideration, and helps them carry out tasks, they will do the same with customers and with the company. Instead, if they are blamed for failures and problems, treated with contempt and lack of consideration, they will adopt the same behavior towards customers and the company.

Employees will not be able to give customers and the company the service and products that they should if they fear making mistakes, if they are blamed for problems beyond their control, if chaos prevents them from efficiently fulfilling their obligations, if they Decisions depend on the whims of managers rather than based on information and logic, or if numbers are given more importance than customers. Staff must be convinced that they are an important part of a team whose mission is to serve customers and consumers.

21. Management in a changing world

Intuitively, we know that nothing happens twice in exactly the same way. The cause of this phenomenon is variation. Conditions are constantly changing, the world is full of variations. However, few are aware of the important role that knowledge of variation plays in effective management. Variation is a kind of haze that reduces visibility, a haze that hides problems and real improvements, thus confusing our perception of performance.

One of the first steps of a fourth generation manager would be to find a way to make the problem more visible, that is, to better understand the current situation. Variation is not something mysterious and inaccessible. On the contrary, it has a multitude of signals that offer clues about what is happening, signals that are essential for a good direction. Knowledge of variation is an essential element of the scientific method.

Whether it is productivity levels, processing times, delivery times, customer and consumer satisfaction levels, quality levels, tool replacement times, times between breakdowns, times for maintenance work, delinquency levels, deadlines. collections, fund income levels, sales levels, costs, among many others, are subject to the rules of variation and therefore must be subject to control, correction and adjustments. The variations that are generated can be the result of common causes or special causes. All measurements are subject to variation and its causes.

Common causes are those pertaining to the system and its regular environment. The ways of hiring personnel, of training, motivating, controlling and remunerating them, the way of acquiring supplies, verifying their quality, their internal transportation, the type of machinery with which it is available and the way of carrying out the tasks maintenance, the ways of arranging the layout and the designs of the products, services and the processes that generate them, all these factors condition a way of working and of quality and productivity in the processes, with which they give rise to a series of average values corresponding to a series of measurements which are subject to a greater or lesser variation.This variation is typical of the operation of the system and within the control limits respond to the factors that are specific to the system and its environment.

When the variations escape the statistically called control limits, we are faced with special or exceptional causes. We also have special variations when despite being within the control limits, the value of the measurements is significantly modified.

If the workers are not well trained to do the tasks and the processes are not correctly standardized, we will see regular variations resulting from these problems, and these variations will be due to common causes. But if the inputs received have a high percentage of defects and are placed in production processes, the problems and variations that this generates will be considered as special causes. If the poor quality of the inputs is normal, then the variations will be great and their causes will not be exceptional and special but common, related to terrible purchasing and control policies. The previously released examples are linked to quality, productivity and costs. But all measurements are subject to causes of variations. In the case of sales,Common cause factors include weather conditions that influence public mood, delays in order processing if an office worker is out of work due to illness, fluctuations in consumer confidence, and so on. Instead the factors due to special causes could range from a strong increase in costs, or a price war, among others.

Processes with only common causes are stable or predictable; we could say that they are under statistical control. Processes with special causes are unstable, unpredictable, and not under statistical control.

In a situation of common causes, there is no such thing as THE CAUSE. It's just a bunch of little things that one day are incorporated in one way and the next day in another way.

Solving problems and improving processes and products requires that we differentiate the variations generated by common causes from those generated by special causes. Only on the basis of this distinction are we in a position to apply the appropriate measures. To make the controls and analysis feasible, use is made of the statistical tool called Statistical Process Control, being able to use this tool and methodology for the different processes related to the company, whether it is sales, collections, breakdowns, productivity, costs, faults and defects, customer satisfaction, response times, among many others.

If a manager asks the right questions based on knowledge of variation, distinguishing between variations due to common causes and those generated by special causes, he will have taken a great step towards taking the most appropriate measures.

22. Strategy to overcome variations due to special causes

When an event occurs outside the normal parameters, said variation responds to special causes and therefore it is necessary to adopt a series of measures designed to overcome it if it is detrimental to the company or to find the causes to consolidate the effects if they are positive for it.

The first step is to go to the scene or take note of all the statistical information that supports you.

The second step is to thoroughly analyze the fault detected in the product or service, check the background in case of collection problems, review the videos of tool changes if there are significant deviations in time, check the machines, spare parts, supplies, repair work. maintenance and use of the machine in the event of a higher level of breakdowns, and in the same way for all those variations classified as specials.

The third step is to take the necessary actions to overcome the problem.

The fourth step is to find the root cause and how to overcome it. And if it is a beneficial event for the company, knowing the root cause, adopt the measure for its continuity over time.

The fifth and final step is to standardize the measure adopted in the previous step to avoid the recurrence of the same type of problem, or to continue achieving better results.

23. Ways to improve a stable process

Brian Joiner proposes three ways of approaching process improvement. On the one hand, it argues that the variation due to a common cause comes from the interaction of a large number of factors in a process. Identifying which of them are causing the most variation can often be a difficult and time consuming task. In your opinion, in most cases employees have many ideas about what might work best, but there is not enough data to support this or that position, therefore the best way to corroborate it is through experimentation. Making good experimentation feasible requires first of all good ideas to be tested and second, of adequate techniques to evaluate and learn from them. What is considered a good idea? One that is based on a very complete knowledge of the needs of internal and external customers, as well as a comprehensive and systematic knowledge of how the processes work or should work. And what does the ability to evaluate and learn depend on? This depends on how well ways to judge the test results are planned in advance.

The second method proposed by Brian Joiner is to stratify. Stratification helps detect and eliminate variation due to a common cause by revealing patterns in the data that point to the source of the problem, by focusing on the right variables to find the contradictions that can be studied and explained. To perform the stratification analysis, you must have information about the conditions related to the data, such as type of work, day of the week, time, weather, region, equipment, employee and product. The use of stratification can not only be used to solve problems related to failures and defects, but also to improve sales and collections, achieve greater efficiency in processes and reduce costs.

And finally the consistent method of analysis. Applying this method implies studying the different steps of the process, who is involved in it, what machines and inputs are used, taking total and partial times. With this methodology, the analysis and improvement of working methods is pursued in such a way as to eliminate unnecessary activities or components, combine tasks, carry out activities in parallel, and simplify processes. It is not only very beneficial in reducing failures, but also in reducing time, improving productivity and costs. In the analysis, it is essential to focus on the following questions:

What is done? Why is it done? Is it necessary? How is it done? Why is it done that way? How else could it be done? Where is it done? Why is it done there? Can it be done elsewhere? When is it done? Why is it done at that time and not at another? Is it possible to do it at another time? Who does it? Why is this person doing it and not someone else? What skills and attitudes do you need to have to do the job?

It is also important to apply a sequence of at least five why questions, in order to get to the root cause of the problems or favorable variations. The search for the root cause avoids acting only on the symptoms, reaching the first cause or last reason for the variations.

24. Reengineering and Continuous Improvement

Adapting the company to the new needs of the market and making it suitable to compete requires profound changes that make this feasible. Changes from scratch that allow the company to have the most suitable processes to face the best competitors are called process reengineering. Many times these reengineering involve high investments in software and hardware, with all that it means adjusting and training staff in the use of new IT tools. It is advisable in these cases and for the purpose of achieving success, to apply more creativity and the full participation of the personnel in the search and application of the best solutions, than to incur in reengineering whose success is not guaranteed. The important thing is to adapt and involve the company in a work philosophy,and not merely importing solutions from the outside.

Reengineering is just the first step, the processes and activities of the company need a system of continuous improvement that prevents both the setback and the degradation in time of the new ways of carrying out the work. Nothing escapes the need for continuous improvement, from sectors, through processes and activities, and products and services, both for internal and external customers.

25. Conclusions

The best way to jump to conclusions is to ask yourself what's new in all of it? To which it is worth answering:

First, the need to focus on the customer, on their current and future needs. Many or all claim to comply with it, but at the time of severe analysis very few companies comply with it.

Second. Manage the company by focusing on it as a system in which its various components are interrelated and it is necessary to take this into consideration when making decisions and analyzing problems.

Third. Think about the company from its processes. See the processes as consumers of different types of inputs, provided externally or internally, and providers of different types of products or services, either for other company processes or for external clients. Each process of the company must know what the requirements of its customers are, and must be clear about its objectives in terms of costs, quality, satisfaction levels and delivery times.

Fourth. The company to be managed must have data and information. The variability of the different processes must be determined and plotted, differentiating between common and special variations.

Fifth. Although something that has been insisting on for quite some time, it is necessary to emphasize it again, productivity and quality are not opposed, productivity depends on quality. Quality comes first and is the foundation of everything.

Sixth. Work as a fully integrated team, between the various members, sectors and processes of the organization, such as with the processes of its suppliers, distributors, clients and consumers.

Seventh. Apply the Pareto Rule, the Critical Path and the Bottleneck, to detect leverage points that allow sensible and notable improvements in terms of quality, costs, productivity, customer satisfaction, response times, profitability and inventory turnover, among others..

Focus on improving the system and its processes, rather than distorting the records or systems.

The implementation of the PREA wheel in every organization to lead it to continuous improvement of its processes and results, avoiding the continuous repetition of errors.

Tenth. Apply the Kano Model to continuously seek to fully satisfy the minimum requirements of customers, consumers and users, and detect new concepts that allow greater achievements in terms of satisfaction for customers and consumers.