1. Introduction
An organization requires balance and harmony in order to exist, grow and generate positive results in the medium and long term.
An organization that loses balance and harmony in its processes and activities compromises not only its competitiveness but its own survival.
An organization, whatever its objective, can only ensure its achievement by committing itself to excellence.
Excellence in leadership, excellence in quality and productivity, excellence in costs and distribution capacity, excellence in planning and management, excellence in organization and control. Excellence in each and every one of its processes and activities, and excellence in each and every one of its members.
The fundamental question is how to achieve such a level of excellence. An organization that practices excellence is at the same time a highly competitive organization. And being competitive in these times implies having the ability and suitability to generate superior added value for both customers and consumers, as well as for owners, managers, employees, suppliers and the community in which it is inserted.
With resources always limited and in an environment subject to rapid changes, and with a growing number of competitors from all over the world, it is necessary to improve both decision-making capacity, as well as creative and innovative potential, continuously improving performance in terms of quality, productivity, costs, satisfaction levels and response times.
Today a highly competitive organization is an ASE Organization, that is, an organization that promotes harmony, simplicity and balance. If you understand the philosophy of the ASE Organization, you are in a position to deliver a great competitive "blow".
In the manner of martial arts, the greater the harmony, simplicity, and balance, the greater the defensive and offensive ability.
Moving with harmony, simplicity and balance, the ASE Organization pursues speed, creativity, quality and efficiency as a way of generating high value. The combination of creativity and speed in a framework of quality and efficiency generates an enormous competitive force.
The simpler the theoretical aspect, the simpler both the diagnosis and the implementation of the systems. An ASE Organization hates complexity, fights against negative behaviors, seeks continuous improvement through greater harmony, balance and simplicity in production processes, planning, controls and communications among other aspects.
Simplification goes very well with efficiency, harmony, and balance in activities, behaviors, and structures leading to better performance.
The most effective and powerful way to conduct a business within these guidelines is through Principles Management. If the principles are clear and precise, they must serve as a guide and map to guide and correct the daily actions that lead to greater and better results.
In an ASE Continuous Improvement System, disharmonies, complexities and imbalances must be clearly and forcefully exposed, generating corrective actions aimed at re-enhancing the capacity to produce added value.
Simple concepts, definitions and ideas are the basis and foundations of this philosophy of continuous improvement. The simpler the concepts and ideas, the easier it is to transmit and teach them to members of the company. The simpler the product and process designs, the easier it is to produce and the fewer defects will occur, increasing productivity. The simpler the indicators and ratios, the easier their calculation and interpretation will be. Simplicity thus becomes one of the central axes of continuous improvement. For each activity, process, structure, indicator, product or service we must always ask ourselves if it can be done more simply.
Simplicity makes efficiency, avoiding defects, increasing the speed of processes, reducing the margin for waste and increasing the levels of customer and consumer satisfaction.
Pursuing simplicity or simplification in systems, processes, activities and structures is one of the essential and vital aspects of the ASE approach.
In an increasingly complex world, simplicity is becoming one of the key values. There is usually a much easier way of doing things, if you make the effort to find it; simplicity doesn't just happen.
Complexity is ineffective and an unnecessary waste of time, attention, and mental energy. There is never any justification for things to be complex, when they can be simple.
It must be recognized that the absence of simplicity, balance and harmony in the organization and its internal and external processes and interactions are the main reasons or causes of the various waste and waste.
The clearer the concepts, the more powerful the philosophy, the more precise the objectives, the greater the chances of achieving organizational objectives.
2. Balance and harmony
Equilibrium constitutes preserving and maintaining equality of forces, speeds, and capacities, in order to make a better development of the processes feasible.
While harmony refers to a correct proportion between the parts of a system or structure, or to an adequate relationship between the individuals that interact.
It is therefore essential to achieve balance and harmony in each and every one of the components of the organization in order to avoid the loss of energy, achieving greater use of the different productive factors.
Questions like: is there a balance in the processes? Is there harmony between the various members of the organization? Is there harmony between the various objectives of the organization? These are some of the many that we can do to verify that very special state of the organization.
The lack of balance in the processes can be manifested in the most diverse ways, such as: differences in the amounts of effective working time in the different members of an assembly line, accumulation of significant quantities of products in process compared to a machine, speed of production of goods much higher than the speed of absorption of the same by the market. These are just a few cases that are quite common in traditional companies. Competitive companies tend to regulate their energies and resources in such a way as to make optimal use of all of them.
Detecting lack of balance in an organization is easy once people are properly aware, prepared and alert, allowing rapid corrective decisions.
Something similar happens with the absence of harmony. The contradictions, clashes, frictions and high levels of waste are a clear example of internal disharmony and of the organization with its environment. A company must be harmoniously managed within itself, as well as finding and maintaining harmony with its environment. Producing a good or service that does not interest consumers is a clear sign of disharmony with its environment. The contradictions between the actions awarded to the staff and the objectives set for them is a clear indication of internal disharmony.
Without balance and harmony, an organization tends to lose energy, waste resources, miss opportunities, and be unprepared to face threats. The absence of balance and harmony tends to magnify weaknesses and corrode strengths.
3. Principles-Centered Administration (ACP)
The most effective way to obtain and maintain the concentration of directors and managers on management excellence is through Principles-Centered Administration (also known as Principles-based Administration).
What does this consist of? What's your objective? How does it work? Its objective is, as previously stated, to allow a faster and stronger concentration to achieve corporate objectives. Achieving that speed and strength requires harmony and balance, and in turn achieving this harmony and balance requires concentration.
Managers must determine seven supreme objectives with the participation of the rest of the staff. Why only seven? Because it has proven to be, psychologically, the easiest amount to remember by the average person. There are seven supreme or superior objectives that individuals and especially the managers of the organization must take into account at all times when planning, organizing, directing and controlling a company. Focusing mental energy on these seven principles, through monitoring tasks, dashboards, group meetings and teamwork, greatly increases the feasibility of achieving high performance.
These principles must be clear, precise, feasible to be achieved, they must be motivating and generators of energy and cooperation, facilitating leadership and channeling the use of resources in the most efficient way.
Key issues when setting the guiding principles are:
- Achieve the highest quality or zero defects, in each and every one of the activities, processes, operations, products and services generated for both internal and external clients of the organization Efficient use of the time resource by all members of the company. The more productive use of time allows not only to reduce costs, but also to provide greater and better services to customers and consumers Detect, prevent and eliminate various types of waste and waste Achieve the highest level of customer, consumer, and customer satisfaction. employees, managers and investors. Keep the company in a continuous state of creativity and innovation, applied to both processes and products and services. Manage time wisely and productively, since it is scarce and cannot be inventoried.Its best use is essential by the members of the company, as well as by the company in its capacity as such. Concentrate effort and dedication in the pursuit of the best approach and positioning. Fight tirelessly for replacement of the company in the best location in the minds of consumers.
Based on these principles, the state of the company and its processes can be diagnosed, planning the changes, adjustments and corrections necessary to continuously improve organizational performance.
The mind and thoughts of all personnel, whether managers or workers, should be to think before making a decision, executing an action and after the decisions and activities carried out, determining to what extent they are consistent and comply with the principles organizational. Examples: Does this arrangement allow correcting the root cause that originates the defects in the assembly process? Are the personnel turnover levels within the established objectives? How good or excellent were the processes during today? ? Are all the activities currently developed necessary? How much waste is produced in the administration areas? What is the average time spent by sellers to make a sale?What is the added value in the production process for each hour of processing? These and many more questions and questions contribute to improving, expanding and deepening, the conceptualization and daily management of business.
It is this work of rethinking the company and its activities that will serve as a basis for removing stereotypes and putting obsolete paradigms in check.
4. The Six "F"
How much possibility of increasing the quantities produced do we have? How quickly can we adjust the models and styles of the products to the market requirements? How fluid are the processes? How reliable are both the generating processes and the products generated?
These and many other questions are the ones that the philosophy of the Six "F" tries to answer and solve. Fundamentals to standardize processes, reliability in processes and products, fidelity in terms of quality and standardization of products and services, fluidity of processes, fluidity in the reception of materials and delivery of products, strength in the performance of processes, and flexibility to adapt to changes in market wants and needs. These are the Six "Fs" to which this work philosophy continually tries to respond. When designing work processes or systems these Six "Fs" must always be present. Forgetting one of them or not treating them properly will result in significant levels of waste.
These Six "Fs" that we can call positive are opposed by fragmentation, braking and friction in the processes, which are called the "Three Negative Fs". Fragmentation as an organization of production processes opposed to product orientation, fragmentation as an excess of workers' specialty, slowing down in processes due to the existence of “bottlenecks”, friction that increases the terms in complete cycles Of production, friction as an effect of low quality levels or high levels of defects, are different ways in which processes generate unproductiveness or waste of resources. We must respond to fragmentation with defragmentation, friction with process lubrication, and braking with synchronized production.
5. The Five "D's"
If it is about pursuing incompetencies, unproductiveness and inefficiencies, we must never forget to bear in mind the:
- Waste, Imbalances, Discontrol, Distraction, and Disjointed
Waste generated in excess inventories, overproductions, transportation and unnecessary and unproductive movements, errors in process designs, defects in processes and activities, resources allocated to corrections, waiting times, loss of customers and high employee turnover.
Financial, productive, human and environmental imbalances. In other words, both internal and external imbalances consume excess resources, energy, time and capacities, preventing improvement of competitiveness.
Loss of control of the situation, both due to lack of foresight and prevention, and due to lack of monitoring of the processes and their final results.
Distraction generated by lack of control, lack of focus, unclear plans, and waste and organizational imbalances.
The lack or lack of articulation in internal processes, which is caused both by errors in planning and budgeting, and by the absence of authentic and effective teamwork.
It is not just a matter of detecting the different causes of incompetence, but above all, reaching the root cause of them to avoid their repetition over time. Continually trying to correct symptoms instead of the root causes is one way to create high waste.
6. The search continues for the "des"
Disproportionate, unfocused, unbalanced, off-center, unbalanced, disorganized, are some of the many deficiencies to detect, combat and banish from the company's structures and processes. Shortcomings that lead to problems both in production processes, as in marketing and sales, logistics, financial and personnel. Only by tirelessly fighting these anomalies and irregularities in organizational activities and processes is it possible to improve levels of excellence. Any of them motivates the lack of balance and harmony necessary for the best business management.
At every step, the directors, managers and supervisors in the company must ask and question themselves about how well centered, focused, articulated, balanced, balanced, and proportionate is each and every one of the parts of the corporation.
7. The Five S's for excellence (Five Se's)
Thinking and transmitting in a symbolic way, thinking and systematically organizing the company and its processes, synchronizing them, simplifying everything that is simplifiable and staying sensitive to detect changes, are the “Five S's” necessary to achieve excellence.
The high value-added generator worker in the 21st century is the symbolic worker, the synchronization in the use of financial, human and material resources is an indispensable component for lean manufacturing, simplifying processes, products, services, and controls and communications, is key not only to reduce costs, but also to improve response speed and increase user satisfaction.
Staying sensitive to change is a critical factor, much more so in an era conceptualized as permeated by chaos. Losing the sensitivity to capture the tiniest changes that occur internally and in the environment, can lead to loss of control (lack of control), which is extremely dangerous, if not fatal for a manager and his company under the current circumstances of acceleration of change. It is no longer enough to react in time and in good shape, it is necessary to anticipate change and even generate it to profit from it.
Thinking and organizing the company under systemic and organic patterns is one of the keys of the moment. Not knowing the interrelation between the different components of a system, and the reactions generated by each of the actions carried out, implies being able to make totally and absolutely wrong decisions and even out of context.
8. OMAC
Observe - Measure - Analyze and Correct is the new sequence destined to refocus, re-stabilize and rebalance the company. Faced with each error or flaw revealed through the observation process, an activity to measure the effects generated subsequently corresponds to then analyze the possible causes of the deviation or imbalance and make the corresponding correction. This is what we call OMAC, as an individual or group process aimed at discovering problems, finding the cause of them, identifying possible solutions and subsequently putting them into practice to correct the situation.
Training staff to improve their capacity for observation, measurement, and analysis, also training them in problem solving and decision-making, for subsequent correction work, is one of the fundamental objectives for companies in the 21st century.
Detecting irregularities entails both the sensitivity to detect them, as well as the ability to think in terms of waste, waste and imbalances. Once the anomalies are detected and measured, the subsequent work of analysis implies the perfect knowledge and application of the different management tools, to then give a privileged place to creativity as a way to generate new and better solutions to problems.
9. The Twelve Zeros
1. Zero Papers (High productivity in office tasks)
2. Zero Delays (Delays) or Waiting Times
3. Zero Faults (preventive and predictive maintenance / TPM)
4. Zero Accidents
5. Zero Defects (Six Sigma / 3.4 Defects per million opportunities)
6. Zero Inventories (Just in Time)
7. Zero Occupational Diseases
8. Zero Pollution
9. Zero Customer and Staff
Turnover 10. Zero Bad Debts (Credit Policy and Collection System)
11. Zero Dissatisfaction (of staff and consumers)
12. Zero Fraud
These are the twelve zeros that a company that claims to be truly competitive must pursue. It is no longer enough merely to have a high level of quality in products, and to have low levels of inventories, in these times and in the future it will also be increasingly important to be a friendly company, guardian and protector of the environment.
Making a company excellent and thus having the best workers implies offering healthy workplaces with low levels of accidents, that is, safe. This is so important for workers, as well as for the community as a whole. In current times and to come, companies must not only have their financial statements in order and form, but also quality standards, environmental protection, and safety. Companies that do not comply will have problems accessing bank credit, as well as foreign markets and the sale of products and services to state agencies.
Each zero has its level of importance and each day it will gain greater magnitude and value in the face of a globalized, hyper-competitive world, with high pollution problems, and increasingly scarce resources.
Losing employees is losing experience, losing customers is losing one of the most important capitals with all the investment that it implied to conquer them. Occupational diseases lead to higher healthcare costs, lost working hours, decreased productivity levels, a drop in job satisfaction levels, and greater employee turnover. Accidents generate immense risks due to the loss of present and future flows, as well as the social and labor risks and bad publicity associated with them. For companies, today safety is essential, whether it is air transport, drug producers, food manufacturers, or health service providers. The mass media make the slightest errors available to consumers like never before,shortcomings and risks generated by a company. Not only do the facts count, but also what is perceived.
Conclusions
Knowing how to ask the right question, and at the right time, is the aptitude that the manager and leader of the company of excellence must have. Without questioning anything about anything, it is impossible to perceive incompetencies, irregularities, useless paradigms, and incoherent policies.
Knowing how to wonder and ask about each and every step or part of a process is essential when it comes to correcting imbalances, eliminating waste and improving productivity levels.
In order to be able and know how to ask the right question at the right time, it is crucial to have an outline of the critical aspects that make a company competitive.
An organization with high levels of friction, lack of flexibility and fluidity in its processes, low reliability in its internal processes and products, and lacking an adequate approach, will not achieve the harmony and balance necessary for its operation.
Rethinking the company to take it to new and higher levels of simplicity is one of the fundamental goals of every manager, the greatest requirement of speed at the lowest cost requires it. Complexity represents and constitutes a disorder to be eliminated. Complexity is not acceptable in the companies of the new millennium.
The incessant and systematic search for the “twelve zeros” in the organization has never been more crucial than today and in the future.
Creating ratios and indicators, and proceeding with their continuous monitoring, will allow correcting deviations and imbalances in time.
The organization in constant search of harmony, simplicity and balance, constitutes the new paradigm of these times. Focusing on harmony, simplicity and balance, leads the company to achieve its full potential.
A company not thought out, not thought about, not reinvented and recreated, lacks the potential for survival, much less success in the markets. Regenerating, rebuilding and rethinking the company on an ongoing basis represents one of the main tasks for today's managers and leaders.
Leading a company is creating the conditions for the staff to engage in the search for new and higher levels of excellence and competitiveness through full participation.
Asking questions and getting it right represents an exciting new form of engaged leadership. These questions and inquiries must always revolve around the key principles of strategic management.
Managing a company focusing on principles constitutes and will shape the new way of making the complex simple, making the impossible possible, making visions a reality, and committing everyone to the mission, values and objectives of the organization.
11. Further reading
The Twelve Zeros - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2005
Critical Analysis - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.degerencia.com - 2004
Philosophy of Strategy - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.degerencia.com - 2004
The Six "F" - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2005
Simplicity - Edward De Bono - Paidós - 1998
Lean Thinking - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.winred.com - 2004
In Search of Excellence - Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. - Atlantis - 1982
Thinking Al reverse - Benjamín Coriat - XXI century - 2000
The company of the third type. A new conception of the company - G. Archier and H. Sérieyx - Sudamericana-Planeta - 1986
Monograph finished writing in Oct / 05
