Do you want a 20 to 25% productivity gain?

Convergent Results typically improves productivity 20 to 25 percent, and assists clients directing that gain to achieving measurable objectives. What could you do with a 20 to 25 percent gain? These percentages are predictable and based on concrete science underlying our business analysis.

An industrial engineering tenant says: In any uncontrolled situation there is fifty percent lost time. That’s half a workforce’s total man-hours spent waiting, performing non-productive tasks, performing the wrong tasks, and reworking what they already did. That’s a major loss of that non-renewable resource: time.

Industrial engineers (IE’s) describe the “hidden factory”. Lost time is not always obvious, hidden in “work arounds”. The workforce devises process loops or additional steps to get work done. In fact, a workforce can be quite busy (and worn out!) because of lack of control, performing all the “work arounds” required.

Further, IE’s explain the likelihood of lacking control is far higher in work situations that are not “machine paced”. That is, where non-standard work is required at irregular intervals, the likelihood of uncontrolled work is extremely high. The classic example of this condition is maintenance or highly mobile, maintenance-like work groups.

So what does “control” look like? It is a process, moving work from concept through completion, comparing planned to actual at “short” intervals. Key criteria are (greatly based on Deming):

• The process is documented and consistent across areas.

• Everyone understands and follows the process.

• Work is planned and forecast.

• Supervision is free to coach and follow up.

• There are effective measures of process performance.

• There is a formal process to identify and resolve process problems.

The process includes documented methods for work prioritization, communication, planning and scheduling, execution, review and problem solving. There are ten major categories of these process practices. Deficiency in any category reduces control, wasting time and costing money.

One example: prioritization. Numerous studies show that reactive work costs four to ten times what the same work performed would cost if it were planned and scheduled.

If a work management process does not clearly document how work should be prioritized, what work is of such high risk that a reactive response is proscribed, then a portion of all work performed will be reactive when it could have been controlled. If greater than 5 percent of your work has a priority rating of “react immediately”, then that organization either has A. very poor reliability or B. is spending four to ten times what they should for all work over that 5 percent.

Convergent Results business analysis will size the opportunity for individual organizations. Measuring current productivity, process integrity and compliance, our analytical tools will tell how much lost time can be recovered. Obviously, it’s not the full fifty percent described by industrial engineering. But the value is substantial when you consider the impact beyond the lost time. There can be a price paid in customer satisfaction and lost production.