During our last project which focused on the field techs, we talked about standardizing our end game so that we did not forget anything foolish at the end of the job and would not have a second trip.
The end game, as we call it, is the process of reviewing the job with the customer to sell the snap.
What is the snap? The snap comes from the art of shoe shining. There are three types of shoe shine. The first type is the shine with all snap and no polish, the second type is all polish and no snap, and the third is polish and snap.
In the video below, you see a lot of work being done to shine the shoe and at the end of the shine the master shoe shiner adds a little snap. With all the hard work done, it is time to leave the customer feeling good about the purchase. However, when there is snap there is no polishing so the snap must happen after the work is done to make provide the customer a "feeling" of excitement about the job.
How does this apply to countertops?
I spent three weeks in the field with our field technicians watching and studying all the steps it takes to put in premium countertops. What i discovered is that there are a lot of subdtles, and tricks of the trade that go into a successsful install. From bringing the tops into the house, leveling, preparing the cabinests, seaming, backsplash, caulking, and mounting the sink, the customer does not realize all the work it takes to do a complete and excellent job. So that is where selling the shine comes in to play.
We have used a checklist for years to make sure the field tech reviews all the tasks done before leaving the home. However, the form was often filed out with one big check or filed out back at the office. Not many individuals REALLY went through the list item by item.
In the process improvement project, we spent months talking about the details of putting in a job correctly in one trip and realized that the customer has no understanding of this process. We concluded that if we went over the list with the customer, the customer would understand how much work went into his or her job, have all questionable items or issues pointed out, all questions answered about care and use, and the field technician completely reviews the job before leaving the job site to minimize second trips.
This was the plan. At the end of the project, it was still a plan to be implemented with some eye rolling and yawns. The field manager/sponsor was tasked with implementing the plan. One team lead came back to the office last nigth and said he sold the snap and it worked. He had a picky customer and by the time they had reviewed the job the customer was a fan. Another field tech stated that he handed the customer the checklist and went over everything as the customer checked off the boxes. The second field tech also responded that he had great success. WOOOHOOO!
Little steps. The deadline for all teams to be on board is June 15, 2009. That is when I will go back into the field and grade the teams.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Finishing up the Sales Project
The customer expectation project was a big success. We did not fix all the issues, but did address most of them. And found solutions for a few. It cost about $12k to meet for 39 hours and the savings could reach about $750,000 if we can actually cut our cycle time from 60 days to 30 days.
Some of the main highlights for me were to clarify what the sales team is responsible for and what the scheduling and operations are responsible to do. Next, was to develop a vocabulary for what we do.
For example, we install countertops and backsplash, but we install three types of backsplash. First, there the Riser: Backsplash used for a countertop that fits under an elevated bar above the countertop. It often has receptacle cut outs and is measured to be a tight fit between the upper and lower countertop. It is not usually an additional trip to the job site.
High Backsplash: Any backsplash that is measured to fit exactly between the countertop and any cabinets, trim, tile, etc. It often has receptacle cut outs and is an additional charge and usually an additional trip to the job site.
Backsplash: A standard height backsplash above the countertop. It is not measured to fit or meet any above items or tops.
Fascinating! If we did not know the difference, how could we explain it to the customer????
Lastly, we defined what a job being ready means. This was incredible because we were able to understand the sales process like any other process. There is a standard and rework associated with a process. If the sales team leaves missing information or wrong information,then rework or poor quality enters the system.
It was very nice for sales and operations to have a structured dialogue about feelings and perceptions of the problems.
The rest of the post is from the closing report summary of the project.
Define
Problem Statement
The problem was that our sales and installation process was considered cumbersome and our customer communication weak as determined by a customer satisfaction survey. There is confusion between sales and operations because of unclear responsibilities. 4 out of 39 jobs or 10% of the jobs require rework because of failure to meet customer expectations or a return trip because the customer was not ready for us at installation. This has an impact of $20,000.00 per month.
Business Case for Action
This problem causes frustration for the sales team, the shop, the field technicians, the scheduler, and the customer. It causes our process to be cumbersome and creates a culture of conflict. Each department will challenge the other and test resistance because it is unclear whose is responsible and accountable for what task.
Organizations affected by the project
The entire Trindco organization is affected by this project. Sales and scheduling have unclear responsibilities. The shop is rushing to collect missing information. The field does not have everything on site necessary to complete the job in the first trip. The customer experiencing mixed messages from Trindco and return trips to complete the job as well as rework of tops made to incorrect customer specifications.
Project description
The project’s focus is to understand how the current process works and to remove the waste in that process. The next step is to understand what areas to focus on for improvement. Measures will be created to reveal the extent of the problem and to control the new process. The final step is to implement the changes and monitor the change.
General time-frames for completion
The time frame for the project is October 2008 through February 2009. There will be 35 hours of team meetings along with about 70 hours of back office support work. The improve phase will occur in February.
Anticipated results
The anticipated results are many. The major benefit will be less infighting between sales and scheduling. Customers will be better informed and better prepared for the project of having custom countertops installed. There will be less rushing in the shop to keep jobs on schedule. The templater will collect better information for the fabrication process. The field technicians will make fewer trips to the jobsite because the jobs will have all the necessary items at install.
Measure
The value stream in which the process under investigation originates
The current state value stream map revealed that the process was cumbersome. Sales was spending an inordinate amount of time handling issues internally generated from other areas of the organization. The issues were coming from scheduling and the shop. Through the value stream mapping, the team had a better understanding of the process and the general areas that were putting stress on the system.
Process metrics
There were no current metrics for the area being studied. The team had to decide what metrics would provide feedback on the areas to improve. There were three metrics that were to be used. The first metric was cycle time from the beginning of the process, financial approval, until the end of the process, invoice complete. The first number showed a longer cycle time than anyone expected. The process was taking an average of 40 days for non box store jobs and 63 days for box store jobs. The longer cycle time for box stores were jobs waiting on cabinets. To minimize the effect of waiting on cabinets for cycle time, Trindco is going to mark the job ready after the job is ready and not after we receive the order.
The next metric is measuring the first pass yield of installations.
Data collection strategy to include how you ensured the validity of the data collected (e.g., Gage R&R, data audits, etc.)
Proof of data normality, process stability, and process capability
Analyze
Methodology for analyzing the data gathered from the process
The methodology for analyzing the data from the process is mainly counting defects. Either the job went in without a second or subsequent trip or did not. Either the customer was ready or not. Either the return trip is covered under warranty or not. For jobs with trips greater than 2, a count is made from the scheduling software.
Cycle time is variable data and is based on the company software program Moraware. When a job is ready for financial approval, a date is entered and when the invoice is done the job is marked invoice complete and date stamped.
Justification of the tools applied in this process.
The justification of the measuring tools is that the data is more objective. The reason for the return trip is slightly subjective in that a human is making the decision for the root cause of the return trip, but the reason for the return trip is provided by an outside source, the external customer.
Existing patterns, trends, etc. in the data and their meaning
There is not enough history in the data to explore trends and patterns.
Root Cause Analysis of the Problem Statement
The root cause analysis of the problem statement is two main causes. The first cause is unclear responsibilities and roles between sales and operations. The second cause is weak or no metrics.
Prioritized listing of potential areas of investigation
FMEA of customer expectation project
□ Too many calls to the customer = RPN 810
□ Unclear responsibilities between sales and scheduling=RPN 810
□ Schedule without decision maker on site=RPN 648
□ Setting customer expectation=RPN 540
□ Not speaking with one voice=RPN 432
Improve
Methodology for selecting the proposed solution to the problem and the related input(s) that it addresses
Based on FMEA, the team chose the top 5 largest RPNs. The tops five were 1. Too many calls to the customer, 2. Unclear responsibilities between sales and scheduling, 3. Scheduling without decision maker on site at template and install, 4. Setting customer expectation, and 5. not having one voice with the customer with respect to vocabulary and what the company can and cannot do.
Description of the solution implementation
The solution is going to implemented on March 2, 2009. This gives the team three weeks to prepare for the rollout. The sales team needs to be briefed on the changes and the new expectations for the team. The sales team needs to begin prepping the customers for the new major changes of a job being dropped from the schedule if the job is not ready at template, including not having a sink, faucet, cooking appliance spec on site at template, and cabinets ready.
The new responsibilities addressed the issue of too many calls by eliminating sales being the middleman between scheduling and the customer when providing dates and when acquiring information follow up information for punches. Scheduling will obtain missing punch information when dates are provided.
Unclear responsibilities were addressed by writing down which department was supposed to handled which tasks. The new responsibilities are attached in the appendix.
The decision maker not on site was addressed by clarifying why it was important and tracking how many jobs have no decision maker on site and correlating that information to our punch rate. The sales team is accountable for making sure the decision maker is on site at template and install.
Customer expectations has been addressed by clarifying what expectations need to be set to make the fabrication process run smoothly. The sales team is responsible for any customer expectation issues before the material is cut and the shop is responsible for issues after the material is cut. If there is an issue generated because a sales expectation was not set such as the customer is not ready and a team has to make another trip to the job site, then that trip is tracked in the system as a giveaway. If the shop/field has an issue that causes a return trip it is labeled as a punch.
In addressing one voice, the team is working on a common vocabulary for key terms for the countertop industry based on the Marble Institute of America and Trindco’s own preferred lexicon.
Before and after metric comparisons (graphical is not enough. There needs to be statistical proof).
The metrics to be used for comparison are as follows:
1. The first pass yield for installations
2. average cycle time from financial approval until invoice complete broken down by box store and non box store
3. number of punches greater than 2 trips
4. Number of jobs with giveaways
5. Number of jobs rescheduled for being not ready at template
The before and after comparison is in the appendix.
Control
Any optimization techniques that you employed to improve the solution mentioned in the improve phase.
No optimization technique was employed to improve the solution.
Reaction/Control plan that identifies out-of-control conditions and how to respond to them.
One of the key metrics to used in this project is first pass yield and the number of trips >2 to the jobsite. However, as part of the project, the definition of a punch has changed. A punch used to define any reason that an additional trip was made to a jobsite. Now, a punch is any trip after install before invoice complete caused by the field team, template or shop. Warranty is used for any trip after invoice complete that is covered either by Trindco’s 1 year warranty or a material/product line warranty. A punch-pay/service work is used for any trip to a job site after invoice complete and not covered by warranty. The term giveaway is used for any issue generated by the sales team, for example, the customer not being ready.
The team has redone some of the completed trip classifications for January and in February is using all the new classifications. The scheduler is responsible for determining the cause of the return trip.
Trindco is unsure what our current rate of warranty work, punches, punch pays, and giveaways are under the new measurement system. The sales manager is uncertain of the extent of giveaways and has not formulated a response to handle the problem until more information is available. Warranty work will be tracked and viewed on a monthly basis with the data being put into a Pareto chart. Punches are being tracked to the source of the error. The production and field managers are managing to correct the largest issues in accordance with the frequency of occurrence.
The cycle time goal is to reduce non box store jobs by 10% or 3 days and to reduce box store jobs to 45 days, a 30% reduction.
First pass yield target for the box stores is 90%, and for non box stores, the goal is 80%. The target for trips to a job site > 2 days is 5% for all jobs and 0% for box stores.
The measurement of jobs rescheduled because customer was not ready will be available after the project begins. The extent of the problem is unknown and therefore a control has not been established.
Sustainment activities necessary to be undertaken by the value stream champion/process owner to ensure that the change remains in effect
The sustainment activities to ensure that the change remains in effect are to use the new metrics to track the areas of focus. The metrics will be collected on a weekly basis and reviewed by the managers of each department and made available to all team members.
When there is a breakdown in communication or a new variation of an issue, the issue in question will be applied to the job responsibility standards to determine what and how to manage the situation or issue.
Cost reduction impacts
Cost to Accomplish:
• Team Costs $329@39 hrs $12,850
• Material/Equipment $ 0
• Total Project Cost $12,850
Cost Savings:
• Reduction in Overtime 200hr@$20 $4,000/month
• Reduction in extra trips 27@ $225 $6,000/month
• Reduction in remakes 1slab@$2000 $2,000/month
• Reduce Cycle Time (20box/ 6nb@$2k) $52,000/month
Total Monthly $64,000/month
First Year Projected Savings: $768,000/year
Future activities
The focus for future improvement events will be to look at the metrics and determine what the biggest causes of variation in the process are. One of the core values of Trindco is to manager more by fact than opinion. One major goal is to make sure jobs are ready for production and that jobs are done right the first time.
Once team Trindco can get jobs right over 80% of the time, the process will be considered out of chaos and a stronger focus can be on having shorter lead times and world class service. Future events will look to make the sales and installation process easier for both Trindco and the customer.
Some of the main highlights for me were to clarify what the sales team is responsible for and what the scheduling and operations are responsible to do. Next, was to develop a vocabulary for what we do.
For example, we install countertops and backsplash, but we install three types of backsplash. First, there the Riser: Backsplash used for a countertop that fits under an elevated bar above the countertop. It often has receptacle cut outs and is measured to be a tight fit between the upper and lower countertop. It is not usually an additional trip to the job site.
High Backsplash: Any backsplash that is measured to fit exactly between the countertop and any cabinets, trim, tile, etc. It often has receptacle cut outs and is an additional charge and usually an additional trip to the job site.
Backsplash: A standard height backsplash above the countertop. It is not measured to fit or meet any above items or tops.
Fascinating! If we did not know the difference, how could we explain it to the customer????
Lastly, we defined what a job being ready means. This was incredible because we were able to understand the sales process like any other process. There is a standard and rework associated with a process. If the sales team leaves missing information or wrong information,then rework or poor quality enters the system.
It was very nice for sales and operations to have a structured dialogue about feelings and perceptions of the problems.
The rest of the post is from the closing report summary of the project.
Define
Problem Statement
The problem was that our sales and installation process was considered cumbersome and our customer communication weak as determined by a customer satisfaction survey. There is confusion between sales and operations because of unclear responsibilities. 4 out of 39 jobs or 10% of the jobs require rework because of failure to meet customer expectations or a return trip because the customer was not ready for us at installation. This has an impact of $20,000.00 per month.
Business Case for Action
This problem causes frustration for the sales team, the shop, the field technicians, the scheduler, and the customer. It causes our process to be cumbersome and creates a culture of conflict. Each department will challenge the other and test resistance because it is unclear whose is responsible and accountable for what task.
Organizations affected by the project
The entire Trindco organization is affected by this project. Sales and scheduling have unclear responsibilities. The shop is rushing to collect missing information. The field does not have everything on site necessary to complete the job in the first trip. The customer experiencing mixed messages from Trindco and return trips to complete the job as well as rework of tops made to incorrect customer specifications.
Project description
The project’s focus is to understand how the current process works and to remove the waste in that process. The next step is to understand what areas to focus on for improvement. Measures will be created to reveal the extent of the problem and to control the new process. The final step is to implement the changes and monitor the change.
General time-frames for completion
The time frame for the project is October 2008 through February 2009. There will be 35 hours of team meetings along with about 70 hours of back office support work. The improve phase will occur in February.
Anticipated results
The anticipated results are many. The major benefit will be less infighting between sales and scheduling. Customers will be better informed and better prepared for the project of having custom countertops installed. There will be less rushing in the shop to keep jobs on schedule. The templater will collect better information for the fabrication process. The field technicians will make fewer trips to the jobsite because the jobs will have all the necessary items at install.
Measure
The value stream in which the process under investigation originates
The current state value stream map revealed that the process was cumbersome. Sales was spending an inordinate amount of time handling issues internally generated from other areas of the organization. The issues were coming from scheduling and the shop. Through the value stream mapping, the team had a better understanding of the process and the general areas that were putting stress on the system.
Process metrics
There were no current metrics for the area being studied. The team had to decide what metrics would provide feedback on the areas to improve. There were three metrics that were to be used. The first metric was cycle time from the beginning of the process, financial approval, until the end of the process, invoice complete. The first number showed a longer cycle time than anyone expected. The process was taking an average of 40 days for non box store jobs and 63 days for box store jobs. The longer cycle time for box stores were jobs waiting on cabinets. To minimize the effect of waiting on cabinets for cycle time, Trindco is going to mark the job ready after the job is ready and not after we receive the order.
The next metric is measuring the first pass yield of installations.
Data collection strategy to include how you ensured the validity of the data collected (e.g., Gage R&R, data audits, etc.)
Proof of data normality, process stability, and process capability
Analyze
Methodology for analyzing the data gathered from the process
The methodology for analyzing the data from the process is mainly counting defects. Either the job went in without a second or subsequent trip or did not. Either the customer was ready or not. Either the return trip is covered under warranty or not. For jobs with trips greater than 2, a count is made from the scheduling software.
Cycle time is variable data and is based on the company software program Moraware. When a job is ready for financial approval, a date is entered and when the invoice is done the job is marked invoice complete and date stamped.
Justification of the tools applied in this process.
The justification of the measuring tools is that the data is more objective. The reason for the return trip is slightly subjective in that a human is making the decision for the root cause of the return trip, but the reason for the return trip is provided by an outside source, the external customer.
Existing patterns, trends, etc. in the data and their meaning
There is not enough history in the data to explore trends and patterns.
Root Cause Analysis of the Problem Statement
The root cause analysis of the problem statement is two main causes. The first cause is unclear responsibilities and roles between sales and operations. The second cause is weak or no metrics.
Prioritized listing of potential areas of investigation
FMEA of customer expectation project
□ Too many calls to the customer = RPN 810
□ Unclear responsibilities between sales and scheduling=RPN 810
□ Schedule without decision maker on site=RPN 648
□ Setting customer expectation=RPN 540
□ Not speaking with one voice=RPN 432
Improve
Methodology for selecting the proposed solution to the problem and the related input(s) that it addresses
Based on FMEA, the team chose the top 5 largest RPNs. The tops five were 1. Too many calls to the customer, 2. Unclear responsibilities between sales and scheduling, 3. Scheduling without decision maker on site at template and install, 4. Setting customer expectation, and 5. not having one voice with the customer with respect to vocabulary and what the company can and cannot do.
Description of the solution implementation
The solution is going to implemented on March 2, 2009. This gives the team three weeks to prepare for the rollout. The sales team needs to be briefed on the changes and the new expectations for the team. The sales team needs to begin prepping the customers for the new major changes of a job being dropped from the schedule if the job is not ready at template, including not having a sink, faucet, cooking appliance spec on site at template, and cabinets ready.
The new responsibilities addressed the issue of too many calls by eliminating sales being the middleman between scheduling and the customer when providing dates and when acquiring information follow up information for punches. Scheduling will obtain missing punch information when dates are provided.
Unclear responsibilities were addressed by writing down which department was supposed to handled which tasks. The new responsibilities are attached in the appendix.
The decision maker not on site was addressed by clarifying why it was important and tracking how many jobs have no decision maker on site and correlating that information to our punch rate. The sales team is accountable for making sure the decision maker is on site at template and install.
Customer expectations has been addressed by clarifying what expectations need to be set to make the fabrication process run smoothly. The sales team is responsible for any customer expectation issues before the material is cut and the shop is responsible for issues after the material is cut. If there is an issue generated because a sales expectation was not set such as the customer is not ready and a team has to make another trip to the job site, then that trip is tracked in the system as a giveaway. If the shop/field has an issue that causes a return trip it is labeled as a punch.
In addressing one voice, the team is working on a common vocabulary for key terms for the countertop industry based on the Marble Institute of America and Trindco’s own preferred lexicon.
Before and after metric comparisons (graphical is not enough. There needs to be statistical proof).
The metrics to be used for comparison are as follows:
1. The first pass yield for installations
2. average cycle time from financial approval until invoice complete broken down by box store and non box store
3. number of punches greater than 2 trips
4. Number of jobs with giveaways
5. Number of jobs rescheduled for being not ready at template
The before and after comparison is in the appendix.
Control
Any optimization techniques that you employed to improve the solution mentioned in the improve phase.
No optimization technique was employed to improve the solution.
Reaction/Control plan that identifies out-of-control conditions and how to respond to them.
One of the key metrics to used in this project is first pass yield and the number of trips >2 to the jobsite. However, as part of the project, the definition of a punch has changed. A punch used to define any reason that an additional trip was made to a jobsite. Now, a punch is any trip after install before invoice complete caused by the field team, template or shop. Warranty is used for any trip after invoice complete that is covered either by Trindco’s 1 year warranty or a material/product line warranty. A punch-pay/service work is used for any trip to a job site after invoice complete and not covered by warranty. The term giveaway is used for any issue generated by the sales team, for example, the customer not being ready.
The team has redone some of the completed trip classifications for January and in February is using all the new classifications. The scheduler is responsible for determining the cause of the return trip.
Trindco is unsure what our current rate of warranty work, punches, punch pays, and giveaways are under the new measurement system. The sales manager is uncertain of the extent of giveaways and has not formulated a response to handle the problem until more information is available. Warranty work will be tracked and viewed on a monthly basis with the data being put into a Pareto chart. Punches are being tracked to the source of the error. The production and field managers are managing to correct the largest issues in accordance with the frequency of occurrence.
The cycle time goal is to reduce non box store jobs by 10% or 3 days and to reduce box store jobs to 45 days, a 30% reduction.
First pass yield target for the box stores is 90%, and for non box stores, the goal is 80%. The target for trips to a job site > 2 days is 5% for all jobs and 0% for box stores.
The measurement of jobs rescheduled because customer was not ready will be available after the project begins. The extent of the problem is unknown and therefore a control has not been established.
Sustainment activities necessary to be undertaken by the value stream champion/process owner to ensure that the change remains in effect
The sustainment activities to ensure that the change remains in effect are to use the new metrics to track the areas of focus. The metrics will be collected on a weekly basis and reviewed by the managers of each department and made available to all team members.
When there is a breakdown in communication or a new variation of an issue, the issue in question will be applied to the job responsibility standards to determine what and how to manage the situation or issue.
Cost reduction impacts
Cost to Accomplish:
• Team Costs $329@39 hrs $12,850
• Material/Equipment $ 0
• Total Project Cost $12,850
Cost Savings:
• Reduction in Overtime 200hr@$20 $4,000/month
• Reduction in extra trips 27@ $225 $6,000/month
• Reduction in remakes 1slab@$2000 $2,000/month
• Reduce Cycle Time (20box/ 6nb@$2k) $52,000/month
Total Monthly $64,000/month
First Year Projected Savings: $768,000/year
Future activities
The focus for future improvement events will be to look at the metrics and determine what the biggest causes of variation in the process are. One of the core values of Trindco is to manager more by fact than opinion. One major goal is to make sure jobs are ready for production and that jobs are done right the first time.
Once team Trindco can get jobs right over 80% of the time, the process will be considered out of chaos and a stronger focus can be on having shorter lead times and world class service. Future events will look to make the sales and installation process easier for both Trindco and the customer.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Customer Expectation Project Measurement
Black belt training has been great and good way to make sure that the project does not die on the vine. The group has been working together nicely and everyone has participated as hoped. We have been working mainly on clarifying what the problem is. Between our best guess and the customer surveys, we have concluded that our process is cumbersome and that our communication between ourselves and the customer is bad.
We have begun collecting data on how many installs happen in 1 day, 2 days, and more than two days. Respectively, we are at 70%, 20%, and 10%. It is clear to me for our next project with the field technicians that working on the installs that take more than two days is a priority. These are the jobs that we lose money on and cause great anguish for the customer and hurt morale for us.
Also, we are looking a cycle time. This has been a little more tricky since we have no way to accurately collect the data from the beginning of the process until the job is invoiced. The problem is that too many jobs come into the system, but we must wait for cabinets to be installed before we can do our part. This is skewing the numbers too much and we can't take those jobs out of the count very easily. We have settled for measuring from template to invoice. Currently, we are at 26 days on average. The minimum is 13 days. It seems high to me.
Lastly, we are measuring how many jobs come back without the decision maker being present for the template. I want to correlate this with the number of punches. I think they are related. But we just started collecting this data so we have no information at this time.
We have begun collecting data on how many installs happen in 1 day, 2 days, and more than two days. Respectively, we are at 70%, 20%, and 10%. It is clear to me for our next project with the field technicians that working on the installs that take more than two days is a priority. These are the jobs that we lose money on and cause great anguish for the customer and hurt morale for us.
Also, we are looking a cycle time. This has been a little more tricky since we have no way to accurately collect the data from the beginning of the process until the job is invoiced. The problem is that too many jobs come into the system, but we must wait for cabinets to be installed before we can do our part. This is skewing the numbers too much and we can't take those jobs out of the count very easily. We have settled for measuring from template to invoice. Currently, we are at 26 days on average. The minimum is 13 days. It seems high to me.
Lastly, we are measuring how many jobs come back without the decision maker being present for the template. I want to correlate this with the number of punches. I think they are related. But we just started collecting this data so we have no information at this time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
