Managing Your Link of the Supply Chain
By: George N. Wells, CPIM
As Managers of Supply Chains, it is often fun to sit back with our colleagues and discuss the complex issues of the “Total Supply Chain” and how it functions (or fails to function). However, at the end of the day, the link of the Supply Chain that you manage has to work well and be fully coordinated with all the other links in the Chain. Realizing this brings you down from the lofty thoughts of Total Supply Chain Management to the dirty, gritty, reality of your department, your people and your processes.
The Realities of Management
There are some realities about being a Manager that they never teach you in business school and your mentor often forgets to mention.
First among these is that “you cannot make anyone do anything.” S-a-y what? Nope. It just doesn’t work that way. Trying to make people do something gets mere compliance, at best. At its worst, you get sabotage and an intricate game of “catch me if you can.” The underlying issue is “motivation.”
There is a lot of literature on the subject of motivation as well as many courses and seminars for managers on how to motivate your employees. Unfortunately, all of the research points to a single fact--the only motivation that actually works is internal. However, there are two critical elements that the manager can influence, the first is to provide the individual with the tools to motivate himself and the second is to maintain an environment that sustains the individual’s internal motivation.
Abraham Maslow noted in his hierarchy of needs that “Once survival needs are satisfied, social and psychological needs take precedence.” Motivation begins with survival, i.e., financial needs of the individual and his family. The motivation to succeed and grow comes from within the employee. This is known as self-motivation. It cannot be imposed from outside. Any manager who attempts to do so is fooling himself. The effective Manager will help the individual find and satisfy this particular source of self-motivation. In order to motivate people, business processes must be structured in a way that enhances a feeling of self-worth, acceptance and belonging.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his book Flow, creates a catalogue of the elements that make up what I call “a good day at work.” These are:
· We can do the work without worries or frustrations
· We are in control of our actions
· We are affirmed by doing the task
· Time warps and we can “lose ourselves” while we are doing the tasks
Any Manager is capable of creating the environment that allows for the presence of all four of these elements. This paper will look at the dynamics of the relationship between the Manager and the individual who works under the manager’s supervision. The Manager will assist the employee thru the development of inner-motivation and help him create the environment of a really good day at work.
Defining Terms and Roles
What is a Business?
Peter Drucker says that “A business exists only in the contemplation of a customer.” This means that the customer defines the business.
Supply Chain – A Process Definition:
The Supply Chain is a series of processes that begin and end with the customer. Each separate process becomes the input to the next process and the output becomes either an input or resource to the next process until the customer’s ultimate needs are satisfied. Therefore, the customer of your process may be an external customer or simply the next process internal to your company.
The Process Manager and The Process Facilitator:
Since we are talking about Management, there are two roles we need to understand: Process Facilitator and Process Manager.
The Process Facilitator is the person who causes the work to be accomplished and moved on to the next link in the supply-chain. For example, on a very simple level, let’s look at the receiving dock. The process is to off-load a product from an incoming truck and get the product properly received into the company. The Process Facilitator is the worker who actually off-loads the trucks. That process is simple enough.
The Process Manager might also be called the receiving dock supervisor. The supervisor/Process Manager owns the overall process and has the duty to make sure that the inputs and resources are available for the Process Facilitator to do his job. The inputs include items such as any accompanying paperwork as well as the schedule for actual trucks that deliver the material; the resources include fork lift trucks, dock leveling plates, weather guards, safety training, etcetera.
Therefore, it is the Process Manager who has the role to oversee the people and processes inside his link of the Supply Chain. This administration includes making sure that all of the elements of the process are functional and working properly so that he can meet the demands of the customer of his process.
As the Process Manager, you need to understand that all processes have four basic elements--Inputs, Resources, Outputs and Controls, all of which are shown in Figure 1. Of these four elements, the Process Manager is completely responsible for two of them--Inputs and Resources as well as addressing the overarching issue of Process Capability.
The Process Manager must assure that the Inputs to the process are accurate and timely and that the required Resources are in place and available to the Process Facilitator. In concert with the Process Facilitator, the Process Manager validates and monitors the Controls of the process that provide necessary feedback to the Process Facilitator. (Further discussion of the Controls comes later in this article). Overall, the process itself must be capable of yielding the desired results, therefore, leaving only the Process Outputs as the responsibility of the Process Facilitator.
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Figure 1 – Basic Process Elements |
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Inputs |
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Resources |
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Outputs |
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Controls |
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So, where should you begin? I recommend starting with validating the Process Capability which requires a study that results in learning how the process “actually” works rather than how it is “supposed to work.” This task requires you, the Process Manager, to learn the day-to-day activities of your Process Facilitator. When you have completed this study, you are then ready to ask yourself a simple question: Can the process, in its current form, consistently yield the required Outputs without any undocumented efforts? If you have processes that are not capable of yielding the desired Output, your first job is to do the work required to make the process capable.
Unless you have been promoted from within the process, i.e., from Process Facilitator to Process Manager, this is usually an eye-opening experience. Most Managers learn that their processes, in its current form, are usually not capable of yielding the required results without extraordinary steps by the Process Facilitator. Generally, this inability is linked to lack of good Inputs and reliable Resources. Whoops! Those two elements land in your lap. That means you have to do something to rectify the situation.
Sometimes, lack of capability is traced to a lack of Facilitator ability. Even though s/he is your largest asset, a Facilitator with inadequate skills can become a training issue, and that is a Resource requirement of the process. In addition s/he may already know what is wrong with the process and, will be more than willing to tell you, just so long as you don’t accuse him of “whining.” Don’t forget, that obtaining the appropriate training for him so that s/he can perform his required skills, is your job, thereby making the process capable, ending a lot of your personal headache when dealt with in the other links in the Supply Chain.
Following is an example from my own experience: A planner required valid order data, consisting of: accurate information, with solid due dates, loaded to the ERP system in a timely manner. The real condition was that information was not entered in a timely manner and the due dates were constantly being changed by the customer. The way the system had been set up, the customer could actually make changes to the due date up to the date of shipment! Regardless of the last minute changes, the company was committed to whatever the customer requested. Orders were cancelled, delayed, expedited, and due dates got pushed and pulled without any notice. No wonder the inventory and shipping performance in that company were lousy! In that particular environment, it was only a matter of luck and unusual effort if you were ever expected to be successful. Beating on the planner to “improve inventory and shipping performance” were just a bunch of words. We had two kinds of planners: those who were doing all that they could, and those that had given up in disgust.
Originally, the Inputs had been correct and timely, but due to all the changes, they now had a negative effect on the entire Supply Chain, therefore causing the whole Chain to suffer. What made matters worse; the planner didn’t have the kind of organizational clout to change the process to assure that the required Inputs would be both timely and correct. Does this sound familiar? If so, it takes you, the Process Manager, with more authority and organizational power to fix the process.
As a Process Manager, I was faced with going “toe-to-toe” with the Customer Service Manager. This was a big problem and it wasn’t going to be easy. It took a lot of time digging thru lots of data as well as presenting it in a way that did not threaten his department. And while I was at it, I didn’t want to get into a political fight. The analysis of the overall problem went all the way to the sales engineers who had led the customer toward unrealistic expectations in terms of delivery promises and getting orders loaded into our systems. In order to resolve these problems, I had months of meetings with my peer managers in other departments until we worked out an improved process that regularly provided good and timely data. Yes, it was painful, difficult, frustrating and astounding. However, in the end everybody throughout the Supply Chain who once saw walls between departments, now saw the relationship to the customer and the business.
The next reality is that the customer “isn’t always” right, an ideal that doesn’t always wash. Customers do pay their bills, they are demanding, and, as Drucker stated, they define you as a business. But, they, too, are human. They also make mistakes. They don’t always understand lead times, your capabilities, or where their processes have failed and now they require you to bail them out of trouble whether they are the “outside customer” or simply the “guy in the next department.” The reality is that you have to engage and educate the customer to turn him into a “good customer.”
Who are the Decision Makers?
Another reality for you, the Manager--you don’t make the decisions; you set policy. The decision making is done by the Process Facilitator. If you never thought of your role in that way, don’t be surprised; most of us like to think of ourselves as decision makers. The reality is that the Process Facilitator makes the “critical” decisions that directly effect the customer. The policies that you set are a guide to the Process Facilitator when making decisions.
Often, too many Managers try to anticipate potential situations and develop pre-determined decisions which lead to inflexible departments and never engage the creativity and skills of the Process Facilitators. Another downside of a pre-programmed solution is: when a new situation arises, pre-programmed decisions that are even slightly out of the strict parameters of the rules, lead to no decision at all. Good policies make it easy for the decision maker (the Process Facilitator), to make good decisions that are consistent with the rest of the Supply Chain without trying to make the Process Facilitator an automated execution device. Poor, vacillating, or non-existent policies make it difficult for good decisions to be made.
The Practice of Response-Ability©
In our use of the English language, the word responsibility connotes something imposed from an outside source. The most common usage is “…and I’m holding you responsible.” Response-Ability© refers to the process of building the capability inside the individual to respond to the ever changing nature of business.
A well thought out and used measurement is one where the Process Facilitator can effect change and is limited to the Output of the process under his control. A well-balanced set of measurements is required that reflect the offsets between different and often conflicting objectives. The measurements will also be internalized by the Process Facilitator who will use it as a way of understanding how well he is performing--feedback that is essential to growing in Response-Ability©. So, you, the Process Manager and the Process Facilitator get together and determine what to measure and how the measurement will take place. (Of course, the Process Facilitator wants a measurement that will indicate success at the micro-level of business). The Process Manager must assure that the final package of measurements have a balance of totally internal issues as well as addresses the needs of the entire Supply Chain thereby making the metric broader in scope. The measurements should also be structured so that the Facilitator learns about the process as he is implementing and making the decisions. Balance and fairness are the key elements. Adding these measurements to the policies you have set, will provide the basis for good decision making in the day-to-day world of running your business. In so doing, you will have more time for the important work rather than trying to manage the minutia of the business.
Maintaining Control:
Timely feedback that translates into a clear link between action taken and results achieved allows for learning. All agreed upon metrics of the process must come from the process itself and the way the process should run. In the final analysis: The faster the feedback, the more effective the learning will become. If the Facilitator fails to meet an objective but has been measuring him/herself, no shame is involved. If an objective is not met, and the Facilitator has not been measuring him/herself, then a purely external measurement, by you, the Manager, can cause shame to the Facilitator and all the negative behavior that can come with it.
Controls are responsibilities that are shared with both the Process Manager and the Process Facilitator. It is through self-motivation that the Process Facilitator will take ownership of the metric as his own internal measurement for his performance. Regular meetings with the Manager provide the Facilitator with the ability to tap into the expertise of the Manager, thereby improving his own performance. In Figure 2, I show the ownership of the various elements of the process. Ideally, an Output of the process should be specific measurements that provide effective feedback to the Process Facilitator. The Manager’s role is to make sure that the agreed upon measurement, links to the entire Supply Chain and not localized so that the Process Facilitator can “feel good.’
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Inputs |
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Resources |
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Outputs |
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Figure 2 – Process Element Ownership |
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Process |
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Manager Owned |
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Jointly owned Owned |
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Business Proess |
Suggestions: What to Measure
Here are a few suggested measurements of a planner and how to use these measures.
ERP System Action Message Completion:
The regular and timely execution of all action messages is essential to successful management of an inventory. However, it is a fact of life that the Planners in most companies are unable to respond to 100% of the “action items” they are given during one work week, many of which require urgent attention. This is often due to their lack of bandwidth or bad information. So, the Planner needs to be taught the most effective order of addressing action messages--Order, Expedite, Cancel, and Delay. (You may disagree with me with Order--Delay, then Cancel, but I will argue that “Delay” items will eventually be used, whereas “Cancels” will not). Together, the Process Manager and Process Facilitator create a list of the weekly action messages. The non-executed messages are listed with reference to why they can not be completed immediately and an action plan for the root causes of these issues is created. The ultimate goal of this is to show the Planner that s/he has the ability to respond to the business conditions that present themselves on a regular basis. Of course, some of the problems may come to the Manager because they are part of his Response-Ability©. In addition, there will be incidents where the Manager has to take action to fix an Input or Resource issue that is preventing the Facilitator from responding to all the action messages. Some action messages may be determined to be “noise level” and should be ignored (e.g., minor push/pull messages that have little-to-no consequence to the satisfaction of customer requirements). This can be a separate classification but also may lead to lessening the sensitivity of the action message generator in the system. The outcome of the review is a list of problems with actions aimed at preventing their recurrence.
Inventory Performance:
This is the core of the Planner’s job. The goal here is to set goals for inventory performance. I recommend the creation of an Inventory-Altimeter©. However, that is a very complex tool and the topic for another article unto itself. In its most simplistic form, the Inventory-Altimeter© is a process where the Manager and Planner agree upon specific goals for inventory. In weekly meetings, the Manager and Planner will track and discuss the Planner’s success in achieving goals, or lack thereof. Again, the Planner and Manager create a list of root causes and corrective measures that are tracked.
Shipping/Schedule Performance:
The goal of any planning operation is to fulfill the orders of the customer. This translates into the execution of material, production, and shipping schedules. In lean organizations, a Planner may wear all of these hats while, in larger companies, these may be divided amongst Planners, Buyers, Schedulers, and others. It is easy to track the completion of the various plans by asking the following questions: has the material arrived on time, was the production order completed on time, and did the product ship on time? Again, the process is to identify root causes and create action items. The execution of this is to track the completion of “scheduled” deliveries to various processes against the “actual” delivery. This can be anything from the delivery of the actual customer order to the delivery between processes as called out in the Master Schedule. Here again, the goal is to understand why there is a variation, document the reasons, attack the problems, and improve the process. Here again, this is a very complex process and the subject of another article.
From Manager to Coach
What I have been describing is a transition in roles from the traditional Manager to the role of being a Coach. A good Coach works to make things better for the person doing the task. The Coach and Planner review the performance of the Planner. Using a critical analysis of what is going well and what isn’t. Then the Coach and Planner develop a list of corrective actions that should improve the performance of the Planner. This is a trial-and-error process. We try something and it either works or it doesn’t. We adjust and try again until the desired results are achieved.
This process is made a bit easier because the good Coach is working from experience and his direction should point the Planner toward a better way of doing the task. It is important to note that this is not a one-size-fits-all approach to managing. The effective Process Manager puts the coaching effort where it is most needed. For example, Joan has excellent skills in managing inventory levels but doesn’t do well in meeting delivery schedules; whereas, Bill has so much stock, that delivery of the required item is always possible, but he is unable to get his assigned inventories under control. Each individual has to be addressed as an individual. General programs don’t work to improve individual performance.
One key benefit of this approach is that the individual isn’t coming to the Coach to learn about how he is doing. Because of the agreed upon goals between the Manager (Coach) and the Planner, the Planner already knows the quality of his performance. What the Planner wants to learn is how to get beyond the place where he is, today, so that he can become more Response-Enabled© in terms of the processes he is facilitating.
Keys to Effective Coaching
Probably, the most chilling words we can remember from our “childhood” are: “Get me the paddle!” Most of us have lived in a highly parental world with strong Parent-Child relationships. Managers, all too often, fall into the trap of being parental which is both an easy and a slippery slope. In this model, where you and the Process Facilitator share looking at the same data, there is the opportunity for the Manager to “dress down” the employee for failures to meet objectives especially if the Process Facilitator has not taken on ownership of the project. It is essential that the data not be used as a paddle to punish poor performance. The reason is: once the Process Manager takes the negative approach to objective data, he, rather than the Process Facilitator, has taken ownership of the data. Now, the Process Facilitator is responsible, but no longer Response-Able©. Once that connection is lost, it defeats all attempts to have him become Response-Able©.
The Process Manager uses the data to direct the Process Facilitator towards different approaches to the daily work so that the Outputs will improve. Like any scientific process, not all suggestions will work. That is how we learn--we try an approach, it doesn’t provide the desired results, we go back and try again, each time using a different approach and learning just a bit more that we knew previously. Over time, the process becomes stronger and more capable and the Process Facilitator gains in competence. Together, both the Manager and Facilitator grow in their own respective abilities.
I strongly recommend regular (at least weekly) meetings between the Manager and Facilitator to look at the measurements that are in place. An objective look at the way the process is functioning will assist the Manager when providing the Facilitator with suggestions about how to change the way the work is done. Over time, individual measurements will change as the skills of the Facilitator improve and he will want to accept more responsibilities. What you will have is positive growth.
Conclusion:
You, the Manager, no longer have the time to closely manage individuals in the minutia of day-to-day activities of a business because of much larger Supply Chain issues that require your time and attention. At the same time, the individuals under you, no longer see themselves as mere cogs-in-the-works. They want to be full participants in the overall process and add value to the Supply-Chain. The individuals whom you supervise want to become critical contributors and key decision makers in the world of business. They don’t require traditional direction as much as they need to develop motivation, receive guidance and assurance from you, their Coach. They need to become Response-Able© in order to do the work before them. We are living in an ever changing world of business. With your help, the results of your employees can be a consistent “job well done!”
George N. Wells, CPIM formerly of Bell Laboratories, is Principal of Ronin-Resources, a training and consulting firm dedicated to improving performance for its clients by focusing on the development of the people-ware in the company. George can be contacted at 973.361.1776 or via e-mail at sensei@ronin-resources.com . George is a frequent speaker at APICS Chapters in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions 1, 2 & 9. You can get additional information at his web-site -- http://www.ronin-resources.com