Digital COPQ

I went to the municipality office of a metro city for the birth certificate of my grand daughter.

Process steps that I'd to take were as follows.

Step-1, For enquiry, I went to a window that was closest to the main entry. They directed me to the ENQUIRY window that actually wasn't visible moment you enter the office.

Step-2, On my turn at the 'window' that I was directed to (by the ENQUIRY window) 'asked' me the date of birth of the newborn.

Step-3, The 'window' danced her fingers 'takaa-takaa-tak....' on the keyboard. Kept looking at the screen while 'she' sipped some water reaching out for a sippy-bottle kept on a shelf a couple of arms away. Fortunately, she got the details online.

Lucky that the information from the hospital had reached the municipality office digitally!

Step-4, She gave me a printout of what she saw on the screen.

Told me to go to ENQUIRY window and enquire 'what next'.

Step-5, ENQUIRY window 'told' me to go & take a set of forms from 'that corner', fill name details of the child if naming ceremony is already done & then submit it to the first 'window'.

Step-6, I did so. Filled the forms.

Step-7, Submitted the forms to the first 'window' alongwith the printout given by her earlier. The first 'window' then told me to submit parental identity proofs online. And, to collect the birth certificate online "after the name of the newborn gets registered" two-weeks thereafter.

(Add a few sanitisation steps in-between!)

Step-8, All the above in about a couple of hours; home-to-back-home via the municipality office!

This of course, followed by the ritual of sanitisation & a full bath (the second one of the day) ... in another hour or so!

An hours' nap induced by the tiring drive under the scorching Sun!

Step-9, After getting up, I tried to login to the website but in vain! 

Another, couple of hours wasted. 

Perhaps the website was taking a nap then. 

Step-10, Now, I'm trying to get in touch with an agent and keeping my fingers crossed. 

The labor of the mother was easier, I think!

Worth researching the NVA and the COPQ in this so-called supposed-to-be online digitisation process?

Meanwhile, I am unable to understand the following.

- What was the need for me to drive 40-kilometers to-n-fro under the scorching Sun at 44-degree Celsius?

- What was the need of the ENQUIRY window in the process for the work that could've been told to me by the first 'window' itself?

- Is it that the process-designer of this digital process forgot to consider eliminating such NVAs (which is actually an inevitable step if a Lean-Kaizen-JIT Gemba-exercise is undertaken before any such digital exercise)? Or

- Is it that the VOC & the 3-D in the process (COPP, cost of poor processes) was not 'heard' adequately? Or

- Is it that the additional 'window' step was 'intentional' and on that particular day the intention got skipped inadvertently?

- Why was the sippy-bottle not kept within an arms reach (application of the orderly arrangement principle of Seiton, the Five-S system) unless of course she wanted some exercise by-design? A good thought if the latter was true! 

But, why was the ENQUIRY window itself away from the main entry door? (Missing Seiton because missing Gemba approach to Kaizen and the PDCA-audit of the Gemba itself post any such change initiative!)

About the location of the window itself, good that I didn't dare to INQUIRE!

I wonder the costs (Digital-COPQ) associated with such poorly designed digitisation initiatives particularly being during the COVID times, when in order to curb it everyone is on the journey to eliminate every possible touch-point! The Digital-Corporate-Yoga in its true sense!!

Abbreviations:

COPQ, cost of poor quality

COPP, cost of poor processes

NVA, non-value-activities as Wastes

VOC, voice of customer

3D: Dirty-Danger-Difficult

JIT Just In Time

PDCA: Systematic improvement approach Plan-Do-Check-Act

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Difference between raam-&-krishna tactics

Cost-of-Quality: COQ is a relative term!

Components of the Cost-of-Quality in Kaizen parlance are as follows.

1/ Costs of external-failures incurred due to failures at customer's end.

2/ Costs of internal-failures incurred in order to handle failures at supplier's end.

3/ Costs of appraisal incurred in order to inspect/audit the adequacy and compliance of quality and quantity of work, and the workmanship as well, as per standards/procedures.

4/ Costs of prevention incurred in order to undertake improvement or failure-prevention activities (as preventative/proactive measures) & corresponding education/training for the same.

First two components are the 'cost-of-poor-quality' (CoPQ) that are incurred after failures. 

Last two components are the 'cost-of-good-quality' (CoGQ) or you can say 'investment' required to prevent a failures in the first place.

The components, rather it's terminology, is relative and hence the  term Cost-of-Quality itself is relative! Use of the components may depend upon the context of the situation.

Is the statement: "If the customer needs to administer incoming inspection on his inputs received from the supplier then that's typically the 'cost of appraisal'!", made by a participant in one of my sessions, 'true' or 'false', for instance?

The statement is 'false'!

It's actually the 'cost of prevention' for the customer. Because she wants to prevent defective inputs from going into the next process. Engaging into inspection activities on the customer's own processes or processing activities, although it's a NVA (non-value-activity or waste) however, is the 'cost of appraisal' for the customer in order to prevent the 'cost of internal failure' in the customer's processes.

Whereas the incoming inspection on his inputs may be is the 'cost of external failure' for the supplier. This is particularly so if the customer engages into 'inspection', a NVA (non-value-activity) 'forced' on to her by herself, because of lack of trust (past dissatisfaction) in the supplier's quality and hence in the supplier's brand image.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Appraisal or Prevention! What's better?

In-process inspection inside a company is typically a 'cost of appraisal' for the company. 

Is the same true for a supplier, for her 'visit to customer for in-process inspection while installing the supplies' at customer's end as a part of the supplier's process!?

It's True, the said installation being a part of the process of the supplier company. 

It's, however, a 'cost of external failure' for the supplier if installation is customer's responsibility and she finds a defect/error in supplies while doing so. Otherwise, it's the 'cost of prevention' for the customer. 

In either of the cases, be it appraisal or prevention, it is a COGQ (cost of good quality) anyway as a part of the COQ (cost of quality)!

One may have to strike a balance though, while deciding upon spending on the latter, meaning on the visit to customer as a part of the process itself, especially in case of high-impact high-value industrial products. 

In any case, the COGQ in general and the other 'costs of prevention' in-house, in particular, may prove to be most beneficial and highly profitable at that.

Why not try validating this statement by calculating the components of Cost of  Quality, for a failed item that reached your customers in past!

Calculating the Cost of Quality (both the COPQ & COGQ), classifying the corresponding components as Tangible (Visible) Costs & Hidden Costs, and comparing them might help.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Mission Zero-Plastic!

Are dustbin bags, sticky bags, half liter water bottle, etc. banned?

Political posters in flex material are not penalised! So does it mean flex material is exempt selectively? Or is political fraternity exempt from discipline?

Do you mean to say citizens should carry steel vessels to buy milk, meat, fish, etc. all the way to their workplaces so that they can shop on their way back home after a long day?

Don't you think exempting branded packaged goods and foods in plastic is discriminatory to small businesses?

Such and many other doubts began circulating on WhatsApp as the plastic ban was announced by the State of Maharashtra.

If such confusion was expected by design as a strategy then it's a good move by the administrators.

Good because such confusion forces people to think intentionally as it has happened already. As a result, people have at least begun thinking of alternatives out of fear of punishment though.

But targeting to achieve any (Zero-Plastic kind of) result measures without enabling the corresponding processes in place always have had serious implications with associated costs. Time and again this has got proven by itself.

In Nagpur, for instance, out of fear some people got rid of banned plastic bags by dumping them in rivulets.

If such confusion, however, is by chance then there's a bigger worry.

Bigger worry because it might mean, there's a lack of well-designed time-bound plan, also lack of the design to execute the ban itself holistically expecting it to aim Zero-Plastic target! In fact, adequate design learning from others (especially from countries successful in handling the plastic menace) is the first step in any such project. Bigger worry because lack of meticulousness in such initiatives usually leads to sub-optimisation harming the nobility of the purpose itself.

Unless every stakeholder gets mindfully engaged in averting the plastic-pollution-menace and the forthcoming disaster therefrom, the costs of the short term approaches towards it will get out of control. There's a need to take a relook at it in order to scrutinise the blanket-ban, if any, if not done so already.

Better also to be innovative on making the recycling more effective. Not only does the arrest of the plastic need to be at manufacturing level but also at desire-based or want-based consumption level. A pictorial do-don't will go a long way in preventing the confusion among the users and the administrators.

In any case the Zero-Plastic target is an arduous task at least in near future since for some applications cost effective substitute is yet to get invented.

Sustainability of the planet is the priority number-1 but the ban itself needs to be sustainable for that!

Here's my 140 character Tweet plan of action (POA) revolving around the Kaizen technique: *MISER!

Be a MISER stakeholder on Plastic!

MINDFUL of enabling process to evolve Zero-Plastic result!
INNOVATE packaging!
SCRUTINISE blanket-ban!
ELIMINATE production!
REDUCE, REUSE! Collect to RECYCLE!

(*MISER: Minimise. Improvise. Simplify. Eliminate. Reduce.) 

Change is a hearty game!

I wash my cup after tea and plate after food almost immediately. As much early (JIT) you do so, as much lesser resources you consume. Because, they are easier and faster to wash with less water when they are still wet.

The other day I'd to do it with left hand because one of the fingers was swollen after clipping off my nails.

It was difficult for me because I am a right-hander.

Usually any change is difficult but possible. Try signing with your left hand if your are used to doing it with your right hand.

I'd to get the senior management team of a company to try this out the other day. The reason was their impatience on the change management initiative in their company.

It was just about a few weeks having begun the initiative. Each visit the managers would be anxious to know when would their subordinates change their work habits for the better.

Change management is about commitment to change self first (PQI, personal quality initiative). It's about putting in concerted and continued efforts during the process because it's more to do with head (mind) and heart rather than hands (physical actions) alone.

Listening to other's 'voices' (be it your employee or customer or any stakeholder for that matter) actively plays a major role in the change management process. It's not merely hearing but it's about hearing them tactfully and tenderheartedly... Hear-T in short! Active listening creates an emotional connect or a connection with their heart.

Mind (head) always connects a little later. Mind connects only after the heart gets connected. Heart itself gets connected if they see your concerted and continued actions towards the desired change rather than empty speeches and promises.

Their actions to change their habits as desired is the corollary thereafter!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Mosquito to teach patience
Voice of Customer

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  
What do you do when a dog barks at you?
How To Make A Difference 
Conscious Of Self-Esteem
Catch a Butterfly

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

5-S reality in Virtual world!

The other day an intern requested for an industrial visit with me.

Normally, it's good to test such requests to know the purpose, their commitment and their preparation. So, I asked him to self-learn through some blogposts before he earns the privilege of the visit. He did do it and earned himself the industrial visit.

Having got impressed by the learning during the visit, he seemingly continued his self-learning.

"Sir I was thinking one thing.. how can we apply 5-S to the I.T. (information technology) industry where everything is virtual?"

I like questions!

Questions show that the mind-factory isn't on strike!!

What's the virtual world by the way?

Conventionally, virtual is virtual if it's without brick and mortar. Hardly anything in this material world is virtual in reality! Even in the spiritual world... where it is subtle though!!  The so-called virtual world does have some hardware, at the least such as, say, computer and corresponding devices for the I.O.T. (internet of things). The office itself that houses the table for the computer, the pendrives, the central processor room, corresponding SOP displays and spares, et all is a reality.

Of course, a typical virtual world primarily may have virtual files. Each file may have some words written on it. The words do get realised if corresponding thoughts are in place.

Good thoughts emerge if mind is free of clutter. Unneeded thoughts are the clutter that the Seiri step of the 5-S can help get rid off. Just as it releases some memory (brain) cells for storage of the needed thoughts, similarly doing Seiri of the virtual files and virtual folders releases some memory bytes and gigabytes for storage on the hard-disk of a computer.

A typical screen design: layout and positioning of information, color codes on it, etc. to make it look aesthetically attractive, and yet functional in performance, difficulty-free with maximum information display with optimised space utilisation, itself is about applying Seiton principles effectively and innovatively. 

Accessing the information just-in-time (JIT): easily in a single click without any waste is about applying 1-is-better principle of Seiri. It helps to keep information live and realistic so that real time changes can be effected while responding to the customer demands rather than based on forecasts.

It helps to keep information live and realistic so that real time changes can be effected while responding to the customer demands rather than from stocks based on forecasts.

Excessive stocks usually tend to be obsolete warranting Seiri on it to prevent obsolescence.

So, like in material world, all the principles of 5-Ss are equally applicable in the 'virtual and spiritual world' as well.

I could write this blogpost almost instantaneouy in reply to the query by the smart intern because Seiton of virtual files and folders was in place on my smartphone.

The picture of the book page that is in this post was handy because of its PEEP on my smartphone. I could accommodate many such value adding files on the limited space on my smartphone because of the Seiri of the unneeded 'unlimited' things (WhatsApp for instance) that don't find space on my phone.

A typical software programme itself applies Seiri technique to eliminate unneeded steps. That's why you see an APP getting smaller and smaller in (MB) size as part of its continual improvement.

So applying 5-S in virtual world is about 5 things:

5-S of the corresponding brick and mortar,
5-S of the corresponding Hardware,
5-S of the corresponding software programmes so that they become leaner,
5-S of the corresponding business related Big-Data so that extracting information out of it is faster,
5-S of the Mind (so that it helps attain meditative state faster).

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: Please do consider sharing this post or sharing your initiatives on above lines in comment box.

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
One-Is-Better for JIT 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Can you do it like the likes of Suzuki and Toyota?

What is common between Maruti-Suzuki and your workplace?

A car every 12.5 seconds!
That’s what Maruti-Suzuki did in the year 2010!
There are plants around the world who may be making one every 1-second!!

What is important is answering the question, whether the corresponding plant are agile and flexible enough to adjust to the change in the rate of the demand from the market.

Yes companies like Suzuki and Toyota do it.
In their parlance this is called as running the plant by adjusting it to the tact time.

TACT is about ‘Time Allocated (by the customer) to Complete the Task’. During the process of fulfilling the customer demand, produce just-in-time (JIT) i.e. nothing more, nor less than what is desired by the customer. While doing so, their employees look for day-to-day problems as opportunities to improve and uproot the causes thereof to prevent their recurrence elsewhere as well.

In fact, not only Suzuki but many other excellent companies run their business learning from the TOYOTA (Kaizen Management) Way!

You can do it too!
You can create similar benefits specific to your business, customers and in fact for all the stakeholders as done by Suzuki and Toyota!!

The Kaizen way¹ of running an organisation is implemented there in a structured way.

Like in Maruti-Suzuki, Kaizen has improved quality and productivity in many organisations like Mahindra, TATA, etc. Kaizen made their processes leaner and faster to deliver in response to the ever-changing and pressing customer demands. It improved efficiency of (man, machine, material and space) resources, pruned  their costs besides achieving near-zero break-down, near-zero defectives and thereby near-zero customer complaint levels. All this is achieved at improved safety levels, reduced pollution and improved employee morale, motivation & involvement.

The journey (be it in manufacturing or service industries, from pin-making to air-lines or from hospitals to hotels) involves three stages.

First, the companies have to benchmark themselves against their past performance.
Then, they have to benchmark themselves against the best practices and companies in the world.
Third, the companies themselves have to become benchmarks worthy of emulation by others.
To achieve such a transformation, what is needed is making a beginning by transforming thoughts that you too can!

Also read a few relevant¹ blog-posts² hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

Footnote-¹
Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
When Safety Becomes Sorry
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis

Make checklists your friends 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-it 
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Footnote-² ... Other relevant blogposts
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis 
Will It Work Here? 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Does recognition really matter 
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
ABCD of India Shining 
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'? 

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

Kaizen to overcome procrastination!

Caught a Kaizen
Delayed procrastination

Shunned hallucination

My above Haiku reminded me of the following quote....

Hallucinations are always evidence of cerebral derangement and are common phenomena of insanity. - W. A. Hammond

That's what the state of mind I used to experience whenever I used to step into my office-cum-library. My library is full of books, some bound photocopies, some box-files full of scribbled newspaper cuttings, and some full of case-studies, some manuscripts (including of my own), etc. spread all over the office in various pockets.

Let alone the sight of it, mere thought of visiting it, used to put my mind in disorder. It used to remind me of the pending work, literary in particular, and drive me insane. And then the shortcut used to be to procrastinate!

One day I thought of an instant solution... that of committing to apply Kaizen techniques to become leaner that I taught to others.

Few years ago, on this decision, the first thing I did was to make the office itself redundant over a few years.

In the first year, I forced myself to reduce it to ¹/3rd its original size and rent out the balance.
I did it by being ruthless on some documents that I hardly touched over a few years.
I got the rest of them all closer to each other to accommodate in half of the ¹/3rd space leaving the rest ¹/2 for sitting (and for packing our publications for onward dispatch).
That means so far I was wasting space utilization by almost 67 percent.

Next year onwards I stopped going to the office as a typical office goer.
In any case half my time involves travel in field. Technology made it possible for me to work rest of the month from wherever I was even from under a tree.
That means I was wasting time in logistics.

What did I do to my writing work...... The series of books that were in pipeline! My blogs! Tweets! Facebook, G+ and LinkedIn postings, Haiku, etc. etc.

That's what it was for which were all the funny collections in my library.

First thing I did was to remove all the etc. etc.
I decided 'to be' only on a couple of platforms in social media.

And of course to be Theme-based on that.

That helped me to prioritize the things that I 'must and need to do' rather than that I would 'want to do'. That gave me some time to allocate for writing the pending books.
Here's also an answer to why I 'hide' myself and avoid some non value calls on me.

I broke the writing work into a few palatable pieces. I compiled corresponding papers from the library into smaller files and brought them home. Scanned some for some focused writing that I could do anywhere during travel as well. Mission 'Zero laptop and desktop use' allowed me to use EVERNOTE app innovatively for the 'office under a tree' concept.

After completing the writing work (including publishing some blogposts) the papers and files were discarded.

In short, I applied 5-S on physical as well as on mental processes.
I learnt to 'Switch-On' and 'Switch-Off' at will.

I split work into small pieces that could be accomplished in bits and pieces each day, if not each hour, enjoying booster doses of small accomplishments at regular intervals.

Some tweets and Haiku poems that I could write instantly got converted into blogposts. Both together got converted into Facebook and G+ postings with relevant pictures that I took during travel. Some blogposts got compiled into chapters for the pending books.

In fact I started enjoying living in terms small bites of a few minutes together in order to 'just do it now and here' instead of being bogged down under the pressure of a large project of writing a book over a longer period of a few years say.

I didn't worry too much about mistakes and grammatical errors.
Kaizen approach created multiple chances for me to improve in next PDCA cycle. I could for instance always revise my tweets as well as blogposts.

The process is still ON until I make my remaining ¹/3rd office also redundant!
No doubt it was with some failures.
Although initially I feared failures, I learnt to get over them by working on their causes and committing to work upon failure modes adequately next time.
The PDCA cycle of Kaizen allowed me to forgive myself in the process!

In short,

Be leaner. 
Apply 5-S.
Use technology.
Focus on priorities.
Break work into a few palatable pieces.
Take and complete one piece at a time.
Don't fear mistakes and failures.
Revisit... Be a learner.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Kaizen, even in air!
In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! 
Forgive Or Don't? 
Soon... Waste-to-Eat ! Sea-to-Drink !!
About my first book World-Of-Kaizen
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Take your career in fast lane! 
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!!   
That's How Morons Work
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
Make checklists your friends  
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers

Penny-Wise Pound-Wiser

Penny-Wise Pound-Wiser

Daily saving countless Water

Being an intelligent Miser

That's the Haiku poem I wrote at the sight of my dinner plate.
Actually each day I tried to be a miser and console myself that I'm an intelligent miser. 

I reason it out of being a so-called self-appointed "intelligent" miser. 

Why? Because I ask some "foolish" questions to every human activity that I see, rather, that "I probe" I should say. 

But I don't have control over some. 

So I be "funny" with myself, with what I've control over. 

My dinner plate for instance.
I 'want' a fresh one. That's my desire.
That's my healthy habit.
But can my 'need' be served by something else?

Can I choose a soiled one that's available from the kitchen after being used for its intended purpose in the cooking process? 

For instance, one in picture is the pot of balance quantity of rice and another one is that balance quantity of curd. 

One plate and one bowl stays fresh!

Also you can see an old newspaper used below the plate so that the table doesn't get soiled. 

Plate reused!

Water saved, waste eliminated!!
Economy for Ecology!!!

How many such activities and avenues possible in a day? 

How much time can be saved that can be used for more value-adding work? 

How much water can be saved each day?

Countless at times!!!

Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish it is to call the self so-called intelligent!

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall 

Take Habits For A Ride 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save ! 

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Not-Soon, Says Monsoon

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall   

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Functional-Aesthetics
Bust-wants, Boom-needs

Should one care for value? 

What You See Isn't What's Made

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore 

How To Make A Difference 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Crying? It's time to kick-it-off!

'What's on TV?', wife asked.
'Dust', the husband said and then the fight started.... I began my speech with this PJ.

It was a presentation in front of about hundred strong audience attended by president of the company along-with management team of it's business units (BU).

Presentation began with chief of one of the business units appreciating each and every employee from a pilot for their wholehearted involvement. In about four months time the process and machine's performance effectiveness improved from 65 percent to 90 percent. After him, his team began sharing experiences.

"Seventh month in a row, machine hasn't broken down yet", said the mechanical maintenance supervisor.

"And the machine will 'tell' us well in advance before breaking down", said the operator. "Post implementing the TPM¹, it 'speaks' to us as a child does to the mother".

"It's rare to see this kind of culture and sense of pride in their work": The finance head of the company couldn't resist temptation to voice his observations after watching their enthusiasm and before-after pictures of achievements.

Can money buy such a kind of engagement and satisfaction?

Message of the proceedings was loud and clear to the audience: Although Google might be a knowledge bank with sea of literature on technicalities of TPM there to be read and researched, generating such a kind of positive attitude and sustaining the corresponding improvement culture is a different ballgame altogether: The one of soft dimensions of TPM: The Kaizen culture that needs to be experienced to be believed.

This was a story of a TPM pilot and a couple of it's support functions covering about fifty grass-root level employees from a continuous process plant. The change had begun with their top management team going to shopfloor to find opportunities for improvements (OFI) and implement changes, the Kaizens. Doing this on behalf of the employees was to take the 3D (Dirty-Danger-Difficult) realities on the floor head-on and demonstrate leadership commitment.

Unlike the man in the PJ 'showing' dust on TV, that's the way to get others to proactively "see" dust on their machine and prevent it from entering it's bearing as also from breaking it down. That's the kind of behavior expected from managers expecting a deep rooted change in their employees.

And when people in power do so, their subordinates change the very definition of problem: There is nothing called 'problem'. It's just the absence of an idea to find solution just like there's nothing called 'darkness', it's just the absence of light. 

And when they focus on solutions rather than 'crying' of problems they 'see' more and more OFI possibilities (Kaizen-Teian). That's the beginning of a change in culture.

If you want to experience such an improvement culture then it's high time to be ruthless with self and ask:

How many times do I practise it myself rather than 'telling' others to behave?

How many times do I 'catch' others to give positive strokes (recognition) for having tried to make a difference?

How many times do I procrastinate like that character in cartoon saying: I definitely want to praise your hard work but I just can't find the right words!

It's time to enable self and then others!
It's time to kick-it-off!!
It's time to do-it-now!!!

Footnote-1: TPM means Total Productive Maintenance or Total Productive Management as some like to call it.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It!

Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Take your career in fast lane! 
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!!   
That's How Morons Work
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
Make checklists your friends  
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers