Two ways - budget and a show!  That’s right you need to fuel innovation for change and improvement and budgets are what top management understand.  Company leaders demonstrate their commitment to change and improvement by making budget available for it to happen.  But spending money on change and improvement that nobody knows about does not deliver much actual change does it?  You need to get the word out and that takes some kind of show.

Do You Schedule Change and Improvement?

First, let’s look at budgets.  Nothing happens without a budget and only top management makes the budget.  And by budget I am talking about more than just money, it also takes time to spend the budget.  Time is money right?  Not exactly.  In business, time is as precious a resource as money.  Top management can allocate a budget for change but, with backorders, development delays, rush orders, and other customer demands, can you really afford to trade valuable production time for improvement?

You may have a budget for such things as training, communication, audits, corrective and preventive actions, and management review.  But do you have the time to spend the budget?

Production time is seen as valuable.  And what do you do with a valuable resource like production time?  You probably use a production schedule to make sure that that time is accounted for and allocated.  Do you have a schedule for improvement?  You may schedule training, audits and management review but do you also schedule corrective and preventive action?  It’s like preventive maintenance, change and improvement must be scheduled.  The more change you schedule, the more improvement you get.

Do You Communicate Change and Improvement?

Second, do you have a communications calendar?  And how do you coordinate all this change and improvement?  Changes and improvements are news to your organization.  You have to get the word out and communicate the news so others can profit from the changes and improvements.  I like to think of it as a news show.

All of this activity must be coordinated.  You need a news staff to write, produce, and distribute your news program.  Your news show should have a regular time slot, format, and an editor or anchor for your program.  Perhaps featured stories regarding training events, Kaizen of the month, and progress on major changes or improvement objectives.  Be creative.  Produce videos, a newsletter, a change wall, or skits for the changes.

How much do you budget for your news program?  Major software changes get money for new software and software customization.  Typically less time and money is spent on communicating the changes.  This may be due to the lack of any formal communications program.  Start a news show.

Showing Commitment to Change and Improvement

So the next time you are making your budget for the year, think of a time budget to go with your financial budget.  Make a change and improvement schedule to go with your production schedule.  Then identify a news staff to make the communications that get the word out.  Delivering change and improvement is like producing a big show.  You have to budget for the production of the show (the change and improvement development activities) and you then have to have the show, on a regular basis, just like the news.

Your management commitment to change and improvement will be demonstrated by the time and money you budget as well the quality of the change and improvement show you produce.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

People tell us how hard it is to keep their procedures up-to-date.  Information gets stale fast and it is difficult keeping procedures current and relevant without becoming outdated.  One reason for this is that the procedures are too long in the first place.  If you have a 35-page procedure then, yes, it is difficult to keep all 35 pages up-to-date.  Especially, if the procedure is unclear, overly complicated or just too difficult to understand in the first place.

Another reason procedures are not current is because they are not followed.  If your people were using the procedures then they would get updated with the latest information.  An unused procedure is one that is not updated either.  Revisions are an indicator of usage and revisions help to create effective procedures.

Why don’t people follow procedures?

Perhaps your people can’t find your procedures.  Maybe they don’t even know you have a procedure.  And when they go to look for one, if they can’t find it on the server where it is supposed to be they figure you don’t have one.  That means your configuration management is suspect.  An uncontrolled procedure implies your system is out of control.

I have also seen procedures that were too simple or generic.  If your procedures are not offering helpful information then your employees will not have a reason to use them.  Poorly written procedures are just as bad as a procedure that are too generic.  If your procedures are incorrect or wrong, of course people will not use them.

Sometimes procedures are just poorly designed without a good format to navigate your way around.  An inconsistent format that changes with every department can confuse the readers.  It helps to think about who procedures are written for when designing your procedures.  Procedures are training aids.  So, frequent users don’t really need the procedure at all.  Occasional users need a reminder of what needs to get done and novice users need a lot of description.  Perhaps more than you can or will want to put into a procedure.  In this case novices should use the work instruction.

So what are the Top Ten Reasons Why Policies and Procedures Don’t Work?

1. Procedures are out of date.
2. Procedures are too long and wordy.
3. Procedures are unclear, complicated or difficult to understand.
4. Procedures are not used or followed.
5. Procedures are hard to find or locate.
6. Procedures are uncontrolled or out of control.
7. Procedures are too generic, general or simplistic.
8. Procedures are incorrect, wrong or poorly written.
9. Procedures are poorly designed or hard to navigate.
10. Procedures are inconsistent using different formats.

How to make your procedures work for you

I couldn’t leave you with just the problem.  To understand how to make your procedures work you need to fix each of the problems.

1. Develop a system that keeps your procedures current using intranets, social media constructs (blogs, wikis, SharePoint), software, or new knowledge management systems.
2. Keep your procedures short and succinct so it is easier to update them.
3. Use pictures, graphics, and examples to illuminate what you expect.
4. Incorporate your procedures into the job at the point of use.
5. Develop a system with easy access (see 1 above), make them searchable online, or make them part of the job (see 4 above).
6. Revision control is required for ISO and must be part of the job (see 1 & 4 above).
7. Eliminate generic procedures entirely and save paper.
8. Keep procedures updated and useful and they won’t be wrong (see 1 & 4 above).
9. Create a common format as part of your document control.
10. Discipline the organization to follow your procedures.  If they are part of the job then they are more likely to be followed (see 4 above).

Now you know the secrets to writing effective policies and procedures and ensuring that they are used.

St. Louis, MO - June 18, 2009 - Bizmanualz, Inc., a business publications, training, and consulting company based in St. Louis, MO, today announced the release of the updated ISO 9001 Policies and Procedures Manual. The company has greatly improved its product by modeling its policies and procedures on the Deming (”Plan-Do-Check-Act”) Cycle.

“The updated manual reflects our lean philosophy in multiple ways,” said Christopher Anderson, Managing Director of Bizmanualz. “For example, rather than borrow the text of the standard verbatim in the quality manual, we stripped it to the bare essentials. Putting in a lot of verbiage not required by the standard can make your Quality Manual less user-friendly, less useful, and less likely to be improved.”

The updated ISO 9001 Policies, Procedures & Forms Manual conforms to the ISO 9001:2008 standard, which was updated for the first time in eight years and released in November, 2008. ISO 9001 requirements for procedures and records are clearly identified throughout the updated manual. Recently ISO-certified by using lean principles, the company has used a similar approach in the update process.

“We carried procedures over from the old to the new ISO 9001 QMS manual that many organizations consider important or critical,” said Steve Flick, Product Director at Bizmanualz. “On the other hand, we left out procedures that are typically not high priority or that didn’t amount to much more than simple work instructions.”

Twenty-three QMS procedures are included in the updated ISO 9001 manual. A forms list at the end of each procedure points out if the filled out form is a “required record” and which ISO 9001 clause requires that record. Bizmanualz redesigned its ISO 9001 QMS manual to help companies easily establish an effective quality management system, as well as to simplify the certification journey for organizations wishing to comply with ISO 9001:2008.

Bizmanualz also offers manuals for Accounting, Finance, Computers & Networks, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources, ISO 22000, Disaster Recovery, and Security. All of Bizmanualz® Policies & Procedures manuals are available via instant download or in hard copy form, with easily editable MS-Word documents included on CD. Each manual provides prewritten policies, procedures, and forms that enable executives to create and maintain internal controls and implement best practices for all departments in their business.

Bizmanualz® ISO 9001 QMS Policies, Procedures and Forms: How to Quickly Create an ISO 9001 Quality Management System with easily editable Policies, Procedures, and Forms. (400 pp/trade binder/$495.00) is a Knowledge Management title from Bizmanualz, Inc. It will be available from the company’s website at www.bizmanualz.com or by calling the publisher at 800-466-9953 (outside the U.S. call 314-863-5079); faxing 314-863-6571; or e-mailing sales@bizmanualz.com.

Static versus Dynamic Systems

When I was studying engineering in college we had to take many different classes in control.  The simplest ones to talk about are the mechanical versions of static systems and dynamic systems.  Static systems are those that don’t change over time like a bridge or a flag pole.  You had to figure the forces on these systems and calculate the stress, tension, torque, etc.  I found statics pretty straightforward.

Next came dynamic systems, which are static systems that can (as a result of other forces) change over time like a suspension bridge that sways in the wind.  Things got tricky, fast.  We had to use fancy calculus like differential equations to solve the problem.  Why (you might ask)?

The thing about static systems is that you have no feedback.  So the static equation is drawn with the forces in balance and feedback set to zero.  With no feedback the problem is easy or relatively easy using basic calculus.  In contrast, dynamic systems have feedback.  The wind pushes on the bridge and the bridge pushes back (basic physics: a force is met with an equal but opposite force).  This “pushing back” starts the feedback, but feedback can also produce feedback loops, which means the bridge begins to oscillate as it rocks back and forth in the wind.

You see the wind is not a constant force, its velocity changes over time.  So this is a complex situation that becomes difficult to solve.  If we fail to produce the right answer, the bridge could fall apart in the wind (it has happened).  Positive feedback loops amplify the signal and can cause such destruction (i.e. a vicious cycle) whereas negative feedback loops reduce the signal and result in… control.

So when you design your procedures, are you designing in positive feedback loops that amplify your output and lead to the destruction of your process or are you designing in negative feedback loops that result in the control you are looking for?

Static versus Dynamic Control

Funny, we have to take into account the dynamic nature of a bridge before we built it but do you take into account the dynamics of a business process when you capture it in your knowledge management system?

Business policies and procedures are not static.  They involve people that provide feedback; they involve customers, suppliers, and management that all provide feedback. So how do you integrate this natural feedback into your procedure?  Start by planning for it.  Plan for both positive and negative feedback but most importantly harvest the negative feedback.

Planning for feedback means data, scoreboards, process reviews, process audits, management reviews, customer and supplier surveys, discussions, interviews, comments, and most of all collaboration.  We need to design collaboration into the procedures to allow for the natural feedback process to occur.  Just like building a bridge requires us to understand the forces at work BEFORE we build the bridge, so it is with building business policies and procedures.

Compliance and Control

Can you really have compliance without control?  You can check the box that a procedure exists but a procedure requirement is not about existence it is about deployment and usage.  There is a reason for every requirement.  The standards we talk about (ISO 9000, Sarbanes Oxley, GMPs) are all about reducing risks or reducing risks using negative feedback right?.  The next time you have to write a procedure think about how you can introduce negative feedback to obtain the control that the standards are really asking for.

That is the role of corrective action in continual improvement of an organization.  In a reactive organization, we constantly react to problems in a corrective mode.  We make the short term fixes – over and over and over again.  The goal of implementing corrective action is to identify and to address the root cause of problems so they don’t reoccur.  Therefore, root cause analysis is at the heart of an effective corrective action program.

Root cause seems to be an appropriate term for several reasons.  First of all, it focuses on the source of the problem.  Next, it implies that the source or true cause of the problem is hidden and out of view, which is why an analysis is needed.

Correction Can be the First Step

Simply addressing the symptoms without addressing root cause sometimes creates more problems in the long run.  A classic example is expedited orders.  A customer calls because an order is late.  So, to expedite it, someone takes time and effort to move the order more quickly through the process.  Of course, in giving this order priority and moving it ahead of other orders in the pipeline, more orders are going to be late.  Now more customers will be calling, more orders will be expedited, etc.  So we can see how the process of expediting this order, in effect, causes a chain reaction and negative spiral.

Does that mean that when a customer calls because an order is late that we shouldn’t expedite it?  Of course not.  The point is that expediting the order shouldn’t be all we do.  We should investigate why the order was late and collect some basic information.  How often do orders ship late?  How often do customers call and complain about order being late?  What is the apparent reason this order was late?

Not All Problems Call for Corrective Action

At this point, we are just trying to collect some initial data to determine if this calls for corrective action.  As we discussed in a previous article, not every problem or nonconformance requires corrective action.  How to determine if a corrective action is needed varies by organization.  It may be left up to individual employees or process owners, some might have a CAPA (Corrective Action Preventive Action) committee, and others may leave it to management.  The need for corrective action should be evaluated along several dimensions. How often does it happen? How important or critical is the issue? How are customers impacted?  The answers determine if there is need for corrective action.

In our example, if this was a rare event due to a special case with minimal customer impact, then perhaps we perform the correction (expedite the order) and do nothing more.  If orders are regularly late, or if the customer was severely impacted, then it is a candidate for corrective action and root cause analysis.

Root Cause Analysis Tools Identify the Cause of Problems

Once you decide that corrective action is appropriate, there are a multitude of root cause analysis tools to employ.  The tool you select should depend on the skill and training of those employing root cause analysis, and on the complexity of the issue you are trying to solve.

Figure 1: A Fishbone Diagram

While the complexity of corrective action tools range widely from fairly straightforward (i.e. Five Whys) to fairly complex (Current Reality Tree), most are found to be fairly effective at reaching potential root causes if properly carried out.  Perhaps the most popular tool, and in the middle in terms of complexity, is the Fishbone Diagram (also called the Cause and Effect Diagram or Taguchi Diagram) as shown in Figure 1.  More experienced and skilled teams seem to be more effective at using complex tools.

The Team Is More Important than the Tool

However, the largest factor determining the effectiveness of root cause seems to be, according to the research, how effective the corrective action team works together.  Critical areas seem to be a knowledgeable facilitator, how comfortable the team is challenging assumptions and critically evaluating the direction of the analysis.  Another important factor is including corrective team members from outside the area of focus.  Someone not locked into a certain way of thinking can bring a fresh perspective to the root cause analysis, which in turns leads to thinking outside of established patterns.

Besides the experience of the team, the type of problem or nonconformance should also play a role in selecting a tool for corrective action.  For example, using a simple tool like Five Whys might seem appropriate for determining why a customer’s order was shipped late, but where issues of health, safety or other high risks are involved, a more comprehensive tool like Current Reality Tree, Cause and Effect Diagram, or Interrelationship Diagram would be more appropriate

Common Factors for Root Cause Analysis

There are at least 10 root cause analysis tools, and they all seem to have their supporters and detractors.  You should choose which ever tool fits your organizational needs the best, or even mix and blend methods if you feel it is effective for your purposes.  Then training should communicate established root cause analysis practices throughout the organization.  Which ever method you choose to use in your organization, there are some common areas of importance:

1. Clearly define the problem or non conformance.
2. Gather all the information you can related to the problem.
3. Brainstorm to identify inputs, suppliers, and activities related to the problem, and note any that might have a potential causal relationship with the problem.
4. Use research, investigation, and experiments (hard data) to eliminate potential causes not associated with the problem.  For those remaining, identify which causes if removed or changed will prevent recurrence.  Remember, there may be more than one potential cause, but the goal is to identify as few potential root causes as possible.
5. Identify ways to eliminate the causes and prevent recurrence, focusing on activities that are within your control and do not cause other problems.
6. Implement the changes.
7. Verify after an appropriate period of time that there is no reoccurrence.  (Some organizations require that verification be performed by someone not involved in the root cause analysis.)
8. If there is reoccurrence of the problem (not all root cause analysis will be effective the first time) then use what was previously learned to identify and eliminate other possible causes.
9. Periodically verify the effectiveness of the corrective action program and the associated root cause analysis.  If corrective actions are not, in a large view, successful at identifying root causes and preventing reoccurrence, then new methods, a new process, or additional training may be needed.

While the many tools available for conducting root cause analysis may all be effective, their effectiveness is very dependent on how they are implemented:  data collection, involvement and training of team members, a communicative and qualified facilitator, how questions are asked and answered, and follow-up verification.  They are all critical to the success of the root cause analysis process, upon which corrective action relies.

Another important factor to consider is when to stop searching for root causes, and instead select action items to address identified root causes.  If you keep searching, you can always find more and more potential root causes.  Use experience, knowledge, and intuition to know when you have dug deep enough looking for causes, and now it time to take action.

But like anything else, the way to improve and be successful at corrective action and root cause analysis is to practice it.  While literature and training are great ways to get started, it is through executing the root cause analysis process that you will learn and improve.  And successful corrective action and root cause analysis are critical to achieving continual improvement in your organization.

Be Consistent with Corrective Action Terms

Let’s review, from an ISO 9001 perspective, how to handle resolving non-conformances and other problems, and discuss some common misconceptions.  First of all, we should make sure we clearly understand the definitions of the terms we use to discuss this facet of the improvement process.

Nonconformance: A requirement that is not fulfilled.

Correction: The action taken to eliminate or correct a detected nonconformance.

Corrective Action: The action taken to eliminate the cause of the nonconformance

Using these definitions, the first thing you might notice is that not all customer complaints should be considered nonconformances.  Not all customer complaints are due to nonconformity.

Not all Customer Complaints Call for Corrective Action

For example, you sell a computer application geared toward very experienced and knowledgeable users.  Someone who is not very knowledgeable buys the application, and then complains because they don’t understand how to use it.  Is that a nonconformance?  Probably not.  So perhaps no action is taken because there is no nonconformance.

But what if the same complaint occurs on a regular basis?  (Recall that we should be encouraging and analyzing feedback).  We may decide there is a nonconformance after all, but a sales or marketing nonconformance not a product nonconformance.  There should be a requirement that we clearly communicate what the product does and who the intended user is.  If we get regular complaints from people for whom the product was not intended, then that requirement is not being met.

The second thing that should be apparent from the definitions is the difference between correction and corrective action.  Correction is done to make an immediate fix of the nonconformance.  Corrective action is done to address the cause of the nonconformance so it does not reoccur.

Alternate Paths of Corrective Action

Once we decide that there is a nonconformance, there are actually two alternate paths an organization should follow when a nonconformance is found.  The first path is:

1. Correction
2. Analysis of cause
3. Corrective Action

The alternate path is

1. Analysis of cause
2. Correction
3. Corrective Action

Why the difference?  Because the situations surrounding a nonconformance are different.  Sometimes the correction or immediate fix is obvious and needs to be done right away.  For example, a customer was sent the wrong item.  We want to send the customer the right item immediately.  We don’t want the customer to wait while we investigate the reason that the wrong item was shipped.  Or, in another example, a jig was installed incorrectly on a metal stamp machine, and parts produced are defective.  Do we want to shut down production while we figure out why it was not properly installed?  No, we want to fix it and resume production first, then investigate the reason.

Sometimes the immediate correction that should take place is obvious, and there is no reason for delay.  Make the needed correction immediately.  That is when the first alternate path should be taken.

Other times, the immediate correction is not obvious.  If there is a problem in a complex computer program, for example, the immediate correction needed may not be apparent, and rushing to implement a fix before it is understood may cause more problems than it solves.  In such cases, correction should not take place until the problem is understood.  Here, the latter path should be followed.

Consider the Situational Factors for Corrective Action

The point is that there are situational decisions to make when employing the corrective action process.  While it is important to have a process to follow to deal with nonconformities, not all problems and nonconformities can be dealt with in the exact same way.  They need to be handled on a case by case basis.  If you routinely put every customer complaint or problem into the corrective action process, then you will likely overwhelm the corrective action process and it will not function properly when there are issues that need to be resolved through corrective action.

There are a few important points to reiterate.  First, correcting a problem is not taking corrective action.  Corrective action is when you analyze the problem to determine the cause, address the cause, and then, importantly, verify after an appropriate amount of time that the problem does not reoccur.

Second, correction and/or corrective action may not always be required.  This is especially true if the problem or nonconformance is identified as a special case that is rare and likely to never to reoccur.

Finally, either correction or corrective action may alone be sufficient.  Not every problem that needs correction requires corrective action.  For example, if the wrong item was shipped because both people who fulfill orders called in sick on the same day, then the cause is obvious.  And if it is determined that it was a rare occurrence not likely to happen again, then there is no need to address the cause.  On the other hand, sometimes a problem or nonconformance does not require a correction, but there is a need to investigate the cause and prevent reoccurrence.  Again, these decisions should be made on a case by case basis, depending on situational factors.

And remember, if a nonconformance occurred, then we are using the corrective action process.  Preventive action is taken to prevent a potential nonconformance that has not occurred.

In the next article, we will cover methods of analysis to determine the cause of nonconformance, commonly referred to as root cause analysis.

Every organization should make efforts to collect inputs to the corrective action process from external sources and from internal sources.  In terms of external sources, how do you interface with your customers to collect information and feedback?  Do you make it easy for them?

Surprisingly, sometimes it is not easy to figure out how to contact a business or organization in order to ask questions or to complain.  They might make it clear how to place an order, but if you want to contact them for some other reason it can take some time and effort to figure out how – if you find out at all.

Encourage Feedback and Complaints

Companies who want to get better (improve their products, improve their processes, improve customer satisfaction) should understand the importance of customer feedback and look for ways to encourage and capture what customers and prospects say.  All customer feedback is important, including complaints.  So yes, we want to encourage people to complain, as well as encourage positive and neutral feedback.

The most effective way to encourage feedback is to make it easy for people to provide it.  As an increasing amount of sales, marketing, and customer interaction takes place on the Internet, it is a logical place to focus your efforts.

Make It Easy For Customers to Give Feedback

On the Bizmanualz website, we give visitors several methods to contact us.  We prominently give our business phone number and mailing address for anyone who wants to call or send something via mail. We also give a fax number.  Another option is visitors can complete an online feedback form and submit it.

To submit an online feedback form, they select a category (i.e., procedure manuals, training) for their comment, question, or complaint.  Then they complete and submit a feedback form.  We don’t require much information, just a first name and an email address (so we can reply).  Of course, we give them the option to give us complete information (name, address, phone number, etc.), but it is not required to submit the feedback form.  Forcing people to provide a lot of information discourages feedback.  We want to encourage it.

Once a feedback form is submitted, someone from our sales or customer service staff responds to it as soon as possible.  They also review it to make sure the right category is selected and that other information is clear and correct.  Then, we have our own internal flags and notes we add to the online comment as it is added to a database.  This allows us to sort comments and feedback along several categories and subjects.  Now the information can become more meaningful as we look for trends, topic patterns, themes, or a possible nonconformance that may lead to corrective action..

Consolidate Customer Feedback

Obviously, all complaints are an input to the corrective action process (even if it is eventually determined that corrective action isn’t required – but more on that next week).  Analyzing feedback for trends, patterns, and nonconformance can also provide input to corrective action, even if no one made a direct complaint.  The old cliché “Information is power” has a strong truth.  Collecting and processing information about what prospects and customers think, want, and need gives us the power to make informed decisions, including problems that need to be fixed.  In an ISO 9001 QMS, for example, feedback should be reviewed to determine if a nonconformance (a requirement is not fulfilled) has occurred, or is occurring.  Patterns can also show opportunities for possible preventive actions.

What makes this tool even more powerful is that we use it for all customer interactions.  If someone chooses to call on the phone instead of completing an online form, then the customer service or sales person who assists them completes an electronic comment form that goes into the same database.  Likewise, if a sales representative meets with a customer, he or she completes an electronic comment form that goes into the database as well.  So now, no matter where the feedback comes from, the information ends up in one place.

Consolidating feedback into one place helps make sure that it is all being considered when analyzing it.  Important information isn’t stuck in a folder in someone’s desk drawer, and it doesn’t dissipate into the air when told to us on the phone.

Corrective Action Needs Internal Feedback

Getting feedback from outside the organization is important, but how are suggestions for corrections and improvements garnered from inside the organization?  Does it take a big stack of non-conforming product or a major catastrophe to spur correction?  Just as organizations who want to improve should set up processes to capture external feedback, they should also set up processes to encourage and capture feedback from members inside the organization.  This could include small improvements, problems with processes, and corrective actions and preventive actions (CAPA).

At Bizmanualz we use a Kaizen process.  Kaizens are used to make improvements, correct problems, and to do CAPA.  Any employee can complete and submit a Kaizen form if they recognize an improvement (no matter how small) or identify a problem that needs correcting.  We also have a Kaizen idea log, where recognized problems or potential improvements are listed, but the methods or solutions are not yet known.  This creates awareness among team members of the issue, spurring discussion and brainstorming from areas outside of where the problem exists – potentially leading to innovative solutions.

Completed Kaizens are discussed at our regular morning meetings, and then posted on the wall of our kitchenette.  This communicates the improvements and corrections so that everyone is aware of changes in methods or processes, plus it promotes an atmosphere or culture of improvement.

Actively looking for problems might seem like a strange way to do business.  But if you are really interested in satisfying customers, finding good suppliers, and creating effective internal processes, it is the first step in achieving continual improvement. And that includes collecting information externally and internally.  The sooner you can identify and correct problems the better your organization will be and the happier your customers are.

Employing expensive methods like focus groups and extensive surveys have their place, but it seems odd to invest in those if you are ignoring what you are told in your day-to- day interactions with your customers.  How are you collecting information and data to spur your improvements and corrective actions

St. Louis, Mo. - April 24, 2009 - Bizmanualz, Inc., a business strategy consulting and quality publishing company based in Clayton, Mo., today announced the successful certification to ISO 9001:2008 for the design, development, realization, and delivery of its policy and procedure publications, training courses, and consulting services.  The certification demonstrates the Bizmanualz commitment to continuously improve its ability to assist business owners achieve the growth they envision. 

 ”We developed a Lean visual management approach to implementing our Quality Management System (QMS) to dispel the notion that an ISO system requires a lot of paperwork,” explained Chris Anderson, Bizmanualz, Inc. Managing Director. “Now we can show clients the benefits of a working ISO-compliant quality system using Lean visual techniques to streamline the operations, focus employees on the objectives, and reduce wasted efforts.”

Bizmanualz received its ISO 9001:2008 certification on April 10 from Platinum Registration, Inc. Auditor Colin Gray noted particular areas of excellence including Bizmanualz customer feedback, corrective action, and internal communication methods, which involve morning staff meetings around the company’s “scoreboard”-a bulletin board listing the company’s main processes, projects, action items, and metrics.  Mr. Gray also praised the Bizmanualz Internal Audit process, saying in his report that the company’s internal audits are “thorough, effective, and meaningful.”

Kaizens/Corrective Actions are posted on the Bizmanualz "Kaizen Wall"

 With the new implementation, Dan Davison, Vice President of Sales and Marketing has noticed a difference, saying, “clients are seeing tighter project definition, project management, status reports, and budget forecasts by job for the coming weeks. Tracking tasks posted on the wall increase our communication’s effectiveness.”

 ISO 9001:2008 is an internationally recognized QMS standard, which ISO Secretary General Rob Steele says has “an estimated one million users worldwide.”  Certification is obtained through independent registrars that audit every aspect of a company’s QMS.  Lean is a quality system approach that seeks improvement through the elimination of waste, a focus on the customer, and systems of visual management.

 Bizmanualz has been at the forefront of deploying business best practices since 1995, delivering Policies and Procedures publications, Lean ISO Quality Management Systems, and strategic marketing implementation services to help business owners achieve growth and expansion.  Bizmanualz Policies and Procedures publications are available through Amazon.com or by calling 800-466-9953 (outside the U.S. call 314-863-5079); faxing 314-863-6571; e-mailing sales@Bizmanualz.com; or logging on to www.Bizmanualz.com.  Bizmanualz® is a registered trademark of Bizmanualz, Inc.

Go Beyond Customer Surveys and Complaints

These methods can provide useful information, but they also have serious limitations when it comes to capturing what customers really want.  It can take a lot of effort to truly understand the meaning behind survey responses and complaints.

Being proactive in hearing, and most importantly, understanding the voice of the customer means more than just having customers complete surveys and then compile results.  It can take more than statistics to really understand what customers want or mean.

Let’s review a couple of well-known examples of how taking time to understand the meaning behind complaints and feedback can lead to simple solutions that have a dramatic impact on customer satisfaction.

Are Expected Complaints Acceptable?

Most of us have been to large amusement parks and had to wait in long lines for rides.  One well-known amusement park carefully monitored customer feedback, and the most frequent complaint was the long wait for rides.  This complaint was ignored for a long time, however, because it was expected that people would complain about lines and because there didn’t seem to be a reasonable solution.  Building duplicate rides to reduce waiting times wasn’t feasible.  Making the ride operation more efficient had limitations and a minimal impact on waiting times.

Eventually, however, a more in-depth investigation into this common complaint was conducted.  It involved asking follow-up questions in order to understand what people didn’t like about the wait.  After all, if people expect to wait in line for rides, why would they complain about it?  So as interviewers tried to determine why people complained about waiting in line, they discovered it wasn’t so much the wait that people didn’t like.  It seemed that people were most bothered by having no idea how long they would have to wait when they joined the queue.  They did not know if it would take 30 minutes or two hours.  Apparently, it was the lack of information about the wait that they didn’t like.

When the amusement park added signs along the queue informing people how long they would have to wait, complaints about waiting in line dropped significantly.  It seems that by having that information, people felt less helpless about the wait, plus they could decide when they arrived at the end of the line if they wanted to wait or go do something else.   Now these waiting time signs are common at most large amusements parks.

Having this information also allowed the parks to “under-promise and over-deliver” as they made extremely conservative estimates about the wait.  Having to wait 45 minutes instead of an hour (as the sign indicated) exceeded the customer’s expectations.

What Are Customers Really Complaining About?

In another case that involves looking for meaning behind the voice of the customer, a developer built a tall skyscraper.  As the project was completed and tenants were moving in, the developer collected feedback from the tenants about the building before closing out the contracts with the various contractors.  He wanted to make sure everything was done properly to satisfactorily meet the tenants’ needs.

After completing an extensive survey of tenants, he was surprised to find one of the most common complaints was slow elevators.  The developer in turn complained to the elevator company.  The elevator company provided the developer with timing statistics to demonstrate that the elevators weren’t really slower than other elevators, but the developer wasn’t convinced.  Eventually the elevator company made some minor adjustments that increased the elevator speed a small degree.

A follow-up survey, however, demonstrated no change.  People still complained about the slow elevators.  The developer began to insist on major, expensive upgrades to the elevator system to make them operate significantly faster.  The elevator company lobbied for some time to study the problem.  They knew their elevators didn’t operate any more slowly than elevators in other buildings, so there must be something else involved.

Observing Customers in Action Provides Important Information

The elevator company hired a behavioral scientist to study the problem.  The behavioral scientist spent a few days at the building riding the elevators and observing people.  The conclusion reached after carefully observing body language, facial expressions, and other behavior was that people were very bored when waiting for and riding on the elevators.  The tenants didn’t seem to realize that they were bored; they just knew it seemed to take forever for elevators to arrive and to deliver them to their desired floor.  So they complained that the elevators were slow.

Instead of spending a large sum of money making the elevators go faster, the elevator company spent a little money installing mirrors inside the elevators, and the developer spent a little money decorating the bare and too-generic lobby area around the elevator bank with paintings, plants, and furniture.  These minor changes  kept people more occupied while waiting for and riding the elevators, thus the slow elevator complaints dropped drastically.

Apparently the behavioral scientist was right.  There was no problem with the elevator speed.  The problem was that the lobby and the elevators were boring, and people were bored when using them.  Being bored made the time drag, thus the “too slow” complaint.

Surveys and Complaints Are Only a Starting Point for Hearing the Voice of the Customer

Not all customer feedback and complaints have hidden meanings.  But they might.  If you take all your customer feedback at face value you could be missing opportunities for breakthrough improvement, or you could invest time and money to fix problems that don’t really exist.

As last week’s article suggests, sometimes you have to find proactive and inventive methods to find out how customers really feel about your product or service.  That might be creating opportunities to rephrase and repeat questions to get a more complete or in-depth picture.  It might be creating opportunities to observe customer behavior and activities.  What works best will depend on the type of organization, the type of customer, and the type of product or service.

You might have opportunities for such activities now.  Is there a recurring complaint you don’t know how to solve?  Are you baffled by particular complaints? (Why would they complain about that?)  These are opportunities to investigate meaning and expand knowledge about the voice of the customer.  A understanding customers is crucial to success and growth.

The connection between these two items is the customer-centric nature of ISO 9001.  In fact, you could say that there are two overarching aims of the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Requirements:

1. Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.
2. Improve customer satisfaction.

What Are the Real Customer Requirements?

Capturing customer requirements is certainly critical to achieving customer satisfaction.  And while ISO 9001 states you have to do it, the general nature of the standard leaves out any description of how to do it.  That is for every organization to figure out for themselves.

However, one thing is certainly true.  Simply asking customers to list their requirements may be the poorest method to make a complete and thorough determination of requirements.  I use a similar example in college classes I teach where we talk about values.  You can’t determine what a person values just by asking them.  When they reply you will invariably get one of a few pat answers, like “my family.”

You will hear these pat answers no matter who you ask. Even workaholics, shopaholics, and alcoholics will tell you same thing.  In order to determine what people value, you have to observe them over a period of time.  Their behavior will show you what they really value.  If they spend an unusual and inordinate amount of time working, at a bar, or at the mall (instead of with their family), then obviously they value those things above their family.  I don’t think most of these people deliberately lie. They really believe they value their family – because they are supposed to.  Their behavior just doesn’t bear it out.

Frequently we can apply a similar principle to customers.  They will tell you requirements that they believe are important to them, but it can be their actions that show what is truly important to them, even if they may not recognize or be able to properly articulate it.  Customers can also fall into the rut of giving pat answers that they believe are expected without closely considering what is truly important to them.

Exceeding Customer Expectations Leads to Success

The point is that it may take an innovative and proactive approach to really determine customer requirements, especially if the goal is to exceed their expectations.  For example, you may have to actually make careful observations of them interacting with a product over a period of time.   But such an approach may have big pay offs.  A recent study by The Performance Measurement Group found that businesses with growing revenue were more than five times more likely to have mature processes to capture customer requirements and feedback.  (I think we can read “mature” to mean frequently executed and, therefore, highly developed.)

Plus, we know that correctly capturing customer requirements early in the design phase saves money - sometimes a lot of money.  You may be familiar with the 10 and 100 rule of thumb.  It costs 10 times as much to fix a problem when it reaches production than it costs to fix it in the design phase, and it costs 100 times more to fix it after it reaches customers.

Finding Innovative Approaches to Hear the Voice of the Customer

As mentioned earlier, the techniques you use to effectively capture the voice of the customer should vary depending on the customer, the product type, the industry, and many other factors.  But there are some methods that may work as a starting point such as the House of Quality.  The House of Quality uses a very systematic approach and form to capture customer requirements.  Another method is to talk to customers about their needs as a starting point, and then convert needs to features, and then eventually transpose features to requirements.

Sometimes companies employ pseudo-customers.  For example, employees of the company are selected to use a new product for awhile.  Then the feedback from the pseudo-customers is collected and analyzed.  Unlike actual customers, it is much less difficult to get them to complete feedback forms and surveys – especially if done anonymously.   We are all familiar with the concept of providing prototypes to experienced users at beta sites in exchange for their feedback.  This is even more useful if you can observe knowledgeable users in action and discuss the product while they are using it.

Another related and very effective tool is sending cross-functional teams to where the customer uses the product.  Here, people from several disciplines observe the product in service in the customer’s environment.  And cross-functional teams can include members of sales and marketing, design engineering, production, customer service, and field service.  The varied members of the cross-functional team may note observations and find meaning behind customer activities that a sales person or a design engineer may otherwise miss alone.  Activities like this can capture requirements or usability improvements missed by simply listing requirements.

But the thing these methods have in common is that they go beyond just asking the customer to provide requirements.  Sometimes to really hear the voice of the customer, it takes more than just listening to what they say.  If you are interested in learning more about using innovative methods to capture the voice of the customer, contact our service sales team.  We will be happy to help.