ByMatthew Arnold
In my last blog, I discussed the queuing issue at low-cost supermarkets, and mentioned the difference between the way Starbucks and Caffe Nero make your coffee order. Did you spot the difference the last time you were in? As I mentioned before, if you wonder in without looking, you’ll come out a few minutes later…
ByMatthew Arnold
There was a interesting item in the news a few weeks ago regarding a plateauing of sales at the discount food stores, relating to the shopping experience, particularly the often poor queuing process. Call me sad (!) but I regularly look at the different queuing systems businesses use. The post office. The benefits office. Petrol…
ByMatthew Arnold
I’ve helped quite a number of Housing Benefit departments in the last 15 years, including helping Darlington move from 60th in the national league table to the top 10 – where they remain (based on customer end-to-end time). I also helped Milton Keynes reduce their end-to-end time from 60 days to 20. Likewise Middlesborough. And quite…
ByMatthew Arnold
This remains one of my favourite stories about how systems work together. We all know about the “5 Whys“. But how do you know how many times to ask “Why?” if you don’t fully appreciate the system in which you are working? (Clue: it’s not always 5 times…) The Lincoln Memorial story explains it beautifully. Initially, the authorities had a problem…
ByMatthew Arnold
Peter R. Scholtes was a genius – he certainly knew his stuff, but just as importantly, he was clever enough to make it easy for everyone else to understand. One of his books, The Leader’s Handbook, would have the title: “The Complete and Practical Lean and Systems Thinking Workshop Manual (for Dummies)” if it were published today!…
ByMatthew Arnold
For years (centuries?) there have been boundary issues, discussions and disputes between parishes, districts, boroughs and counties. Where are the lines to be drawn, and who takes responsibility? Each political area then has its own structure of management – and in most cases consists of: unpaid political leaders and members to give the strategic direction…
ByMatthew Arnold
Do you ever think that some of the management books and technical jargon are far more complicated than they really need to be? A recent podcast by the Freakonomics team reminded me of some simple service “production line” stuff that seems to get forgotten. Over the years, I have worked in many claims processing systems,…
ByMatthew Arnold
I was reminded of this great quote from the master of the Toyota Production System today: Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced. – Taiichi Ohno As a Chartered Accountant, I am well trained to understand cost – especially with respect to Activity…
ByMatthew Arnold
If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing. A fantastic quote from the man who helped design practical work flow based on customer demand. He certainly helped Toyota in both: – designing cars based on what the customer actually wanted; and a – production process that was…
ByMatthew Arnold
Arguing for an end to back offices and target driven approaches, John Seddon outlines theories that could permanently alter management approaches. When I was a young man the term ‘back office’ did not exist. Today it is in common parlance; it is considered axiomatic that back offices are a feature of efficiency; Whitehall extols their…