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I came across this data recently, showing for company X monthly number of reportable accidents. The management team have set a challenging target for 30% reduction in 2005. What do you think are the chances of this being achieved? What meaning does a target of 3.6 accidents per month have anyway?
Wednesday's Guardian "Notes and Queries" has a piece on the Inland Revenue, being a very good example of the benefits that reducing process cycle time could bring to both themselves and their customers.First of all, the writer is complaining of receiving a demand for underpaid tax of 3p. The accountant's reply is that the Revenue don't actively seek payment of very small amounts - but they do have an automated system which sends out letters without anybody ever doing a sense check.The other piece of Revenue nonsense is that the accountant routinely has clients' tax returns in by the Jan 31st deadline - they then have to spend the next three months reassuring clients who have received late payment notices. The problem is it takes far too much time for the Revenue to process the documents. This means that any document not processed by the deadline (even if in well before time) will automatically result in a penalty notice being issued.
Motorists on the M6 Toll Road might be puzzled by this bridge over the motorway that is not connected at either end to anything else! It's a great example of a bit of foresight often lacking in modern society. The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust www.lhcrt.org.uk/aqueduct.htm are restoring the Lichfield Canal, but their plans were threatened by the new road. Some neat planning ahead meant that the bridge was put in place whilst the motorway was being constructed - several years ahead of actual restoration of the canal, but saving vast sums when compared to what the cost might have been when the motorway was open - with all the disruption that would have ensued.
BBC Midlands Today a few days ago featured a company making compasses. They showed amongst other things a sort of "Calibration Room" - a master compass used to check the accuracy of new compasses being made. It was built exclusively of non-ferrous material and other protective measures designed to exclude local conditions as far as possible from affecting the way the master compass works.The Master Compass maker said that, despite all this, the measured position of North still varies, even on a daily basis, depending on a range of conditions including temperature and pressure.There's no true value of anything!
BBC Countryfile on 16th April had a piece about cutting reeds in Norfolk for thatching. After cutting, the reeds would be placed into loose bundles before being manipulated into very tight bunches for tying off and transporting.The expert demonstrated the process of creating the bunches, and then the BBC presenter had a go. The result was not unpredictable! The expert's bunch was very tight and almost cylindrical - one could have measured the radius of the cross-section and recorded the result. The presenter's bunch was much looser, and it was obvious that the radius of the cross-section was much greater.So - increased experienced and increased skill produced a result with much less variation. More bunches could be transported for a given cubic capacity of vehicle, and so less waste, reduced cost.
The Birmingham Post reported on Friday that Sir Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI, made a speech highlighting the following figures;Nissan in Sunderland makes 300,000 cars each year with 3,000 employees.Toyota at Burnaston makes 200,000 cars each year with 2,000 employees.MG Rover was making 150,000 cars with 6,000 employees.The data speaks.......
Taxation comes up often as an issue in the General Election Campaign. Student top up fees and tuition fees, for example. Surely students are destined to earn higher salaries than most once they get good jobs, and so should be expected to pay back at least some of the costs of their education?Charles Kennedy must be a Systems Thinker, though. He said in an interview; "I am a graduate, and so are the doctors and many of the nurses who looked after my wife when she was giving birth to our new baby. Even if I was a non-graduate, I would be pleased to know that some of my taxes have gone to pay for these people to get the best knowledge and training they can so that they can look after my family and bring my first child safely into the world".And of course, graduates will pay back more in taxes anyway because they will be more likely to be in the top-rate band of tax.Another example is the Council tax. Why should I pay (as a child-free person) to educate other people's children? They chose to have them, surely they should pay for the consequence of that decision? Again, this ignores the true value of education. A Systems Thinker would say, yes, but educated people are likely to benefit the economy more, and ultimately pay for the wider range of public services everyone benefits from, including the state pension, for example. And there is much evidence to say that educated people are less likely to commit crime, meaning a safer world for everyone.Taxation is an issue that can only be sensibly viewed from the perspective of the wider system, and with broad agreement on the Aim of the System.
This is an excerpt from an email I received recently from someone engaged in a Six Sigma project in a large British organisation;
"Six sigma is alive and well - but takes too long. I prefer shorter projects. Our project on xxxxx is a good example. We started it Jan 04 (it's now April 05) - we are in the middle of Improve phase!. As there has been so many changes to the xxxx plan since we started if we fix what was in our original scope we may not see a great improvement as something else now has become broken. And new things can not be added into the project at this stage - they must be treated as a new project entirely. It is not flexible to reflect the changing nature of (our service)
Do Arriva Trains Wales appreciate the problems they cause when they provided inadequate amounts or types of rolling stock on their trains? On Monday this week, 18th April - the 0825 Shrewsbury-Birmingham, normally a reasonably adequate Class 158 Unit, was formed by a two-car Class 150. These are normally suburban trains, (really the seating is too narrow and uncomfortable even to carry that description) but a whole hour in those cramped uncomfortable seats (not even enough room to turn the page of a newspaper) is really not on. And at least by joining at Shrewsbury I was able to get a seat - there were a large number of passengers joining at Telford who were forced to stand for the entire journey. Probably the train company response would be "the alternative would be to cancel the train". But do company bosses get out and about to experience at first hand the consequence of failure to provide?
Has anyone done a study of the relative usage of paper towels and hot air dryers in hotel and workplace loos? I dislike hot air dryers - they never seem to dry my hands properly, and I much prefer to use paper towels. Where there is only a hot air dryer provided, there always seems to be a sticker saying "This is more hygienic than paper towels, and it reduces the amount of litter caused". Do they really mean "This is cheaper to provide than paper towels, and we don't have to empty the waste bins" - whilst leaving users having to complete the drying process with their pocket handkerchief?
Would a study of relative usage reveal that customers prefer the paper towels?
