MES "Quick Wins" vs Waterfall

Speed beats perfection

Identify the Low Hanging Fruit - Deliver some Quick Wins - Build Your Fan Base - Gather Momentum - Integrate Your Customer, Ecosystem, Organization with Engineering & Production - Make a few mistakes, learn and build your Manufacturing Operations Management Platform 

quick wins

When you have a grand vision that requires incredible change, it demands starting small, gathering wins and gaining momentum. 

It’s the short-term wins, when deliberately planned and managed as a part of a project that can help build momentum, overcome the cynics, and prove the viability of the vision and strategy. Quick wins are powerful as part of a change initiative; they give leaders and their ambassadors an opportunity to lead employees to change rather than having to stand behind them and push.

Wins must be created and planned for. 

During an Agile MES requirements gathering, design and planning phase, identify quick wins as a milestone on the project schedule followed by a small team celebration and announcement. By incorporating small wins into the project schedule, an ambassador can ensure the win won’t be missed and can then be built upon. When large numbers of employees see a win clearly and unambiguously tied to the change, it generates excitement for the vision and builds additional momentum towards achieving the end goal.

But be careful what you choose to celebrate as a small win. Short-term wins cannot be viewed as a quick-fix or easy victory. By doing so will actually slow the change process rather than ignite it. When short-term wins are viewed as the end goal, team members may assume change is easy and leads to a lack of attention to detail.

introducing agile manufacturing solutions

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting the feeling the word Agile is being overused these days!

Is there a way for people not to “roll their eyes” when “Agile” is mentioned? I’ve been fortunate enough to to have worked on a number of programs, most Waterfall and several Agile. I’ve worked with all sorts, but it starts with empathy for the other person, for the user. There has to be “different strokes for different folks”, so always best to drop the buzzwords, the cliches and talk in plain and simple language.

Let’s start with the view that an Agile MES approach is just trying to improve the business and the lives of the user. Because if it isn’t, then why are you doing it? After all, who works for who?

You employed people because you couldn’t do it all yourself. And so you hired, you delegated authority and changed your role to helping your people do your job better.

And that’s where the quick wins approach works well - we define the big vision, but use Agile MES quick wins to reach those manufacturing goals.

With the right initial wins in place, we don’t need to sell agile to people, because agile has to be pulled, not pushed. An Agile MES project may have started at a higher level of the business than the people that will initially be working with the results. You, therefore, have to create a “pull” where those people will want to do more with continuous improvement. You empathize with your people and focus on improving their roles, their daily lives.

Starting out with Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) tools & processes provides a good starting point. These tools & processes engage people to look at their ways of working, ask questions, try different approaches and find a solution that works for them and their goals.

how do we apply a quick win (agile) approach?

There are frequently areas of an organization that just don’t want to take part in change/continuous improvement, because they may be too set in their “old ways”. Here’s how we get started on continuous manufacturing improvement and change:

1. Focus On a Small Work Area

Develop the quick wins by first applying simple tools/processes to help unlock the bigger picture. If people aren’t interested in seeing a big picture view, it is best not to start explaining it and focus on what can be done. Often the big picture is too far away for people to relate to in the beginning stages. It’s the Henry Ford principle: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

2. Dump the buzzwords

Buzzwords themselves can create confusion and setup certain negative outcomes. Spend time using your language to describe the events in familiar words and phrases that exist on the shop floor. Removing this barrier at the beginning will improve the coming in this situation. It's simple rapport - be like the people you're dealing with

3. An Agile Implementation Is About Solving Business/User Problems to Reach Your Goals

People most of the time they can tell you what the “problem is” and what the solution “should be” in their area. Out of this conversation, we have the start of a problem statement and the gap maybe between current and future state. It starts here - it improves the daily lives of your people, builds momentum and grows toward your overall goal & vision.

4. Start Small, Within Your Small Area, and Get Those Quick Wins Happening

So for those who roll their eyes at Agile, keep it real and applicable, with a team focus. Linking the quick wins across small areas, while continuing to engage your people in problem-solving. They will be “Agile” before they know it!

the long-term, low hanging fruit

Finding the low hanging fruit is of course one for debate as it's unique to each business, but for me, driven by consumer-centric demand, I look to those processes that can impact user and customer simultaneously.

connecting-up all aspects of the manufacturing business

When the business units are connected in terms of both process and technology, it becomes much easier to automate various aspects of the product life cycle, including the manufacturing floor.

Let’s quickly cover examples of how teams and processes can be better connected with the aid of the right solution:

Customer 2 Sales: whether it's self-service or dealing with a salesperson, it should be frictionless with immediate pricing feedback and customization/configuration options and all before they go to engineering or production. Being an active part of the product "design" brings the additional benefit of the customer’s ability self-identify up-selling opportunities.

Customer 2 Distributors 2 Production: With detailed business rules to allow for easy product configuration, the selling/configuration can be passed through distributors and directly to the customer and thus connecting directly to the shop floor.

Connect Customer 2 Engineering: When it takes hours, days, or even weeks to have a backlogged Engineering team generate drawings, it extends the sales cycle, puts deals at risk, and stresses your people. Engineering should have the benefit of automated design and CAD, so that they can be virtually generating CAD drawings to be included in estimates, email communications, and the CRM.

Connect Sales 2 Engineering 2 Production: Imagine a scenario where the Production team is notified an order is finalized via a workflow. The team is confident that they are getting an order they know that can build because configuration was guided and controlled at its inception. With document automation, they get order details like BOMs, assembly sheets, CAD drawings and shipping information sent to them so that they can build 100% to customer specification.

Allow me for a moment to talk Defense versus Offense. When you started your business you built energy, passion and teamwork for the belief of a greater purpose. But then so often we reach our level when we shift our focus toward saving money, putting stifling controls in place, in order to defend what we have built. It's the slow decline of innovation and moves us to a defensive position. Yes, through defense, you win the battle sometimes, but you never win the war.

I play Offense whenever I can and while I know Agile (MES) Manufacturing Solutions can be as much about saving money (defense), it's on Offense where today I'm focusing - improving productivity:

1. Identify how productive your processes are 

There's some amazing new smart technologies out there, but often the fault lies in inefficient processes. Understanding how productive your current processes are is the first step to improving productivity. There are many methods available for doing this, but the preferred method is to calculate the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of a specific machine, or your production process. Once you have calculated this, you will then have the information you need to enable you to identify how you can improve efficiency.

2. Speed things up

Having identified how productive your processes are, you can then use this information to improve your production speed. With improved production speed, you will be able to produce more parts per hour, which in turn means you have more product to sell and make a profit on.

3. Eliminate downtime 

Any downtime means a loss of money. There are several different methods that can be used to eliminate downtime such as; staggered staff breaks, instant fault reporting systems, and regular machinery maintenance to minimize the risk of breakdowns. Downtime can also be eliminated by introducing automated systems to remove the need for human input.

4. Lights Out Automation

Introducing automation that can run without operator input throughout the night, or at least for an hour or two after everyone goes home at the end of the day, is also a sure way to increase your productivity.

5. Train your people

I'm astonished how many software & implementation service deals are done without a comprehensive user training plan. Training your people enables them to complete their job more effectively and efficiently, by understanding your new systems efficiently, they learn to use faster and become your change ambassadors. Staff that don’t have the needed training to complete their role effectively often end up having to waste time asking other members of staff for help or guidance on how to complete tasks. This has a cost implication to your profit as it results in two people having to waste time on a conversation about how to do something, rather than working on a task that's bringing value to the product that you are producing.

andrew sparrow

I'm a huge believer in constant change. Standing still is going backwards

It starts with People changing their mindsets & Processes, enabled through Technology.

Innovative Products, Smarter Manufacturing all happen through Agile Revolutions - start small, empower people & scale fast.

Oh, I can "boil the ocean" with the best of them, but let's not live there. Analysis leads to paralysis. Dreaming of & waiting for perfection is the enemy of execution. Do something, get some quick wins and start building momentum.

I like to bring attention to Innovation, Smart Manufacturing, Global People Integration & Human Sustainability - I Blog, Vlog, Podcast, host a few Live Shows and love being involved in your revolutionary programs.

I love & thrive in working with some of the world's largest companies & most innovative organizations such as Airbus, Capgemini, Canoo, Dassault Systemes, Ericsson, JLR, TOTAL, Siemens, Sony, Subsea7 & Unilever, to name a few

I'm a big people-person & have spent my life meeting as many people & cultures as I can. At my last count, I am lucky enough to have visited & done business in over 55 countries

My love for tech started a few years ago, where I was introduced to SAP & over the proceeding years, managed to build a project partnering & resourcing business with 300+ consultants globally

One morning, I decided it was time for a break from the 24/7 globe-trotting & entered the world of resort development (haha it was still 24/7, but at least involved beaches & aqua blue ocean). It took me all over the world, (managing $300m projects) & the years that followed, made me many great friends

Then one day in 2017, I had to quite suddenly return home to the UK to care for a family member, but, as always, when one door closes another opens. I decided it was the time to re-enter my IT world & build a great, different & somewhat unconventional business dedicated to Product Optimization & the 4IR

So far my community is 25,000+ strong & continues to grow, as I try to bring value to that audience through my vlogs, blogs & podcasts