Evolving Excellence

The Postal Service Forgets the Customer

By Kevin Meyer

A recent CNN article pretty much describes the problem at the US Postal Service, although that wasn't really its intent.  You see, there's this new startup called Outbox that is working to digitize traditional paper mail, and our beloved USPS is having a bit of a conniption about it.

I think this is a terrific idea as I've been trying to make more and more of my life electronic - and thereby location independent.  A few years ago I subscribed to a voicemail service that emails me the voicemail so I don't have to be near a phone.  Last year that service even began transcribing those voicemails (with remarkable accuracy by the way) so I don't even have to listen to the audio file - I can just rapidly scan the "voice"mail.  For the last year I've also been able to take a photo of checks with my phone and deposit them to my business or personal bank accounts.  Another app on my phone lets me photograph documents, sign, convert to PDF, and email or fax them to a recipient.  No more going to banks, fax machines, or sometimes even a computer.  I can work just as efficiently from home, the car, or Tahiti. In your face Marissa Mayer! 

Almost.  The missing piece has been incoming paper mail.  But with Outbox and a couple of other competing services, that may soon be resolved.  Unless the USPS gets in the way.

A driver of a white Prius with a giant, red plastic flag affixed to its side is rolling through the hilly streets of San Francisco, undelivering mail from mailboxes.  The driver is not a thief. He and the car are part of a startup called Outbox that is attempting to pick up where the embattled United States Postal Service leaves off -- by digitizing physical mail.

He collects the letters, bills, magazines and advertisements that were deposited there by official postal workers and delivers them to a warehouse. There they are opened and photographed, and the resulting digital files are sent electronically to the recipient through the Outbox website or iPad or iPhone apps.

The company already has more than 600 customers in Austin, Texas, and starting Tuesday it's rolling out in its second city, San Francisco.

And it all costs $4.99 per month.  Even with the USPS standing in its way.

Creating a shadow, reverse postal service may not be the most efficient way to improve the struggling mail system, but Outbox is unable to intercept clients' mail any sooner in the process. The company has met resistance from the United States Postal Service, which has refused to collaborate with Outbox or let its workers pick up mail directly from local post offices.

Why does the USPS have a problem?

"The Postal Service is focused on providing an essential service in our mission to serve the American public and does not view Outbox as supporting that mission," the USPS said in a statement. "We do have concerns regarding the destruction of mail -- even if authorized by the receiver -- and will continue to monitor market activities to ensure protection of our brand and the value and security of the mail."

And that statement describes why the USPS is a sinking ship.  "Protection of our brand and the value and security of the mail."  But what about the customer?  I mean the home customer, not the providers of bulk junk that is increasingly the primary revenue source of the USPS.

Imagine a different path.  A postal service that is focused on increasing value to its customers rather than protecting its "brand."  Instead of fighting startups like Outbox they'd be creating that innovation themselves, converting paper mail to electronic digital formats for folks like me that immediately scan and shred anything we have to keep anyway.  Or maybe they go even further an enable the sending of original mail electronically, instead of trying to entice companies to remain paperbound to create "demand."

But no.  That would mean thinking of value from the perspective of the customer.  And that's apparently not as important as the brand - whatever value that has anymore.

The Perils of Waterless Progress

By Kevin Meyer

Just in time for a slow Sunday comes a story via one of my favorite e-zines, Reason, telling us about the problems that progress sometimes faces.  Even green progress.

James Krug is an unusual entrepreneur. Twenty years ago, he was a rising star in the film and television business. He served as a vice president of the Disney Channel in the 1980s and ran a distribution company with members of the Disney family in the ’90s.

A business acquaintance of Krug knew that he was interested in exploring new opportunities and arranged a meeting with Ditmar Gorges, a German engineer who fervently believed that flushing a urinal was a waste of water.  He explained that he had invented a water-free urinal and pointed out that urine was already liquid—and a generally sterile liquid at that. Gravity could drain it completely. No flush necessary. Krug immediately grasped the implications: The German’s humble innovation had the potential to save millions of gallons of water at a time when demand for the natural resource was draining aquifers dry.

He formed Falcon Waterfree Technologies with Gorges and explained to anyone who would listen that the water-free urinal would save more than just water: In California, a fifth of the electrical output was consumed by processing and pumping water. Cutting water usage would reduce our carbon footprint.

Then the reality of innovation set in.  Enter the regulatory and union roadblock.

As head of PIPE, a plumbing union advocacy group in Southern California, [Mike] Massey looks out for plumbers’ interests. And as far as he was concerned, the waterless urinal was a threat to public health. Diseases might fester because the urinals weren’t being washed down with every use. Sewer gasses might leak through the cartridge. Plumbing codes never contemplated a urinal without water. As a result, Falcon’s fixtures couldn’t be installed legally in most parts of the country.

Time to bring in the science.

Krug scrambled to counter the plumbers’ public health claims. He hired Charles Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. Gerba studies “filth, pestilence, and disease,” with an emphasis on the bathroom, and says he has done more field studies on the toilet than anyone else in academia. From his point of view, there was a clear explanation for the plumbers’ resistance: It drained their wallets. “Plumbers don’t like the waterless urinal because it cuts down on their work tremendously,” he says. “There’s no more piping to install, and the urinals have no moving parts to repair.”

To test the plumbers’ assertions, Gerba compared a traditional flush urinal with the Falcon waterless. He found that the Falcon urinal presented a less hospitable environment for germs than constantly moistened conventional bowls. The process of flushing could actually eject those germs into the air. “If it’s a traditional urinal, you should flush and run,” Gerba says.

So it saves water and actually prevents the spread of germs.  You'd think that would create an easy path forward.  Not so fast.

Opposition to the waterless urinal was making plumbers look out of step. They were being painted as antienvironmental at a time when builders increasingly wanted to go green. Massey concluded that he was on the wrong side of the argument. By the end of 2006, he decided to support the urinal’s inclusion in the Uniform Plumbing Code. But there was a catch. When the code change was finally approved in 2009, it stated that water had to be piped to the waterless urinals. Standard plumbing still has to be done, but the water pipe is simply capped off behind the wall and never used.

Yes, really.  One commenter on the article put it best:

With a nod to former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, every house that has one of these will now have a "pipe to nowhere."

I guess that's just "the cost of innovation."  Or something like that.

Zappos and the Fallacy of Best Practices

By Kevin Meyer

Companies love to spend gobs of money going on treasure hunts to find new best practices.  Tours of great companies, workshops by supposed "thought leaders" (that term gives me the tizzies... how about an "I've actually done it leader"), and the latest tome on some regurgitated management concept.  Most companies then bring home the new concept and try to simply bolt it onto their existing systems, culture, and people.  Then it flops.

Why?  Two reasons.  The first is that there's simply a limit to how many new things you can simply add to an organization.  5S?  Sure, let's try it.  Kaizen?  Of course we must have it.  Value stream mapping?  Obviously a requirement, so let's do that too.  But how many organizations take the time to identify the problem they are trying to solve, do a root cause, and determine if that newfangled tool is the right approach?  Practically zilch.

Which brings me to my second reason for failure: not taking the time to figure out exactly how the new tool or practice should integrate into existing systems and cultures.  So first we need to figure out if there's a problem and what a possible solution might be, then we need to ensure that solution is customized.

That's the problem with simply finding and adopting best practices, especially when they are of the "gee whiz" variety.  And now organizations that have successful systems are actually marketing access to those systems, even if they probably have no clue why they work or how they can be applied to other organizations. 

Take Zappos for example.  I'm a big fan of the company, and buy pretty much all of my shoes from them.  They have a unique culture... and now they're going to try to make some bucks off of it.  I'll ignore how this new business niche strays from their core competence and focus on the business niche itself.

Zappos already knows how to sell shoes. Now it's hoping to profit from people's fascination with its friendly, antics-filled business model. Last summer, the company began holding two-day, $4,000 seminars on how to recreate the essence of its corporate culture. At the third such session, last October, the 25 attendees included an executive from the Girl Scouts, some competing e-tailers, and an entrepreneur from Scotland—a market Zappos doesn't even serve. In coming weeks the company will also relaunch Zappos Insights, a Web site offering management videos and tips from staffers at a cost of $39.95 a month.

$4,000 seminars and a $39 per month access to "tips."  From an online shoe retailer.  Now I personally wouldn't mind seeing their operation simply because I do like to experience different management practices.  They give me ideas.

But I like to think I'm smart enough to then ponder those ideas, discuss them, and see if they might be a solution to a problem I've already defined and investigated.  Or maybe I've just learned the hard way that you can't simply "go radical"... probably what most who pay the bucks to Zappos will do: "Cool, let's do it!  Tomorrow!"  One guy has already done that...

Zappos seminar last July impressed David Brautigan, who runs a family heating and air-conditioning repair business. It prompted him to fire 12 employees who were "just not being nice," while rewarding those who remain with such perks as sky diving trips. "The nicer we are to people," he says, "better things are happening."

And it was reported as a positive in the article.  Really?  Fire 12 employees for some vague concept of "nice"?  I wonder how much effort was put into defining expectations for those employees, identifying the underlying root cause reasons why they weren't "nice," and attacking those issues.  I bet the issues remain, and the 12 replacements will now experience them and surprise surprise, will soon not be "nice."

Investigate, do a root cause analysis, then determine an appropriate course of action potentially using some new tool or concept.  Don't just bolt it on and expect the best.

Daydreaming Lean

By Kevin Meyer

Understanding lean manufacturing is often a difficult undertaking due to how counterintuitive it can be.  How can a process yield more with less?  Move faster, with higher quality, by making one unit at a time instead of in batches?  Sometimes it just doesn't make sense... until you see it in action or the constellation of nuances suddenly becomes clear.  The underpinnings of that "a-ha!" moment are becoming better understood.

It happened to Archimedes in the bath. To Descartes it took place in bed while watching flies on his ceiling. And to Newton it occurred in an orchard, when he saw an apple fall. Each had a moment of insight. To Archimedes came a way to calculate density and volume; to Descartes, the idea of coordinate geometry; and to Newton, the law of universal gravity.

In our fables of science and discovery, the crucial role of insight is a cherished theme. To these epiphanies, we owe the concept of alternating electrical current, the discovery of penicillin, and on a less lofty note, the invention of Post-its, ice-cream cones, and Velcro. The burst of mental clarity can be so powerful that, as legend would have it, Archimedes jumped out of his tub and ran naked through the streets, shouting to his startled neighbors: "Eureka! I've got it."

So what is actually happening?

These sudden insights, they found, are the culmination of an intense and complex series of brain states that require more neural resources than methodical reasoning. People who solve problems through insight generate different patterns of brain waves than those who solve problems analytically.

In fact, our brain may be most actively engaged when our mind is wandering and we've actually lost track of our thoughts, a new brain-scanning study suggests. "Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically," Dr. Kounios says.

This explains a lot, at least to people at my company.  I have a 40 minute commute along the coast, through avocado orchards, and ending with a nice long winding drive through some vineyards.  Every now and then I try to listen to books on CD but find I don't remember a thing.  My mind is wandering.  And I usually have some hair-brained idea to try by the time I get to the office.

By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison.

She suspects that the flypaper of an unfocused mind may trap new ideas and unexpected associations more effectively than methodical reasoning. That may create the mental framework for new ideas.

So besides allowing our team members to daydream, how do we promote a propensity for insight?

Even before we are presented with a problem, our state of mind can affect whether or not we will likely resort to insightful thinking. People in a positive mood were more likely to experience an insight, researchers at Drexel and Northwestern found. "How you are thinking beforehand is going to affect what you do with the problems you get," Dr. Jung-Beeman says.

A positive mood.  Perhaps by treating people right... respect for people.  The second pillar of lean.

A Violinist in the Bronx

Last evening, on one of those rare occasions where I was forced to watch TV, I was flipping through the channels and came across CNBC's The Big Idea with Donney Deutsch.  I've seen snippets before, and although it can be slightly interesting, generally I just roll my eyes at the "big idea."

This episode did not appear to be an exception.  In the "Minutes to Millions" segment where people get to present a quick overview of their new product, some entrepreneuress was pushing a t-shirt designed for singles.  Each shirt had catchy phrases designed to supposedly start a conversation such as "Say Hello" and "Single."  Nothing like looking desperate, eh?  They might as well add one that says "I'm 39 and eventually want kids... after a walk on the beach at sunset."  Call me old-fashioned, I guess.

The kicker with the show is that these "big ideas" get judged by a panel including Mr. Deutsch, as well as other ubiquitous dignitaries such as an editor of Cosmo and someone that makes vodka.  Good luck with that the collective intellectual power of that lineup.  Which is probably why they unanimously thought selling a simple t-shirt screenprinted with some estrogen-scented phrase for $28 was a great idea.

I was laughing at the idiocy of it all until I realized that I was wearing a... $28 Life is Good t-shirt screenprinted with a silly happy face sitting on a kayak.  Hmmm....

So the next person up was Miri Ben-Ari, and this was a truly interesting segment.  A world-class violinist playing the most classical of classical instruments, therefore you'd expect her to be playing Brahms and Chopin. And you would be wrong.

Ms. Ben-Ari thinks outside of the box.  Way outside.  Where would be the least likely place to find a violinist?  How about playing hip-hop in the Bronx theatre.  In fact, she has just released an album called The Hip-Hop Violinist... and it even has explicit lyrics!

Truly remarkable, and thought-provoking.  Where can a skill or method be applied?  5S, kaizen, value stream mapping... and most of lean manufacturing for that matter... is being applied to all sorts of organizations and systems outside of manufacturing.  The same goes for basically any skill. 

Stretch the limits of your imagination.

Featuritis Curse

I've really been enjoying my new Apple MacBook.  Why didn't I switch earlier?  The TV ad is true: everything... just works.  Yesterday I found another benefit as I accidentally clicked on the link in a spam email (bad Kevin, bad Kevin!) and frantically Googled to find information about the malicious spyware that should have been installed.  It wasn't.  Because it wasn't designed for the Mac, and in fact there have been no reports of Mac spyware this year.

It's a simple, intuitive machine.  Which matches the evolution of my life... a drive toward minimalism and simplicity.  A couple months ago I went through my closets and ended up taking 75% of what I own to Goodwill.  Similarly more than half the pantry went to the Food Bank, most books were donated to the local public library... you get the picture.  I even removed most of my season passes off of Tivo.  Regular readers remember that last summer I realized how much time I wasted in front of the TV so I simply turned it off.  Simply.  Minimization is a liberating experience.

Where am I going with all of this?  Beats me.  Except that earlier this week I came across a post on Peter Abilla's Shmula that once again reminded me of the power of simplicity.  He discusses the "Featuritis Curve" which correlates user happiness and the number of product features:

Who hasn't experienced this frustration?  Yes I know it looks like the Laffer Curve, but that's completely besides the point.  My MacBook immediately came to mind: I opened the case for the first time and it turned on, asked me how I was doing, and went to work.  No endless series of install screens.  I don't have the capability to modify every miniscule little feature, but I don't need to.  I simply need it to work reliably and consistently.

Keep it simple.  Please.

Oh Give Me a Break (TM)

And now for the most ridiculous item of the day...

The U.S. Patent Office approved the trademark "Lean Procurement(TM)," a strategic service and approach developed by New England industrial product distributor Consumers Interstate Corporation. "Lean Procurement(TM) is a strong complement to companies' other lean manufacturing efforts," says Kenn Fischburg, President of Consumers Interstate. "It applies similar strategies to cut the fat and build lean muscle and smooth flow in this often overlooked area of procuring their supplies, which involves activities from inventory control to accounts payable. But it's not about continuous improvement: it's a powerful rethink and redesign of the whole procurement process; that yields dramatic results, top and bottom line.

Demand Flow (TM), Lean Six Sigma (TM), Lean Procurement (TM)... where will this idiocy end?  What a load of hooey.  No wonder consultants get such a bad reputation. 

At least I call dibs on "Demand Quake (TM)."

Finding Time To Innovate

Our occasional guest author Dan Markovitz has an article in the latest Industry Week titled Get Lean Get Innovative where he discusses a common problem in business: finding time.  Finding time to firefight problems, attend meetings, resolve to customer issues, and if by some miracle there's some time left over, then finding time to innovate.

We've all heard the stories of how some exemplary companies stimulate innovation, and we wish we had that luxury,

Google, for example, is well-known for its "20% time," in which employees are allowed -- even encouraged -- to use 20% of their time on offbeat projects.

3M predates Google in this approach. The company has a similar "15% rule" that encourages technical staff to work on projects of their own choosing. And it offers venture capital-like "Genesis Grants" of $50,000 to for researchers to develop prototypes.

Chiquita picks its best people -- even pulling them out of areas where they're contributing -- and tells them not to worry about the day-to-day business, but rather to think about how they're going to make their quota in two years. Similarly, Lockheed Martin is legendary for its Skunk Works. The company built an entirely separate facility to house people they feel can dream up breakthrough innovations.

Other companies devote Friday's or the last hour of each day to "innovation."  But how does a typical company do that?  How do they find the time?  That's where lean, and especially the non-manufacturing aspects such as lean office, can help out.

Lean isn't just about reducing defects and WIP. It's about finding better ways to work. It's about eliminating waste of all forms.

Take a close look around your offices, and spot the waste. See the office that looks like Katrina just hit? Calculate the time squandered searching for a file in that mess -- time that could be spent innovating. Think the 8,000 messages in someone's email inbox is just a hassle for the IT department? Imagine each of those emails as inventory, an inventory of ideas that's not flowing smoothly down the value stream to the customer, an inventory that's impeding innovation. See the multi-tasking rampant in your workplace (often caused by you, by the way, when you interrupt with a sudden question.) Think of the inefficiency caused by those interruptions -- a loss from 20-40%, according to a study by the University of Michigan and the FAA -- and think of the innovation that could have been occurring.

Implementing lean in the production environment will shorten cycle times, improve on-time delivery, and improve quality.  That will reduce the amount of time spent firefighting customer service issues.  Similarly, apply lean methods to development, office, and administrative activities will reduce the time spent filing, finding paperwork, and even making decisions. 

You've just found some free time to focus on the future.  Read Dan's entire article here.

Real Innovation At Last

Kevin and I have hammered the 'Innovation' fad pretty hard lately.  Too often innovation seems to be pursued by companies which have utterly failed in their manufacturing efforts and now plan to invent their way back to profitability.  More often, companies package some simple change they make to their products or process in an innovation wrapper and announce it to the world as the most startling innovation the world has seen since sliced bread.   Credit must be given where credit is due, however, and when true innovation intersect with lean manufacturing, the results are nothing short of breathtaking.  Such is the case with Bemis Manufacturing.

Bemis is a family owned injection molder based out of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin (a state that seems to pop up more and more as the home of lean manufacturers).  Bemis has been on the lean path for several years and, while privately held companies do not publish their financial results, their growth rate indicates that they have been very successful.  They make all sorts of things, but their proudest claim to fame is that they are the world's largest manufacturer of toilet seats.

Most people think that innovation requires advanced technology and microprocessors, and that just about every bit of improvement has been wrung out of the more mundane products in life - like toilet seats.  Bemis has shown them to be woefully mistaken, however.  They have just rolled out the first toilet seat that automatically closes when the toilet is flushed.

Dropping this amazing, innovative product into their lean manufacturing machine is certain to change bathroom technology forever and the world we live in.  It will spur a huge cultural transition.  Gone will be the days of women complaining of men failing to close the toilet.  No more dogs drinking from toilet bowls.  There are many people naively unaware of the fact that every year, an average of four children under the age of five drown as a result of falling into toilets.  Those dangerous days are over.  The world will be a different - and far better - place.

In the last several months I have read countless articles about innovation and almost all have left me overwhelmingly under impressed.  However, this bit of innovation is another story all together. I should have guessed that a lean manufacturer would be the first true innovator among them all.  Hats off to Bemis Manufacturing.

Lean Sigma Innovation

You can tell that I'm a manufacturing guy without a lick of sense when it comes to marketing.  If I were smart, I would change the name of my business from Best Manufacturing Practices to The Lean Sigma Kaizen Event Innovation Company and triple my fees.  It seems that every time I come across a lean disaster, there is a 'lean sigma innovation' outfit behind it.

Take for instance, the Smith and Wesson Company - the gun people.  They are under new management and growing rapidly.  Most of their growth is coming from the 'Buy American' spirit - especially when it comes to security.  They are reclaiming the law enforcement market, going back to the glory days when Clint Eastwood wreaked havoc on San Francisco with the "most powerful handgun in the world" - a Smith and Wesson product.  The problem is that they are also making a lot of noise about their 'lean sigma' strategy.  In spite of the fact that they take a month and a half to make a gun, they call their lean sigma journey a success.  More incredible, they explained poor margins during one quarter in the midst of their journey as the result of consulting fees for their lean sigma project.

That's the kind of gig I need - one that pays me so much they have to footnote their financial statements to explain my fees - yet willing to call my efforts a success even if I don't bring anything to the bottom line.

A company I am working with has paid over a third of a million dollars to a lean sigma consulting company for kaizen events - spanning almost a two year period.  They have nothing on the bottom line to show for it.  It seems to me that if I can't pass on just about all I know about kaizen events in a whole lot less than two years, either I am a very poor teacher or I am working with a severely learning disabled client.  How can you get someone to pay you premium dollars to do the same thing over and over again for years?  I need to figure out the answer to that question.

Or there is the U.S. Army.  While there are plenty of solid lean practitioners in Army operations, the top leadership is not quite as astute.  They paid an outfit that cannot possibly fit the words 'lean', 'sigma' and 'innovation' into their web site any more for the brilliant advice that their lean sigma outcome should be a mandated unilateral headcount reduction.  What part of lean or six sigma does that come from?  How do you convince a client that a 5% across the board headcount reduction is 'innovative'?

I think they have an 'Emperor's New Clothes" charade going.  After paying ridiculous fees, what CEO wants to tell the board and the rest of the world that the whole thing was a colossal waste of money that saved nothing?  Instead, they proclaim the whole effort to be a grand strategic success, and that the company is now more flexible and streamlined, then move on.  The lean sigma innovation advisers grab the quote, slap it prominently on their web site, then move on to the next CEO in need of some lean sigma innovation.

What stops me from pursuing the lean sigma innovation consulting route, however, is the same thing that stops everyone who really understands and commits to lean manufacturing.  I'm not in it for the money, nor do I see the CEO as my customer.  I'm in it for the manufacturing and for the people who manufacture for a living.  We measure success by the number of high value adding manufacturing jobs we have helped to save and sometimes create. 

CEO's come and go, and so do fads like 'lean sigma' and the current nonsensical 'innovation' phase.  (I recently read an article in which Whirlpool - a real 'lean sigma innovator' if there ever was one - crowed about how innovative they were by selling refrigerators in India with smaller meat compartments and bigger vegetable compartments because India has a lot of vegetarians.  What they call 'innovation' the rest of the world calls 'common sense'.)  On the other hand, lean manufacturing and lean manufacturing jobs are there for the long term.