Standardization or Improvement: Where to start?

In a September 1990 meeting in Tokyo, my boss Brian Joiner asked Dr. Noriaki Kano a question.  

Where should you start to optimize performance of an organization?  If an organization is viewed as a system, how do you optimize the system?

Dr. Kano gave an answer rooted in the substantial practical experience he, his teachers and students had gained in development and application of total quality control (TQC) in many countries. 

“Sometimes we can start with department work, followed by integration of departments with each other.  We might not tackle the entire organization.  Of course, if we focus on a department, the approach may not lead to system optimization.   In TQC promotion at the start, people think about their own department or even just for themselves.   If you make a theoretical point about system optimization, will people understand?”

“We start with customer focus.  Ask: ‘Why don’t you identify your customer?  Try to think of how to satisfy them.’ “

Brian then asked Dr. Kano what one should start with in a department:  standardization or improvement through problem-solving?

Dr. Kano said that was a good question.  “Theoretically, start with standardization.  But one must be careful not to alienate workers at the start when they may not see any reason to use standardized methods.”  

Dr. Kano said he preferred to identify the big problem in a department and go to work to solve this problem.  

My colleagues at Associates in Process Improvement (API) arrived at a similar conclusion.   The fundamental method they developed is called the Model for Improvement, not the Model for Standardization!

Dr Kano continued: “Most times, people will quickly find out that methods or the management of the methods are inadequate.  Fairly quickly, they will need to tackle standardization.”

We meet again the human dimension of consulting work.   If I offer to help a department or organization, I should start with a customer focus, too.   What is the customer trying to accomplish?  If I help the customer solve a problem, then there is a basis for a relationship that can support more changes and interventions. And at some point, we will have to work on standardization.

My Lesson

My current enthusiasm for work standards and standardized work needs to be tempered by Dr Kano’s advice to approach each situation with care.  Customize consulting advice to the situation.  

Nevertheless, I should anticipate that almost surely, we will need to tackle standardization.

Dr. Kano’s basic question “Why don’t you identify your customer?  Try to think how to satisfy them!” is the opening to standardization.   A rudimentary work standard translates what the customer wants into a definition that the producer can use to guide work.  Apply Kato’s insight:  make it easy to see the difference between the definition of the product or service and what you really produce.  Problems will naturally arise as gaps between the standard and the actual production.  Apply problem-solving skills.   Keep going.  

Personal note

My colleague Ron Moen died one week ago.   Ron was one of the principals of API.  He represented API at many of the meetings between American and Japanese consultants over the past 30 years, contributing insights from his application of Dr. Deming’s ideas.   Ron was a key participant in the September 1990 Tokyo meeting with Dr. Kano.  

Ron consulted and advised a wide range of projects at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.   Just this past summer, we adapted one of Ron’s tools from 2010 to help ICU nurses distinguish value-added work from wasted time and effort.

I will miss his kind and thoughtful presence.