OK, that’s just the catchy title. I received some comments on my February article that I gave Pace very short shrift. Pace is one of the five Strategic Drivers that we identified and it is, indeed, as important as any of the other four.
Pace is the actual, daily, expected working pace of the organization. We see phrases all time such as “This is a fast-paced environment” that implies hurried, multi-tasking individuals rushing to get things done. Face it. Some work environments have to be fast paced. You wouldn’t want to visit an Emergency Room full of deliberate, methodical doctors and nurses. But finding the same environment on the floor of your bank might make you consider moving your accounts!
OK, so some industries require a faster pace than others. That’s pretty obvious. Why is it important to know where you fall out on our Deliberate or Rapid continuum? And why is it even more important to know where you would like to be on that same continuum?
Does your strategy call for a rapid pace or a deliberate one? Are you concerned with things happening rapidly or do you maintain a thorough, logical, methodical approach to the things you want done as an organization? Either way, you want to be sure everyone in the organization understands the strategic goals and buys into that point on the continuum which you and any other senior planners have chosen as your specific strategy.
Look around you. What is the normal approach your people take when completing projects or plans? Look also to see if the approach is the same when these same people work in teams. What pace do they normally seem to work at? Are they usually successful? How would you describe the pace to a potential employee?
Ask yourself also which end of the Pace spectrum is most important to you and the completion of the work of the organization. Again, part of this depends on the business you’re in. A small kitchen cabinet maker may want to use rapid response as a marketing tool with homeowners; an architectural millwork shop might emphasize the meticulous care that its craftsmen take to ensure installation of the details that create the Dream Home for their client.
And this is not just a measure of product or project moving through your shop. This applies to your office staff, engineers, draftspersons, and project managers as well. If everyone is in sync, your production or projects will move through your shop at the desired pace and employee’s expectations and behaviors will be supported by the activity. What happens in your shop if production wants to crank out parts and can’t get drawings when it’s time to start a job? Is this a routine occurrence? If so, it might mean that your strategic pace is not thoroughly and universally understood. What is the impact on your company’s performance if this is the norm?
Suppose you want to change your company’s pace. You may decide to become the rapid response supplier. What do you do?
Plan! Talk to your people. Make sure you know where you are on the continuum and where you really want to be. You probably don’t want to sacrifice quality or other services. All this needs to be thoroughly understood by everyone, and especially by you! You may need to change internal processes to shorten lead time; start drawings before completing credit checks; eliminate approval levels. There are many steps you can take before any manufacturing even starts.
On the shop floor, your Lean efforts can contribute greatly to reducing cycle time. If you started down this path, you may already be benefitting from both reduced costs and reduced time through the shop. Now there’s a strategy! Offer quicker turnaround for your small customers while reducing the price they have to pay! What will that do to improve your performance this year!
While none of the Strategic Drivers exists in a vacuum, it increases our understanding of their impact to look at each one separately. Integrating our understanding of the five will help define your strategy better and assure the increased alignment throughout the whole organization. This gets you started down the path to the extra 30% performance increase we have been discussing.
Future articles will describe the implications for daily operations, people development, and how the organization reacts to and impacts its external environment.