Carmon

Listening to seasoned musicians play jazz can be a rewarding experience. Even if we are not jazz enthusiasts, we can appreciate the talent that becomes quickly evident, as melodies are created in a seemingly spontaneous fashion, but with notes flying together in an underlying theme.

What isn't evident, is what's behind this top-level performance. There certainly is obvious physical dexterity -- the ability to produce what is required upon demand. But, playing good jazz requires agility as well as ability -- the innovativeness to continually introduce new ideas in response to the mood created by the notes just played. Each phrase has to be linked with the next for continuity. There must be integration of thoughts and ideas.

The best excitement is created when teams of musicians improvise to create new harmonies. The players have mastered the rudiments, become very dexterous, agile and adroit, and trained themselves to be spontaneous. In their terms, they "cook."

Take away these ingredients and the players get clumsy, stumble in execution and produce bad results. The music becomes stale and the listener grows disinterested. What's the consequence? .......Losing the audience.

What does this have to do with manufacturing?

Consider that the U.S. has significantly lost world market share in key industries over fifteen years. Also consider that the complexion of manufacturing is rapidly changing, in the process of a global re-segmentation of markets. With more companies competing worldwide, pressure is on for U.S. manufacturers to give a top performance -- designing and building the best quality product in the shortest time possible.

Sour Notes

How do we compare today with that new standard? We have spaghetti factory flows, poor interaction between functional departments, physical walls, classes of workers, poorly integrated information systems, and component factories separated from assembly by states and, sometimes, continents.

As a result, we find ourselves clumsy in moving parts across the factory floor, stale or too slow with introducing new products to respond to market demand, stumbling in execution of production, and severe quality problems. What's the consequence? Losing business.

Jazz in the Factory

How can we tune ourselves to be top performers in the next decade We must start with the fundamentals, the rudiments. Any organization, just as in a jazz group, is only as good as its weakest player. As individual skills are raised, so is the performance of the organizational unit. We must be ready and skilled in physical movement. Physical dexterity is paramount in the hands of a classical pianist, a jazz saxophonist, and in the production cycle.

We must remove the obstacles that prevent us from manufacturing with high velocity -- our set-ups, the excessive material handling, our poor physical flow, and all production interruptions. We must streamline the physical flow, integrate our processes and close the distances between supply, production, assembly, distribution, and our end customer. The emphasis must be on quickly satisfying the service chain of events from the time a customer needs something until he is satisfied.

Being Innovative

We must be adroit in introducing new products and quick in getting them to the market to satisfy demand. We must create a dynamic integrated environment where people can work together in generating and sharing thoughts. Just as a jazz musician is free to choose his notes, in business there must be built-in flexibility to allow members to explore, and be creative.

Fostering innovation, among many other things, requires good organization of information. Our current systems and procedures have been developed at length to control an unwieldy information channel. Our functional organizations are stifling; natural and functional conflicts create internal adverse relationships that prevent the sharing of ideas.

Only when we get past the stifling paper flow, disparate computer systems, and functional organizational walls, will the homogeneity of ideas begin to generate at a fast pace. Linking computers is part of the answer, but it's also streamlining the information flow, and consolidating the knowledge of the idea producers. We need to organize for ease of sharing information for innovation.

Playing in Harmony

Having the ability to produce spontaneously upon demand requires an organization that is quick and resourceful. It requires short lines of communication, and velocity throughout the work chain. This means not only being able to enact the physical events swiftly, but also completing the business cycles quickly.

A jazz stage band keeps good time by closing physical proximity between players. This is so there is a minimum of delay in hearing the rhythm. In business, close proximity is critical to producing velocity. Each element of a business cycle must be linked with the next for continuity.

Every member must be in tune with the overall needs of the market, and close enough to one another to be spontaneous in helping each other support the common mission -- serving the customer. Team play is a basic necessity to produce the results required to be competitive in the next decade.

When a manufacturing company becomes physically dexterous in the factory, organized to be adroit and innovative throughout, and its members work in concert toward a common theme of satisfying the requirements of a dynamic market, it will be a world-class competitor, it will possess enterprise agility, and that's when it will "cook."

BIOGRAPHY

Richard G. Ligus is President of Rockford Consulting Group, Ltd., located in Rockford, IL., with over 30 years experience in manufacturing, procurement, transportation and distribution. He specializes in developing and implementing supply chain strategies. Rich is an author and a speaker, and has developed seminars with the American Management Association. He is certified by both the Institute of Management Consultants and the The National Bureau of Certified Consultants.

Rich has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a master of business administration degree from Rutgers University. He is a member of CASA/SME, and has been listed in Jane's Who's Who in Aviation and Aerospace. He has been a speaker at IMTS, USCTI, APFA, NEPMA, MCAA, Hand Tools Institute, CASA/SME, and others. He has appeared several times on WREX-TV, Mid-Morning Magazine.