Episode 62 - The War on Waste Paradox - Chapter 12 - Part 2 - Audio Book
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Over the years of doing this work in Problem Solving, I am always amazed about SMED as a tool. When you explain the concept of separating value-added steps from wasteful non-value-added steps, you watch the lights click on as employees grasp the concept. 30 years ago when I did a bank and I asked a stupid question, "Who in the bank adds value?" Talk about blank looks. None of the employees had ever thought about their jobs quite that way. So when I narrowed it down to a question of what are the steps in the bank to process a loan. We listed them just like we did in the chapter. But then I asked the tough question, "why do you do it this way?" And of course, the answer I got was that it was mandated by federal regulations. Now one thing I do know about banking regulations is that how you enforce them at your bank, is up to you. The process just needs to meet the goals and objectives of the regulation. But to reassure the employees, I got the CEO/Founder to agree. So once it was established that they could redefine the loan process, we got more push back. Of course you have to collect the information and pass it around serially, step by step thru the office and expand the lead time (time to process the loan). So when I asked why can't you create a value-added path for the loan and a need to know separate path. For instance, a few of the audit clerks had a need to know to check/verify credit worthiness. But they didn't add value. They just needed to know. So once the value-added path was established the load was rushed thru approval waiting for the last documents (usually tax information). With that understanding, a loan could be approved and if tax records agreed with submitted data, the load was approved.
This is one of my problem solving tricks. Once we realized that they could have the document approved in 4 hours once the tax records were in, that became a selling feature of the bank: We approve loans in 4 hours once all the information is available to us. Think about that. I am not saying the total loan process is 4 hours, just the last step. Think about it, can you do that in your business. It is after all "improved service." Best, Len Bertain
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