Life coach - Step 63 of 100 - Brakes help us to speed

I always thought brakes on cars help us to slow down till one day it struck me that brakes actually help me to speed. Imagine a world without brakes. I would be scared to speed because now I wont be able to slow down when I need to and there would be an accident. I would have to drive so very slowly and so would others and still we would have many more accidents.

Processes and procedures are like that. They help us to improve our operational efficiency and also help us innovate. Many of us hate processes and procedures. We call it bureaucracy, red tapism, etc. But without them things would never proceed ahead. The problem lies in processes and procedures that are not lean. Activities and steps that they involve that do not add value. But if we have to lean the process, we have to first standardize it before we can improve and innovate.

My first question to you is that do you really feel that processes and procedures even at a unit level are standardized? In my unit which is at least 25 years old, I have yet to see standardization. A soldier goes on leave and we know when he is to be back. 99% of them would return on the due date. In a standardized system, his Part II order for availment of leave and payment of rations should be published on the day he returned alongwith the Company Commander interview. I havent seen one unit where it happened. I tried doing this in my RR unit and succeeded to an extent.

We had 4 bridging companies and each had bridging procedures that were at least 10% different from the other. That is a lot of variation.

My point is if we have to improve, we have to start with standardization of the processes and provedures. Once that is in place, we can make the process lean to remove the waste and prevent errors. A good place to start - visit the firing range and see how companies do things differently. Visit the MT repair workshop and ask them for estimates for repair times for replacing tyres, radiator flush, PM 1 and PM 2 tasks. The time estimate would be a reflection of the processes. Visit the FOL dump and ask for time to fill up an empty vehicle.

We have to be a lean organization if we wish to achieve improvements.