This presentation is an overview on how to implement SDCA (Plan – Do – Check – Act) in the field of Lean Sales and Marketing. It includes an outline for standard work of this cycle and an embedded video with Dr. Michael Balle, the Gemba Coach at the Lean Enterprise discussing Standard work in a knowledge creating department – Engineering.
Graham Hill former head of CRM at Toyota Financial Services states that:
Marketing in highly competitive markets is about exploring new propositions on the innovation fitness landscape. The environment determines where to start and complex marketing environments need EDCA. EDCA = Explore, PDCA = Plan, SDCA = Standardize, marketing operations are all about moving along the EDCA>PDCA>SDCA pathway.
The amount of Standard Work that you decide for your teams will differ from organization to organization and from team to team. Standard Work should only encompass part of your time. Knowledge workers should have a a fair amount of slack time built into their process, i.e. Google, 3M. On the other hand, just about every person wants some form of standard work. Most enjoy doing tasks that they are comfortable with and it gives them a sense of accomplishment when completed.
The bigger picture is that Standard Work is what provides line of sight for your team. It enables support and provides opportunity for managers to serve you. More information is available in my posts, Lean Canvas for Lean EDCA-PDCA-SDCA, The PDCA Cycle Description for a Lean Engagement Team and The EDCA Cycle Description for a Lean Engagement Team.
Standardizing your work provides opportunity to spread it within your organization and make it easier for customers to go deeper into your organization for knowledge sharing. This provides a flood of new ideas for innovation and co-creation opportunities. But even more importantly it secures a vendor-customer relationship or partnership that is difficult for others to replicate. More on this in the blog post, Positioning your organization to learn from your customers.
And Standard Work does not need to be boring: Is Zappos the Next Toyota?
Related Information:
Servant Leadership in the Toyota Culture
What will your workplace be like in 2020?
Reducing Muda for Others with Kaizen
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