Re: Seeing the invisible

[David Kerridge <d.kerridge@lineone.net>]

Alan Meekings comments on Deming's recommendations that one of
the first things we should do on starting with a new company is to
draw "Production viewed as a system" for that organisation, and that
the first control chart we should draw is on data that crosses the CEO's
desk.

>I understand the points you're making - and, in a small organisations, I
>know they work.

Alan then queries whether this will work in a *large* organisation.

The first question I would ask is who called you in, and with what
purpose. Deming would only dealt with a CEO who said (in effect)
  "Help me understand how the Deming philosophy applies to my organisation"
Then Deming's recommendations make sense. He was dealing with
large organisations: I imagine no one else could afford his fees.

Many consultants are not in that position: they are called in by CEO's or
lower level managers who want results, not understanding.

This is more likely to be the case in a large organisation, but I don't
*think* the approach depends on size as such. The difficulty of making a
real change probably does. A large, bureaucratic organisation has a
tremendous inertia, which may defeat even a well-intentioned CEO.


But give it time. Today's small organisations will be tomorrow's large
ones, if they listen.
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