TV commercials are chockfull of people holding up their old jeans to show you how much their clothing size has been reduced. Magazine covers are plastered with stories of celebrities who are struggling to fit into last season’s clothing. Billboards along our highways echo the need to be lean. And then there’s exercise equipment to help you ‘effortlessly’ crunch-away those unwanted inches – all in the name of trying to sell you products and services to reduce your waist size!
With some literary license I will say that many of today’s organizations are also concerned about their “waste” sizes. You’ve either seen the headlines, or maybe even experienced firsthand the effects of this need to “do more with less” mantra. Manufacturing companies have fought the battle of the bulge for a long time. Lean-manufacturing gurus have identified several sources of waste (“muda” – in Japanese) consisting of transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing and defects.
Even without formal training in lean-manufacturing techniques, many organizations have recognized the need to identify and reduce many of these wastes, even if no more than in an unstructured way.
In good times, success often masks a myriad of sins. As the economic realities of the past year still stifle most businesses, two little-known, but extremely dangerous types of waste are becoming more prevalent in organizations – and their names are “muri” and “mura”. These are not the names of the creatures that battled Godzilla in the old Japanese movie, but they do wreak havoc!
Muri translates as “overburden” and is defined as “all the unreasonable work that management imposes because of poor organization” (i.e., pushing people beyond their natural limits; or trying to work faster – not necessarily smarter – than usual.) Muri begins in the planning stage of a project or an organization-wide initiative.
Mura, which translates as “inconsistency” focuses on how the work flows, or how smooth it is, and how the design is executed. Given the wildly variant and unpredictable nature of many jobs, it is essential to proactively remove variation caused by poor work practices, and thereby install a rational, smooth flow of exclusively value-adding process steps.
Here’s an example of how muri and mura types of waste can play-out in today’s corporate behavior. An organization has seen a steady decline in its revenue over the past 12 months and has already gone far down the path of cost control. Staffing levels have been slashed in spite of HR’s assurance that employees are truly assets; travel has been curtailed; expenses are being closely examined; only projects of strategic priority are still on the table. The end of a reporting period is rapidly approaching and the ‘numbers’ aren’t looking any better even after all these cost reductions. Senior management calls a huddle. After much deliberation, word comes down to the sales team to “work harder” in order to make plan.
Management has correctly determined that the numbers are below target – an obvious no-brainer. Unfortunately, in their attempt to increase sales revenue, they have now unleashed mura. Management pressures the sales staff who are operating within the same strategy as before – the very same strategy that couldn’t produce the desired sales numbers to start with! The reaction of the sales staff is predictably a feeling of being threatened, overworked and overwhelmed. When the sales force asks for coaching on what “working harder” should look like, they are told that they are professionals and they should know what to do. Finally, sales managers offer guidance to their sales staff to “make more calls,” “close more business,” “focus on the ‘right’ accounts,” and “speak solely to the decision maker.” This is great advice if, and just if, the potential customers had a budget to spend on whatever it is you’re trying to sell them. The muri-style waste has now set-in and takes on the form of openly expressed frustration, impromptu “ain’t it awful?” hallway discussions, and the “deer-in-the-headlights” look when it comes to knowing what to do next.
This unfortunate combination of mura and muri types of waste now produce the more obvious waste forms of muda. The sales staff begins doing things that are not necessarily adding any value; however their increased activity makes it appear that they are working harder. Reduced staffing in critical support areas leads to increased shipping errors. Customer Service Reps provide less-than-stellar service due to the increase in customer complaints. This complicates invoicing. And it goes on. You get the picture.
Stop the merry-go-round! A quick review of the problem using a basic problem-solving tool, known as the “Cause and Effect Diagram” (or the “fishbone”), could tell this organization that there may be significant changes needed in this economic environment. These could include changes to the organization’s methods, policies, sales strategy, pricing, product, market, skills, etc. Said another way - unless your organization’s employees just got dumb and lazy overnight, then they are probably not the root cause of this problem. Without making changes that actually address the problem, the popular definition of “insanity” – continuing to do the same thing but expecting different results – will prevail.
Keeping this play-on-words alive for a few more sentences, both of these increases in waist/waste size are brought about by human behaviors. In the case of “waist” size, it is often an overindulgence of calories coupled with an “under-indulgence” of exercise. Regarding “waste” size, please consider leadership’s role in both mura and muri.
Waist size gets a lot of media attention and is a growing industry (pun intended). Waste size should receive the same, if not greater, focus from an organization’s leadership. When either mura or muri becomes too large, it can be unhealthy for the organization. These types of waste have yet-to-be-determined negative long-term effects, and they simply slow you down! |
