Axiom
5: Documents guide enterprise change
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Using variance to understand process and relieve bottlenecks provides the facts to simulate, plan and deploy innovative change. In a steady state, increasing variability always increases cycle times. - Factory Physics, Hopp and Spearman |
The key question is: "Change what?" When planning improvements, the Document Methodology provides a foundation for answering this question. Knowledge fun-damentally builds enterprises. Critiqued documents record knowledge. Processes generate documents or physical products or services, and ideally a history of all their actions. As Chapter 6 discusses, all this information should be available to provide the facts to manage and change.
Of course, unless every process is explicitly defined, it is impossible to completely understand the enterprise system and its variation. Because people and unpredicted events can dynamically change an enterprise, no enterprise system is ever completely documented or understood.
A process is a collection of activities that takes input and creates an output that is of value to its customer. A process is not a task, a job, a person or a structure, although they are all parts of a process.
In “Reengineering the Corporation,” Hammer and Champy point out that a company can make major changes only if it:
· Changes the way it thinks about information technology.
· Doesn't equate technology with automation.
· Doesn't seek technology as a solution for existing problems.
· Minimizes deductive reasoning to define a problem and seek a solution.
· Emphasizes inductive reasoning to recognize a powerful solution that eliminates a problem.
Process Knowledge and Enterprise Change
The notions of deductive or inductive reasoning both assume that the problem is known. Without the application of a "theory" of enterprise, the complexity of large numbers of interacting processes ensures that the problem and optimum solution are unknowable. Many enterprises seek to re-engineer because they don't understand their business well enough to make systematic changes that will ultimately and radically restructure the way they do business. Continuous improvement is necessary to survive; radical change should be warranted by the facts.
Axiom 5: Change Scenario
Jason had listened to Donald’s review of Ed’s use of his computer and wanted to change his own work habits in a way that made him more effective. But, Jason knew tasks in marketing were much more ambiguous than in Engineering.
Jason looked at and categorized documents that he generated over the past several years. This defined an index for cataloguing his documents