How To Avoid “Stopping The Line” On Deliverables
Today’s guest blogger, Brian Buck, is an Organizational Improvement Consultant and Project Manager in the healthcare industry. He is studying for the PMP and hopes his three year experience requirement kicks in before the new PMBOK comes out (or else he will have to study some more)! He specializes in Lean improvements and loves to integrate the concepts into Project Management. He blogs at http://www.improvewithme.com/.
Have you ever had a project team member miss a deadline or give a below quality deliverable? Could the timing or quality have been saved if the team member had asked for help before the deadline?
Toyota and their Lean methodology have pioneered Andon systems to call out trouble before a production line is forced to be stopped. The same concept can help prevent a project from stalling.
Simplified, if a line worker spots a quality problem (their own or passed on to them) and they know they will run over their allotted time, they pull an Andon cord. This Andon cord makes a light or sound signaling the floor supervisors to RUN to the line worker to help troubleshoot and fix anything before the allotted time expires.
There is an important cultural significance behind Andon. In Lean organizations, supervisors welcome and encourage the use of Andons. As project managers, we need to be willing to help a project team-member understand the importance of asking for help and deliver the assistance they need. This reinforcement is critical because the pervasive culture in most organizations and projects is to avoid asking for assistance.
While creating your project quality plan, add a formal Andon system. Specify how help will be requested (email, phone, text, etc). Commit to supporting your team-members to help solve issues before they become emergencies. During status meetings, share success stories where a crisis was averted because help was requested. This concept will help your projects end on time and within quality.
[...] Guest Post: Andon’s & Project Management I am excited to have written a gues post on Ron Holohan’s pm411.org blog and podcast. Please check it out: How To Avoid “Stopping The Line” On Deliverables”. [...]