9.9 KM-Tool: Work-Out (General Electric) What is a Work-out?
9.9 KM-Tool: Work-Out (General Electric) What is a Work-out?
9.9 KM-Tool: Work-Out (General Electric)
What is a Work-out?
This problem solving methodology was developed by General Electric:
“Work-Out was based on the simple belief that people closest to the work know more than anyone; how it could be done better. It was this enormous reservoir of untapped knowledge, and insight, that we wanted to draw upon. Across GE today, holding a Work-Out session is as natural an act as coming to work. People of disparate ranks and functions search for a better way, every day, gathering in a room for an hour, or eight, or three days, grappling with a problem or an opportunity, and dealing with it, usually on the spot – producing real change instead of memos and promises of further study. Everyone today has an opportunity to have a voice at GE, and everyone who uses that voice to help improve things is
rewarded” (General Electric, Annual report 1995, p. 5)
Why do a Work-out?
Work-Out is not just a cost-cutting process. It rather helps companies grow along five key dimensions:
First, it provides a focus on stretch. By forcing people to rethink what they are doing, it also encourages them to stretch to a goal or challenge that is significantly beyond their current performance level.
For example, the stretch goal might be to cut the time to develop a new product in half, or to reduce the number of customer complaints by 30 % in the next year. Second, Work-Out helps to develop systems thinking. Work-Out encourages people to take a systems perspective. In the initial design phase of Work-Out, the design team creates a comprehensive map that describes the steps, processes, and
subprocesses involved in producing current results.
Third, Work-Out encourages lateral thinking. With the process map as a starting point, participants brainstorm ways to achieve the goal and sort through ideas, select the best ones, and develop them into recommendations. Work-Out begins by focusing on the “low-hanging fruit,” the easy fixes that can be made to virtually any process. Every organisation develops clutter or inefficiency over time.
How to do a work-out?
No matter what the challenge, the process remains the same, with four basic steps:
1. Bring together the people who know the issues best.
2. Challenge them to develop creative solutions.
3. Make yes or no decisions on the solutions immediately in a public forum.
4. Empower people to carry out the solutions.
Work-Out particularly addresses “RAMMPP” inefficiencies, short for reports, approvals, meetings, measures, policies, and practices. These are relatively easy to find and remove.
The simple RAMMPP Matrix illustrated below lists each type of clutter and
the places where it might exist.
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