11. Organizing for Efficiency

When organizations look at cost reduction, the focus can typically be on elimination, which usually points to human resources. This can be a result of paradigms or the mind-set of managers who are used to looking at cost reduction in the form of elimination. Although eliminating things can reduce cost, it’s the approach taken that can be improved to optimize what needs to be eliminated, if anything, to accomplish the goal. Project managers using Streamline Thinking have to look at their project from an organizational standpoint. Organization represents a process that results in efficiency, not necessarily elimination. It’s important for the manager to understand the concept of organization and what options and alternatives it can present within the department.

Because the process of being organized starts with the correct mind-set, we have to understand what being organized actually is. Organization is a process that requires Streamline Thinking; you will need to visualize the goal and then sequence the steps to accomplish that goal. Streamline Thinking takes the steps that are actually needed, evaluates the resources needed at each step, and aligns or groups those resources to be most efficient. Organization is very similar; it looks to sequencing or compartmentalizing things to better organize them. This thought process can be utilized in several ways: organization of thoughts, approach to performing a job, organization of immediate work spaces, and organization of the department. Evaluating what is needed at each step, grouping or compartmentalizing, and better sequencing for efficiency is thinking in the form of a process.

When organization is understood as a process, it can then be used like a process to accomplish an objective. The manager develops this process by generating a list of steps (tasks) he will use in evaluating how organized the department actually is. If cost reduction is an objective, using an organizational approach will have the manager focused on what they have, when, and why it’s used versus how many they have and how many they can eliminate. This approach requires the manager to analyze his department in terms of being organized, such as evaluating work-space efficiency and capital equipment placement, as well as human resource assignments. This organizational approach can be used at all levels within the organization and can be applied to most functional areas within the organization. It is also important to understand that organization starts as a mind-set, so the manager must first practice organizing his thoughts and how he approaches his job.

When organizing becomes a process, it can then be understood by others in the organization and become a part of the culture of that organization. This is no easy task, because some managers might see the value in being organized, whereas other managers simply do not have an organized mind and see it as being difficult and meaning more work in managing their responsibilities. The best way for a manager to communicate the value of organizing is by example. This can start with the organization of the manager’s own department and the culture of organizing developed within that department.

1. High-level—Executive-level management having oversight of the organization

2. Midlevel—Midlevel management departmental oversight

3. Low-level—Immediate work areas

When executives look at reorganizing from an efficiency standpoint, it will require a clear understanding of the goal and a Streamline Thinking approach. It can sometimes be difficult for executive management to step away from cost-reduction thinking, because this usually causes them to evaluate reductions in staff or equipment.

To better illustrate this concept, we can look at an example of a used-car lot. The owner of a used-car lot studies many vehicles and makes purchases based on market demand, but might not be selling the vehicles as quickly as expected. As the market research shows, the dealer has the correct vehicles in stock and the pricing is competitive—so what is causing this problem? Marketing is sometimes a key element and the approach might be to look at the placement of the vehicles on the lot. This requires the dealer to step away from elimination thinking (taking the “nonselling” vehicles back to the auction), but leads him to look at the “organization” of vehicles that he currently has. Grouping certain vehicles together, say, all the trucks in one area, sedans in another area, and sports cars in one area, allows the customers to compare like vehicles in one particular area of the car lot. They can then evaluate models, colors, options, and pricing much more easily and see better deals more quickly. This did not require the dealer to eliminate any vehicles, just simply rearrange the inventory he already had. It might be determined that placing key vehicles in the front of the dealership during certain seasons of the year allows interested customers to spot those vehicles more quickly on the lot.

This type of thinking can be applied to the business strategy in determining how many of what type facilities are being used, or possibly where facilities are located in proximity to suppliers and/or customers and raw materials. Executives have the power to make changes if a better-organized plan results in efficiency. A net result of becoming more efficient will generally, in time, result in better use of resources and cost reductions.

This is considered a department within the dealership, and the manager has the responsibility of making the most efficient use of the space. For changes in efficiency, the manager needs to shift the thought process of reduction or elimination to simply reorganization. This might involve looking at the layout of the mechanics area and better grouping job functions, say, having oil changes in one area, tire replacement and rotation in another area, and the mechanics service bays grouped in a separate area. In better organizing these areas, the mechanics will have only the tools and service equipment needed for the type of task designed to be carried out in that area. This process did not eliminate anything, but just better organized the areas for efficiency, allowing the mechanics to focus on the type of service they are assigned. This can reveal unutilized space that can now be used for something else or possibly open the door for other types of services previously not offered.

This organizational thinking can be applied for midlevel managers within business by having them evaluate their particular department for best use of human resources, capital equipment, and facility space.

Organizational thinking will force the manager to make necessary improvements in better organization that will produce a more cost-effective way to run the department. The manager has to look at layouts, work space, human resource traffic patterns, and so on to accomplish this type of improvement. This can also be a way managers can train their thought process to follow organized streamline thinking, thus stepping away from reduction-and-elimination-type thinking.

1. Task worker input—This is where the task worker in a particular work area takes responsibility for the organization of that area. If the manager feels it’s appropriate, she can empower the worker to evaluate the area to see whether a better layout of their work space would be more efficient. This allows the worker to take ownership of the work space and allows the worker to be creative in making efficient changes. The resources directly involved with the process have the best ideas to make it more efficient because they have to work with the inefficiencies every day. Any changes to the work area should be reviewed by a manager for approval and to validate that the changes are justified and do result in a better-organized work space. This also allows the workers to be involved in the organizing plan that the overall company is trying to initiate.

2. Process or Manufacturing Engineer input—If the organization has process or manufacturing engineering resources, it might be the decision of the manager to utilize these resources to evaluate work space. Process and manufacturing engineers typically are resources assigned to design work-space areas and evaluate those areas with efficiency and organization in mind. These resources many times will look at a work space slightly different than the task worker or the manager because they are looking at work space from a process standpoint. Task workers are “normalized,” or used to the work space, and they can’t see inefficiency and wouldn’t want to change if they had to. In other cases, task workers might show reluctance in making improvements because they simply don’t like change! There might be occasions when manufacturing engineers want to work in conjunction with task workers to gain their input for problems or issues they want to solve in reorganizing the work space. This again focuses on the organization of work-space materials, equipment, and human resource movement, and not reduction or elimination.

The low-level evaluation of work space can have very promising outcomes because organization can be at a simpler level and quickly accomplished. This might reveal things that are no longer necessary in the process that can be eliminated, but the focus is on reorganization for efficiency and optimization of a work space. Examples of organization considerations might include the following:

1. Placement of certain tools or materials—This includes how they are positioned, binned, and located in proximity to the task worker.

2. Sequence of how a process takes place to optimize the movement of the task worker—Movements that a task worker makes require energy and time, and optimizing the placement of items for the worker reduces the amount of movement and therefore time it takes to perform the process.

3. Placement of computer programs and files that workers will need to access to perform their jobs—If programs or files are not organized well within a network system, this can result in time spent searching for things that workers need in order to perform their tasks. Organizing things on the network or consolidating them into functional areas of a network can help the worker access and utilize programs and files more efficiently and therefore save time.

The manager must realize that, at this level, even the smallest change can make a difference, especially if it is something performed several times. Small changes do add up over an entire department and organization. This is also good training for staff to have an organized mind-set in how they think, as well as how they approach their jobs. This type of training pays off in the long run as streamline, organized thinking by large portions of the organization results in large numbers of resources paying more attention to the details, which results in efficiency and cost reductions at all levels. This is also how management can make reductions in cost, but not always through reductions in staff.

Companies, departments, and work space should have organization as a top priority when they are first created, but if they already exist, they should still be evaluated for optimization in how they are organized. When processes performed within a department are first created, organization should be designed in from the beginning, but this needs to be the mind-set of the person designing the process. Resources who have creative and organized approaches to process development will typically see and design in organization as they develop a process. Being able to visualize organization at the start allows the process to be developed from that basis. This is why it’s important to have resources who understand and can implement this type of approach, because most in the company will not think this way. Resources who already design processes with organization will be best, but other resources might have to be trained and might need practice.

When equipment and materials have to be researched, purchased, and then received, these will require human resource time that can be used for other things. If fewer items have to be purchased as a result of optimized processes, this reduces not only what has to be purchased, but the time it takes to purchase. Organizing a process or department is about Streamline Thinking that will ultimately connect several areas within the operation. When the operation is more organized and efficient, other areas benefit as well. Being organized starts with the individual and results in organized behavior. This behavior produces organized work, which results in a more efficient operation, saving time and money!

• When managers start thinking from an organized perspective using Streamline Thinking, this allows the manager to look at the department and the resources from an organized viewpoint.

• The benefits of a department being organized will be seen by other departments and managers, validating organization as a process in not only streamlining the department but in process improvement.

• The key for executive-level management is to think about organizing for efficiency, which might simply mean reorganizing what they already have, which might or might not include eliminating.

• This is organizational thinking, which has you focusing on the structure of the layout for customer efficiency and not elimination and cost reduction for efficiency.

• Midlevel managers can self-train this type of thinking by creating a challenge:

• Cost reduction being limited only to reorganization

• No reduction or elimination allowed

• Training management and staff at all levels in being better organized is really about creating a smarter work force that will prove the value of this approach every day by incremental organizational efforts.

• The important element when you are designing organization into a process is to remember Streamline Thinking, having only what’s required for the process, and considering how the process is laid out for most efficient use of space and movement of the resources.