| The heart of the analysis process is about
finding opportunity. In fact, dramatic opportunities for improvement
are often revealed. Generally, at little or no cost to you,
we send in as many as 20 team members to analyze your operations
in great detail. This allows us to gain a better understanding
of your business issues, and gives you an opportunity to evaluate
our capabilities and the DB&A team.
Using proven methods, we perform comprehensive studies in
areas including work processes, procurement systems, inventory
management, cultural issues, labor and equipment utilization,
and more. The studies performed by DB&A often uncover
chronic operating issues which have existed within your organization
for years, but have never been adequately quantified to unveil
the true cost to your company.
Most clients are excited to learn the magnitude of opportunity
that exists. We identify these opportunities by connecting
the surface-level issues your company faces with their deeper,
root causes-including poor communication, lack of coordination,
ineffective training, undeveloped problem-solving skills,
poor metrics, insufficient reporting, noncompliance to systems,
lack of decision making, and absence of accountability.
Through focused, 'day-in-the-life' studies our associates
work side-by-side with your front-line managers, supervisors
and floor-level associates to uncover your chronic operating
issues.
In a recent analysis, DB&A found only 5.6% of the front-line
managers' available time was spent performing proactive supervisory
interactions. This equates to less than 27-minutes of proactive
interaction with all department personnel during an 8-hour
shift. The supervisory time observed was typically reactive
in nature and a response to a particular problem brought to
the front-line manager's attention by an employee. These studies
revealed that the front-line managers were not communicating
any performance expectations with respect to volume or quality
levels with employees. In one case, the front-line manager
actually rationalized passive management behavior by stating
that "their employees are empowered and are self-directed."
This passive management style resulted in area personnel lacking
direction and clear expectations, poor effectiveness in controlling
costs and an increased level of quality errors.
Studies conducted during the first-week of the analysis process
include, but are not limited to:
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Front-line supervisory studies |
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Detailed employee / resource
studies |
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Current organizational goals
and strategies alignment. |
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Supervisory Opinion Questionnaire
to determine attitudes and opinions of your management
group with regard to planning, work assignment, assignment
follow-up, and nine additional sub-scales |
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Current labor utilization |
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Current management operating
system-including work volumes, work standards, staffing,
short-term plans, work assignments, knowledge transfer,
follow-up, problem records, individual department reporting,
quality assurance, service |
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Current equipment utilization-including
capacity and performance benchmarking of all related equipment |
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Current work processes, procurement
systems, inventory management, maintenance utilization
and effectiveness |
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Existing supervisory tools,
measurement tools, and data collection devices, including
whether they exist and, if so, whether they are utilized |
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Ascertain current corporate
cultural issues-including how information flows in and
through your business for use by different departments |
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Presentation papers to visually
display the current state of your management operating
system and process flows (where applicable). |
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