Which Is Better? ‘The Best Money Can Buy’ or ‘Best Value For The Dollar.’

      “There is a huge difference between ‘the best that money can buy’ and ‘the best value for the dollar.’ Knowing which is most important to the customer is crucial.” – Anonymous.  We need to keep this quote in mind as we dig into our process improvement projects.  It becomes even more important as you deal with such process improvement trends as “exceeding customer expectations.”

Is exceeding customer expectations an appropriate approach to take?  My view is before you do you must deeply and carefully consider the long-term implications.  Your enterprise, whatever its’ size, serves various clients, consumers and customers. They all demand and expect the best value for the dollar. That’s fair, and if you can’t meet that standard, you’re not going to be in business for too long.

Be careful though.  If you take the exceeding customer expectations approach literally you are leaving money on the table. Another term is over-engineering the product and that doesn’t always make sense (or cents) to me.  Additionally, you’ve now raised the bar; this new product or service level will be ‘table stakes’ in your customers’ eyes. If you don’t hit that level with every product or service, every transaction, every single day, you have now created a problem you didn’t need to have in the first place.

After careful analysis and reflection, you may decide exceeding the customer’s expectations is the right thing to do.  If so, by all means do it and may sure your organization does it well.  But don’t say you will and fail to deliver.  Over promising and under delivering is another sure path to eventual closure of your enterprise.  A better approach is to use the same words but rearranged differently: under promise and over deliver.

Practical Process Improvement (PPI) PIPs are:

• Views, estimates, predictions, and/or forecasts from over thirty years’ experience in the process improvement trenches
• We will post new PPI PIPs periodically – please check back often
• Three or four paragraphs in length with three to four sentences in each
• They DO NOT represent the views of members of the firms’ current or past employers, clients, or others we associate with.

‘Goldilocks Approach’ to Team Membership: A Good Technique When You Are Solutioning

      If you are on a six sigma or other process improvement project, coming up with solutions can be a challenge.  While it is essential to have subject matter experts (SMEs) on the project for their valuable contributions, it is sometimes a good idea to have someone ‘just familiar’ with the area who can see the current situation and possible solutions from a slightly different perspective.

      A number of years ago, I was at a seminar put on by one of my mentors, Dr. Harold S. Haller http://www.haroldhaller.com. At the seminar Dr. Haller gave a great example of this.  It was during World War II and a new United States warplane had been introduced to the European Theater.  The leader of the Army Air Corp at the time was concerned an excessive number of planes were being shot down.  So he asked the manufacturer of the plane to send one of their technical experts to England to see if he could determine what the problem might be.

      The first thing the expert did was ask the maintenance crews to take a line drawing of the plane from all angles out to each plane and put marks where there were bullet holes.  This surprised all those present but they did as requested.  After some time, they came back and showed it to him and the others.  They noticed that every one of the plane’s diagrams had numerous bullet holes except for a large area under the pilot’s seat.  The expert announced the problem was something under that area.  When asked how he determined that he said planes which had been shot in that area were not returning from battle.  As I remember the problem was with the planes’ design was inadequate armor around the fuel pump which was fixed and that problem went away.

      As talented as that fine group of airmen were, I don’t think they would have come up with the solution that quickly on their own.  So when you are at the ‘solutioning’ phase of the project, it’s a good idea have someone with some knowledge of the area.  It’s similar to a ‘Goldilocks Approach’ to project knowledge – not too much or not too little but just right.