Ben wrote:
[snip]
>We're using a manufacturing model of business, and performance/quality
>metrics to run a continually changing, knowledge-based business. It
>doesn't work well.
>What do I mean by that?
>Here's how I see manufacturing (correct me if I'm wrong):
>* When a product is being manufactured on an assembly line there is very
>few sources of input -- all of which are identified and have their known
>place.
>* Those on the assembly line have very clearly defined, and often
>repetitious, work processes. The input is constant, and the output is
>constant.
>* The product being manufactured is tangible, and therefore the quality is
>easily measured. X number of widgets don't function properly -- or X
>widgets have a problem with their locking mechanism, etc.
>* Since the assembly of a product follows such repetitious processes, it
>is easy to predict the capacity of an assembly line: X widgets per hour.
>* Workers have very clear job descriptions. There is very little deviation
>or variance in their work day.
[snip]
>* Because of the variableness of the work done in technical services it is
>difficult to predict call capacity -- how many customers can be helped per
>day? Right now I think we help around 300 customers per day. . .but the
>number fluctuates drastically from week to week.
>* Technical Support Engineers have clearly defined expectations: Take
>calls from customers, solve them as quickly as you can, and get on to the
>next customer. The problem is that this attitude does not take into
>account the time it takes to discover and replicate new knowledge, nor
>does it take into account the variableness of the work we do. Thus it is
>difficult to accurately predict call capacity, or even an optimum call
>capacity.
>Thus, in my opinion, the model is all wrong. We need to think completely
>different about knowledge work, and stop trying to applying the model that
>emerged from the industrial revolution to the knowledge/information
>revolution.
As a manufacturing professional, I would have to say that you are
comparing apples to oranges. The IMO, the assumptions you articulate
about manufacturing apply to the 'workerbees' with few skills not learned
on the job. If you were to compare manufacturing professionals with
technical services professionals, I think you would find that many of the
issues you articulate apply to manufacturing professionals as well.
It sounds to me like you have two major issues:
1) Capacity Planning/ Capacity Justification.
What kind of resources do you need to resolve a customer's issues in (on
average) X minutes with an acceptable Std. deviation?
How do you predict call velocity?
I believe this can be done without resorting to 'assembly line' mentality.
2) Measurements.
How do you effectively measure the performance of your staff?
This is a much tougher problem. Perhaps the measurements of the past were
too one-dimensional to effectively track performance.
Maggie Walenty
A.T. Cross
p.s. please include me in your updates. I'd love to hear how this all turns
out.
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>