If only we'd known ...

You’ll wish you’d thought of it

Think of all the things from your own experience that you would want from a production system and MPS is it. There’s no miracle stuff. It’s common sense. You’ll recognise it. But you’ll also be amazed at the speed of the results.

If you are half-hearted, you’ll miss out

Park your cynicism. Embrace fully the core of MPS. Daily Layered Accountability, the behavioural change, the training, the problem-solving aspects – these are absolutely fundamental and they are what has given us our headline results.

It’s not extra work, it’s different work

This is not something you do ‘as well as’, this is something you do ‘instead of’. MPS processes like the DLA meetings will replace (and improve on) many of the things you do now.

If you’ve got good things, keep them

If you’ve got something that works and people use it, don’t scrap it, build around it. You don’t have to throw everything away.

Don’t be afraid to adapt things

But if some part of MPS doesn’t fit your business, don’t force it. That’s the beauty of MPS. It’s not one size fits all. It’s flexible, scalable, targetable. Successful implementation is about taking the tools, the framework, the methodology and the behaviours and then applying them in the real world scenario of your business in a way that works for it.

Cynics have reasons too

They may be thinking ‘we did this five years ago and nothing changed’. They may have a point. You’ll never convince them until they see some things start to change. So, keep at it and let your own actions and behaviours prove your point.

Don’t feel guilty

If you think something needs discussing, raise it. No-one is going to get into trouble for waving red flags. They are just opportunities to improve what we do. None of this is personal. It’s all about the process.

To understand DLA boards you need to use them

Don’t spend ages in a classroom. It’s only when teams start to use DLA boards, no matter how imperfect they might still be, that they learn how to get the best out of them. Fine-tuning a board to meet changing needs is normal.

Park your cynicism. Embrace fully the core of MPS. Daily Layered Accountability, the behavioural change, the training, the problem-solving aspects

Top-down KPIs are wrong from the start

If you are helping a team implement DLA work closely with them to co-develop a DLA review board that works for them. Coach them in how to develop measures that are important to the business and which provide a clear, unambiguous picture of the things they do.

Problem-solving is everyone’s job

Get good problem-solving done at every level within the business. It is the accumulation of all that ‘local’ activity that delivers the very big overall improvements.

You’ll probably need a new approach to kaizens

Make sure you have a solid kaizen process that focuses on the Vital Few, pulls-in the right people and makes them accountable for delivering results. DLA gives you lots of information to help you select your Vital Few. So, no more guesswork. ■