Process Improvement Certifications for Project Management Exposure

It’s the first day of class and the professor is going around the room for introductions. When asked if we had any project management experience, the majority trend of the class was “No, I have not had any formal project management experience, BUT I have led…”. What this revealed was that everyone has led some project or team in their career that has exposed them to some level of project management experience. I myself was among those that didn’t think we could claim having project management experience due to the lack of certification or title.The holy grail of all project management certifications is the PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification. For those seeking a career in Project Management, this is definitely a certification you would want under your belt. But what about those individuals who are either interested or have led projects as a part of their job and simply want minimal exposure to managing projects without devoting the time and resource of a PMP certification? Aside from the list of certifications recognized by the Project Management Institute, (http://www.pmi.org/Certification.aspx) there are alternative certifications and methodologies that can provide you with the exposure needed to lead and manage projects.

Lean Six Sigma

Last year, I decided to pursue my Lean Six Sigma certification through an opportunity provided to me by my employer. Lean Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that works to improve performance by eliminating waste.  Certifications are structured in belts, similar to that of martial arts.

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I started with my Green Belt which practices the methodologies of the process improvement application such as the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) process. In an improvement project, Green Belts help with the details, data analysis, and data collection for the team leader or Black Belt. Much like our current field project, green belts are similar to the team members that help organize the fundraiser/charity event. After my Green Belt certification, I went on to pursue my Black Belt certification. Comparable to a Project Manager, Black Belts lead the process improvement project. In my role as a certified black belt, I have led a few projects that improved the business processes of our agency. What’s great is that these projects do not limit team members to only those certified by Lean Six Sigma. My team involved all individuals whose work played a role in the process being improved, from front line staff to senior executives.

Although not officially being titled as a Project Manager, it was empowering to be given the exposure and opportunity to lead projects. Like many of my classmates, I initially thought that the role of a Project Manager was limited to a certification and specific prior work experience. Process improvement has been increasingly popular among businesses in the recent years and will continue to grow as resources become limited. There are so many types of certifications out there that will provide you with project management experience and I encourage everyone to research the opportunities out there.

 

 

 

 

Flying Through Quality

Boeing 787 (Google Images)

Quality is an important factor when producing goods and services. Each organization sets its own quality standards based on customers’ demands and needs. If we look at quality from the customers’ perspective we will want to have products that we can rely on when using them, otherwise if the product is defective we might want to stop using it. On the manufacturers’ perspective if the customers are unsure of quality on their products, it is their job to make the necessary adjustments to make the product attractive to the customer again.  When the situation is created by defect on fabrication it can mean big amount of money losses for the manufacturer, therefore it should work on fixing the defects as soon as these are detected in order to avoid bigger losses and not get their reputation hurt.

 

An example of a company restoring confidence in its product is Boeing and the battery problems that its passenger jet 787s has been facing since January and that it cost them to stop flying them. According to an article in the New York Times by Christopher Drew and Jad Mouawad, the Federal Aviation Administration approved in April the company’s plan to fix the batteries of 50 jets that where delivered at that time. The authors explain that the lithium-ion batteries problems were detected when two of them had overheated in two different jets. As soon as the problem was detected its engineers worked on finding the causes of the defective batteries and the best approach to fix it. Collection of data was necessary to support the changes and come up with a plan.  Luckily, the 800 orders that were already planned for the plane were not affected, the authors explain, since it promised a 20 percent fuel savings. After collecting data and analyzing it, the company decided to send several technicians around the world to fix the batteries and install the new system which includes better insulation and other features to prevent batteries incidents (Drew and Mouawad). The article goes on by explaining that even after this efforts by the company to fix the problem, Japanese airlines have asked for more assurance that the incidents will not be likely to happen again or at least detected by introducing monitoring systems for the batteries that would send information about the batteries conditions and replacement of them every certain time period. All this efforts are done in order to recover the customer’s confidence.

 
We can see in this example how a defect might represents serious consequences in the company’s reputation and generate monetary losses. This illustrates the importance of having systems that monitor the quality and processes on production and if problems are presented look for the causes and fix them as soon as possible.

 
Do you think Boeing’s approach to solve the problem was appropriate? Should the company provide monitoring systems that Japanese airlines demand or do you think is enough just by replacing the batteries and the insulation system implemented?

 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/business/faa-endorses-boeing-remedy-for-787-battery.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1370203420-Yz8jS+nRMM8ILF6/hvaO2g

Grubhub Grabs Profit by the Seams

GrubHub and Seamless have now merged into one company. Last year alone they collectively earned over $870 Million dollars in profit. GrubHub has Chicago origins while Seamless started in New York.  Mike Evans the co-founder of GrubHub and the newly combined companies COO said, “I’m excited about the expanded restaurant network that our diners will be able to use.”

The merge initially has many benefits, but over time there are very important executive decisions to make in order to optimize all dimensions of a quality service. One benefit is that combined they will operate in over 500 cities in the United States. They also decided to keep all 650 full-time employees. The former CEO of GrubHub Matt Maloney will remain CEO while the former CEO of Seamless Jonathan Zabusky will be president.  Both former companies have merged with much smaller organizations in the past. For example in 2011 GrubHub bought Dotmenu which gave them an extra 250,000 menu listings at different restaurants around the nation.

The company still has many decisions to make. One decision the company has yet to make is the name of the new brand. Perception is reality, and they should take very careful consideration of how to name the new brand. They have been heavy competitors in cities like Chicago for many years, and they have both built their own brands into what they are today. GrubHub did have more profit, and therefore it would be advantageous to keep that name over Seamless. Changing the name entirely is also an option. Since there whole process is derived from online use it is unlikely they will create a new name. For example if a family uses GrubHub or Seamless on a nightly basis, they will likely have the URL memorized or saved in their favorites. This means the new company needs to be very transparent and loud with their changes in order to retain the brand loyal consumers from both companies.  I have one recommendation if they decide to change the name of the company, and that is to buy a new website with the company name. Then link both former websites to the new website which on the surface seems like it would satisfice all the consumers. From there the new company needs to internally improve their servicing process.

After the merged company has chosen a conforming brand they should also merge the processes to optimize reliability. They can assume they will have a large impact in the market for online food ordering because separately they held large portions of the market share. It is likely that both former organizations had their own unique processes, but one standardized process would be most financially beneficial.

Do you think the new company should change their name? Or should they use GrubHub or Seamless as the new company name? Do you think they should standardize their processing systems? Overall do you think this merge is beneficial to the owners?

 Sources:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-grubhub-seamless-20130520,0,4610644.story

McDonald’s goes on a McDiet

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Most people associate McDonalds with the traditional meat and potatoes menu that they started with, the traditional cheeseburger and french fries.  However, in recent times the Oak Brook based chain, with its 68 million daily customers in over 119 countries has expanded their menu to include items that can satisfy all different types of taste buds   By implementing these new items, like the snack wraps, angus burgers, and steak bagels  McDonalds has tried to cover all territories of the fast food market.  They have even offered rib sandwiches and the most recent offering of mighty wings (traditional chicken wings). Since 2007, McDonalds has added over 60 items to their menu.

Lately, however McDonalds has started to eliminate items off of their menu.  Starting with the Angus Burger last month, McDonalds claims that 4 more items will soon be off their menu including the Caesar salads, McSkillet Burritos, Southern Style Biscuits and steak bagels.  This is in an effort to better manage a menu that has grown in the past 7 years.

Because McDonalds is such an excellent example of quality and process management, this article serves as a good example to look at the way the McDonalds handles and controls its processes.  The traditional idea of McDonalds was that it was a company that could do the basics and do them better than anyone else meaning serve traditional Cheeseburgers and fries in a quick, clean, and friendly restaurant and atmosphere better than any of its competitors.  Clearly it has done this as it is the biggest fast food chain in the world and as a matter of necessity for an ever expanding target market, the menu has swollen to a size the original owners would have never thought.

Therein lies obvious potential problems which I believe McDonalds has realized.  By having so many different products, it becomes difficult to effectively offer the same consistent quality of all of these items across the board.  This I believe is because of the numerous different processes each different item must go through before it reaches the consumer.  This ranges from ingredient storage, cooking, preparing, and delivery.  This also can cause process variation in McDonalds training process as the menu becomes harder to master for its employees.  With new items so frequently being added, McDonalds lends itself to a host of possible errors in everyday preparation of these items to its customers.

What McDonalds is doing by reducing its menu items slowly is going back to basics somewhat.  By creating a more manageable menu, McDonalds can better focus on improving on its continued improvement of processes already associated with existing menu items.  By Improving their base menu items, McDonalds should see an increase in customer satisfaction across the multiple countries it occupies.

Do you think that eliminating the numerous menu items listed and more will help McDonalds achieve a higher quality standard for its other items and improve more so on its current operations? How else could this move help McDonalds achieve higher quality across the company.

 

Sources:

Crains ” More food disappearing from McDonalds”

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130517/BLOGS08/130519794/more-food-disappearing-from-mcdonalds-menu

” WikiPedia McDonalds”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald’s

Bloomberg New “McDonalds Cutting its Menu”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mcdonalds-reduce-menu-bloomberg-reports-101556997.html

Business Insider “McDonalds to Start Cutting Menu Items”

http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-to-start-cutting-menu-items-2013-5

 

Can the Cruise Industry Stay Afloat?

It’s been a nightmare at sea for this seasons start to the 2013 Cruise Season. From passengers going overboard, crew members dying and of course the horrific Carnival cruise ship that suffered a mass power outage that left over 4200 passengers stranded in the Mexican Gulf, the industry has been hit with new challenges.

Although, Carnival Cruise line has been getting the blunt of the bad media coverage for several equipment failures, the whole industry of cruise ships still have been affected. The Cruise Industry is now facing challenges of attracting new passengers due to recent events coupled with the old challenge of increasing operational costs and competition.

With high fuel costs, expensive airfare, and a rougher economy, almost every cruise line has been forced to cut costs while still trying to attract consumers. The Carnival Cruise ships have been proof that cutting costs in procedures, maintenance and quality crew members in order to provide over the top amenities and attractive destinations at reasonable costs to passengers have major consequences.

The challenge is not just picking attractive destinations and providing better service and perks then the next cruise ship.

All cruise lines have been optimistic in light of the horrific at-sea events, through the release of big upgrades, innovations and reengineered cruise ships in attempt to save the industry and their images. Cruise lines are taking on the challenge by restructuring ships to be the destination. An editor of cruisecritic.com , Caroyln Spencer Brown believes that “When you start focusing on shiny new ships with funky, fun, new amenities and features, the market comes back.” Or at least that is their hope.

The Royal Caribbean will release more thrill seeking attractions like bumper cars and simulated skydiving, while the Disney Cruise line will be redesigning their old ship to mimic the Marvel Comic Superhero theme. Several other major attractions like water parks, state of the art dining , world class exercise classes are all features that are changing the cruise line industry; it’s no longer just about the port destinations, its the ship itself that delivers the true experience.

While other cruise lines are adding over-the-top products and services to their ships, Carnival Cruise is sticking to product improvement. They have cancelled several cruises and spent over $300 million on safety upgrades and emergency generators to enhance their dependability and prevent anymore-technical nightmares.

Although, the thrill of walking on a plank, ice bars, eccentric food from Food Network Chefs, themes and celebrity shows sound enticing…I think there is a point where safety should not be forfeited. Also, is it really right for Cruise Lines to believe the ship “experience” outshines the actual destinations?

 

Ice Bar in Norwegian Cruise Ship

Observatory 300 feet above Sea Level

Would you pick a cruise based on it’s innovative amenities or on the basis of the trips destinations?

What dimension of quality do you think is most important for Cruise Lines to focus on?  Aesthetics? Service? Reliability etc..?

 

http://www.newsday.com/travel/cruises-get-good-buzz-from-new-ships-overhauls-1.5279922

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/carnival-cruise-lines-cancels-dozen-trips/story?id=18771670#.UZf8Eyv5l9k