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Local Management

Local (or Process) Management is the engine that drives progress out of the insights, relationships and creative opportunities generated within the logic of the QFD. Local Management translates the targets and expectations of their process (generated in the process proposal) into current performance deficiencies, and then develops practical plans to analyse and address those deficiencies systematically. The result is learning, transformation, growth and inexrable progress toward the goals. (For more on this perspective, see Predict. See also the PowerPoint slide sets on Process Ownership and Process Management (692 & 158 KB)).

The website includes a number of tools & concepts which support local management - covering aspects of measurement, modelling, learning and problem solving (some of which are covered under the Driving Improvement panel). These tools tend to support the detail of understanding and taking action.

The tools illustrated on the Local Management panel, however, generally sit above these, providing a more strategic level of insight and coordination over process improvement. They are explained in more detail below:

Critical Success Factor (CSF) Analysis provides a means to identify the key elements of your process which determine your performance and, thereby, the performance of your organisation. By identifying the Critical Success Factors, you can make objective decisons about measurement strategies, operating practices and skills needs - this is explained further in a short discussion paper (652 KB pdf). CSF Analysis is core to a systems mindset, and simple tools like process-level QFDs (QFD is a CSF Analysis in its own right) and the Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram (shown) can provide useful insight to guide your local management strategy.

Value Stream Mapping (VSM - the key tool of 'Lean') is a means of removing different types of waste (called Muda within Lean) from your process. Key to its success is clarity over what waste is (and what it is not) - which is where QFD and CSF Analysis provide essential context in clarifying the real objectives. Essentially, VSM is a form of process mapping and analysis which engages the process team in defining both the current state map, and the future state map to ensure maximum time, material, and effort are focused on the true objectives. www.lean.org is a comprehensive source of further information on this topic.

Flag Plans are a reporting tool which overcomes the limitations of classic project plan reporting (Gantt Chart) by adding a performance dimension to the progress dimension - they are a more sophisticated version of the milestone plan, which ensure not only timeliness of achievement, but also sustained quality and impact of achievement - a crucial factor in effective process management.
The end of this short briefing paper explains this in a little more detail. You might also like to look at the work of Art Schneiderman on 'half-life', which reflects some interesting insights on timescale & performance improvement.

Systematic Meetings provide the collective intelligence behind effective local/process management. The actual structure of these meetings are best understood through a flowchart (171 KB) and a session plan (153 KB), both of which provide and emphasise their context/relationship with the top-level management meeting. The objective and systematic/methodical nature of these meetings is dependent on the quality of the measurement approach, and on the disciplines used.

Further materials to help understand how Local Management can work, and more specifically, how it can effectively report its progress and performance, can be found here.

Pages 232-246 of Managing by Design can be found in Chapter 14 which can be read as a pdf file (137 KB) by clicking the link above.

Chapter 6 of How To Build A Better Business can be read as a pdf file by clicking here.

Blank templates of this panel can be found in the Big Picture Storyboard file - these can be used to capture your own experiences and progress in this area (by annotating them either in PowerPoint, or as a printed panel), and then to physically cut and paste them onto the Big Picture to create your own storyboard of implementing systematic management in your organisation.

To explore another secion of the big picture, please click on the relevant area of the image below: