|
TLM Enterprise News
ZERO SUPPORT CALLS
The reports we are getting after our initial Enterprise installations are outstanding.
What a difference a database makes. No synchronization, no compacting, no network paths and user permissions to figure out.
The technical support calls from existing customers who have upgraded to TLM Enterprise have basically dropped down to zero after the migration.
NEW HOSTING TERMS
We now have hosting arrangements in case you don't want to deal with your own server. It's only $285 for your own server, and less if you are a smaller company and we can co-locate you with another company.
(The user environment is isolated and secure, so you won't even know they are there.)
CUSTOM PROJECTS
We recently completed our first custom project which was integrated into the customer's version of TLM Enterprise. This provided a needed business solution specific to their company that worked within the larger framework of their quality and material management software.
Want to see TLM Enterprise in action? Click here to log into our TLM Enterprise demo via RASS. |
Affiliate Spotlight
 | | Quality Works Consulting |
Affiliate Page |
|
|
|
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday!
The big stories since our last newsletter revolve around a list of new offerings, which include: - Custom module development capability.
- Full service hosting for TLM Enterprise.
- New dashboard metric - "Dashboard Days."
- New Deviations module.
- New features and document template for Management Review module.
The value of being able to provide custom functionality was made clear to us by the success of our first custom module project. This project involved adding the ability for one of our medical device customers to manage the data and reporting for their diagnostic assays and biopharmaceuticals tests in a way that integrated with other TLM Modules. The customer was so excited about the deliverables that they didn't even bother negotiating terms for the project. Their attitude was, "if you can do this, we'll pay for it."
We couldn't help getting the impression we had stumbled onto a capability a significant percentage of the market may also need. It also fits with our core strength as a company: to economically provide a standard set of comprehensive and integrated quality and material management modules with the ability to customize an installation when there is the need to support a process unique to a given company.
It also fits with our goal of excelling at being customer driven and solution-oriented. We have found this to be the best strategy for getting our customers, like this medical device start up, to leave us product review quotes like this one:
"The Lean Machine has been invaluable to every facet of my production operations. I have looked around and I am completely confident that there is not a better value out there for a system that gives complete lot number traceability, bill of material management, work order processing, and document version number control. The incredible service and support that the company gives in addressing questions is invaluable "icing on the cake." - Ray Johnson, CEO, Cytonics Corporation. |
|
 New Offerings
New Custom Module Capability
One of our medical device start-ups called us and said,
"We just launched our primary product and we need:
1. A way to record the data
2. A high quality report of the test results and
3. We need to print directly to the doctor's office via an Internet printer.
By the way, the orders for new tests could start coming in within the next 2-4 weeks.... can The Lean Machine do that?"
We love working with start ups. :-)
Four weeks later they had everything they needed, and we figured out how we can manage the development and integration of custom modules into The Lean Machine. We don't want to elaborate too much on the process, since it represents a combination of product and service that we don't think anyone else can touch at our prices.
Watch a short demo on this custom module project.
---------------------------------------------
New hosting capability for TLM Enterprise
At first I admit I was a little resistant to the whole "Cloud Computing" that is "all the rage" these days. However, providing a hosted solution seemed important to stay competitive so we worked out the details to offer a great value, only $285 / mo. After getting the first server set up with all the needed software to support TLM Enterprise and creating a complete user environment with Word, Excel, Outlook, Adobe, OpenOffice, etc., I can now see what all the fuss is about.
Cloud Computing allows us to manage the user experience in one place. We can eliminate the all issues that are particular to someone's computer, operating system, version of MS Word, etc. Additionally, back-ups and TLM updates can be ensured and controlled in one place and made consistently for all users. SPLA (Services Provider License Agreement) licensing by Microsoft allows you to only pay for the Microsoft licenses you need on the server based on actual software usage, instead of having to pay for everything up front. Typically it takes about 30-40 months for the cost of a SPLA licensing model to equal paying for licenses outright.
All things considered, this might be a better cash flow strategy, especially for a start-up or a company who's cash flow situation makes this a better choice.
We can also create this environment with a server on your internal Network. So you have the option of either starting there or you can move your database in-house after things have settle down enough to focus on making the switch.
The TLM Enterprise demo is running on one of our hosting servers if you want to check it out.
-------------------------------------------
A New Dashboard metric - "Dashboard Days"
If there is one feature we know our customer's love, it's the Dashboard. Everything assigned to you in one place with links that take you to where you need to do them.
It occurred to us that if this is becoming the go to feature for getting things done, let's build a metric for it so management knows how fast things are getting done.
Dashboard Days is a built in metric for how long (in days) specific dashboard tasks have been on a user's dashboard.
There is no meaning to the metric, other than what individual companies want to establish for themselves.
When management starts monitoring this number, it can potentially act like a gas pedal for continuous improvement, as it represents the collective rate of change to all the underlying quality management system tasks needed to make improvements to the business systems that are addressing your customer's needs.
Maybe we should build a Business Intelligence app to load on manager's handhelds that allows them to see key metrics, like Dashboard Days, or other quality system reminders. We've been researching getting into handheld application development, so let us know if you think that would have a high impact on productivity or that ever elusive "management buy-in" to quality system activities. (in particular, what model smartphones do most managers have in your company?)
-------------------------------------------
New Deviations Module
We had a few inquiries about this module in the past, so we thought it was about time to include it as a standard module. The deviations module meets the requirements imposed on the Pharmaceutical industry by GMP requirements found in 21 CFR Part 211, which embodies the importance of deviation control in drug manufacturing.
Watch the tutorial for this module.
-------------------------------------------
New Management Review Features
The Management Review module went through an overhaul and received some new linking capabilities. You can now link Management Reviews to;
Previous CAPAs - shows open CAPAs from any other Management Review meeting.
Meeting CAPAs - Shows open CAPAs from the current meeting.
Sales Orders - For when the review of an order needs management review features.
Inventory Items - Links to your parts and part numbers.
Projects - Links to Project Module.
We also rewrote our Management Review template document for our Open Office set of template procedures you can download from here. (.odt / OpenOffice format)
|
 I read a blog on the Quality Digest website in September by Tripp Babbitt who specializes in The Vanguard Method© which includes a translation of Taiichi Ohno's ideas behind the Toyota Production System for service organizations. His article starts with the statement, "Edwards Deming did a great disservice. He left a prescription for what the United States should do to improve government, manufacturing, and service."
The gist of the article was that by creating a prescription for managers to follow, (i.e. Deming's 14 points, etc) he was preventing managers from actually doing what made Toyota successful; getting themselves, and their employees, to habitually challenge the status quo and figure out the solutions specific to their processes one obstacle at a time. Then the following week, Denise Robitaille, who's Correction Action Handbook was featured in our last newsletter, put up an article titled, "Preconceived Notions Can Stifle Innovation and Sidetrack Audits."
The bottom line of her article was that companies have to figure it out for themselves and not let "how we've always done it," "Best Practice," or the findings of a narrow minded auditor force them into a rut that prevents innovation and continuous improvement. Then I received an e-mail from Mike Rother, who's book Toyota Kata was featured in our last newsletter. He was thinking about the paradigm differences between Training, and Retraining, and how Retraining inherently challenged the paradigms of the last training, and that this subtle difference was preventing managers from seeing the deeper improvement process what was below the level of 5s, Kanban, and all the other Lean tools we have been trying to emulate from Toyota. It seems to me that when multiple sources are advocating the same underlying concept, it might be worth exploring a little further. So while the very act of learning involves the creation of structure, or paradigms, that we need to understand what we've learned, paradoxically, learning more requires that we often need to challenge our existing paradigms to stretch our understanding beyond the boxes our original learning created. I heard a term once for when the last paradigm is preventing someone from seeing the next paradigm:...... "Paradigm Paralysis." So how do we learn to see and break out of the paradigms and habits we need to change? Practice, practice, practice, until seeing paradigms and breaking habits we need to change becomes a habit itself. If you read our last newsletter this is basically the Toyota Kata concept Mike Rother introduced in his book, Toyota Kata. So how do we get employees to actually start doing this? There are probably "many roads that lead to Rome," but here's an idea that might be an easy first step; create a company metric and goals for the number of habits broken. (I know, this might seem silly, but bear with me and you might change your mind, or come up with a better idea of your own, which of course, is the whole point of the article.) At first it won't matter what the habit is, could be anything worthy of change, big or small, and they don't even have to be habits at work. Just get employees asking themselves these two questions: 1) What is a habit I should change? 2) Do I have the ability to make this change? Then give them a place to record the changes they make, make it fun with a competition or incentives, and start noticing the results. If you think about it, the results are probably going to tell you a lot about what's happening in the company. Do employees take it seriously? If not, how serious is management about teaching the mental flexibility that is at the heart of innovation, and continuous improvement?
Do they feel safe enough to admit change is needed? Just the mere reaction to this idea will probably tell you how much fear is part of the company culture. Do most of the changes come from outside work? Employees will tackle things they feel they have the power and resources to change. What will that tell you about their work environment and their ability to participate in continuous improvement? So what is this going to accomplish? Who knows? A possible scenario is that people will first pick the easy things in their life that they have control over, and don't mind admitting they need to change. What's important is that they get the experience and practice of looking for something to improve and making a change. If they get positive feedback for this effort, they might try it again. If management can keep this cycle going, eventually people will run out of the easy things to change and start looking within the company for ideas to meet next month's goals. Naturally changing behavior within the company will be in the context of your quality system, since that's why you set it up, to both define the current paradigm of doing business, and manage the process of change as you look for the next paradigm that will satisfy more customers, more often, and help the company achieve its goals and mission.
This is what you use your quality system for, right? If you are using The Lean Machine for your quality system we have created a short animated tutorial on how the Metrics, and Employee Feedback module might be used to capture the information related for your goals of habits broken. If you aren't using The Lean Machine, and could use an electronic quality management system to manage both all the ISO stuff, and your wild ideas to support continuous improvements, you can explore the available features with our on-line tutorials or the full featured demo at www.TheLeanMachine.com. If you have a wild idea of your own, and want to find out if we can customize TLM a little so it will work with the rest of the modules you are using, e-mail us at: info@theleanmachine.com and let us know what you have in mind. |
|
Management Review - Who has the time?
 In preparation for this article, we dug into the knowledge base of two experts in the field, Denise Robitaille's via The Management Review Handbook, and Mike Micklewright and his book, Lean ISO 9001.
What we found was that each had value to add, but from a different perspective.
Denise Robitaille's handbook is an excellent resource for making sure everything that needs to be considered is addressed during the management review process. In fact, after looking at all the potential areas and aspects of a company that could serve as input for the review, it's a little overwhelming. We had a hard time imagining doing everything in one sitting without an off-site retreat and buckets of coffee.
Which brings us to the insight Mike Micklewright adds with by challenging some assumptions about the management review process in general. Those assumptions include:
- All management review requirements have to all be addressed at the same meeting.
- All requirements have to be addressed at the same frequency.
- Management Review has to be a meeting. (Cool handheld app, anyone?)
- No other topics other than ISO/Quality can be covered during this meeting.
- Regardless if the topics have been covered elsewhere, we have to cover everything in one meeting to create minutes that our auditor can easily verify.
The Management Review Handbook also talks about how the success and effectiveness of the meeting depends on how well people prepare.
This is especially true if you have a paper based quality system as managers will want the raw data digested and presented as a summary or graph.
A much leaner approach would be to get that data from The Lean Machine so you could just enter the date range and select the report you want from whatever QMS activity you wanted to review. Better yet, why can't the Management Rep document a review of quality system data and only bring up issues for a meeting that require input and decisions from other managers?
With reporting available for all the areas ISO says you need to review, just run those reports, decide if the data suggests there's an issue that needs further review, and eliminate all manner of waste from the Management Review process.
Mike Micklewright takes it one step further and suggests that a company already has several regular meetings established during the year for reviewing business issues. Instead of forcing everyone to sit down and slog through all that quality stuff, just have the management rep isolate issues and add items to the agenda of these other meetings, as needed, based on the issues and the ideal frequency it should be reviewed.
|
|
Template Procedures - Management Review
 This month we continue our effort to update our template procedures in Open Office using some of Mike Micklewright's Lean ISO ideas and document formatting.
We used the procedure format from Mike Micklewright's book Lean ISO 9001and included a definitions section. Since The Lean Machine has a built in module for terms and definitions, you can simply enter these in The Lean Machine, make any adjustments for your company, and then shorten this section in the document to simply refer to this module in the The Lean Machine software.
Using the Terms and Definitions module ensures searchable access for everyone, and saves all the time writing and editing this section in all your other procedures, since all your terms and definitions are only defined in one place.
One of the other suggestions from Mike's book is a table that shows regularly scheduled meetings and QMS Reviews. This chart has been included in our template procedure.
Click here to download our new Management Review template procedure. (OpenOffice .odt format)
Download the latest version of Open Office to view this template. |
|
|
Our goal with this newsletter is to highlight the latest quality and lean expertise from multiple sources along with demonstrations of how this expertise can be implemented using the features available in The Lean Machine software.
We envision our software as not only a product, but also a catalyst for continuos improvement by harnessing the ideas of both our users and the expertise of our consulting affiliates into features that can be easily implemented.
Even if you aren't currently using The Lean Machine, we hope some of the ideas, links to resources, or template procedures might prove useful to your own efforts.
If we found you in error, however, please accept our apologies and use the link below to remove your e-mail address from our database.
If you would like to see a specific issue addressed, let us know what that is and we will try to include it in a future newsletter.
"Do your business systems work together?"
|
|
Sincerely,
David Smithstein, CEO
Lean & Mean Business Systems, Inc. |
|
|
