Lindsay Jackson Nichols discussed the business benefits of ISO Certification and how it can be used in conjunction with continuous improvement in the Business901 podcast, Can there be a marriage between ISO and Lean? Lindsay is the CEO of MOCG, a management consulting firm specializing in implementing process improvement and ISO based management systems. This is a transcription of the podcast with added content. An excerpt from the transcription:
Joe: That's one of the big resistances to Lean is the perception that you are standardizing all the work and making robots out of everyone. But standard work is kind of what you're saying that ISO is all about. It's making work standard. I mean, being explicit in what it is. And that's not a bad thing because if there is a deviation from it, you would raise the flag, or in the Lean terms, someone would pull an Andon cord.
Lindsay: Exactly. You find me one new employee joining an organization that will ever complain that there is something in documented form that tells them how they should be performing something. They cry out for it. But how many times do you hear people say "Oh yeah, it's baptism by fire here." Nobody likes to be in that situation. I mean I've been through it myself; it's disconcerting. People want to be productive; they want to get up and running fast. What you tend to hear from the more seasoned people is "Oh, but it's so unique, what we do. There's no way you could possibly standardize it." Of course that's complete nonsense. There are certain things, obviously, every order is different. The flavor of what a customer wants versus the next one, absolutely.
Related Information:
MOCGISO You Tube Videos
Agreeing on Standards in a Lean Enterprise
Is Standard Work needed in Sales and Marketing?
Where is the path in Continuous Improvement for Sales and Marketing?
Why does sales and marketing operate to a different quality standard?
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