Zentrepreneur by John Murphy

Author:John Murphy [Murphy, John]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Career Press
Published: 2013-09-22T14:00:00+00:00

6

When?

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

—Thomas Edison

In November 2009, I was invited to meet with an executive from a former client. He had changed jobs since I last worked for him, and he was now a senior vice president for a global manufacturing and supply company. He contacted our team because he was interested in bringing in someone he trusted to help accelerate the Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence efforts he had underway at two of his sites. The CI efforts had commenced about a year earlier under the direction and guidance of a well-known consulting firm with a team of trained “Black Belts” in Lean Six Sigma. Unfortunately, there was an absence of measureable results. There was a lot of activity, but very little productivity. The executive now in charge knew from prior experience that we could move things along quickly and effectively, and he wanted results sooner, not later. Therefore, like a true zentrepreneur, he exercised the what if, why, why not, the who, and the how with his executive team, and we were given the go-ahead to engage. It was now all about the “when.”

Time is one of the most common excuses I hear people use to not do something that is valuable and important, or to take longer than need be. Think about this and contemplate the same questions. How often do you hear people say they need more time? How often do you say this? How often do you hear people say they do not have time to read, exercise, sleep, spend time with family and friends, or accomplish more? How often are people late for meetings? How often do meetings run longer than they should? How often are suppliers late or short with service or deliveries? How often are people delayed in responding to your calls, e-mails, or needs? How can it take some companies weeks or months to do a few hours of value-added activity? On countless occasions, I have observed organizations taking more than 180 days to do three to five days of value-added activity. In fact, it is quite common to find that the percentage of value-added time from total time is only about 0.5 to 5 percent. This means that more than 95 percent of the time a material or product is “in play” in the value stream, nothing of value is happening to it. It is simply waiting, or being inspected, or being transported, or being tested. This is like waiting an hour for a 30-second ride at the amusement park.

We all have 24 hours in a day. How is it that some people and organizations get so much more accomplished in the same amount of time than others? Zentreprenuers understand that time is money. It matters to customers, patients, passengers, researchers, designers, innovators, builders, team members, and supply chains. It matters to anyone seriously interested in being healthy and successful. Therefore, we have to find ways to optimize our use of time from a multitude of perspectives.

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