The Power of Performance

By John Varney

The intention of this book is to provide a general guide and only concentrate on the one subject: that of improving performance, leading to enhanced profit in the private sector and best value in the public sector. The book is written from two very different perspectives; from that of a manual worker and from the viewpoint of a manager having the responsibility of improving the performance of their organization. The examples of performance improvement are based on the authors own practical experience. He has also taken the opportunity to dispel some of the myths and cliche that have been established in relation to performance improvement over the years. He develops the argument that most work is undertake in sequence and the pursuit of productivity improvement is counterproductive and would be at a considerable cost to any business. The true path to increased performance in these circumstances is the identification and reduction of the throughput restraints in the business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Feb 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483476223

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VARNEY

Copyright © 2018 John Varney.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-7623-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-7622-3 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 01/17/2018

This book is dedicated to my beloved

Wife Catherine Ann

03.06.1938 – 12.11.1999

While we think about her, talk about her, she is still with us.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Barbara Pimbley

For her forbearance and technical help with grammar and spelling.

Michael J Collins

For his wise counsel and continuing support.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BORN IN LONDON AND evacuated in 1943 to Torquay in Devon, returning to London towards the end of the war in 1945.

My father was demobbed from the Army in1946 returning to the Woolwich Arsenal where he had previously worked. He later transferred to an ordnance factory in North Staffordshire, the family moving to the area in 1947.

I had attended 6 schools up to the age of 15 years old, I would like to use this disruption in my early education as an excuse for my poor academic achievement. However my brother who was also an evacuee and suffered the same disruption in his education went on to a Grammar school then University, gaining a first class honours degree.

I left school without any qualifications. It has been suggested, later in life, that I could be dyslectic, perhaps this has some credence inasmuch I have difficulty spelling and cannot visualise the construction of words to this day; thank the Lord for spell check! I enjoyed living in rural Staffordshire and still have friends there that I went to school with.

I started working life at a local pit on the haulage and later worked on the coalface. So how did I progress from a coalface worker to a director of a major company employing thousands? The truth of the matter it was in part good fortune, being in the right place at the right time and having the ability to take advantage of the opportunity and succeed.

On leaving the mining industry I joined a company that was a part of the Joseph Lucas group. The company genuinely believed in developing talent from within before searching outside to fill positions. After a period of machine operating and a short while on inspection I was successful with an application and trained as an Industrial Engineer.

The second fortuitous situation, I later joined a company that was a part of the Associated Engineering group (A.E) and appointed to the role of Industrial Engineering Manager with the terms of reference to introduce a companywide incentive scheme.

Because of my understanding of incentives and employee performance I was also a member of the company’s negotiating team. Sometime later the Personnel Manager left the organisation due to poor health and I was promoted to the position, again being in the right place at the right time.

From that point in time, promotion to director level was fairly rapid, nevertheless I did move companies a couple of times, and also enjoyed a period in consultancy, before finally being appointed director of a company in the British Leyland Special Products Group.

I had attributes that were very much in demand in the 1970’s - 80’s, a good understanding of the working man, their fears and frustrations, an in-depth knowledge of working methods, efficiency, motivation, performance and advanced negotiating skills.

In this day and age of qualification I don’t think an individual would be afforded the same opportunities that I had, which is such a pity. I do worry sometimes about our teaching of management subjects.

I recently participated in a course on managing people, where words like nomothetic and idiographic were being used. I don’t know anyone who would understand the meaning of these words without looking them up in a dictionary; I certainly didn’t.

Complicating the subject with such words is, in my opinion, a poor example of teaching management skills and should be avoided at all cost. Instead we should be using language that everyone understands so they are able to contribute.

Finally, over the years I have developed a procedure which I have called the Hour Glass Effect that refines and simplifies the approach to increase throughput performance.

More about this in the book.

INTRODUCTION

THIS BOOK IS INTENDED to provide guidance for those directors and managers who have the responsibility for improving the performance, profit or best value of their organisations. The book in part is autobiographic in as much the author uses some of his work life experiences to verify and support some of statements made.

Whereas the focus is predominantly on the manufacturing industry the techniques used there to enhance performance will also work perfectly well in the service and public sector to increase profit and best value.

The author has gained his considerable experience of performance and profit improvement in both employed positions and in management consultancy roles. He considers himself to be one of those fortunate people who had the hands-on opportunity to undertake manual work, and later, in a managerial role, to introduce measures to influence the performance of others.

This experience has been gained in the mining, white goods, automotive, aerospace, defence, pottery, construction equipment, grey and malleable iron foundries and the sheet metal industries as well as in the NHS and local government.

The book is written from two perspectives: from the point of view of a manual worker undertaking the work; and from that of a manager with the responsibility of optimising the performance of their people and their organisations assets. As you would expect, the perspectives are very different.

The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with ideas on performance enhancement based on the author’s own practical experience; ideas that will help to manage and increase performance and will in turn lead to increased cash flow and profit in the manufacturing and service sectors and best value in the public sector. A number of aspects in the guide are repeated in a different form so as to reinforce what is considered to be important.

Understanding the affect performance has on an organisation’s cost is critical to the improvement process and success. However, to understand performance and how it affects the improvement process, an understanding of the measurement and performance calculation is fundamental and essential.

Everyone has their part to play in achieving the optimum from the employed assets of their organisation. However, the person that leads the improvement project must have good listening skills and an in-depth understanding of what motivates people. Project leaders must also have the authority to make changes or to recommend change in order to achieve the optimum performance of the organisations assets.

Any recommendations that are made would be after the widest possible consultation has been completed.

The underlying principle (which is fundamental to improving performance) if work is produced in sequence then the performance is governed by the rate of the slowest operation or event in the sequence. The slowest operation in the sequence will be the restraint to throughput within the business.

After a process of elimination to establish the restraints in the business has been completed. Success in reducing the restraint will enhance the effective throughput performance. If the enterprise has a number of products or events, obviously a number of restraints could exist.

In manufacturing terms throughput is the output of finished product per hour which can also be expressed as the rate of generating revenue - money per hour. In manufacturing, for example, most products are made in a sequence of operations; one operation has to be completed before the next operation can start.

However, it has also been my experience that, in areas other than manufacturing, with staff and knowledge-based work, there is normally a sequence of events before the work is completed. Therefore, the same principle would apply.

Ideally, manufacturing performance actually starts at the design stage of the product. As the design concept is progressed, consideration is given to how it will be made and what the restraints would be; what processes and methods will be utilised to achieve optimum performance.

There is research that shows that up to 60% of product costs are actually fixed by the design activity, so the design stage also takes account of manufacturing cost as well as the other considerations. The same principle is true and can be applied in the public and service sectors.

A service has to be initially designed, and a part of that process would be the consideration of how the provider applies the service. What measures and protocols can be introduced at the design stage that helps the providers to optimise performance