Whenever we think of industries making gizmos or providing services, cheaper and at better quality, the typical media coverage is on Technical Sizzle, new groundbreaking technology improvements that promise bigger and better productivity and better quality!
In many cases this is absolutely true! Go on any factory visit to an automobile assembly line (Hurry! Before they close many of them up in the U.S and elsewhere! :-) :-)) and you will see that the welding part of the assembly line and the paint shop are totally automated with robots. You can see them moving like experienced auto assembly workers welding and painting away in total efficiency! In fact you can watch these parts of the assembly operations only from behind walls and windows! Awesome techno sizzle to watch!
Similiarly, when it comes to Healthcare, you hear about doctors performing operations remotely with robotically controlled hands and such in the media. The real problems and bottlenecks lie in more mundane clerical activities!
The sheer competitiveness of companies like Toyota that totally killed many other competitors off comes from very dull focus on mundane, simple cost cutting process improvement efforts, shaving off a few seconds or minutes here and a few cents here and there in parts and supplies. But done over decades, these kinds of savings add up to immense cost savings and funnily enough, increases quality! By simplifying and cleaning up the workplace from clutter, distractions and dirt, errors are minimized, dirt does not get into the auto being manufactured and quality increases!
Not very sizzling or sexy, but results speak for themselves when done over decades! In services also, this applies. There are many documented cases of Hospital Nurses organizing and cleaning up how drugs are stored and dispensed with or surgical instruments neatly labelled and organized in Operating Rooms to reduce drug application and surgery errors!
I was recently in both New York City and Washington D.C using the Subway system in New York City and the Metro in Washington. The NY subway charges a flat $2 per trip no matter how many connections you take without exiting one of their subways. Washington Metro charges anywhere from $1.35 to a maximum of $3.95 depending upon distance travelled.
Navigating the NY subway was no problem, swipe $2 from your Metro card and you are done! What a hassle the Washington Metro ticketing was compared to the NY system! Being new to the place, you had to calculate Peak and Non Peak fares, make sure that you add additional monies in cents and had to deal with the gate agent a number of times to deal with magnetic strips going bad and such!
They could easily just make it simple and stupid, and follow the NY Subway system of charging $2 a trip and still make the same amounts of money without all the hassle!
Sometimes it is just thinking simply that makes things easier all around and not some techno-sizzle!
Simplify!, Simplify! - Henry David Thoreau
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