You deserve it

It is not the rocket science. It is just about persistence. Good news because you do not need any special gift. Just determination and a mindset focused on continuous improvement.

In front of any issue at work, I follow this method:

- Identify. I identify a problem and the step in which it appears.

- Suggest. I think about possible solutions. Little or low-cost actions that could fix or improve the process.

- Implement. I implement one little change.

- Asses. I measure the outcomes to accept the change or discard it.

It would be trivial if I hadn’t heard too many times the sentence "we always did it this way".

Iterate this method and the magic will happen.

Two lines connected at a small angle are close near the vertex, but far apart at a long distance from it. Little changes make the difference in the long term.

Shed light on your processes.

Many people don't understand why others avoid them.

Everybody longs for being the one all people want to talk to. The reference in your field.

The skills of a magnet person are the following:

- They are experts listening to others. I don't mean to drink a coffee while someone else explains stories. 99% of the people don't tell what they want clearly. If you can figure out the primary feeling behind, everybody will feel understood by you.

- Become an expert in your field. Be careful with the Dunning-Kruger effect. It is a cognitive bias where people with low expertise tend to overestimate it.

- Take care of your image. People who look healthy, well-dressed, and fit are more attractive.

Here is an example in the digital transformation world:

Listening to others. If you are selling your product and the prospect asks how many people you are in your company, your prospect does not trust you, is looking for security. When someone says, “it is very difficult”, that means “I do not know how to handle it”.

Expertise. Experts generally don't try to prove it. Experts always talk to everybody, even though they know the other one is wrong. They try to understand every point of view.

That grants you authority. That grants you freedom.

Eloquence is not one of the most common skills among people.

Therefore, when you analyze business processes with a key user, it is important to distinguish between what they ask for, what they want, and what they need.

Keep in mind a key user typically has little or no experience in process analysis.

They know better than anyone else what they need, but they are often unable to explain it clearly and implement solutions.

That is precisely why they get in touch with experts.

Occasionally, what they ask for, what they want, and what they need are the same thing, but that is rare.

Understand what they want and what they need. Tell them you will give them what they want and then give them what they need.

Listen carefully to what they ask for. They are only allowed to talk about requirements. A key user should never be defining or requesting a specific solution.

Keep asking questions until you reach the core of what they are asking for. That core is what they truly want.

Once you understand what they want, you can determine what they need.

Quick example:

They ask for: all warehouse products to be labeled.

They want: to track inventory movements in and out of the warehouse.

They need: to eliminate human errors caused by working without labels.

People first, then processes and then tools

Companies struggle always with cost determination. Product costing.

Many companies roll the dice to determine product costs. They do not know what the product cost is, but they have a rough idea of it.

Cost determination depends firstly on the legal valuation rules. Which costs can be included in the product. Additional costs can be added later.

Main costs are:

- Material costs.

- Labor costs.

- Machine costs.

The best way to collect them is while the good is being produced.

You create a work order to manufacture a product.

The work order has a bill of materials. You created it previously. The bill of materials not only includes materials, but eventually:

- Material

- Inhouse Operations such as assembly, cutting, etc.

- External or outsourced operations such as surface treatments

The operator on the shop floor must declare the material withdrawn for this work order, as well as the time dedicated to manufacture the product.

Depending on the manufacturing process, more material or time than expected can be declared.

External operations run as a purchase order.

Once the finished good is declared as available stock, the cost can be easily calculated.

You can use the weighted average price of every material withdrawn.

Sometimes a standard material price is allowed and, if you have advanced mechanisms to determine the exact cost of every material withdrawn, you can use the exact price.

Labor costs come from the employee hourly rate. If you need some machine to manufacture the product, machine costs come from the machine hourly rate.

Finally, you close the work order when everything is already declared.

You cannot handle it without a software tool, but first the process and then the tool.

In fact, people first, then the process and then the tools.

A batch is a group of parts that share the same attributes. If every part has its own unique attributes, it is called serial number.

Batch traceability is something critical in any production process with high quality standards.

To ensure traceability, every batch of raw material used in manufacturing must be linked to the corresponding of the finished product.

It is done while material withdrawal takes place.

In addition, if you produce parts with serial numbers, you can define the attributes of every finished product in advance by using a pre-batch or draft batch.

This automates the creation of finished product batches, regardless the tool you use.

People first, then the process and finally the tools.