“Borrowing From The Best In Far-Flung
Corners Of The World Can Dramatically Improve Your Value Analysis
Outcomes.”
One of the classic tenets of value
analysis is to “search for alternatives” that will meet your customers’
functional requirements reliably at a lower total cost than you have
previously experienced. If this tenet is adhered to religiously,
substantial savings and quality gains will be generated in 75% of your
value studies.
But substantial gains aren’t good enough
in the marketplace today, so how can you move from substantial savings
to dramatic savings and quality gains? The answer to this
question is that dramatic savings and quality gains can only be
experienced if you start to utilize EXTREME BENCHMARKING as a
tool in the “Speculation Phase” of your value analysis process!
The meaning of EXTREME BENCHMARKING
in my lexicon is going “beyond the ordinary or average benchmarking
methodology that most organizations have been employing (generally
looking at what their peers are doing) as op-posed to searching for
breakthrough concepts and advanced management techniques in far-flung
corners of the world.”
From my vantage point most organizations
are performing conventional internal or external benchmarking within
their own world or reference centers that only help them to moderately
improve their performance. If you are looking for breakthrough
performance from your value team(s) you need to think outside your own
world and seek out new ideas in the unlikeliest places.
Thinking Outside Your Own World
It was recently reported in Business
Week that General Mills has been “thinking outside the cereal box” by
borrowing efficiencies and breakthrough ideas from stealth bomber pilots
and their maintenance crews that cut General Mills’ production cost by
25%. By observing pit crews that change tires at race tracks they were
able to reduce their turn around time from 4.5 hours to 12 minutes at
their Betty Crocker factory line to swap from one product to another.
General Mills is now planning to meet with blind mountaineer Erik
Weihenmayer to learn how he assembles successful expedition teams with
the goal of learning more about leadership and teamwork from Erick.
These examples of EXTREME
BENCHMARKING are on the cutting edge of modern benchmarking
expertise; this means going beyond the ordinary or average benchmarking
strategies and tactics to new heights of superior competency in this
proven management technique by thinking outside you own world.
Where To Get Started With Your Own
Extreme Benchmarking?
You don’t need to fly a stealth
bomber, change race car tires or even climb a mountain with a blind
mountaineer to get started with your own EXTREME BENCHMARKING,
but what you do need to do is have your value team(s) start thinking
outside your own world to find breakthrough ideas to generate drama-tic
value analysis savings and quality gains. Here are a few ideas for
starters:
· You
might want to visit your reference lab to observe how they process
thousands of lab tests daily without breaking a sweat.
· Spend
a day with your food purveyor to see how they receive, store, pick, pack
and distributed millions of dollars in food products a day.
· Visit
with your local supermarket manager to find out how he/she turns their
inventory 52 times a year.
· Make
a trip to your local police department to see how they use statistics,
trends and patterns to focus in on high crime areas in your town or
city.
EXTREME BENCHMARKING
can be a fun and exciting new way to energize your value team(s) and
raise their performance to new levels never dreamed possible. So, if
you want to put new life into your value analysis program borrow from
the best in far-flung corners of the world so you can dramatically
improve your value analysis outcomes.
Robert T. Yokl, President, The HCP Group, Ltd., has over 35
years of experience as a consultant and manager in the field of
Supply Value Chain Management and is one of the country's leading
healthcare experts in value analysis, value engineering, Non Salary
Expense Reduction and materials
management. He is the developer and program leader of the award winning
Certified Value Analysis Practitioner Training Program™. Mr. Yokl is also
the developer of the healthcare industry's leading ValueNetCentral™ Value
Analysis Software. Over the past two decades he has trained thousands of
healthcare managers in his patented Strategic Value Analysis™ and
Team-Based Project Management™ processes and has assisted scores of
organizations in developing their own value management programs. He has
published six books, videos and audios on supply/value chain management.
His latest book being, “ Strategic Value Analysis™: The #1 Smart Strategy
for Taking Cost Out of a Healthcare Organizations’ Healthcare Supply Value Chain”.
by
Robert T. Yokl, President