12th International Conference of the

TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

www.tocpractice.com

April 26-27, 2014 Moscow, Russia

TOC for Services

Marianne Schram, MASconsultancy, The Netherlands

26-27, April 2014

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Marianne Schram

MAS
consultancy

Marianne has more than 15 years experience in

procesmanagement
(business,
design,
optimalisation, handbooks etc.). She has become a
TOC adept since 4-5 years ago and is now closely
working together wit Gijs Andrea (International
House of TOC) and Hans Steenpoorte and Michel
Stijlen (TOCresultants). They are the founders of
CTM, the TOC-based software for service
organizations that want to deliver services faster &
more reliable.
Marianne is married and has two mid-twenty
daughters who both graduated from university last
year.

www.masconsultancy.nl
m.schram@masconsultancy..nl

Marianne herself studied Russian language at

university, but did not have much exercise since
then .
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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

CO-WRITERS

MAS
consultancy

The Dutch TOC book:

DE DIENSTENFABRIEK
(The Service Factory)
Spring 2014
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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

MAS

GOAL:

consultancy

Managing the operations of Services:

How to plan, execute and improve service delivery so that
more services are delivered faster, more reliably with the
same people/resources and without compromising
quality/or working conditions.
Business services
(banking, tel.cos)
Public services

Professional
Services (lawyers)

Healthcare

ICT services

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

What is the problem?

1. Conflicting interests
Suboptimalization of sections /
departments, who are therefore
competing in stead of
cooperating.

2. Not enough capacity

At least that is wat they think. As
the work in process (WIP) is not
really growing, capacity is not
the problem

3. Inefficient process
If there are complaints,
workstress, problems with
delivery, organizations wants to
optimize their processes
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MAS
consultancy

4. Priority conflicts
People dont know what to do first.
So they use FIFO, triage etc.

5. Peaks & throughs

Work comes in flows, but
organizations make them bigger,
without knowing.

6. Insufficient performance
measurements
Managers in Services organizations
ask their workers if the are fine,
wether they need training or
coaching. Managers do not ask: how
many did you deliver today?

12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

And why do the problems occur (1)

MAS
consultancy

Conflicting interests

There is no focus on a common goal,

because the common goal is unknown.
Departments are not aware of the common
client in the end of the process. They just
fullfill their own targets

Managers sometimes dont have any idea

how many services should be delivered, or
when or how fast

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

And why do the problems occur (2)

MAS
consultancy

Not enough capacity = too much WIP (work in

process) = delay = not enough capacity

John Littles Law:

Reason 1: Batching

# files (100)
= LT of 5 weeks
# files (20)/ week

(maybe efficient for you, but not for your collegues, because it creates
waiting time)

Reason 2: Multitasking
(because we dont know what to do first)

Result: poor quality , complaints, rework

etc. a never ending story

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

And why do the problems

occur (3)

MAS
consultancy

Inefficient process

What is the reaction when organizations face

complaints, workstress, delays
lets
redesign our processes

Or they want to become lean.

But being lean might even create a bigger problem

The real problem is that there is too little overview on

the semi-products and end-product
X

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Endproduct

12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

And why do the problems

occur (4)

MAS
consultancy

Priority conflicts

Workers often have a lot of work to do. And this

becomes urgent a certain moment. But what is most
urgent?
What to do first, the work for the person you like the
most, or the one who shouts the most

So, organizations look for fair solutions:

FIFO (first in first out)

Triage (in hospitals)
MRP / ERP

What is missing, is a clear definition of what is

urgency
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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

And why do the problems

occur (5)

MAS
consultancy

Too much peaks & throughs

Peak: there comes more that you want

Through: there comes less that you want
FACT: Work and capacity comes in peaks & troughs,
but workers only experience peaks!
Stress

STRESS

fine

Reasons:

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The responsibility for tasks is more and more assigned to one

person.
Great for the boss & the client you know whom to go to,
but what if he or she is ill? DELAY.
Too much work is assigned to specialists,
but what if he or she is ill? DELAY.

12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

And why do the problems occur (6)

MAS
consultancy

Insufficient performance measurements

All organizations have measurements, they formulate

KPIs, targets (10% growth!) etc. They have learned
about Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA), and yet they are
not performing the way they want to

Reasons:

Products & services are not well defined (output)

Leadtimes ar not defined (LT)
Reliability of supplies is not defined (reliability, % failure )
No structure in building reports (top-down), based on these 3
No structurearound the reports on a daily, weekly & monthly
basis (meetings)

Managing focus is on soft skills (illness,

coaching, training etc.)
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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Summary

MAS
consultancy

6 problems that organizations

experience:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Conflicting interests
There is not enough capacity
Inefficient process
Priority conflicts
Too much peaks & throughs
Insufficient measurements

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

MAS

What is the injection? (1)

consultancy

Conflicting interests
Work with a Product & Service Catalog
A. Name Product / service (IT service request)
B. What is delivered (the problem of the client is solved)
C. Necessary input (name, tel.number, description of the problem)
D. Responsible team (servicedesk)
E. # of products / services to deliver in a year
F. Leadtime (# working days per product/service)
G. % delivered in time
A
1

Service 1

Service 2

Service 3

Service 4

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

MAS

What is the injection? (2)

Not enough capacity
But capacity is lost in
too long leadtimes
(touchtime 5-10%):

consultancy

Reduce the WIP

Arrange a special Sprintteam who starts working
upon all the already delayed products/services.
Alternative is Pizzateam (if the work can only be
done by specialists) - overwork

Work with a Deliveryplan: define a delivery date for

every (new) task

Cut in half the defined Leadtime in the Prod.&Service

catalog (which of course was based on experience in
the past)

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

MAS

What is the injection? (3)

consultancy

Inefficient process

Keep the proces simple: endproduct + semiproduct

X

Find out leadtimes of the semiproducts (use swimlane

diagram) and find out why it takes that much time

Work with taskcarts

Taskname
Goal (what is to be
delivered)

1. Standard Request for Change (RFC): Computer for new colleague

The new colleague has a computer he/she can effectively work with

Responsible team

Servicedesk

Leadtime
Input (wat is necessary to
start):

Intake form,
Completely filled and
signed by the
manager

2 weeks
Actions: what to do

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goa
l

Output: what do we deliver

Order computer
Install Software
Make Emailaccount
Install Outlook
Install & test computer at
workingplace

There is a working computer at the right

workingplace

12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

What is the injection? (4)

MAS
consultancy

Priority conflicts

Sometimes a deliveryplan works good enough, sometimes you need even

more focus. Than use Buffermanagement
Using Buffermanagement means: always doing the right things at the right
moment (not too early, not too late)

Necessary conditions:

Date of delivery

Planned Leadtime

Clock NOW (how much time of the buffer has been eaten already)
3 days

3 days
33%

3 days
66%

100%

9 days

We use the software CTM (Critical Taskmanager)

to implement bufferamanagement in organizations

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

What is the injection? (5)

MAS
consultancy

Too much peaks & throughs

Work with teams, and prevent that tasks keep waiting to be

picked up (when a person is ill), organize daily standupmeetings
Use aggregation: organize that every worker can do 80% of
the tasks. Only 20% by a real specialist
Use the deliveryplan and work top-down (first the tasks in
black and red) and only pick up tasks (in CTM) that you are
really going to execute soon
And no cherrypicking (than more urgent tasks delay and your
colleagues have to learn doing that task as well)
Standardized proces
Continuity
Workpleasure (more variety & the comfort of a team)

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

What is the injection? (6)

MAS
consultancy

Insufficient measurements of supplies

Organize a meeting structure

Daily stand-up meeting

Which delivery is in danger (black & red)?

Which intervention is necessary?, do you need help?

Weekly / Monthly meeting

Compliments for what went well

Report (green = ok / red = not good):

Input/intake (how many versus plan)

Output (how many versus plan)
WIP (input minus output, versus plan)
Leadtime (Littles Law, versus plan)
% reliability (how many delivered in time, versus plan)

The report shows actual results, but also cumulations, per team

Organize improvements (monthly) POOGI

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What is the main reason for waiting (in CTM)

What is te reason of not reaching the standard?
What could be the solution?
What is the impact on clients, workers and organization?
Which date it can be implemented?
12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

MAS

Summary
6 problems that
organizations experience:
1. There is not enough
capacity
2. Inefficient process
3. Priority conflicts
4. Too much peaks &
throughs
5. Insufficient
measurements

www.tocpractice.com

consultancy

Injections:
1. Sprintteam, deliveryplan,
cut the work in half
2. Swimlane, taskcart
3. Buffer management
4. Teams, daily stand-upmeeting
5. Basis reports, structured
meetings (week, month),
POOGI

12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Now we just have to get to

work!

Explanation

Planning
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MAS
consultancy

Enthusiasm &
support

Implementation plan

Get it organized
12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

Implementation

Support

Injections

Secure

MAS
consultancy

The intermediate objectives (IOs) we use in implementation are:

0.1 There is agreement upon the solution
0.2 There is a plan & planning for implementation
1.1 There is an PSC (product & service catalog)
2.1 Deliveryplans are made, distributed & used
2.2 The Sprintteam is prepared
2.3 Ideas for improvement are registered
3.1 Long leadtime processteps are simplified
4.1 Deliveryplans have a bufferranking
4.2 Ther is a daily stand-up meeting
5.1 Teams are installed and are working together
5.2 Teams develop themselves (continuously)
6.1 Managementreports are made, shared & discussed (weekly, monthly)
6.2 Management decides upon improvement actions
7.1 Internal audit are organised every 3-6 months
7.2 Training for new workers/managers is secured
7.3 Clients & management are frequently informed about results en plans

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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA

MAS
consultancy

Thank you!

?
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12th International Conference of the TOC Practitioners Alliance - TOCPA