Senior Design: Issues of consulting, how to run a meeting, value stream maps

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Senior Design Issues of consulting, how to run a
meeting, value stream maps

• Andrew Johnson
• Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Texas AM University
• College Station, TX

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Consulting and services
Strategic
strategic consulting
solution consulting transformational consulting
Solution
technology consulting IT services and integration
Technical
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Decision support v. decision automation

• Decision support
• Giving managers and executives the insight and
  information to make hard business decisions
• Ad hoc, what-if, investigative analysis
• Incremental development
• Solve the problem, and the problem changes
• Relatively inexpensive to design and build

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Decision support v. decision automation

• Decision automation
• Hard-coding of a prescriptive model for some
  core business process Master Planning
• Runs periodically to determine well-defined
  business metrics
• Static problem and solution statement
• Usually expensive to design, implement and change

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The OR consulting value proposition
Youre not an expert in broadband hyperdrive
infrastructures, so how can you help your teams
company?

• Quantitative framework If you cant measure
  it, you cant manage it
• Business process abstraction for decision making
  optimization, simulation and statistical
  modeling
• Confronting and taming complexity, uncertainty
  and chaos Too many choices, too little
  information

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The OR consulting process for decision support
How do I reduce inventory? How much should I
buy? When should I build a new production
facility?
compelling business questions
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Models and prototypes for decision support

• Insight
• a wind tunnel for business test it before you
  build it
• uncovering non-obvious relationships get
  surprised early
• not just what and when, but also why
• Collaboration
• building analytical business models is a team
  sport
• operational prototypes are rallying points for
  discussion, experimentation, assumption-testing,
  and validation
• a concept document means something different to
  everybodya team can collectively get their mind
  around an operational model

Serious Play How the worlds best companies
simulate to innovate, Michael Schrage, Harvard
Business School Press (2000)
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Models and prototypes for decision support

• Analysis
• dealing with complexity, uncertainty and chaos
• charts, graphs and numbers to help people make
  decisions

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Evaluating clients
The client will be evaluating you, but you
should also be evaluating the client

• Whos in charge, and who is paying the bills?
• Does the client already know the answer before
  the right question is asked?
• Whats the clients main concern the problem or
  the process?
• Does the client want to be your partner or your
  boss?

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Designing successful OR consulting engagements

• Know the engagement scope
• What will be included in the engagement?
• More importantly, what will not??!!
• Scope Creep produces failed engagements,
  unhappy clients and hungry consultants
• Know what you know, and what you dont know
• Does this engagement use well-known technology
  and methodology? (And do I know how to do it?)
• Or does it require inventing new ideas?

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The Proposal

• Why it is important
• Sets everybodys expectations in writing
• Defines the engagement scope
• Specifies the completion criteria (when can I
  graduate?)
• Elements
• Key assumptions and dependencies
• Consultant and client responsibilities
• Deliverable materials content, format, level of
  detail
• Schedule for both client and consultant
• Change control procedure

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Practical OR Issues

1. Too many OR projects end up solving the wrong
   problem. Why is that? And how can we avoid it?
2. OR is blessed (cursed) by the ability to solve
   both strategic and operational business problems.
   Why should we recognize and characterize this
   capability?
3. OR projects are data-driven. IT projects are
   data-driven. Whats the difference?
4. A successful OR project causes far-reaching
   ripples in an enterprise. Who in an organization
   is affected, directly and indirectly, by OR
   solutions? And why should we care?

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Issue 1 Solving the right problem

• In most IT projects, the objectives,
  requirements and deliverables are cast in stone
  before work begins.
• In many Practical OR projects, determining the
  right objectives and requirements is part of the
  problem-solving process.
• Solve the problem and the problem changes. Active
  modeling participation is an educational
  experience for the client. (Ah-ha moments alter
  requirements)
• Scope creep the tension between doing whats
  expected and doing whats right.

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Issue 2 Data IT vs. OR

• For most OR projects, data means
• data I need the right numbers to make
• my model operate properly.
• OR data
• engineering vs. business
• known vs. unknown
• digital vs. virtual (e.g., promised)
• The Killer level of data detail (what am I
  trying to model?)

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Data the really hard part of OR consulting

• Most IT projects are concerned with the form of
  data OR is about content
• accuracy
• level of detail
• completeness
• Define in the proposal the data the company will
  make available to you and the data you are
  responsible for gathering
• Document in detail the data requirements
• form and content of project data
• solution scenarios for testing and validating
  application prototypes

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Issue 3 Strategic vs. Operational

• With minor modifications an OR model can often
  solve related strategic and operational variants
  of a business problem. (The technical difference
  is usually in the data.)
• Example planning and scheduling
• Conflicts and disagreements begin when
• You dont know if you are solving the strategic
  or operational problem
• You, the practitioner, thinks its strategic and
  the client thinks its operational, or vice
  versa
• Its not documented

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Strategic Operational
Purpose What to do Big capital investments Enterprise-wide strategy How to do it Problem solving in immediate time or space
Scope Enterprise-wide Touches many functions Local effects Focus on one or few functions
Model time horizon Years or months Varying-size time periods Weeks down to minutes Uniform time periods
Data detail Highly aggregated Many simplifying assumptions Disaggregated Perhaps a few short-cuts
Model technology Algorithmic E.g., optimization LP, some CP Heuristic Some LP, CP, heuristics
Constituency Executives, managers with strategic responsibilities People responsible for operational functions
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Issue 4 OR-based decisions The Players
Assumptions

• OR-based decisions (decisions) often have
  enterprise-wide implications and ramifications.
• Many people can be involved and/or effected by
  decisions.
• Hopefully the enterprise will win as the result
  of a good decision.
• But some people will win, and some will probably
  lose.

Questions

• Who are the players involved/effected by
  decisions?
• If you recognize and plan for these players,
  will it make you a better OR practitioner?

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OR-based decisions The Players
As OR practitioners, why should we care about the
players?

• Increased credibility
• Estimate project cost, time
• Estimate ROI for client
• Estimate chance of success

Decision Operator
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Quick practical OR check-list
What is our last minute check-list before
talking to a prospective client about a
practical OR engagement?

• listen, and
• Its not just models, its
• workflows
• infrastructures
• user interactions
• cultural acceptance and integration
• people, money and resources
• change (most people dont like it)
• Have a little fun

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How to run a meeting

• Most people dont like meetings. They say they
  are boring, go on too long, and dont get
  anything done. And often thats the truth. So to
  have a good meeting, you need to make it
  interesting, keep it on track, and make sure
  something gets done. Here are seven steps toward
  making your next meeting a success.
• 1. Set a goal for the meeting. Be very clear
  about why youre having the meeting, and what
  needs to get done or be decided. Break that task
  into steps, or divide the discussion into
  sectionsthats the agenda for your meeting. At
  the start of the meeting say, this is our goal,
  and if we can get this done, the meeting will be
  a success. At the end of the meeting remind them
  that you achieved your goal. This lets everyone
  leave feeling successful, and theyll be glad to
  come to your next meeting.

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How to run a meeting (cont.)

• 2. Put decisions to the group. The participants
  own the meeting. Let them set the agenda before
  the meeting, or at least add to it when you
  begin. If decisions need to be made about the
  process (whether to end a discussion thats going
  too long, for example) then ask that question to
  the group.
• 3. Stay on schedule. Remember that every minute a
  person spends in your meeting, they could be
  doing other things. Theyre with you because
  theyve decided your meeting is important, so
  treat them like their time is important. Start on
  time and end on time!

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How to run a meeting (cont.)

• 4. Pay attention to whats important. Set a
  certain amount of time for each item on the
  agenda, based on how important it is. If the
  group starts spending a lot of time on details,
  ask them Is this what we want to spend our time
  talking about? A lot of details can be worked
  out by individuals or committeesmeetings are for
  the decisions that need to involve the whole
  group.
• 5. Keep the meeting on track. Your agenda is the
  tool you use to make sure youre on time and on
  the right topic. When side issues come up, help
  the group get back on track. If the issue sounds
  important, check with the group. Were talking
  about a new issueis this something important
  that we should take time to discuss?

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How to run a meeting (cont.)

• 6. Have good facilitation. The facilitator is the
  person who runs the meeting and acts on all the
  steps listed above. Its a big job, and it
  usually doesnt fit well with participating in
  the discussion. So if you need to have your views
  heard, let someone else run the meeting! Good
  facilitation doesnt just happenits a skill
  that comes with training and practice.
• 7. Make sure people participate. People think a
  meeting is useful based on one simple thing
  whether or not they talked. So everybody should
  have a chance to share their ideas. Its okay to
  ask specific people what they think! You should
  also be prepared to gently remind people when
  theyre talking too much.

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Update Report

• Your update should have the following 8 sections
• 1 What were our goals for this week?
• 2 What did we accomplish this week?
• 3 Why are numbers 1 and 2 different?
• 4 What are my goals for next week?
• 5 How does this fit in to my bigger picture? How
  does 4 fit into my longer term goals? (What are
  the longer term goals?) What deadlines are
  looming beyond the week horizon?
• 6 What does the company expect from me this
  week?
• 7 What do we need from _____ to achieve the
  goals we have set?
• 8 What will we do or what can we do if we do not
  receive the things we need from ______

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Manifold Process Flow Diagram
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Value Stream Map

• Value Stream Mapping is a Lean technique used to
  visualize and analyze all the actions
  (value-added and non-value added) of materials
  and information currently required to bring a
  product or service to a consumer.

Queue Block
Transport Block
Process Block
CT ?
BS ?
Res ?
Data Box
Department
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Sample Value Stream Map
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Current State Future State
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Value Stream Mapping

• Software
• Visio
• Excel
• Others available via the web

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Its not enough to just identify the problem

• To identify the future state you have to decide
  what to change
• In order to decide what to change you need to
  estimate the impact of the change
• This is an area where IE models help

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Thank you for your attention

• Good luck on your projects!