You would think a march to zero was a march into hell itself, hearing the whimpering of those who attempt the journey. To be fair, we should report only a few rare birds get close to zero. Not to mention, those who are able to sustain percentages, even close to zero.
Simply stated, the “march to zero” is a voyage out of the “land of chaos,” with the goal of ending errors, miscommunications, and general disorder—totally. In short, zero errors, zero miscommunications, and zero disorder in all phases of business operations.
Keep in mind, every march begins with a first step, then a second step; one step at a time. Whereby, fixing each error and miscommunication permanently, one non-conformance at a time. Coupled with, implementing or updating one-system-at-a-time that addresses each non-conforming event.
Zero is Impossible Says the Faint of Heart
Over the past couple of decades, we’ve work with thousands of explorers looking for that Celestial Turnkey City via “Easy Street.” To be clear, there is NO “Easy Street”. In fact, the road out of the land of chaos to that Celestial City is bumpy. Moreover, the road is filled with opposition from employees, vendors, and even family.
In addition, the road is littered with obstacles, like spending long hours seeking root causes and solutions for errors and miscommunications. However, with each error’s root cause identified, plus a solution to fix-it mapped-out, the “land of promise” grows closer.
The intention is, that non-conformance of ten percent (10%) fall to nine percent (9%), and on down to zero percent (0%), in due time.
To be sure, the faint of heart will say achieving zero percent in errors and miscommunications, those non-conforming events plaguing businesses, is IMPOSSIBLE.
To be fair, we didn’t achieve zero percent in non-conformance most months. However, like the game of horseshoes, close is good! That said, we sustained an average of 1/2 percent to 1-1/2 percent in total errors—month after month, for years. In fact, we had months where we DID reach zero percent in errors.
When achieving a goal of zero errors in business operations, or sustaining errors close to zero, you arrive at that “Celestial City,” aka, THE TURNKEY CITY of TOTAL ORDER.
Whereby, peace reigns and owners and managers spend more time growing the business rather than fighting fires of chaos.
Did I mention? Great systems work for those not faint of heart!
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