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When the only consistency among your problems is that none of them are consistent, how do you solve the problem? You start from scratch, just like The Millwork Specialist in Richmond, Va.

After realizing the company was having problems creating consistent results in terms of quality and completion on its projects, Mike Karn, president of The Millwork Specialist, says the company decided to analyze the situation.

“Every time we went to try and solve the problem, we had very little luck. It was very frustrating. We had a group of very well intentioned, bright people getting frustrated by the lack of success or minimal success. Every attempt to improve was short lived,” Karn says.

The company analyzed what was common across the board and whether it could find an overall solution. It was at this point the company discovered inconsistency was its only constant.

“That really led us to believe we had to start from scratch and start building with every department and every operation that we do,” Karn says.

To start, TMS re-established the company’s mission and then established the roles of each individual department and the tasks that fell within those departments.

“Gradually it came down to all the activities, tasks and writing procedures, and re-establishing or establishing [procedures] if they weren’t there, procedures for just about every task that we do,” Karn says. “We broke this down and did it at the department and individual level. We didn’t try to do it at the top level, and that way we were able to bring in participation from everybody involved.”

FIXING THE PROBLEMS

In January 2008, the same time TMS started working on creating the new operating system, it also installed TradeSoft’s ShopPak project management software. Installing the software pointed out the severity of the other problems. “It was very obvious, very quickly that it was going to be a disaster if we didn’t work on a lot of other things to get them in the systems,” Karn says.

The system TMS created works like this: There is a “To Do List” that is available to everyone within the company. When a problem comes up and there is no current solution or procedure in place, an employee adds it to the to do list. “It gives us a chance to see what procedure is not there or isn’t clear. That’s how we keep building our lists,” Karn explains.

Each department has one or more procedure authors who take the job on from that point.

The new system has been in place for nearly nine months now and results can already be seen. “That whole process engages people more in what they are doing; so you accomplish the buy-in, but you also train as you go because they are involved in the whole process. The biggest thing that is noticeable is less indecision.

“Before you even see the results of this, you immediately notice that people stop wondering what they’re supposed to do,” Karn says. “There are a lot less forks in the road where they have to make a decision every time something comes up. So therefore, they are less paralyzed. That’s been noticeable. They don’t have to reinvent what they do every time an issue comes up, basically every day.”

An undertaking like this doesn’t come without some apprehension from those involved. However, Karn says resistance to the change was fairly minimal. “Most people would express possibly a concern that we would get too overcome by procedures, but then they reflect back on the way it was and get over that hurdle pretty quickly. There was no major resistance at all. Some habits have been overcome, but philosophically they agree with the concept,” he says.