Empowering the Business Data Steward: Don’t Cut the Cord!
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The Andon Cord empowers employees to make meaningful changes in data quality process and practice
In my last post, I talked about applying principles of Kaizen or "continuous improvement" to the enterprise's practice of master data management. The post has elicited a number of insightful comments. I appreciate you who have taken time to read and respond, especially those of you with expertise in the science of quality assurance in manufacturing.
I did some additional research around the history of Kaizen and its applications in modern manufacturing. I also looked at Kaizen applications in software, a sector where quality assurance is, frankly, not as well developed as it should be (a subject for another post).
In my research, I ran across this March podcast from This American Life. The subject was NUMMI, or "New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc." a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota, based in Fremont, CA in the 80s. The goal was that GM would learn Toyota's production system, which yielded high quality, low cost cars, and pass it on to other GM manufacturing facilities.
But it didn't work out. Why not? The answer lies in two simple words: "The Cord."
In the podcast, one of the workers talks about how, in the training they received in Japan, they had a cord, the "Andon Cord," that ran along production line like the bell cord on a bus. Any worker who identified a quality issue could pull the cord, and the production line would stop until workers and managers identified the quality problem, and took steps to remediate not just the issue but also the source.
Later, when the production system was transplanted to GM manufacturing facilities, managers at these plants, afraid of upsetting production flow and quotas, would cut the cord, or disable the system that stopped the production line. Quality in these plants did not improve.
But in backing away from the production system they were supposed to be implementing, these plant managers did more than lose sight of their quality goals. Line workers came to feel personally disenfranchised by the way the system was being sabotaged. And, eventually, since they weren't given the tools needed to improve quality, they didn't feel any ownership over the quality of their results, either.
As I said in my last post, the biggest wins from adopting a Kaizen approach to MDM don’t come from improvements in data quality (although that's a big deal, and a big part of what you can measure, in undertaking a Kaizen approach.)
The win is the sense of empowerment and investment the business stakeholders feel around the quality of the data they're producing.
By enabling these stakeholders to act on the data quality issues they see in front of them, and encouraging them to do so, they may come to see themselves as part of the solution. When an auto worker in the podcast talks about how this enablement changed his life, he means it.
What is the analog of the "Andon Cord" in data management processes? I've found some examples in MDM technologies we're working on right now and will talk about some in my next post. Do you have any cases you can cite?
All these "Cords" have something in common. They're not some "extra thing" the business data steward must do above and beyond their job. To the degree it's possible, they're embedded in the operational processes (and even applications) that the business users are working with, day-in-and-day-out. (Oh, and did I mention they're easy to use?)
Finally, I want to emphasize a point made by John Owens. It's easy to poke fun at GM, and their management (especially given the bankruptcy and government bailouts). But in fairness, they were only responding to the incentives they were provided.
If those incentives emphasize quantity over quality, the managers, like anybody else, will focus their activities and resources accordingly. If you're going to incorporate business data stewardship as a component of your data management practice, you'll need to do more than provide better tools. (Take it from me: I make data stewardship tools for a living.) You'll need to provide the incentives to use those tools to improve data quality. More on that later, too.
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Ian,
Great follow up to your first "Kaizen" post. The "Andon cord" experience is fascinating. I agree with your comments regarding the GM managers - Human nature is to respond to the incentives provided.
I look forward to learning about the incentives you recommend to get people to improve data quality.
Rgds Ken
Empowering employees as noted with this quote - " they may come to see themselves as part of the solution." is essential in an enterprise-wide data stewardship, in my opinion.
Great post Ian. I also really interested to find out what your incentives might be for data stewards. We have a community for IM professionals (www.openmethodology.org) and have bookmarked this post for our users. Look forward to reading your work in the future.