Since already 1.5 years, my occupational activities have been consisting in “improving things” - this is an exciting, interesting and challenging activity for a young person like me. More precisely, my activity is in the field of „in-house production consulting” with lean-manufacturing principles. Even more precisely: It is the supervision and organization of the KAIZEN-Office1in an assembly centre of an European manufacturer.
Because of this background, I’m familiar with the application and implementation of many Kaizen and Just-In-Time principles. By introducing the production system it was continued to improve the continuous improvement process and standardized it corporation-wide. Implementing a continuous improvement process (CIP) or rather the production system proved to be very successful. Quality improvement with a failure reduction in front of customers up to 90 %, increase of efficiency up to 40 % within five years with a delivery reliability of 100% are only parts of the reached success. However, it can increasingly be noticed that the huge potentials at the beginning of the implementation of the lean-manufacturing-principles cannot be reached anymore - the ”low-hanging fruits” are already harvested. But not without a reason, one of the core messages of the Kaizen-philosophy is: The current state has always to be seen as the worst.
Consequently, three things accumulated:
- The insight that the success of a pure use of “hard improvement methods” (for instance lean manufacturing) is limited and that the limited part were not the methods themselves, but the human beings who use them or rather should use them.
- My aroused interest for the theories of Nikolai D. Kontratieff and the conclusions of the current literature about the 6. Kontratieff (see chapter 1.2.) - And the search for a topic for my MBA-dissertation
Consequently, the topic for this work was ’only’ a purely logical conclusion. For me, an educated engineer, who has always been trained to purely technical, mathematical and systematic ways of thinking in my previous education period before my MBA-studies, the chosen topic is a very tempting challenge. But in my opinion, there is just here a high potential to consider organizational psychological processes from a different point of view.
TABLE OF CONTENT
SUBJECT OF DISSERTATION
INDEX OF FIGURES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
Aims of the dissertation
Abstract methodology
Plan of the Dissertation
Uses of terms
1. FUTURE AND TODAY - KEY SUCCESS FACTORS OF ENTERPRISES AND THE SOCIETY
1.1 Lean manufacturing – it origin, elements and significance for this work
1.1.1 Manufacturing in the last century and today
1.1.2 Basics and origin of Lean manufacturing
1.1.3 The continuous improvement process (CIP)
1.1.4 Continuous improvement process in case object
1.2 Kontratieffs „Theory of the long economic waves“
1.2.1 Introduction of the „Theory of the long economic waves“
1.2.2 The 5th Kondratieff – Human being: the new row material
1.2.3 The 6th Kondratieff – and the new key success factor human competency
2. BASICS – MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
2.1 Origins and Definitions of Management Consulting
2.2 The management consulting process
2.2.1. Phases of the consulting process
2.2.2 Consulting products
2.2.3 Consulting product stencil and structure of a consulting approach
3. ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION AND COMMITMENT
3.1 The Social Identity Approach
3.2 Basics of organizational identification and commitment
3.2.1 Definitions of identification and commitment
3.2.2 Dimensions of identification and commitment
3.2.3 Foci of organizational identification and commitment
3.2.4 Distinctive features
3.3 Development of Identification and commitment
3.3.1 Development of Identification
3.3.2 Development of commitment
3.3.3 Summary development identification and commitment
3.4 Negative aspects of identification and commitment
4. BENEFIT OF IDENTIFICATION AND COMMITMENT
4.1 Benefit generally
4.2 Benefit under consideration of foci and dimensions
4.3 Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
4.3.1 Definitions of organizational citizenship behaviour
4.3.2 Dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviour
4.3.3 Development of organizational citizenship behaviour
4.3.4 Continuous improvement efforts among employees as a manifestation of OCB
4.4 Deduce a model of the interrelationships between identification, commitment and OCB
5. EMPIRICAL PART
5.1 Methodology
5.1.1 Introduction
5.1.2 Research question and hypothesis
5.1.3 Research Design
5.1.4 Sampling
5.1.5 Research technique – Development of the questionnaire
5.1.6 Bias and Limitations
5.1.7 Execute survey
5.1.8 Approach of data evaluation
5.2 Field Research findings and conclusions
5.2.1 Data evaluation and presentation of the survey findings
5.2.2 Development the interview guideline
5.2.3 Preparing and carrying out the Interviews
5.2.4 Presentation of the interview findings and main conclusions
5.2.5 Future Research
6. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONSULTING APPROACH
6.1 Models of actualizing and manage Identification and Commitment
6.1.1 Summary of the model “identification politics” [Identifikationspolitk]
6.1.2 Summary of the “ASPIRe” model
6.1.3 Main conclusions of the models
6.2 Deduce the consulting Approach
6.2.1 Abstract of the consulting approach
6.2.2 Detailed description of the segments
6.3 Final conclusions
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
SUBJECT OF DISSERTATION
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INDEX OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Compare to management orientation Toyota western companies
Figure 2: Impact of KVP used by Lean manufacturing (based on: McKinsey Automotive and Assembly, p.3)
Figure 3: Long economic waves and their basis-innovation (based on Hagemeister, 2001, p. 18; and Nefiodow, 2001, p.3)
Figure 4: The value chain of information technology (Nefiodow, 2001, p.15)
Figure 5: From a industrial to a information society (based on Nefiodow, 2001, p.13)
Figure 6: Success criteria of the information society (based on Nefiowow, 2001, p.23-39)
Figure 7: Basis innovation and their most important areas of application (based on Nefiodow, 2001, p.133)
Figure 8: Qualification demand of employees in the information society (Nefiodow, 2001, p.31)
Figure 9: phases of the consulting process (own illustration)
Figure 10: standardized phases of a consulting project (own illustration)
Figure 11: stencil of a consulting product (example, source Niedereichholz, 2004)
Figure 12: quality assurance in a consulting project (source: Niedereichholz, 2004)
Figure 13: Components of identification (based on: vanDick, 2004, pp.15/16)
Figure 14: Dimensions of identification (own illustration)
Figure 15: Dimensions of commitment (own illustration)
Figure 16: Explanation of commitment dimensions (own illustration, based on Meyer&Allen, 1991)
Figure 17: Foci of commitment and identification (own illustration)
Figure 18: Dimensions of identification and commitment(own illustration)
Figure 19: Test arrangement (source: vanDick, 2004)
Figure 20: Number of produced ideas in dependence of the salience of social and personal identity (source: vanDick, 2004)
Figure 21: Development of commitment (own illustration)
Figure 22: Components of identification and commitment (based on van Dick, 2004, p17)
Figure 23: Correlation of identification and work related variables; extract (source: vanDick at al, 2002, p 160)
Figure 24: Correlation of dimensions of identification and work related variables; extract (source: vanDick at al, 2002, p. 162)
Figure 25: Correlations between identification and salary satisfaction, job satisfaction and turnover intensions
Figure 26: Correlations, study van Kippenberg (2000, p.143)
Figure 27: Foci of identification: correlations between measures of identification and other measures
Figure 28: Results of multiple regression analyses between measures of identification and other measures
Figure 29: Reliabilities and correlations of Lee’s study (based on Lee, 2004, p.630)
Figure 30: Surveys - commitment and employee satisfaction (based on Koop, 2004, p.69)
Figure 31: Dimensions of OCB (own illustration)
Figure 32: Matrix of foci and dimensions of OI and commitment (own illustration)
Figure 33: Drafted structure of the empirical research (own illustration)
Figure 34: two deduced hypothesis (own illustration)
Figure 35: design type test of hypothesis (source: Kromrey, 2006, p.92)
Figure 36: example for the use of the Repertory Grid Technique (source: see appendix)
Figure 37: demographic data of the executed survey (own illustration) Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
Figure 39: correlation matrix between CIP effort and the OCB dimensions sportsmanship and civic virtue (own illustration)
figure 40: correlation between the dimensions of identification and CIP efforts, OCB dimensions (own illustration)
Figure 41: correlation between dimensions of commitment and CIP efforts and OCB dimensions (own illustration)
Figure 42: correlations to CIP efforts in drafted structure of the empirical research
Figure 43: correlations to OCB civic virtue in drafted structure of the empirical research
Figure 44: components of the identification politics (source: Wunderer, 1995, p.127)
Figure 45: identification strategies (based on: Wunderer, 1995, p.159)
Figure 46: iceberg of identification controlling (based on: Wunderer, 1995, p. 172)
Figure 47: The ASPIRe model (source: Haslam, Eggins & Reynold, 2003, p.87)
Figure 48: Salient social identities associated with Sub-Casing and Super-Casing phases of the ASPIRe process
Figure 49: advantages and disadvantages „Identification politics model“ and „ASPIRe model“ (own illustration)
Figure 50: Segments of the consulting approach (own illustration)
Figure 51: product stencil for the consulting approach (own illustration)
Figure 52: example of a profile of the need for identification and commitment (own illustration)
Figure 53: quality norms of segment 2.1 (own illustration)
Figure 54: identification groups in a matrix structure (own illustration)
Figure 55: quality norms of segment 2.2 (own illustration)
Figure 46: guide for qualitative analysis to improve the participation in the CIP (own illustration)
Figure 57: quality norms of segment 2.3 (own illustration)
Figure 58: structure of the employee survey (own illustration)
Figure 59: quality norms of segment 2.4 (own illustration)
Figure 60: example of a simple target/actual comparison of cognitive/affective dimensions (own illustration)
Figure 61: example: critical factors concerning the foci ‘product’ of the identification group ‘power train’ (own illustration)
Figure 62: quality norms of segment 2.5 (own illustration)
Figure 63: procedure of Sub-Casing (own illustration)
Figure 64: quality norms of segment 3.1 (own illustration)
Figure 65: procedure of Super-Casing workshop (own illustration)
Figure 66: quality norms of segment 3.2 (own illustration)
Figure 67: structure for working out actions with the aim to have a more intensive participation in the CIP (own illustration)
Figure 68: Identification and commitment instruments (own illustration; based on Wunderer,1995; Allen&Meyer, 1990, 1996)
Figure 69: Table about the structured elaboration that is dependent on needs, to strengthen identification and commitment
Figure 70: description of factors that increase commitment and identification (own illustration)
Figure 71: quality norms of segment 3.3 (own illustration)
Figure 72: analyzing possibilities of a monitoring system (own illustration)
Figure 73: quality norms of segment 3.4 (own illustration)
Figure 74: quality norms of segment 4.1 (own illustration)
Figure 75: quality norms of segment 5.1 (own illustration)
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
illustration not visible in this excerpt
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper for achieving the MBA degree was not at least possible because of the support of numerous persons.
I am very thankful to the always friendly I-IMC staff at the Ludwigshafen School of Applied Science, especially to Mrs. Bitsch and the team of the bibliography, who supplied me with numerous scientific papers in a fast and uncomplicated way. I am very grateful to my dissertation supervisor Prof. Dr. Rolf-Dieter Reineke for his support and encouragement to pursue this dissertation.
For the opportunity to execute the survey via a questionnaire, I want to thank the management and works council of the XXXX. Thanks also to all the anonymous participants.
I am deeply thankful for the support of Prof. Dr. Walter Bungard, Prof. Dr. Rolf van Dick and Dr. Ingela Jöns: for their time and friendly cooperation during the interviews. Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Bungard for his additional support and guidance several times.
I also want to thank XXXX for his help concerning the numerous empirical evaluations as well as for the crash course in statistical analyses. Furthermore, I am thankful to XXXX for her support concerning linguistic matters and the time-consuming proof-reading.
Last but definitely not least, I am expressing my gratitude to my parents for their love, practical support and simply being there for me when I needed them the most.
ABSTRACT
Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and a special form of it, the participation in the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP), are prospective key factors and qualifications that differentiate a successful from an average company. They represent the most important part of the human capital that gets more and more important and relevant for the economical success in times of the information society and numerous “lean strategies”. Reason and derivation of this statement are made at the beginning of this paper.
OCB or the participation in the CIP can not be influenced directly or even be demanded. The constructs of organizational psychology, organizational identification and organizational commitment, are supposed to be the most important predictors for a strong OCB. Unfortunately, there are only less holistic approaches to systematically strengthen identification and commitment in an enterprise. Monetarily and temporarily limited efforts often do not show a permanent effect - a holistic approach based on long term considerations is necessary.
Therefore, the aim of this paper is
(a) the empirical proof of a positive connection between OCB respectively CIP efforts among employees and identification or rather commitment.
(b) is the development of a holistic consulting approach based on the found insights to increase the participation in the CIP with the help of identification and commitment.
As an organization as well as identification and commitment are multidimensional constructs, a further differentiation in dimensions (type of identification/commitment) and foci (target objects of identification/commitment) is made. An investigation model with relevant dimensions for the participation in the CIP is worked out, according to the theoretical insights. Via a quantitative survey in the shop floor level of an automobile manufacturer it was proved that mainly the affective and cognitive dimensions show positive correlations with the participation in the CIP. The foci task, product and company turn out to be the most important identification objects. The special importance of the identification object task was significant. Interviews with experts in the field of work and organization psychology confirmed the found empirical results and gave first practical advices for a consulting approach.
A consulting approach is derived from the theoretical and empirical insights. The approach includes 12 segments that are structured according to the basic structure of a consulting product. The aim of the consulting approach is the systematic composition of affective and cognitive identification and commitment with the identification objects task, product and company. The concept of the consulting approach is structured in such a way that other relevant identification objects can be used for other aims than the increase of the CIP efforts among employees.
INTRODUCTION
Since already 1.5 years, my occupational activities have been consisting in “improving things” – this is an exciting, interesting and challenging activity for a young person like me. More precisely, my activity is in the field of „in-house production consulting” with lean-manufacturing principles. Even more precisely: It is the supervision and organization of the KAIZEN-Office[1] in an assembly centre of an European manufacturer.
Because of this background, I’m familiar with the application and implementation of many Kaizen and Just-In-Time principles. By introducing the production system it was continued to improve the continuous improvement process and standardized it corporation-wide. Implementing a continuous improvement process (CIP) or rather the production system proved to be very successful.
Quality improvement with a failure reduction in front of customers up to 90 %, increase of efficiency up to 40 % within five years with a delivery reliability of 100% are only parts of the reached success. However, it can increasingly be noticed that the huge potentials at the beginning of the implementation of the lean-manufacturing-principles cannot be reached anymore – the ”low-hanging fruits” are already harvested. But not without a reason, one of the core messages of the Kaizen-philosophy is: The current state has always to be seen as the worst.
Consequently, three things accumulated:
- The insight that the success of a pure use of “hard improvement methods” (for instance lean manufacturing) is limited and that the limited part were not the methods themselves, but the human beings who use them or rather should use them.
- My aroused interest for the theories of Nikolai D. Kontratieff and the conclusions of the current literature about the 6. Kontratieff (see chapter 1.2.)
- And the search for a topic for my MBA-dissertation
Consequently, the topic for this work was ’only’ a purely logical conclusion. For me, an educated engineer, who has always been trained to purely technical, mathematical and systematic ways of thinking in my previous education period before my MBA-studies, the chosen topic is a very tempting challenge. But in my opinion, there is just here a high potential to consider organizational psychological processes from a different point of view.
Aims of the dissertation
The currently and slowly decreasing long economic cycle of information technology generates one question for an innovative and future-oriented company: Which are the prospective key factors and qualifications that differentiate a successful from an average company in a world after the lean wave and information technology? Mainly producing companies in Germany are faced with a very big challenge here – productions are more and more moved into countries that are assumed to be cheaper.
Since the increased use of the factors capital and workforce and the comprehensive implementation of lean principles (e.g. Kaizen, TPS[2]) as well as information technology (e. g. integrated business software) will not lead to further significant increases of productivity differentiated from competition, one question rises: What are the new key factors of increased productivity and constantly necessary competition advantages? In a free market economy the must of a continuously increasing productivity for companies themselves as well as national economies is manifold discussed and approved.
Activated and efficiently used “human capital” in occurrence of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) generated by organizational identification (OI) and commitment can be one key qualification of successful enterprises in the future.
Therefore identification and commitment on the shop floor level of manufacturing companies will be the main subject of this work.
An European commercial vehicle manufacturer will be used as case study.
The world automotive industry in the 21st century is faced with many transformational challenges and the great majority of manufacturing companies worldwide is looking for sustainable solutions to these challenges in order to secure a profitable and attractive future for their existence. One solution seems to be the “lean-production-wave” with its popular and very successful challenger Toyota. However, today most of the successful European manufacturers in the automotive industry implemented the lean-manufacturing or “Kaizen” strategy and created their own production system.
A second solution was found in the increased use of integrated business software (e.g. SAP) in the industrial area of business. Today, nearly all industrial enterprises use well linked integrated business software to control all production and non-production processes, remarkable increases in productivity followed. The need to these integrated business software leads to the breathtaking success of enterprises like SAP or Oracle.
Through the use of lean manufacturing principles and the implementation of integrated business software many European manufactures improved their processes dramatically – since that time competition has been harder than before.
By improving their processes, European manufacturers mainly focus on “hard methods” – direct ways to increase quality, improve delivery service and decrease costs. Most of them have been very successful in recent years. Despite, most of them recognized that it is getting harder and harder to achieve new potentials with these direct or “hard methods” of increasing productivity.
New challenges are additional and unique ways to face the competition – in this case the more effective use of the entire human capital could be one solution.
The work will research the constructs organizational identification (OI), organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) under special consideration of the dimensions and foci of these constructs.
Aims:
Hence, out of the field research combined with the empirical findings, the aim of this work is:
- to analyze how companies can create a stronger OCB through organizational identification and commitment.
The employees’ continuous improvement efforts on the shop floor level of manufacturing companies are used as manifestation of OCB.
Therefore, the following hypothesis and research question have to be considered:
Hypothesis 1:
Employees’ organizational identification will be positively related to continuous improvement efforts among employees.
Hypothesis 2:
Employees’ organizational commitment will be positively related to continuous improvement efforts among employees.
Research question:
Which dimension and foci of organizational identification and commitment are positively related to OCB in manifestation of employees’ continuous improvement efforts.
Considering the consulting component of the MBA study, a second objective of the work is:
- to develop intervention possibilities of a consulting approach for influence OI and commitment of employees by management
Abstract methodology
In the following there is a short explanation of the methodology of this work. For a detailed description and statement of the chosen methodology and methods, please see chapter five.
The methodology of this work is divided in three parts - desk research, field research and in a field in which the found insights of the two parts before lead into a consulting approach.
In desk research, first of all, the up-to-date expertise about the topics OI, Commitment and OCB has to be gathered and analyzed. Mainly the different dimensions and foci are brought out more clearly here. With the help of an analysis of current scientific surveys, the given statement is being checked. At the end of the desk research, a model is being developed with the help of the theoretical insights and, once again, the hypotheses of this work will be specified more detailed.
As a start, the hypotheses are presented and reasoned in the empirical part. With the help of several studies that are already carried out, a questionnaire is being compiled. Hypotheses of this work will be tested with this questionnaire. A particular technique is used here – the Repertory Grid Technique. This special technique allows an examination of several dimensions and foci of these constructs in an efficient manner. This model that has been created in field research is being examined on a basis of a quantitative, deductive and theory testing analysis. The results of the survey via questionnaires will be examined statistically and analytically afterwards; mainly factor analyses and correlation analyses will be used here. Semi-structured interviews with experts should help to secure and further consolidate the results of the questioning.
In the last part, the conclusions of desk and field research are summarized and intervention possibilities for a consulting approach are worked out with elaborations from chapter 2.
Plan of the Dissertation
Chapter 1 contains basic information about “the new deductive” success factors of companies in future. Taking Lean-Manufacturing as an example, in this chapter it is tried to give reasons for the economical relevance of this work.
A second starting point will be Kondratieff’s “Theory of the long economic waves”. With this theory, a glance at the future of a successful company is given.
Several definitions of management consulting are given and the main elements of the consulting process are described in chapter two. Certain aspects of the consulting process mentioned in this chapter are used at the development of the intervention possibilities of a consulting approach.
The scientific core of this work is described in chapter 3. The organizational psychological constructs identification and commitment are described in a level of detail that is sufficient for this work. Mainly the different dimensions and foci are worked out. It is also briefly gone into details concerning the development and the negative aspects of (too high) identification and commitment.
The benefit, especially OCB and continuous improvement efforts among employees, of identification and commitment are described in chapter 4. Especially the dimensions and foci of OCB and the participation in the CIP as manifestation of OCB are dealt with. At the end of this chapter, a model is derived from the founded conclusions in chapter 3 and 4. This model outlines the relations between OI, commitment and OCB.
Chapter 5 demonstrates the empirical part of this paper. The methodology approach and techniques used during the field and desk research are thoroughly described here. In the second part of this chapter the research findings, implications, conclusions as well as topics for future research are discussed.
In the last 6th chapter of this dissertation the intervention possibilities of a consulting approach are developed.
Some additional information about the topic of this work and the used questionnaire are contained in the section “Appendix”. All sources of knowledge used during the research are indicated in the section “Bibliography”.
Uses of terms
Due to different sources and the mainly differential approaches of organizational identification and commitment in the last years, terms like ‚Organizational Identification’ and ‚Organizational Commitment’ have not always been separated in a clear way? (compare chapter 3.2.1) When talking about identification or commitment in this work, ‚Organizational Identification’ and ‚Organizational Commitment’ is meant, unless there is an explicit hint that it is about another construct. In this context, the terms ‚Organizational Identification’ and ‚Organizational Commitment’ also include single objects like ‚supervisor’ or ‚product’. In terms of this work, these are always understood as a subset of the organization company. Within the scope of this work‚ Organizational Identification’ is abbreviated with ‚OI’ and ‚Organizational Commitment’ with ‚Commitment’.
An exact definition of the term ‚Organizational citizenship behaviour’ can be seen in chapter 4.3.1. – this construct is abbreviated with ‚OCB’.
In chapter 6 the term identification object or rather identification framework is used very often. This always has to be regarded at the background of identification and commitment.
1. FUTURE AND TODAY - KEY SUCCESS FACTORS OF ENTERPRISES AND THE SOCIETY
What will be in future? It is a simple question – but unfortunately, the answer is not that simple. On closer examination, this question is not even complete, because more important than this question is another one:
How can we handle this (unknown?) future in a happy, satisfying and successful way?
Those human beings, who are aware of that, prepared to it and extend their “antennas” widely to adjust to the changing environmental and social conditions will continue to reach their objectives the most successful in future.
Of course, the same goes for organizations. “In sociology ‘organization’ is understood as planned, coordinated and purposeful action of human beings in order to construct or compile a common tangible or intangible product or service”[3], which is not only applicable to economic companies but also to associations, schools et cetera – even the family is an organization. Once again, the three main objectives of every economic company are mentioned here:
survival à profit à growth
Taking these three points as a basis, the following question comes up for every organization, especially for economical organizations: How can we not only survive, but also grow in a profitable way?
Therefore, the future question and mainly the resulting adjustment of its objectives, strategies, processes and structures have a deciding importance.
This first chapter of the MBA dissertation should help to clarify the relevance of the work - of today and even more in future time. It should show the serious economic relevance of the topic and get it out of the nebulous “soft-facts-corner”.
Two approaches are consulted: At first, there is the very practical and successful approach of Lean Manufacturing that is undisputed today. A second starting point is the scientific and philosophic „Theory of the long economic waves“– the Kondratieff cycles - that is not widespread up to today.
1.1 Lean manufacturing – it origin, elements and significance for this work
1.1.1 Manufacturing in the last century and today
„Manufacturing has become the loss-leading activity for many corporations that design and produce engineered products. Factories have become magnets for material, labor and infrastructure that are not longer required to generate earnings. The latest trend for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is to outsource manufacturing … „ (Booz Allen & Hamilton, 2001, p.3)
Mass production caused an enormous increase in productivity from the time of industrialization up to the eighties, but it proves to be hardly appropriate for the present and future time. One of the founders of the traditional mass production in the automotive sector was Henry ford with his most significant innovation: the moving assembly line. Despite many advantages in productivity, mass production was all the time characterized through: up to 10 percent defective production, large batch sizes, long production runs, long changeovers, long queues, planed rework stations. Despite this multitude of disadvantages, this production principle was introduced in almost all producing companies worldwide until the eighties.
Challenges in manufacturing today
- industrial Over-capacity and price competition
- increased global competition
- liberalization of trade barriers
- increasingly sophisticated costumers
- environmentalism and Corporate Citizenship
- …
(source: Ene, 2004, p. 17)
„Competition has always driven the quest for „better, faster, cheaper“ products and processes. Nowadays, staying in the game demands superb answers to increase product complexity, product proliferation, shorter product life-cycles, rapid development of new technologies, and fiercer competition“ (McKinsey, Automotive&Assembly, p.6)
Moving the production into „low-wage“ countries seemed to be a possible approach to fulfill these new challenges for many companies. With the help of this method it was possible to lower the expenses for employees and thus the total production costs fast and easily. Because of social responsibility and negative public reputation it is not always possible to dismiss thousands of employees and to remove the jobs into foreign countries.
Jim Womack shows further reasons why it does not always make sense to go the way that seems to be the easiest.
- costs of additional safety stocks
- costs of expensive expedited shipments
- costs of warranty claims if the new facility has a long learning curve
- costs of out-of-stocks and lost sales caused by long lead times
- cost of slow freight to get it to your costumer
- overhead costs allocated to production in high-wage location
- connectivity costs of many sorts in managing product hand-offs and information flows in highly complex supply chains across long distances in countries with different business practices
- currency risks
(a short extract of: „Move Your Opperation to China? Do some lean math first.“ J.Womack, www.lean.org)
Caused by the problems described, a multitude of programs and systems came up. (Business Process Reengineering, Constraint management, Total Quality Management and so on) – but there is only a small number with a holistic approach.
With the beginning of the 21st century, the term and idea “Lean” gains more and more importance, it is a break with traditional production principles as for instance mass production.
„In their search for a sustainable and holistic manufacturing system, companies world-wide focus more and more their attention on one company and its production philosophy and system, which proved to be extremely successful over the last 50 years: Toyota and the Toyota Production System (TPS).“ (Ene. 2004, p.19)
1.1.2 Basics and origin of Lean manufacturing
It will be so far in 2007 at the latest: Toyota is the biggest automobile manufacturer in the world – regarding the shareholder value and the profit Toyota is it today.
With its „2010 Global vision“, the automotive company set itself the goal to increase the worldwide market share from 10% to 15%
But the history of Toyotas success started much earlier: A family named Toyoda decided to join the automobile industry after a visit of the Ford plants in the USA in 1910. Since then, the former producer of looms was a very small automobile manufacturer. In the following years the small “automobile manufactory” could secure its existence only very hard. After a further visit of the Ford factories in the USA in 1930, they recognized that they have to change their production methods basically and radically, but that a pure copying of the American mass production would not be the solution.
„The scarcity of capital in the post-war Japan also heavily influenced the demand of Toyota’s production system by severely limiting Toyota’s ability to invest in westerns-style production technologies. However, this limitation probably turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since investment in the huge, monolithic production machines commonly used in the West would have been inconsistent with the highly flexible, quick-change equipment needed for manufacturing low volumes of many vehicle models. […] The concept of ‚customer-defined value’ became the linchpin of Toyotas new approach. Once customer value had been defined, it became necessary to determine specifically how this value could be created and delivered in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. […] Clearly, the entire approach to manufacturing goods had to be re-examined from scratch. The batch-and-queue mentality was woefully inadequate“ (TTL, p.34)
So, the most distinguishing fundamental feature to mass-production is the one-piece-flow principle.
Inspired by western influences as for instance the PDCA-cycle (Deming) or the supermarket principle, Taiichi Ohno continued to make the TPS perfect within 40 years. Today, the TPS is based on two pillars:
Just-In-Time: The right parts, with the right quality, at the right time, in the right amount, at the right place“
Jidoka/Autonomation: „Build in Quality“; automation with human touch; Production lines that stop for abnormalities, perfection in every process
In such a production system, the workforce tasks change dramatically. Employees perform many of the roles formerly done by industrial engineers, manufacturing engineers, maintenance specialist and quality control. Employees are supposed to think about their work all the time and should improve it constantly. The main tasks of the supervisors and the management change: they consider themselves more as a coach than as a leader„… the organizational structure can be flattened significantly, leaving fewer layers and fewer indirect support staff, since many of these functions have been designed out of the system or have been dispersed in the new horizontally focused structure“(TTL, p.37).
The following chart shows that Lean with its fundamental principle of the absolute customer orientation is not only limited to the production:
illustration not visible in this excerpt
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 1: Compare to management orientation Toyota western companies
(source: Andos Innovative Management Systems Ltd.)
Maybe it is just this diagram that shows the basis for the essential and long-termed success of Toyota.
Definitions Lean manufacturing
Nowadays there are a large number of interpretations for the term „Lean manufacturing“. According to the author, the following mentioned interpretations are the most relevant ones:
“Lean is much more than techniques. It is a way of thinking a whole-systems-approach that creates a culture in which everyone in the organization continuously improves their process and production” J. Liker
“Lean manufacturing seeks to optimize the flow of inputs (material, information and people) and to maximize outputs (quality, costs, delivery. This is achieved by the relentless pursuit of elimination of the three system inhibitors: waste, variability and inflexibility. When inhibitors are eradicated, companies can close the gab between the desired and actual performance and improved both quality and delivery.” McKinsey&Company
Barriers to Lean manufacturing
The fact that no company has been able to repeat the success of Toyota up to now shows that it seems to be very hard to change over to the Lean Philosophy. Currently, the insight that a pure copying of visible tools does not bring any success diffuses widely.
The system and the way of thinking of Toyota have to be understood – consequently „understanding and not just copying.“ With the help of a study[4] in the UK and a study of the LEI (Lean Enterprise Institute), the following barriers arise when implementing lean:
- company culture
- lack of understandig of the approach
- attitude of the staff
- backsliding to the old ways of working
- resistance by middle management
- resistance by supervisors
As one can recognize in the above-mentioned extract, the barriers are neither caused by the technologies or methods of lean itself, nor by the know-how of the users. The limited factor remains the human being himself! “Lean” means a complete change in processes, structures and, first of all a change in the mind (the way of thinking) of all participants.
Keys to Lean success
Considering the points that are generally seen as factors of success concerning a Lean implementation, one can also recognize very easily - the factor “human being” is the deciding criterion:
- prepare and motivate people
- employee involvement
- atmosphere of experimentation
- share information and manage expectations
- identify and empower champions
(source: Ene, 2004, p.29)
Just regarding the fundamental principle that concerning Lean Manufacturing mainly the blue-collar workers play a deciding key role (they are the motor for new ideas and improvements) shows the importance of the factor human being in case of a successful implementation.
1.1.3 The continuous improvement process (CIP)
“Continuous improvement is the propensity of an organisation to pursue incremental and innovative improvements of its processes, products and services” (Lee, 2004, p.623). Nowadays it is not only acknowledged in the automotive sector that became a pioneer, but also in the service sector or in the financing sector that the CIP is a strategically element within the constantly increasing competition worldwide. Since traditional priorities and practices of mass production are being challenged by the new paradigm of Lean production blue collar workers’ effort to decrease costs, improve delivery and quality are seen as critical in enhancing companies’ competitiveness. (Storey, 1994)
The CIP gained more importance when introducing holistic lean manufacturing approaches. The following chart demonstrates/visualizes its economical advantages:
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 2: Impact of KVP used by Lean manufacturing (based on: McKinsey Automotive and Assembly, p.3)
„Continuous Improvement links higher quality to lower costs and higher market share“(Deming, 1986). Especially here, mainly the front-line-workers of a company have a special importance, because they know, how their work could be done more efficiently and in a better quality. Deductively, it is one of the most important tasks of the Management to “promote” the CIP to create basic conditions and to support the employees actively in this matter.
„Continuous improvement is a consciously proactive form of employee activity” (Lee, 2004, p.624) Continuous improvement involves the recognition of and perceived responsibility for quality and participation in activities aimed at improving quality, decrease costs and reduce lead times. But as long as employees do not regard these activities as an element of their job (it is mentioned in the fewest job descriptions and it is also hard to describe it definitely concerning complexity and characteristic), they will show only little interest in investing their capabilities in the CIP.
A critical question is whether employees embody a broader and more proactive approach to their roles in which they feel responsible for work beyond their immediate operational tasks.
More human resource-based methods have proved to have profound effects on continuous improvement activities among blue collar workers. “Its primary aim is to reform psychological and/or attitudinal states of employees in order to achieve the goal of continuous improvement efforts by employees.” (Lee, 2004, p.624) In the opinion of the author organizational identification and commitment are two candidates for the human based determinants of continuous improvement.
1.1.4 Continuous improvement process in case object
The XXXX Corporation belongs to the XXXX business unit ‘busses’ and demonstrates all XXXX activities in this segment. Moreover, the XXXX Corporation has the leading role in the worldwide bus activities of XXX. At the end of the nineties, the bus business was faced with a serious crisis – the business unit has to become more profitable for further engagements of DC in the omnibus market. XXXX had the common problems of many German industrial enterprises at that time: high labour cost, high inventory, non satisfying quality, long delivery times. A possible solution was found in the introduction and expansion of an holistic CIP approach.
Elements of this holistic approach are:
- Employee suggestion system
Th company has an IT-based employee suggestion system. Every employee (or two or more employees together) can enter a suggestion for improvement. Afterwards, this proposal is assessed by the supervisor (possibly with the help of a specialist) and, as there is a cognizable use for the company, the proposal is awarded and will finally be realized.
- Kaizen-Workshops
Another approach is seen in the introduction of corporation-wide Kaizen-Workshops. This procedure proved to be very successful in the following years. According to this, a Kaizen organization was implemented with the help of an external consultancy in 1997.
In a narrower sense, Kaizen means a constant improvement that includes managers as well as employees. According to a Japanese translation, the word Kai means “change” and Zen means “to the better”. Main principles are: 1) the comprehension of all employees, 2) incremental improvement; gradual optimization; 3) no high investments; 4) “Just Do it” = immediate implementation. In the Japanese practice, Kaizen is mainly known as the philosophy of the “everlasting change”.
First of all, some pilot workshops were made, the management was sensitized and Kaizen trainers were qualified[5]. Kaizen offices[6] were installed in the production departments. Since then, Kaizen-Workshops (duration: five days) have been carried out continuously in the whole production. Gradually, the employees have been qualified in the Kaizen procedure. Since 2003, Kaizen workshops have also been carried out through foremen of the production – with this step, the CIP was established as an inherent part of task of every manager and supervisor in the production.
- CIP within the scope of group work
As a form of organization of the lowest level, the principle of group work is used. That means that the smallest organizational entity is a group with an elected spokesman. Work allocation, organization of vacation, group meetings, advancing the teamwork belong to these group tasks. Qualification and permanent optimization of the working systems, structure and occupational safety belong to it as well. Consequently, the CIP is a fundamental component of group work. The group has to optimize itself continuously during their work and group meeting. The management has to support the groups in doing so.
Successes of CIP activities
The already described production unit had considerable successes: increase in productivity of 40% within five years, a reduction of errors in front of customers of 90 %, an achieved delivery rate of 100%. Within this period, the market share of the product XXXX increased from 45 % to 64 %.
1.2 Kontratieffs „Theory of the long economic waves“
1.2.1 Introduction of the „Theory of the long economic waves“
“The long waves of economy” – this was the title of an article of Nikolai Kondratieff, which was published in a German professional journal in 1926. In this article, Kontratieff postulates the existence of periodically long phases of the economic revivals and the recession. He describes a duration of the single phases of 45 to 60 years. In honour of Kondratieff, these cycles of the long economic waves were named Kondratieff cycles. (Nefiodow, 2001) „One of the advantages of the theory of the long waves is the possibility of a holistic access to the problems of the time. It is basically the only scientific theory that helps to explain the interactions of technical, economical, social and cultural development in a convincing way. […] We can recognize more and more clearly that the society is something integral or holistic and that a lot of its problems will remain unsolved if they are only dealt with in the limits of individual disciplines.” (Nefiodow, 2001, p.2)
Basics of the long economic waves
Only since the free market economy came into being in the 18th century, the Kondratieff cycles can be examined[7]. The cycles describe the increase and decline of national and international economic developments. Kondratieff himself was only able to describe two complete waves in 1926. He mainly used descriptively statistical data of Germany, France, England and USA (Hagemeister, 2001). The Kondratieff cycles are caused by certain technical-economical innovations, which are called basic innovations in the following text. At the beginning, these waves of economy cycles and recession were seen as purely economical. But economy and society are connected with each other very closely. “The Kondratieff cycle is much more than an economical cycle. It is a value chain, caused by basic innovations and it influences the economical growth for several decades in a deciding way including nearly all fields in society. In other words: It is a process of reorganization of the entire society that happens with the aim to exploit large fields of demands with the help of basic innovations.” (Nefiedow, 2001, p. 4)
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 3: Long economic waves and their basis-innovation (based on Hagemeister, 2001, p. 18; and Nefiodow, 2001, p.3)
For this paper, mainly the fifth and in future the sixth Kondratieff have a special importance. This is the reason for the closer description of these two cycles in the following text.
Critics see in these waves only external coincidence, revolutions, wars, new discoveries of gold and so on. But according to Kondratieff, cause and effect are confused here. (Händeler, 2005) “No, not wars do firstly influence the economic cycle. But as there are changes of (economical) power in times of high tensions in economical growth, wars are mainly arising just before the maximum of a long-termed upswing (also to get limited resources) – such as, for instance, the Napoleonic wars in the first Kondratieff, as well as World War One in the third Kondratieff cycle. […] The Russian October Revolution took place at the peak of the electrification. The student unrests of the 1968th were during the dynamic spread of the automobile in the fourth Kondratieff” (Händeler, 2005, p. 27/28).
Also other events in society follow the cycles: In phases of a long upswing, the society has more left-wing tendencies and becomes more liberal because of the higher economical security – the same reasons are responsible for the increasing birth-rates. “Long waves are not only an economical process but also a process of extensive new organization that is related to society as a whole” (Händeler, 2005, p.31).
The special importance of basic innovations
„Cause and carrier of the Kondratieff cycles are the basic innovations“ (Nefiodow, 2001, p.14). Furthermore, Nefiodow records the fact that it is the professional competence, organization, management, creativity, research, motivation and cooperation that finally decide on the affluence of a nation, and not the “size of population” or raw material deposits. Basic innovations are carrier of entirely new value chains – for instance steel and railway in the second Kondratieff. When the preparation of the society for a new basis innovation and the reorganization are on time, the basic innovation can cause a long phase of economical upswing.
Several basis innovations can have effects and can support each other simultaneously – petro-chemistry and automobile in the fourth Kondratieff (Nefiodow, 2001). When the potential of use is exhausted and no other new basic innovations come up, economy and society gradually move on to a downward trend. This happened for instance, as another extension of the railway network did not lead to new increases in productivity– the second Kondratieff came into a cyclical downturn.
1.2.2 The 5th Kondratieff – Human being: the new row material
The fifth Kondratieff is “the first cycle that is not primary based on the use of natural sources, processes of converting materials and energies but on the use of an intangible factor : information. Its model of success is the productive and the creative handling of information (Nefiodow, 2001, p.8). The cycle started in the Seventies of the 20th century and since then , it has been influencing not only the economical field but also the whole society. The information technology is the basic innovation of the fifth Kondratieff and from that time on, it is the most important support of the economy. No other technology influences the economical innovation process that much, influenced the cultural and social change.
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 4: The value chain of information technology (Nefiodow, 2001, p.15)
The consumption of energy and the economic growth were proportional to each other up to the late 1970th. In all cycles before, the economical development was always based on exploiting and on using new amounts of energy and raw material (Nefiodow, 2001).
There are only two factors in the theory of systems that make growth possible: energy and information. If the consumption of energy cannot be increased anymore or the increased growth does not lead to new growth, there only remains information as a factor of growth. This change happened in the Seventies – and the end of the industrial society began. Since this time, the productive and creative handling of information has been deciding for the economical and social success.
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 5: From an industrial to an information society (based on Nefiodow, 2001, p.13)
„What predominantly matters now are attributes as the willingness to learn, handling of knowledge, thinking in systems, the ability to communicate and to create and maintain relationships. Additionally to material demands, spiritual, psychological and ecological needs came into the fore. As the human being is the most important producer, carrier, agent, user and consumer of information, his informational needs and potentials come into the fore of the structural change.” (Nefiodow, 2001, p.14)
Nefiodow (2001) shows 10 criterions that clearly separate the information society from the industrial society. Productivity and qualification are the most important ones for this work and they are dealt with in more detail at the end of this table:
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 6: Success criteria of the information society (based on Nefiowow, 2001, p.23-39)
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Qualification
In the industrial society, most of the blue-collar workers had very poor qualification. Jobs on the assembly line or on a machine were easy to learn. Manpower should be “cheap, obedient and exchangeable” (Nefiodow, 2001, p.29) in the first instance. An employee in the information society has to have a totally different qualification: He has to have a technical education of several years, he has to be able to work independently as well as in a team and he has to prepare for lifelong learning. The work on the assembly line or on the machine was mostly designed to be done by one single worker. But work in the information sector is reliant on communication and cooperation, it has to be cooperated with other people in a productive and creative way.
“The ability to cooperate and to create and maintain relationships becomes a central qualification feature in the information economy (Nefiodow, 2001, p.30). “The value of a company, the Goodwill, the imaginary capital is defined through the stability of these relationships […] The contracts of employment with those employees, who have the experience and the knowledge, and their commitment to the company are called human capital”. (Resch)
- Productivity
Studies in the USA show that the productivity of the information jobs has improved insignificantly in the years between 1960 – 1990. This circumstance is mainly interesting as there were made lots of investments in the information technology at this time (Nefiodow, 2001). Once again, this clearly point out that increases in productivity in the information sector can not be reached anymore only with hardware-investments […]. To reach productivity progresses, it increasingly depends on the human capital as well as on new “soft” competencies like the ability to cooperate and willingness to perform (civic virtue).” (Nefiodow, 2001, p. 35). It was already indicated several times in this work that improvements of productivity are indispensable for a society in the free market economy. If these are missing, mass unemployment, underemployment and the losses of prosperity will follow.
One can see that the factor human being with its individual attributes already becomes the center of attention in the fifth Kondratieff. But this one is not only characterized through professional competence - social competencies as cooperative behaviour or the willingness to perform (civic virtue) will increasingly have a deciding importance.
1.2.3 The 6th Kondratieff – and the new key success factor human competency
At first, a look back into today
In a globalized world like today, everyone has easily and fast access to any information and knowledge at any time. Everyone can buy any technology and distribute his products worldwide. “It almost has become irrelevant, whether the machines produce 100 or 100.000 parts – the biggest part of the added value happens in an imagined space: developing, organizing, planning, analyzing, marketing, finding exactly the information in this gigantic flood of information that is needed to solve a real problem […] As now the years, in which computer hardware made production and administration much more efficiently are over, the theory of the long economical waves becomes relevant again: According to this, the structures and markets of tomorrow develop on the shortages of today” (Händeler, 2005, p.108/109). There will not be a new ”steam engine” that makes our minds more productive. “In the information society, the deciding capital equipment does not belong any longer to the company, but to the employees.” (Händeler, 2005, p.110)
The 6th Kondratieff
Nefiodow (2001) prognoses the health market[8] as a new motor of growth and in his opinion, the most important barrier of growth is the “inadequate productivity of interpersonal relations” (Nefiodow, 2001, p.127).
According to him, two candidates cause the sixth Kondratieff and will carry it: psychosocial health and biotechnology[9].
1. „The greatest misrouted resources at the end of the fifth Kondratieff […] anxiety, mobbing, aggression, conflict, frustration, drugs, crime-rate, divorces, ruined families, increasing mental troubles und diseases may picture the biggest resource of productivity and growth all over the world.
A basic innovation that influences the structural change in the first part of the 21st century is the improvement of the psychosocial health.” (Nefiodow, 2001, p. 137)
2. The innovation potentials of the biotechnology can only be categorized as huge. The biotechnology “will change the whole health sector […], the environmental protection, agriculture, the electrical power supply, the information technology, nutrition and the social, ethical and mental life in a fundamental way” (Nefiodow, 2001, p.139).
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 7: Basis innovation and their most important areas of application (based on Nefiodow, 2001, p.133)
Productivity within the information society
Nowadays it is undisputed that for the economic growth, a further increase of the factors work and capital is not enough at all and even plays an underpart.
The deciding factors today are productivity improvements. But not better machines are responsible for the productivity improvements within the information society, but a better education, better cooperation, better management, better organization, better health, motivation and research (Nefiodow, 2001). Consequently, better human skills are the deciding factor.
„Human competency has been and still is the most important source of productivity“
(Nefiodow, 2001, p. 142)
In countries that are economically developed, more than 80% of the economic growth is based on improved human skills. Consequently, one of the central questions of the future is, how the creative and productive potential of the human being (employee) can be used better or rather be built up (Nefiodow, 2001).
Productivity of human work is determined by three factors:
- Division of labour
- cooperation
- willingness to perform
(Nefiodow, 2001, p. 149)
There is no business today that can be done by one single person. This leads to a division of labour and with it automatically to a specialization. Professional competence and method competence are needed for the realization of the prevailing specialization.
Furthermore, the division of labour additionally calls for the consolidation of the subtasks, the subtasks base on each other respectively – The ability to cooperate will be the second important qualification .
But it is not enough that the employees have the necessary special knowledge and that they are able to work cooperatively, they also have to have the will of their own to use it. Consequently, willingness to perform is the third important qualification.
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 8: Qualification demand of employees in the information society (Nefiodow, 2001, p.31)
There is also another reason, why this figure is interesting for a company. Professional and method competence is a qualification that can easily be copied or “bought” (for instance by consultants). However, cooperation ability and willingness to perform are two direct qualifications of the organization as a whole (of all employees), these qualifications can neither be copied, nor be bought (for instance by a competitor). This is also decisive for employees and labour representatives, as these two qualifications also cannot be relocated or copied to another (foreign) location – like for instance machines, software or processes.
From the psychological point of view, expert knowledge is a cognitive attribute, but cooperation ability and willingness to perform are psychosocial competencies. Here it is deciding that these two competencies are gained in two entirely different ways.
The importance of the expert knowledge will increasingly drop within a globalized world, the importance of cooperation ability and willingness to perform will increase (Nefiodow, 2001) – this makes a rethinking of strategies (spec. HR strategies) indispensably.
2. BASICS – MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
There is a short and compact introduction in the topic management consulting in the following chapter. The main emphasis of this chapter is to describe and to reason the necessity of a standardized method via consulting products.
2.1 Origins and Definitions of Management Consulting
„Management consulting is an independent professional advisory service assisting managers and organisations in achieving organisational purposes and objectives by solving management and business problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning and implementing changes.” (Kubr, 1996)
“Management consulting is advice and assistance at development and implementation of solution to problems in all economical, technical and administrational functional area. The management consultant is the person who operates totally and only on the client’s assignment and in clients’ best interests” (BDU e. V., Association of Management Consulting Firms, Germany)
These two quotations that only demonstrate two out of numerous definitions of management consulting seem to be appropriate, according to the author. Difficulties of an exact definition and mainly the classification of the topic management consulting are due to the fact that this is neither about a legally defined term, nor about an occupation being subject to profession prevention.
Management consultants often submit to a code of occupation and ethics as for instance the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) or the Association of German Management Consultants incorporated society (BDU). These normally include the following elements:
- independency of the management consultant of a third party, especially when decisions about distributors or other market partners of the customer must be dealt with.
- objectivity of advice in consideration of all chances and risks.
- competence: giving advice only in fields with a provable competence of the management consultant
- confidentiality: none of the knowledge and information earned from the consulting process can fall into the hands of a third person.
(source: www.wikipedia.de)
Today, consulting has emerged from the scientific management movement focused mainly on factory and shop-floor productivity and efficiency, time and motion study, eliminating waste and reducing productions costs. If others see no new opportunities for saving resources and raising productivity consultants continue to be regarded to find this opportunities.
Broader interests in other dimensions of business organizations have led to new areas of consulting: e.g public sector, strategy, selling and marketing, finance, human relations.
2.2 The management consulting process
“Developing and realization of a consulting mandate executes through an international standardized cycle of phases, in which a selection of different methods is used.” (Niedereichholz, 2004, p.9)
The source that was mainly used for all regarded contents of this chapter is the book „ Management Consulting – consulting marketing and acquisition“ (Niedereichholz, 2004).
2.2.1. Phases of the consulting process
contact: The contact to a potential client is made via direct and indirect methods. It is mainly deciding for the existence of the consultant or rather the consulting company, how often they are able to generate a contract from the phase of contact.
acquisition: The discussion about a topic that is suitable to be a project is the interface to the phase of acquisition. Ideally for the consultant, this phase ends up with the request for a proposal. The consultant has to convince the potential client of his know-how and his competence in this phase.
proposal: To make sure that the later contract can be managed to the complete satisfaction of both business partners, the greatest care in making an proposal is necessary. The procedure of the entire project has to be thought over, structured, scheduled, calculated and organized. The end of the proposal phase is the acceptance of the order.
consulting: The consulting phase is the most important part of the consulting project – this is were the consultant does his job. The consulting phase is structured in several sub phases. In this part of the consulting process, intervention possibilities that have to be elaborated in this work are used. As this is very important for the objectives of this work, there is a closer look on the sub phases in chapter 2.3.
evaluation: This phase represents the “generator for the continuous improvement process in a consulting company” (Niedereichholz, 2004, p. 11) The client satisfaction analysis can be seen as the most important element of this phase. Additionally, the methodical procedure, the profitability and the level of achievement are controlled.
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 9: phases of the consulting process (own illustration)
2.2.2 Consulting products
It is important for a high productivity of the consultant that the analysis structure and the solution alternatives do not have to be “developed” again all the time. Professional consulting companies standardize successful and individual ways of solving a problem and market these like products. Thus, for instance, the product value analysis or value analysis of overheads came into being in the first years of the management consulting. Such products are nothing else than “skeletal flow charts of the phases and the input of methods of a certain solving procedure”. (Niedereichholz, 2004, p.12). It is stated in this procedure what the contents of the as-is analysis should be, what should be taken into account concerning the to-be concept and how the structure of the problem solving will look like at the end. Within this scope, any customized adjustments are made.
Innovation in the consulting market
Innovative and new tasks/problems are arranged with analytic, creative and scientific methods – New consulting products arise from this problem solving through standardization and abstraction. “The real creative problem solving are consequently the ‘nucleus’ of growth in the consulting market” (Niedereichholz, 2004, p. 13).
For the intervention possibilities of a consulting approach that have to be developed, the following has to be considered:
- there has to be the opportunity to standardize
- neutral for every client and industry
- possibility of abstraction into a phase procedure
2.2.3 Consulting product stencil and structure of a consulting approach
As showed in chapter 2.2.1, concerning consulting projects, it always makes sense to separate the procedure in phases and segments, regardless to the complexity.
The subdivision takes place on the basis of the functions that are necessary to carry out a project. It was indicated in chapter 2.2.1 that primarily the phase of “implementation” is a matter of particular interest for the objectives of this MBA-dissertation. That is why there is now a detailed consideration of this phase. In the majority of cases of carrying out a consulting project it is fallen back on the following structure:
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 10: standardized phases of a consulting project (own illustration)
Consulting product stencil
The above structure can be seen again in the stencil of a consulting product. The first column shows the phases that are shown above. Consequently, it is neutral concerning the content and should be found again in all consulting products – only the names of the several phases can diversify, but in terms of content they remain the same.
The column segments shows, what has to be worked out in terms of content in the several phases. The methods that are used for working out the particular contents are indicated in the third column. The fourth one shows, which supports, checklists, forms, presentations et cetera can be used.
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Figure 11: stencil of a consulting product (example, source Niedereichholz, 2004)
Quality assurance
„The fixing of quality norms for the final products and the following target/actual comparison regarding the acceptance procedure of final products through the project leader is the most important precondition for quality assurance in consulting projects“. (Niedereichholz, 2004, p.244)
[...]
[1] The Kaizen-Office can bee seen as a very basic internal lean-manufacturing consulting department of a production center. Kaizen: Japanese approach to productivity improvement; ('Kai') means 'change' and ('zen') means 'good';
[2] TPS: Toyota-Production-System
[3] Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation
[4] „Lean Manufacturing survey report“ 2003, www.the_manufacturer.com
[5] = employee, who is responsible for planning and carrying out the CIP workshops
[6] = internal consulting department, according to the Kaizen/Lean philosophy
[7] for a clear verification of the single cycles see Nefiodow, 2001, p.312
[8] To give reason and to derive this postulate is not made in this work, as it does not help to reach the objectives of this work. See for this purpose Nefiodow (2001, chapter 4-6; Händeler, 2005, chapter 8/9) 7 see footnote 6
- Arbeit zitieren
- Peter Bebersdorf (Autor:in), 2006, Identification and commitment as a catalyst of a strong organizational citizenship behavior on the shop floor level of manufacturing companies, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/68392
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