Marco Tinnelli is the general manager of Lombardy machine company. When he took over the company after his Uncle's passing things were not good. The quality of machines had declined, especially compared with the best competitors, costs were too high and the sales personal were not technically sophisticated.
This was a good example of chain-link logic that was stuck. Any payoff from better-quality machines was diluted because the sales force could not accurately represent their qualities and performance. A better sales force, by itself, would have added little value without better machines. And improvements in quality and sales would not save the firm unless costs were reduced.
Tinnelli's solution was to conduct three campaigns, one after another. In the first campaign the company spent 12 months just on quality. Everything the employees did for the next year would be focused on making the best machines in the industry. Once they had good machines, they focused on the sales function. The salespeople had been involved in the quality campaign, and now the engineers and manufacturing people worked with sales to build skills, selling tools, and communications links back to the factory.
The first logical problem in chain-link situations is to identify the bottlenecks, Tinelli did that by --quality, sale's technical competence, and cost. The second greatest, problem is that incremental change may not pay off and may even make things worse. That is why systems get stuck. Tinelli's solution was to take personal responsibility for the end result and direct others attention to the three bottlenecks one after another.
ACTION POINT: Identify the bottlenecks and focus attention on them.
ACTION POINT: Identify the bottlenecks and focus attention on them.
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