Qualtec's Business Performance Improvement Blog

Recognizing co-production as the core concept of service innovation leads service providers to rich deposits of waste, the extraction of which adds tremendous value to a customer relationship.  And, failing to recognize the interdependence leads to suboptimal solutions.

When providing a service, whether B2B or B2C, we too often view the flow of activity as simply going one way.  In actuality, there is a constant flow of information and activity in both directions as you and your customer move along the continuum of operations that deliver the ultimate job.  This is especially true in B2B businesses that have another end consumer to a co-produced good or service.

Too often we give the notion of this relationship a friendly nod but fail to incorporate it into our work.  We fail to respect this interdependence because we all look for control in our work.  The introduction of the notion of reliance on the interrelationship with our customer brings a highly uncontrollable input.  We have a difficult time telling the person to whom or entity to which we are attempting to satisfy a need that we need something from them.

a short .ppt dealing with tollgate reviews in the service design process …

But as iconic movie star Tom Cruise, while playing sports agent Jerry McGuire, says to Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Rod Tidwell, playing his client, “Help Me Help You”.  It was when Jerry McGuire recognized the interdependence between his actions and his clients that success accrued to both of them.  Your clients’ actions as your partner may be uncontrollable but they remain undeniable.  And when they are recognized, great opportunities open to provide more value and earn more profit by capturing a portion of it themselves.

The first step in recognizing this co-production is to give it visibility.  The best way to do this is with various mapping activities.  You can value stream map the overall process, including both the service provider and clients’ activities.  This can be pursued further with customer mapping.  Another alternative is to perform service blueprinting, which specifically focuses on a service provider’s interactions with its customers.

For a further discussion on how to identify the interrelationships between you and your customer’s co-production so as to add value to your customer and capture value for your company, please contact me.

A service provider seeking to grow by innovating new services must have a competitive advantage versus existing service providers, whether internal or external, when positioning new services.  In services, with its low barriers to entry, it’s not good enough to simply say I’m the largest.  And when perceived quality is the final measure it is also not good enough to say I’m the cheapest.  A service provider must be able to provide a good value for the best work. And to meet that sort of test, it must design processes to do jobs and achieve outcomes better than whoever is doing them today.

Service and/or process design is a core capability that can be built. With stronger process design, companies can offer better deliverables at a lower price.  If gaining scale is one of the service designers goals, process design can produce more scalable services since an element of scalability is consistency which can be enhanced with better process design.  Process design is also an easier core capability to develop than many others because it can be contained in a small group of people that are leveraged across an entire organization.  It is the service business equivalent of an R&D function whose output is leveraged by manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution.

It is also the building of such a capability that can be promoted to change a company’s brand image.  Many equipment manufacturers provide services in conjunction with equipment sales.  However, they are still viewed by their clients, employees and, most importantly, customers as equipment makers.   If the vision is to move from being an equipment maker, with all its inherent cycles, to a service provider that has greater stability and growth, expertise is designing and executing services is a key roadmap.

a short .ppt on service innovation ….

In a previous post, I wrote how service innovation is different from service excellence.  The latter requires knowledge of your processes while the former requires you to know your client’s and/or competitor’s processes.  I also wrote how even though you must have service excellence to establish the credibility to be given the opportunity to provide new services, expertise in delivery isn’t a guarantee to be able to define and design solutions that ensure better outcomes.  This article adds that one of the two basis on which you can differentiate yourself as a service provider is to design better solutions.

If you’d like to speak more about this, feel free to contact me.

Service organizations must grow by offering new solutions to customer needs.  The trust needed for a consumer of services to buy a new offering is obviously highly dependent on their perception of the service quality they are experiencing on current services.  If the customer has issues with service delivery on existing services, it is no surprise there will be a lack of confidence in buying new services.  However, service delivery excellence, while critical to successfully expanding new services, is a different capability from service innovation.

Successful service innovation depends on (i) defining unmet VOC for which the customer has not contracted as they currently are doing it themselves or have other vendors doing it and (ii) the ability to design better processes as measured by the customer than the customer or an existing third party provider can design.  Service delivery is about executing against customer expectations on existing contracts and internal processes.    Improving service delivery is about understanding the service provider’s processes.  Succeeding with new services about understanding the customer’s or a third parties processes.

a short overview of our service innovation approach ….

Never assume excellent service delivery ensures the ability to define, design and deliver new services.  In the end, the muscle tissue a service organization builds by improving service delivery will improve perception for new services but not necessarily the ability to define, design and deliver new services or to innovate. Service innovation must be addressed separately from Service delivery.  The upside of building service innovation ability is that if the service provider succeeds it will be able to extend beyond providing existing services.

If you’d like to speak more about this, feel free to contact me.

Warehouses and distribution centers are more and more being thought of as very strategic aspects of the supply chain and can be a gold mine for process improvement efforts.  Think about it, the warehouse directly shapes the experience customers have with your company.  Are products they need in stock? Are they getting what they ordered, when and where they need it? Does their product arrive undamaged, with an accurate invoice and documentation?  The bottom line is that your warehouses and DCs are definitely on the critical path to your customer.

What about other business-centric issues?  Production losses, inefficient pick and pack methods, inefficient use of labor, poor warehouse layout, etc all drain time, resources, and money. Lean, and a well-executed CI program in general, can help you get control of ALL of these things to streamline the entire order fulfillment process, from order receipt to the time of shipping. You can reduce cost, reduce order cycle time, and optimize labor …. And that is a WIN no matter how you look at it.  We’ve worked with a number of warehousing and distribution operations and have seen first-hand the impact that Lean and CI can have.

this short Executive Brief that discusses the importance of CI for companies whose business success is a clear function of effective and efficient warehouse and distribution operations – namely 3PLs.  Relevant reading even if you’re not a 3PL, but have warehousing and distribution operations.

I would argue that it’s difficult to justify NOT using Lean or other basic process improvement approaches in warehousing and distribution operations, as long as you keep it pragmatic and practical:

• Leverage the personnel and talent you likely already have working in its supply chain operations. No “super skills” should be required.
• Do it in a way that your people can coordinate and manage with their “day job” responsibilities. Don’t set up recipe for failure by making it too burdensome
• Make sure eliminating waste and inefficiency is viewed as a major positive, a win-win across the board, not something people fear is going to cost them their job.

Contact me if you’d like to discuss how Lean and continuous improvement might be applied in your warehouses and distribution operations.