Currently, the control paradigm suffers from inflexibility and loose management of resources

 

 

The people who know best in a given firm--who really have to know best--are those who are responsible for performance. Their work should not be based on the lowest common denominator. Programs written by means of the traditional IT model are based on the broadest of assumptions: Writing software for only the largest markets; providing the most common system features; and allowing for the most prevalent system preferences. Surely, there are advantages to using products that have been 'fleshed out' by an organization that is similar a company in question, but most organizations pride themselves in doing business in unique ways. They have superior products, unique service capabilities, or other differences in their way of doing business. They thrive not on the lowest common denominators, but based on unique, highly stylized differences with their competition.

 

There is unclassified access to too much information, and no coherent means of applying proven statistical and operational techniques

 

How, then, do institutional agents perform at their maximum--following unique (even proprietary) operating patterns--through a system designed by outsiders for mass consumption using tools that are very difficult to modify? In the past, the answer was easy--to go 'off system'. By means of personal contact, Post-It Notes, memos--and more recently, e-mail, people have learned to communicate directly to override system limitations.

 

Currently--in the world of global networked business operations--it is increasingly more problematic to attempt to go 'off system'. Of course, enterprising software developers have created electronic Post-It Notes and other such tools. They are nice, but they don't contribute much to the idea of organizing complex tasks.

 

What heed is given in such an environment to Deming's admonition that managers and workers alike should spend their time gaining Profound Knowledge of their business with the idea that processes should be monitored and modified in any and all ways as a means of achieving process management perfection. How can this be accomplished in an environment in which system behavior is hidden in an endless hierarchy of programs created in the most complex of programming environments by individuals who have no personal acquaintance with the company in question? In the Shewhart/Deming paradigm, once an out-of-control source of variation in a process is found, it is eradicated immediately regardless of the source. How can this occur if the cause cannot be found and changed immediately?

 

In symphonic music, whatever doesn't meet the test of sound is rejected out of hand--regardless of how good it looks, what went into its creation, or how much it cost. In an economic institution, whatever doesn't help to define and support the organization's mission--that doesn't help to clarify and reduce variation in underlying processes--should be replaced with something that does.

 

General management, Profound Knowledge, and Dual Control

 

 

To gain control--Dual Control--general managers do need to give up some things. Deming's work is full of suggestions and mandates in this regard. The Shewhart/Deming model, of course, deals with controlling variation in processes--with great benefits to be received by the sponsoring organization overall. Much as general management tasks have traditionally taken place 'off system' in the era of computers, managing Shewhart/Deming techniques has traditionally been supported by hand calculations and manual data sampling from a variety of sources--and manual measurements.

 

Integrating such functionality into an enterprise's primary systems seems a natural evolutionary step--but it is sure to be difficult. For one thing, the popular enterprise systems of today are mercilessly complex and inflexible in the ways that they handle process logic. Simply finding desired data can be a Herculean task--let alone studying and transforming it on an ongoing basis.

 

General managers not only must exert leadership--not only in terms of commitment to the Shewhart/Deming principles and techniques, but in obtaining and integrating adequate tools to support Dual Control. The challenge surely requires a step-by-step process of integrating current processes with processes defined within a proven common language environment.

 

General management commitment to the concept of a common environment for defining and expressing complex logic is essential to the successful implementation of Dual Control. Perfect performance on the symphony stage is possible because of the efforts of leaders within the musical community to support commonality in language and in execution. Their model has lasted for almost two centuries without significant modification. With maturity arriving to the worlds of computing and global networking, a similar level of success can now be achieved in business.

 

Accounting managers, Profound Knowledge, and Dual Control

 

In spite of accounting's success over the years, there have been a number of criticisms of the accounting model for use in modern integrated systems. The following eight purported weaknesses are representative of these issues:

 

  1)   Stored data has limited characteristics about transactions.  

  2)   Data classification schemes are not always appropriate or supportive.  

  3)   Aggregation level of stored data is too high.  

  4)   Useful integration of financial and non-financial data across the organization is difficult, if not impossible.  

  5)   Recording, maintaining, and reporting processes seriously limit the system's ability to provide timely support for decision makers.  

  6)   Traditional processing methods are not well adapted to changing business requirements.  

  7)   Implementing and maintaining internal controls are costly, ineffective, and not performed in a timely manner.  

  8)   Antiquated processing and storage methods are costly to maintain and operate.  

 

Thus, all is not rosy in the accounting world--at least from the perspective of enterprise integration. The model that has worked over the centuries may be in need of some revisions. It has been observed that of the eight alleged weaknesses listed, the first four deal with the nature and organization of data within the system and the remainder relate to the way that accounting data are processed and are somewhat dependent on the way data is stored. If this is true, it is probably not necessary to modify the basic structure of the accounting model from the perspective of the underlying processes, but a revision in the underlying means of storing and managing accounting data to correspond with other enterprise needs may be in order.

 

To integrate the orchestra, the string players gave up nothing--other than possibly the acknowledgement that the tone and facility of their family of instruments were not enough. They needed to agree to let the others in. With respect to the principal corporate 'keepers of the gate--the accountants--in order to support full enterprise integration and Dual Control, they need to accede to more open data structures and be more functionally integrated.

 

Marketing and sales managers, Profound Knowledge, and Dual Control

 

Individuals in marketing and sales are becoming more technically competent with the rising tide of the general populace. By the same token, many systems have been developed to support the sales process--both on an enterprise level and for individual personal computers.

 

Marketing and sales managers can be considered the equivalent to woodwind players in the symphony orchestra--they have everything to gain and nothing to lose in the process of integration. The main task for individuals in such capacities is to master the tools and apply themselves to the application of Deming's techniques--which extend information and process management not only to suppliers but also to distributors, channel partners, and customers.

 

Manufacturing and production managers, Profound Knowledge, and Dual Control

 

 

Manufacturing and production systems that are loosely coupled with accounting computer systems are very common. By the same token, the new generation of enterprise systems is generally structured after the old accounting model--being based on separate journals, ledgers, and separate data stores. This means that manufacturing and accounting data is typically stored in different locations--only combined in the applications in question when deemed important by outside programmers. Thus, significant work is necessary in order to gain the kind of integration needed to support Dual Control.

 

Manufacturing and production managers--often engineers and others with high degrees of technical competence--generally have systems to support their work that are separate from those of the accountants. Such systems can come from entirely different hardware and software environments--with very different languages, interfaces, and requirements.

 

In the development of the symphony orchestra in the early 1800s, brass players were asked to give up a lot in order to integrate with the rest of the orchestra members. In essence, they were required to play on instruments whose tone and intonation were compromised to a significant degree in order to be able to support the harmonic and melodic capabilities of the other instruments. Thus, much was asked of brass instrumentalists in order for them to fully integrate with the other musicians--and full acceptance of the ramifications required several generations of players--almost a hundred years.

 

The plight of manufacturing and production managers in the current situation is not unlike that of the brass players in the orchestra. They tend to have systems that work. The engineers and managers in question have seen to that. To extend themselves into an integrated system--involving interfaces and probably some rewrites--may be a distasteful task.

 

On the other hand, by transferring logic to an environment in which it can be organized and managed by authorized parties, operations managers can assist in solving the crossover problems that exist between accounting, sales, operations, etc. Given that in most organizations the 'buck stops' with manufacturing and production management, this could help to reduce tension and bring blood pressure down when superior performance. With a common language for defining and expressing complex logic, the organization can operate like a well-oiled machine--something every mechanical person can take joy in.

 

Shewhart and Deming were industrial statisticians who taught in a language and mode that is very familiar to engineers and production managers. Process manager technology was also developed by industrial engineers to solve production management problems. Thus, if production people are to make compromises in order to integrate fully with the others, in a way they are 'coming home' by means of Deming and process manager technology.

 

Information technologists, Profound Knowledge, and Dual Control

 

 

Information technologists have incredible challenges in the current world of ubiquitous networks and consistent updates and changes. Keeping abreast of computer environment issues and infrastructure developments is a consuming task. In the symphony orchestra model, there is an equivalent to the function served by information technologists in an institutional environment--that of music copyists and librarians. Individuals serving in these capacities are often orchestra members.

 

Managing music copy is the critical task of assuring that conductors and performers have the music they need when they need it. It involves considerable understanding of the music and of the orchestra overall. In many cases, music must be marked up and prepared for rehearsal and performance. If the masterpiece in question has emerged fresh from the creative mind of the composer, transcription of individual parts is necessary--a task that is largely assisted in the current day by technical copyists using computers and laser printers.

 

In short, music librarians and copyists carry out tasks critical to the overall success of the organization. On the other hand, they do not have the authority, responsibility, or calling to interject their opinion(s) on the conductor's interpretation or the performers' rendition of the music--unless they are conductors or performers themselves.

 

There is no reason to persist in positioning information technologists the 'lords of logic' in a modern institutional environment--except as they are functioning in the capacity of line managers, workers, or equal participants in the process of defining and improving performance of the organization as a whole. Such individuals would need to have an intimate knowledge of the elements of the process definition language held in common by all workers. By the same token information technologies would need to have the background and skill--and knowledge of companion enterprise applications--to link logical components in the common environment to these applications.

 

To the degree that such interface issues are solved and enterprise logic is increasingly committed to the common environment, information technologists are well-positioned to join other institutional agents--managers and workers--in gaining the Profound Knowledge spoken of by Deming.