Stable Systems in Business and Production Part 2
Published July 21, 2009 | 
Business Ideas in a Box
These ideas come from a great man by the name of Dr. Demming 1900-1993. I highly recommend reading a few books about Dr. Demming or search his works.
We have seen in this previous article, Stable Systems in Business and Production Part 1 , is that the funnel is a stable system. The funnel gives us a foundation to work from when looking at the business world around us. The funnel experiment gives us four rules to work from as we make adjustments in the work place.
Rule 1: is that a stable system held constant has some form of variation. The variation can be small or large with desired outcome. There is always variation present.
Rule 2: is that if we slightly adjust the system, like the funnel, we increase our variation when trying to decrease the variation. Our actions are counter to our desired outcome.
Rule 3: is that if we correct in the opposite direction by equal distance of the error the variation will spread and diminish the stability of the system — failing system.
Rule 4: is that if we move the funnel in the same direction by the distance of error from center we again have tampered so much that the system fails.
The question: What causes the variation in a work place?
Lets look at this in a business setting. The Example, management can not help but look over the shoulder’s of the workers, letting them know of any perceived mistakes, and not allowing the mind space to ” Create and Work”. Lets imagine a work setting where the workers are smarter than the over looker and more qualified to do the work than the manager. The worker is a stable system that can create a desired output with some form of variation. When the manager makes correction over the shoulder of the worker, well, why would that worker want to do careful job? I have never enjoyed someone correcting my work on a constant level. It removes my desire to make a product when it will only change within moments.
The worker soon doesn’t want to do so well. Why would you want to do well when you are constantly be made to change — by a person that is less qualified and unable to do the same work. Yes the manager is needed to help communicate to staff, deal with business choices, but a constant adjustment to the production of workers can be harmful to the business and cost thousands of dollars.
Removing creativity by using negativity spoils the liberal thoughts we all have that allow us flexibility in our choices. Instead we increase our conservative thoughts when distracted, poorer choices are made, and past mistakes may happen time and time again. This can lead to Group Think, diverted attention, and reduced quality of work.
idea
Each individual is a marble and the company is our total trials. Not all marbles will come to rest in the middle, actually, very few marbles come to rest in the center. The perfect marble doesn’t always mean perfection. What we need to do is find our stable system, determine if we have reached stability, thus resulting in controlled deviation.
How can we reach the exactness of the center and perfection?
How do we know we have reached a stable system?
Stable Systems in Business and Production Part 1
Published July 14, 2009 | What is stability in any system?
Would you agree that every system that we use has a slight variation? Does this mean that any system is perfect or good enough. To capture a clear picture of a perfect system we need a system that is accurate and considered to have truth. We must first look at the funnel and how this applies all forms of business.
Our experiment will include a blank piece of paper, a funnel held at X-distance, a funnel opening of Y-diameter, and a ball of Z-size. Lets say that X= 6 inches, Y= .25, and Z=.15. Now what we want to do is test the stability of the experiment. What we will do is drop the ball into the funnel and then mark where the ball comes to rest. The first ball enters the funnel, hits the paper, and comes to a rest at 1.5-inches from the center. We continue to repeat the test and the ball comes to rest at a range of .5 inch to a full 7-inches. What we get after a hundred trials is a concentrated dot that has a diameter of approximately 7-inches.
Lets try to improve the system by moving the funnel to see if we can better place the ball near the center. Can you blame us for trying?
Lets say that after the first trial we simply move the funnel 1.5-inches to the exact spot the ball came to a rest. We run the trial again and the ball rolls another 2 inches in the same direction. Again we repeat the experiment by moving the funnel over the next resting spot. By trying to predict the system and constantly adjusting we have spread the diameter of the resting place. Our exactness decreases and our system no longer is functioning properly.
Statistically speaking we have a stable system, with no objective influences, and no tampering other than simply adjusting the system. How is this funnel related to business. Simple. All businesses from manufacturing to sales use a set of funnels to produce an output of variation.
What systems due you see around you that act like this?
Think about a gun. A bullet travels through the air and may not hit the exact target due to variation in the shape of the bullets made, the amount of gun powder, or the wind. We would logically try to move the gun to improve the accuracy. This may be hard to swallow, but we will only make the accuracy worse if the system is stable.
If you have never 
heard of this and are seeing this for the first time, it must be a bit of a shock to realize that some of our best efforts are actually making things worse. Take a moment to think back. Maybe to some of your first jobs. Everything runs smoothly until management tries to adjust for “big problems” by over adjusting and making the problem continue. What this brings up is Tampering. There is a big difference from adjusting for improvement, adjusting for no improvement, and tampering. Tampering is the motion of worsening, even ruining, a system.
The secret is small adjustments to business systems. The one thing to remember is that all systems have variation — some may be small and some maybe be large — all systems have variation.
Can you remember a time the boss came in and started yelling about how things were messed up, but everything from what you could tell was due to variation and chance, and really wasn’t that big of a deal? Maybe they keep changing the incentive program. Perhaps no adjustments are made at work until they are large.