Photo Credit: Floating Window by Richard Chicoine. iCopyright 200811. 11. What does it take to put ourselves in combat boots for a few extra moments?
The men and women of the Canadian Forces have demonstrated time and again that they will rise to any challenge. Let your Canadian Forces members know you appreciate their service by sending a message using this monitored message board.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Community/Messageboard/index_e.asp
Canada Post will continue program of free delivery to deployed troops. Christmas Mailing Guidelines: Mail intended for Christmas delivery to Canadian Forces personnel serving overseas and using the Belleville address must arrive at Belleville by 24 November 2008.
PO BOX 5210 STN FORCES BELLEVILLE ON K8N 5W6
Christmas Shopping? Support Our Troops Merchandise here:
https://www3.cfpsa.com/wyn2/en/sot/shoplist.aspx
We’re On Our Way to BOMBARDIER Next - November 20
An Excerpt from
Strategy 6: Build A Culture of Excellence
By Dr. Brad McRae, “The Seven Strategies of Master Leaders”
Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter is one of the most respected experts on leadership and organizations. In her book, Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End, she states, “getting good habits in place takes a lot longer than eliminating bad practices; it takes the long march of culture change in which many individuals change their behavior in order to head in the same direction.”
Just as the Michelin Manufacturing Way has contributed to Michelin being a world class tire manufacturing company, the Bombardier Manufacturing System has contributed to Bombardier being a world class recreational vehicle, train and plane manufacturing organization.
Bombardier Manufacturing System
Like the Michelin Manufacturing Way, the Bombardier Manufacturing System is not just a way to doing things; it is a way of thinking that has become part of Bombardier’s culture.
BMS is based on Kaizen or continuous quality improvement, total quality management, and just-in-time-delivery. At Bombardier, these things are not fads ─ they are a fact of everyday life. Another part of the BMS is that different departments don’t engage in tribal warfare because they are jointly accountable for the success of their product lines. An example of tribal warfare is the sales department calling the credit department ─ “the non sales department”. However, if the credit department ceased to exist ─ the company would cease to exist because there would not be a department to process and collect outstanding bills. Without proper funding, sales would have nothing to sell.
Therefore, when Bombardier decided to develop a new product ─ like the C Series jetliner ─ they made sure that design, manufacturing, marketing and procurement work closely together from the initial starting phases of design to ensure that Bombardier can produce the right plane at the right cost and at the right time.
One of the best practices that Bombardier uses is Six Sigma. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola in 1986. The goal of Six Sigma is to improve both customer satisfaction and profitability by using advanced measuring and statistical analyses to reduce and eliminate defects. Every aspect of the product cycle from design, procurement, manufacturing costs, product quality, defect rates and scheduling are measured and benchmarked. Six Sigma stands for six standard deviations from the mean. Therefore reducing defects by six standard deviations mean 3.4 or fewer defective parts per million. As of 2006, it is estimated, that since its inception, Six Sigma has saved Motorola $17 billion.
[Six Sigma’s] ultimate performance target is virtually defect-free processes and products… The Six Sigma methodology, consisting of the steps “Define - Measure - Analyze - Improve - Control,” is the roadmap to achieving this goal. Within this improvement framework, it is the responsibility of the improvement team to identify the process, the definition of defect, and the corresponding measurements.Using Six Sigma also resulted in large savings at Bombardier.
Six Sigma shaved $242 million off costs in fiscal 2001. One example of the successful application of Six Sigma techniques involved the paint shop in the aerospace group. After five years of trying to solve a problem with paint peeling off freshly minted regional jets, a Six Sigma team was asked to take a look. It was a knotty conundrum because there were at least 10 possible causes, all interacting with each other. Within five months, however, the group discovered that the solution laid in changing the thickness of the undercoat.
How They Do It at Bombardier:
Commitment Management
McClelland’s research on the psychology of high achievers demonstrated that high achievers :
Want more,
Expect more,
Do more, and
Get more.
An example of true commitment is Bombardier’s July 2008 decision to produce the new C Series regional jet. At the time this decision was made, almost all of the world’s airlines were losing massive amounts of money because the price of jet fuel doubled. On the surface this would seem to be the worst time to invest in building a new multi-million dollar plane. Bombardier, on the contrary, thought it was the best time because they would build the new C Series with lighter composite materials and with a newly designed more fuel efficient jet engine that will lower fuel consumption by 20%.
Not only is this a very difficult time for the airlines, there is intense competition from Bombardier’s fierce rival Embraer of Brazil, and the Chinese and Japanese also have their eyes on this market as well. In fact, this could be a make or break the company decision according to Bombardier’s president, Pierre Beaudoin.
And a BIG PS Announcement:
Mark January 15 on your calendar for Dr. Brad's session with the current class AND an alumni organized public event in the evening. An Executive level breakfast presentation is already almost sold out for the morning of January 16. All sessions are at the Airlane Travelodge.
Watch your email for more info and the poster. We need your help in finding sponsors and filling the Airlane Travelodge for these events.
Most of all, since Brad has promised customized sessions - no duplication of stories - I encourage each of you to attend. What about purchasing a table of 8 for your CAP team, and inviting leaders from the host organization to join you at your table? Bring your spouse to meet your LTB colleagues... heck, bring your mom!
1. Brad's Class Presentation: The 7 Strategies of Master Leaders - Lifelong Learning free for our class on January 15.
2. Evening Public/Alumni: "Living Your Legacy". $ 50.00 with dinner. Register with Kari asap.
3. Executive Breakfast: "The Three Circles: Where leadership, negotiation and presentation skills intersect". $ 100.00 with breakfast. Maximum 25. Register with Kari asap.
This week...
Let us pray for peace....take a moment on Remembrance Day to write our troops...support one another in our leadership learning...
Maggie
