improving a service firm’s “yield”
When people ask me why I believe so firmly in having a defined process for service-oriented firms like interactive agencies, I am now going to point them towards the example of the manufacturing sector. In his fascinating article on the defect issues surrounding the Microsoft Xbox 360, Dean Takahashi tells us:
“Console launches are always hurried affairs. Yields — the percentage of working products in a given batch of total products produced — generally start low. As the manufacturers conduct statistical analysis and tight controls on every step in assembly, they learn how to drive the yields up.”
If you don’t have a process in place that you’re going to follow, you can never perform any meaningful analysis, and you can never exert any controls, tight or otherwise. A certain percentage of failure is acceptable - but over time that percentage of failure should go down, and can go down if you are committed to documenting, studying and improving upon your business process.
Brilliant!
