The APQC Frameworks Study that concluded last Spring looked at a remarkable story of a new, $6B steel mill located near Mobile, AL. ThyssenKrupp invested so much because they believed in US manufacturing, even during tough times, and were determined to make their operation the most efficient and resilient of its kind. Successfully delivering a commodity process like rolled, galvanize steel means finding new ways to differentiate and earn business. They’re doing very well and attracting the best customers based on achieving five key ISO standards in a remarkably short period of eleven months. Companies like Lexus and BMW buy from ThyssenKrupp because they are guaranteed that their suppliers are delivering at their own high level of quality.
ISO
Commodity is a misleading term. Price only indicates the initial cost of steel. As a steel buyers, ThyssenKrupp’s customers need to be assured that the product will arrive as expected, at the quality level promised, without undue environmental or safety impact, and a host of other measures. This can only be done when the supplier has proven to independent auditors that they meet or beat the metrics that support these measures. Many companies out there create paper trails just for audit purposes, but the overhead of maintaining this is schizophrenic and a serious risk to the business. ThyssenKrupp has only one system to keep track of business process and compliance because they are one and the same for them.
Stainless steel sister
While ThyssenKrupp Steel USA went about their business, their sister company, ThyssenKrupp Stainless started out in more typical fashion using Visio and other tools to document and collaborate around processes, and with typical results. It was only after they were on this path for a while that they decided to make the switch to a true business process management system. The sponsors of this concept needed to help the organization understand why they should change gears and adopt a way of doing business that was completely new and would involve everyone from the executives to the folks in hardhats on the line. “How do you get an organization to change when they are on a different path?” is the most common question I get at conferences and from readers. ThyssenKrupp Stainless did exactly that and with great results.
PEX Orlando
ThyssenKrupp Stainless will be the Keynote Speaker at Process Excellence Week 2012 in Orlando, FL next week. I look forward to hearing from Brent Wilson, the ThyssenKrupp Director of Production Planning and Control as he relates their journey to making process cultural. I’ve had a preview, and it is a very good story.
If you’d like to know more about how ThyssenKrupp Steel USA achieved their goals through excellent business process management, check out the link to the BPTrends article, below:





There is another way to fly – one we are all much more familiar with. It’s known as the commercial airlines. When you step on board you’ve chosen the opposite of heroics – to fly with a pilot who has mastered the competencies of flying. How do they do this? By putting each pilot through simulations of conditions they will experience on the job so the pilots master the knowledge and skills to do their jobs before they are allowed to step into a cockpit. They do refresher training to make sure that skills stay sharp…even the ones used infrequently.
The emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 provides a vivid example of this. Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, his aircraft engines disabled by a flock of geese, successfully landed his Airbus 320 in the Hudson. He became an instant national hero. Some called it a
For example, Chevron is already doing this when capturing processes in their refineries. When they map their business processes through organized workshops, they make sure to have a representative from Training who determines the competencies required to perform the processes. Because the business process platform they use is a centralized, role-based database of process, they simply create reports for each role involved that demonstrates required competencies. The next step for HR is simply to ensure that people who perform these roles have access to the information necessary and a plan to demonstrate mastery of those competencies. They use Storyboards generated from their ‘live’ database that allow processes to be communicated end-to-end (process based) or by contributor (role-based). These Storyboards are tracked when communicated and a built-in acknowledgement allows tracking of their completion.
We are currently involved in a company-wide mastery program with an enterprise software company that is implementing the same type of demonstrated competencies across their organization. In the process, one of the implementation specialists talked about the relief he felt from seeing the fruit from this effort. He told a story about his last employer, a well known enterprise vendor–new consultants regularly ended up having to ask clients about the features and functions of their own company’s software. Embarrassing. He related how extremely stressful it felt to be continually in a situation where he was expected to be a hero.



From my own experience in working with them for the past couple of years, Northrop Grumman has a remarkable level of maturity when it comes to frameworks and process through their adaptation of an APQC-like hierarchy that they call, simply, the Process Architecture. It allows this very large enterprise (over 130,000 employees) to find the common ground for their global supply chain, for example, while enabling fast-moving, innovative work such as the 



Many posts on this blog discuss the value that



