Don’t Throw It Away Because It Is Old!ByRaymond D. Matkowsky
As consultants we always run into clients that want/need something new. As the saying goes: “Out with the old; In with the new.” But, think about it for a moment. One of the greatest inventions of mankind is the wheel. The “old” wheel. The wheel is incorporated into every subsequent mechanical invention in one form or another.
The wheel was probably first invented to help move things. Yet, it was not perfect. Sometimes we would start things moving and then couldn’t stop it. This did not cause people to throw the concept away as being no good. If they did, what would the world be like now? The wheel was tweaked—a brake was added.
Many times a manager will not want a system tweaked. He will want something new otherwise he feels that he is not getting his money’s worth. That is absolutely the wrong way to look at it. A better way is to measure the return on investment. If it is more than what you paid for the advice, then you got your money’s worth.
Very frequently projects fail
How often do new product ideas fail? Quite often! Failure is the rule and success is the exception. About a dozen years ago, Qualpro®, a Knoxville, Tennessee USA consulting group conducted a study encompassing thousands of project ideas. The results indicated that a full 75% of ideas did not succeed or made things worse.
Even if a project succeeds during the initial trial, it is no guarantee that it will succeed in the long run. The assumption is that you will probably not experience all possibilities until at least one year has elapsed. Very few companies have the ability to foresee and experience all of the situations possible that might arise during a product cycle while in testing.
Should problems arise, it is much easier and less costly to tweak something back temporarily than developing a whole new correction for a new system.
Keep fixes simple
Many problem fixes are simple. However, for some reason humans have a tendency to “over engineer” a fix. I once had a client that I have used as an example previously. This client believed they needed a whole new manufacturing process in order to meet their competitor’s claim. They were running their present process for several years without problems. It turned out that all my client needed to do was to tweak the curing temperature by a few degrees. This made the catalyst much more efficient. Their product’s properties now exceeded that of their competitor. They did not need to develop something new as they first thought.
Stay relevant, but don’t take your eye off of what you do well
A company has to always develop something new in order to stay relevant. But don’t take your eye off the “tried and true.” Developing a new system is time consuming, costly, and only has a 25% chance of succeeding. Make sure you apportion your efforts were they will count the most.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions drop me a line at rdm@datastats.com.
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