The Client's Problem

ISO was a newly set up division that presented Barrows with a problem companies rarely complain of: its business was growing faster them expected. However, despite new production planning and control systems, it was falling behind in filling orders, and there was a danger of missing out on growth opportunities.

Barrows suspected that ISO's user groups did not understand the new systems, and knew its support groups were not operating anywhere near full productivity Thus, Barrows wanted the consultant to tell it how to bring the production capability up to full efficiency, and at the same time improve the productivity of the support groups.

Since the problem is low efficiency and productivity on the factory floor, the cause must lie in the activities and processes carried out on the factory floor. The first diagnostic framework called for would therefore seem to be a general picture of these activities and processes. The consultant did intend to gather data on them, but as part of a general data gathering activity rather than in a formal way. He said in the proposal that he would gather and analyze the following data:

- Growth projections

- Management objectives for the division

- Business information and management needs

- Current systems and procedures

- Areas of inefficiency causes of low productivity

- Causes of poor control

- Measures of inventory accuracy, record of book-to-inventory differences

- Present resources, how used

If the consultant follows the standard pattern for data gathering by going out and interviewing people in the Barrows organization about each of these areas, he is likely to come back with huge amoms of data that he will have to organize, synthesize, and analyze. Not only will he be unable to take in and assimilate all of the information that is made available to him, he will have no easy and objective means of telling which bits are relevant and which not.

If, on the other hand, the consultant begins by gathering only the data necessary to develop a diagnostic framework that shows the structure and interactions of the present operations, he will be able to look at it knowledgeably and make some pretty good guesses (hypotheses) about the probable causes of the problem. He will then be able to direct his data gathering efforts to accumulate only the information that will enable him to prove or disprove his guesses.