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 Dr.
Richard J. Schonberger and his WCP Assessment
Matrix and International Benchmarking Materials
World
Executive Digest (Hong Kong) selected Dr. Richard
J. Schonberger as a "significant pathfinder…thinkers
and practitioners whose ideas continue to shape
management today."
Also included with Dr. Schonberger were Dr. Deming,
Dr. Juran, IBM founder Thomas Watson, former GM CEO
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. and quality expert Philip Crosby.
A
Quality Digest cover story included Schonberger as
one of "The New Gurus - The Next Leaders
of the Quality Revolution." Schonberger
was joined by Tom Peters, H. James Harrington,
Stephen
Covey, Eliyahu Goldratt, Ken Blanchard and
other leading edge thinkers.
For
the past 18 years, Schonberger has been on the forefront
of world-class excellence,
lean
manufacturing and continual process improvement.
While other "gurus" have
focused on part of the equation, Schonberger's
unique contribution is pulling it all together
- from strategy
to front line operations, across all the
business functions and from deep in the supplier
base
to the final customer.
This integrated treatment is one reason why his first
two books became two of the top three selling manufacturing
books of all time (now in their 20th and 25th printings
respectively). And, why his casebook is thought to
be the best-selling business casebook of all time.
An
engineer, analyst, and consultant early in his career,
he has published over 100 articles and papers
in such publications as The Harvard
Business Review, Quality Progress, The
Wall Street Journal,
Journal of Cost Management, Datamation, Personnel
Journal, and National Productivity Review.
The following material has been excerpted from WCP
Newsletter,
published by Richard J. Schonberger for
WCP global Partners:
QUESTION
- Why
participate in the World Class by Principles (WCP)
International Benchmarking-since
there are other well publicized awards
and recognition?
RESPONSES
- "Quiet benchmarking": The WCP is "quiet"-no
public exposure (company scores kept
confidential), therefore no need (or cost) for
external auditors, $4,000-$5,000 application fees,
etc.
The purpose
is to truly develop and sustain world-class
rates of improvement, not to win an award.
- High
validity: Managers doing the self-scoring have no
incentive to inflate scores-since there is no
public award, recognition, or release
of scores, except in the aggregate (or by special
permission).
- Quick:
A small cross-functional management team usually
can complete their self-scoring on the 16
principles in about 45 minutes
(vs. many hours of high-level people's time for most
other assessment
tools); the give-and-take (arguing)
over the scores is in itself valuable.
- Elite
sample: The manufacturers submitting scores to the
WCP
data base are an
elite group; many
have received recognition such
as a Baldrige Award,
Shingo Prize, or other national
or state quality prize.
Though any company may join
the benchmarking, the research team
seeks out the best,
so that composite
benchmarking scores reflect
best practices of companies with forward
vision. For
these "sought out" elite
companies, about 50 percent
have accepted our invitation
to participate
in the
WCP; this
compares with only
11 percent acceptances for
one of the well-known publicly
sponsored
benchmark
assessments.
- Enabler:
The breadth and depth of the WCP criteria define
the pathways to excellence that are precursors
to winning prestigious public awards.
- Total
business benchmarking: The 16 principles in the WCP
stretch from stem to stern, including most
of what organizations do
(e.g., from focused organization to continuous process
improvement to promoting and
marketing every improvement).
- International:
While most benchmarking and public recognition are
national or state, the WCP Benchmarking
is international, with
research partners headquartered in 14 countries.
- Total
work force: The WCP criteria are crafted so as to
give high emphasis to contributions of every
employee; other benchmarking
and awards that focus heavily on what leaders should
do carry the risk
that gains will be
lost if a few leaders depart for greener pastures.
- "Pure-play" process
management: The WCP criteria track how to do it-in
highly specific terms-unlike some other assessment
tools that
contaminate the how with ultimate
financial success; the
pure-play approach embodied
in the WCP follows the premise
that if you do the
right things, and
stay with them, the bottom line
will take care of itself.
- Tough:
The WCP criteria are extremely tough, much more so
thanhe Baldrige and other Baldrige-caliber
awards; even
the top-scoring companies are scoring themselves
2's
and 3's (out of a possible 5 points)
on a few of the
16 principles-which reveal their blind spots.
- Next
century: The problem for manufacturers that have
enjoyed success is complacency. Our research
shows that companies
receiving awards tend to let down (to some extent,
the award contributes to the
let-down); the
WCM humbles even the best, and its top score-5 points-defines
not what the best are
achieving today
but what they must achieve to survive and thrive
in the much elevated global competitive
arena of the
21st Century.
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