You can't control what you don't understand

Rick Larrick, retired mill manager from Georgia-Pacific Corp., offers his views on the importance of understanding business processes in the paper industry for a successful business management. Larrick suggests that mill managers should adopt lean manufacturing techniques such as the Toyota Production System value stream mapping, which will allow them to look for waste in the manufacturing process in the form of in-process inventory, time losses, and excess handling. They can understand the processes by interviewing their direct reports to find out their activities, and also by giving quality time to each. Larrick also wants the managers to define the fundamental process for which they are responsible, engage the employees to accurately plan their processes in detail, and thereby improve process, engaging the employees in that improvement.

Duke Scholars

Author Richard P. Larrick Fuqua School of Business