First Be Effective, Then Efficient

At Pal’s, we carefully design our products and services and continually analyze our delivery processes.  We have created a business model in which our bright and capable leaders and managers are on the front line directly interacting with customers and team members, driving results and being personally rewarded.

These and other measures ensure that our operations meet customer expectations each and every time a customer is served.   Standardization is a critical factor in achieving this.

To make process assessment quick and easy to perform and easy to teach, we have identified and used as many visually based quality standards as possible.  We encourage and expect all team members to self-manage and take responsibility for the overall performance of their positions.  As Pal’s, it is each and every team members responsibility to a pass to the next position or customer only products that fully meet 100% of the internal and customer requirements – NO EXCEPTIONS.  Pal’s training, process design and management systems combine to enable each team member to carry out this job responsibility and, therefore be in a state of self-control.  Thus each individual, without asking or involving a manager, can throw out a product or even shut down or slow down a process, assess and determine cause, and make adjustments to get the output to standard.

We constantly asses our processes, beliefs and results, looking for areas to improve.  When we find a high-value target for improvement, we use our robust SimpleExcellence® Problem Solving Process to reach and implement solutions and then share the learning company-wide.

Thom Crosby – taken from Restaurateur’s Insight Into Performance Excellence

When plant manager, Scott Crawford, sped into the American Greetings (AG)  warehouse in a Bristol Motor Speedway pace car, the crowd of associates assembled there strongly suspected that the workday would not be business as usual, and they were right. This event marked the day that employees of the largest printing and converting facility for gift wrap in the world would declare a race to beat their own records, that of their competitors, and, in the process, win the battle against outsourcing. As he stood in the amazed crowd of over 700 associates, Jon Reynolds, traffic manager in the material movement department, observed that in his 14 years at the plant he had never attended a gathering of the entire workforce and he knew that this was also a first for people who had been employed there much longer. “I think that our plant had never tried to work on a common goal,” agreed Scott Felts, production department manager, “This brought everybody together.” The day, April 16, 2007, marked the grand kickoff to the Greeneville 200, a 200 day  Racing Event that was designed with  a lot of sweat equity and brainpower from a devoted steering team . . . yet it was only the beginning. 

“It’s always Christmas here,” says Reynolds, describing the AG plant in Greeneville, Tennessee. In fact, hourly associates work from seven to nine months out of the year in this seasonal plant, printing, converting, and packaging millions of rolls of Christmas wrapping paper annually! So how did the manufacturers of a product that makes gifts festive for people around the globe come to gather at a stage decorated with a NASCAR race theme? It began when several managers attended a workshop  called Accelerated Continuous Improvement (ACI) taught by Russell Justice, a specialist in applying quality management and positive behavioral principles in the workplace. Justice developed the 10-step process that he describes as the “fully blended mix of TQM methods and applied behavioral analysis,” an approach that was instrumental in earning Eastman Chemical, from which he has since retired, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. “This approach  is the best known method in the world today to accelerate improvement,” says Justice. 

Accelerating improvement was the goal of the first group of AG representatives who attended Justice’s workshop  at the PAL’s Business Excellence Institute in Kingsport, Tennessee. Pal’s Sudden Service, a quick service restaurant chain based in Kingsport, won the Malcolm Baldrige award in 2001, and as part of the award’s mandate to pass on excellent business practices, created the institute which has been attended by hundreds  of people (from organizations of all types,) who want to learn from the exemplars of business success.  Felts attended one of those early sessions and tried the 10-steps in his department: pinpointing an area for improvement, measuring, studying the processes, establishing a baseline, setting goals, creating an action plan, and providing feedback and reinforcement.  He admits that at first he bit off more than he could chew by starting too many projects at once. That’s when Justice asked him, “What’s keeping you up at night?” setting him on a path of simplification with the advice of never graphing something that involves using a calculator. Felts followed his lead. “It was phenomenal how the productivity in my department took off,” he said. “That was really when a lightbulb came on for me. You make performance visible on something that your crews have ownership of and relate to, give them feedback and positive reinforcement, and then you can almost stand back and watch!” 

Proponents like Felts saw the improvement that the process made in their individual areas but it wasn’t until Scott Crawford came on board as plant manager that the effort to apply the process to a plant-wide pinpoint took firm hold. Crawford, an admitted skeptic at first, agreed to attend an  ACI workshop  and emerged convinced that this was the way to run the facility, and eventually the other five U. S. AG plants. Today Crawford states, “We now have a workforce that I consider engaged and empowered. We listen to people a lot more now that hadn’t been listened to in the past. The facts speak for themselves.” 

The facts are that the entire plant aligned behind a goal of implementing process improvements that impacted the measure of feet of gift wrap  printed and converted (into smaller rolls and then packaged) for every dollar spent plant wide.

The cross-functional Step 10 Team (STT) selected the NASCAR theme because of the many regional fans of the sport. They also reasoned that the requirements of a winning driver matched those required of their team members: skill, speed, accuracy, innovation, safety, and teamwork. Individual departments discovered a carload of meaningful ways to link-in to the pinpoint of feet per dollar . Their data was then rolled into a plant-wide measure that was calculated and revealed every WINSday, a day when associates were encouraged to wear their official 200 Days of Racing T-shirts.  These T-shirts were earned by signing the racecar banner as an official crew member on kickoff day.  “We told our partners, vendors, and customers who came to the plant,

‘You’re a part of our success too and invited them to sign the banner, and receive a T-shirt as well,” says Reynolds.

Divided into 29 weeklong races, the Greeneville 200’s overall feedback board consisted of three cars on a giant racetrack: a green car represented the current year’s actual feet per dollar racing against the yellow car (current year’s budget), with the red car representing the actuals for the prior year. Everyone became so involved with winning the races and the plant achieved so many milestones that AG next used an Indy-style racing  theme with a few added twists and turns as they finished even more achievements the following year.

The racetrack scoreboard at the plant entrance roadway which shows which car won last week’s race, a checkered racing flag painted on the foyer floor (Victory Lane), link-in measurements and graphs regularly posted, weekly overall  feedback broadcast on the closed-circuit AGTV, sights and sounds of a racetrack funneled over the public address system, graphs representing department/workgroup efforts, and regular celebrations accented with creative racetrack theme reinforcers: all contributed to the incredible ongoing wins of the plant that continues today.

The original nine-member steering committee received the company-wide Chairman’s Award for their involvement in the effort and graphics designer Garry Renfro recently received that same annual honor for his creativeinput on tying the crucial elements of the theme together for the organization. With the racing theme putting every associate in the driver’s seat, the rubber really met the road with each associate taking responsibility for two jobs: 1) doing things the best known way today, and 2) finding a better way to do them tomorrow. “Real continuous improvement happens at the frontline, at the departmental level,” says Reynolds. “Effective continuous improvement requires positive reinforcement which creates discretionary effort. When we go into this race every day we want to win. The improvements we made in this effort have tipped the scale back towards producing in the U. S. I think the message is that we’ve won that race!” And the data (just a few of which are listed below) back that assertion: 

·         30 percent reduction in press changeover time

·         51 percent reduction in converting changeover time

·          Intercompany lead time reduced by one week

·         Scrap paper reduced by over 36 percent and liquid waste reduced by 47 percent

·         Over $200K reduction in carrier costs

·         Total recordable rate (TRR) reduced 41 percent via Safe Production Teams

·         And overall, an  improvement  of  17.5 percent  in feet per dollar over the plan

 As word spread about the Greeneville plant and other parts of the company wanted to know more, Crawford arrangeda workshop with Justice in Nashville for key leaders  of other American Greetings facilities. Those leaders have since completed ACI  workshops at their own plant locations and are implementing impressive improvement applications of their own.

Crawford’s vision of Accelerating Continuous Improvement throughout American Greetings by unwrapping the power of the people has become a reality.  Passing it forward, Crawford and team members have even met, as mentors, with other local business leaders.  “We’ve saved millions of dollars that point straight back to this process,” says Crawford. “It really wasn’t magic; there’s a science to it and it worked out perfectly.” 

Pal’s operations at each location are based on three principles:

• Leaders and managers champion company values by setting an example with their own personal choices and behaviors.
• Each business transaction is focused on creating an experience for customers that delights them.
• Store leaders and managers are to think strategically and act like owners to maximize success of their operations and their personal successes. This includes considering the short- and long-term impact of decisions and actions as well as the local and systemic impact.

These long-standing principles form the cornerstone of the Pal’s Leadership approach. The overall goal is to create a business system and culture that has a self-replicating passion for excellence.

The key character traits we focus on for store-level leadership and management are:

Decisiveness, Responsibility, Organization, Boldness, Truthfulness, Sincerity, Dependability, Punctuality, Thoroughness, Enthusiasm, Creativity, Initiative, Diligence, Discernment, Flexibility, and Honesty.

When we find an employee with all these characteristics, we know we have a candidate for our Leadership Development Pipeline.

Once trained, or leaders have three primary jobs as store leaders. They are to assess processes, teach and coach, and build relationships with customers. We do not focus them on the store’s daily functional jobs so strongly that they cannot see the big picture and how they fit into it and drive success.

True to our core value of visionary leadership, corporate leadership helps each store create a vision and goals for that specific store and to align it with the corporate vision and goals. To help monitor progress toward the vision and goals, to recalibrate performance to standards, and to define our high level of trust and respect, all corporate visits to a store are announced six weeks in advance, along with an agenda of topics to be reviewed and discussed.

- Thom Crosby, President/CEO Pal’s from Restaurateur’s Insight Into Performance Excellence

Would you like to see how a company obtains the fastest drive-thru time, while also being the most accurate and friendly?  Sounds impossible?  Come see how it is done.   At Pal’s, a car leaves the drive-thru line every 18 seconds;  accuracy that is 10 to 50 times that of its competition, and hospitality so effective, that people come back to Pal’s 3-4 times more often then they come back to our best competitor’s store.   One of our customers, A&W Canada, has been able to reduce their drive-thru times by 1/3 as a result of attending Pal’s BEI classes.  This has enabled many more cars to be served resulting in over $50 Million dollar per year increase in the total revenue. 

I am pleased to announce the start of our “Drive-Thru” courses.  No, we have not figured how to do training as you drive-thru. (I wish!)  We have figured out how to help you learn the secrets of consistently running a great drive-thru operation.  Many stores and businesses depend on a drive-thru. In an increasing number of businesses, drive-thru is the preferred method of service.  As such, in many businesses, drive-thru sales has been the leading channel for growth.  Attendees of our Achieving World-Class Results classes have asked if we could add some special classes about how to be world-class in drive-thru accuracy, speed, and hospitality. This year we have introduced two such courses:

• Feb 1-2; April 19-20  Drive-Thru Speed and Accuracy
• April 21 Drive-Thru Hospitality Excellence

 See firsthand a drive-thru restaurant that achieves world-class hand out speeds, accuracy, and hospitality.  These courses are designed to help you not only understand the approaches used, but also the logic behind these approaches so you can improve your results by translating and implementing what you have learned. 

The Drive-Thru Speed and Accuracy class focuses on workforce capability, process management, customer satisfaction, leadership, LEAN principles, and information analysis.  This class also includes a behind the scenes tour of a Pal’s Sudden Service restaurant as well as a Q&A session with Pal’s CEO Thom Crosby. 

The class is ideal for QSR franchise executives, owners, and store general managers who want to improve their drive-thru performance.

Would you like to solve one of your business problems in 3 months?  Disruption, delays, errors, rework, unneeded complexity, lack of standardization, or underutilized people can be fixed, and faster than you think!  WIN is new Pal’s BEI offering that is 4, 2-hour training sessions over a 3-month period that will lead one of your project teams through an improvement process to solve your problem NOW.  You quickly learn and use a world-class improvement process and tools from nationally-recognized trainer David McClaskey to solve your problem.  The action oriented implementation of recommendations will begin in the second month of the class, and tangible results will be seen by the 3^rd month.  In past classes, over 80% of the projects were completed and obtained desired results.  That is 3 to 4 times the success rate of a typical improvement projects.   Register for the winter offering of WIN on-line at www.palsbei.com.  The 4, 2-hour sessions start on Feb. 9 and continue on March 17; April 5; and May 11.  The class fee is $450 per person or $550 for a team of two working on the same project.  As a bonus, there is some phone and email support available between sessions.   Sign up now.  Class size is limited.

“Since 1956 Pal’s has thrived in a competitive environment and enjoyed major financial success with a customer-driven approach to business.  However, the transition from participating in the market to becoming a dominant presence began in 1994 with the adoption of an unwavering focus on performance excellence.  This is when Pal’s decided to use the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence.  The resource serves as a primary organizational assessment tool and guide that continues to redefine our culture and maximize our results.  Performance excellence  based assessment has enabled Pal’s to see through the clutter of daily operations to the essence of what our organization needs to be great at in order to succeed.  It has helped us consistently focus on the capabilities and linkage of our processes and systems.  It has empowered us to innovate, and to develop the right team and training and the right culture and tools to achieve success” – Thom Crosby, CEO, Pal’s Sudden Service.  

How does your company or organization assess excellence?  Learn how your company can use Malcolm Baldrige Criteria to improve performance by attending “Achieving World Class Results.”

What is the potential return on investment for attending Pal’s BEI training?  Two of our “Achieving World Class Results” class alumni, Ken Schiller & Brian Nolen, owners of K&N Management (Rudy’s “Country Store” & Bar-B-Q and Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries, and Shakes) told us that they “contribute $10 million in additional yearly sales to practicing Baldrige principles that were learned at Pal’s BEI”.  Maris Oliver – area director, added “Pal’s BEI is a great place to learn Pal’s practices.  (Pal’s BEI helped us learn) through seeing with our own eyes the amazing level of excellence in each store.  When our group can visit a store that is 18 years old and it appear new in every way and experience world class speed, hospitality and accuracy – were sold”.    Rudy’s leadership has also shared with us the specific improvements they made after their initial “Achieving World Class Results” training in 2002 and subsequent visits to Pal’s BEI.  Some of the improvements developed were new key business drivers and mission statement, flashcard training, a new 8-step problem solving model, position observation checklist guidelines, and clean program basics.  David McClaskey, president of Pal’s BEI, confirms Rudy’s progress by saying “I can tell you from first hand observation K&N Management has implemented these practices in a way that has significantly helped their competitiveness”.    If you are interested in the potential business results that our “Achieving World Class Results” can unlock for your company, visit our web page (www.palsbei.com) and sign up today.

K&N Management is the owner and operator of Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries and Shakes, a successful Better Burger concept developed by K&N Management, as well as the licensed area developer of the four Austin locations of Rudy’s Country Store & Bar-B-Q.

Listen to the David McClaskey and Clay Rolston interview about the origins of Pal’s BEI and what we are doing today  www.radiowebvillage.com/uploads/File/PODCASTS/10-28-09PodcastMcClaskeyRolston.mp3

Most owners and general managers of business I know believe that the quality of the store/unit manager can impact sales and profitability of that store or unit by 25% of more.  Most are equally sure that their company has a long way to go before all their first or second level supervisors/managers are fully up to the task.  Why is this the case?  In many cases, it is because companies have not spent the time to develop their supervisors and managers to their leadership potential.  (more…)