Germany – Page 65 – understand-culture

Process-Pope

Klaus-Hardy Mühdeck, current CIO of ThyssenKrupp and former CIO of Volkswagen, is considered Germany’s Prozesspapst – literally process-pope. He is the first CIO to change his title to Chief Process Officer.

In an interview with Computerwoche – Computer Week – in 2006 Mühdeck described his fascination with process management:

“Processes network functions, no more and no less. Throughout my entire career I have been involved in processes. In most companies it is under the board member responsible for strategy. But the trend is clear. CIO’s are defining processes and systems.”

It is the CIO, says Mühdeck, who is the bridge between the demands of the company and the systems platforms and company-internal processes. CIOs need to be able to communicate with and understand the areas of development and manufacturing.

You can only truly understand a company’s processes if you understand how the various functions and departments actually work.

Haimer in Germany

CNC Machine Shop Tour. Titan Gilroy takes you on a VIP Tour through the Haimer manufacturing plant in Germany. Epic innovation. 170 CNC Machines and a workforce that is highly skilled.

YouTube comments:

“We need more Titan videos. As a German I should add that we also need to bring manufacturing back. Our industry has been very keen on outsourcing production to other EU and non-EU countries. It starts with the identity and our core competences. Time to get that back, especially in the minds of the general public.”

“Glad to see a CEO who knows what he’s talking about and leading from the front….from tools to machining processes to tolerances etc….German engineering at its best….would love to walk through that shop.”

“Absolutely incredible, as a CNC instructor it’s been extremely difficult to get full classes going. Granted our program is 12 weeks and not 3.5 years but its fully funded. I feel like they pulled the trades out of schools and pushed college onto high schoolers when the trades are a more realistic approach for many teenagers. Honestly I wish I had known sooner how satisfying a career in machining could be now I’m trying to inspire a new generation who has no idea that there’s a career path for them that doesn’t involve 4 years of college.”

What is quality?

Deduktiv. Deductive. Latin deductivus, deductio. To base on, to continue. Deduction, or the deductive method, is defined in philosophy as arriving at specific conclusions based on assumptions or principles.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined deduction as „conclusions about the specific based on the general.“ Induction, or inductive thinking, is the opposite: arriving at general principles based on the observation of particulars.

Normen. Norms. Latin norma, the measurement of an angle; generally excepted rules of interaction among people; standards for size, weight, quality; the average value of something; minimum values of a thing or behaviour.

Qualität ist die Einhaltung von Normen. Quality is meeting all necessary norms. The response of a German engineer to the question „What is quality?“

Popper’s Principle of Falsification

Deductive thinking is to make conclusions based on a law and a condition. Students in the social sciences at German universities learn deductive thinking early on.

Applying deductive thinking in the social sciences is not that simple, however. Statements (laws) can never be proven conclusively, because it is not possible to test every possible case.

The Germans in the social sciences, therefore, rely on the Falsifikationsprinzip or principle of falsification: to seek out cases which contradict the hypothesis, in order to refine that hypothesis.

The Falsifikationsprinzip was developed by the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, and is foundational to social science thinking in Germany.

It is one of the key reasons why Germans are inclined to reject inductive thinking, which suggests the general based on the specific. German social scientists (and academics in general) believe that inductive thinking is fine for everyday life, but has no place in the sciences.

Don‘t write it down

In Germany the written word has a higher level of binding character (commitment) than the spoken. Once a process – how the work is done – has been documented, and if done so in a detailed way, Germans feel obligated to work along that process in a strict way.

This reduces their freedom to deviate from the process, to improvize, based on the specifics of a given situation. For this reason, and a few other, Germans do their best to avoid documenting how they work.

The German self-understanding also comes into play. They often feel that it is simply not necessary to write down how they work. Germans are well-trained, tend to work in the same area for many years, are very familiar with formal and informal processes, can rely on the advice of their colleagues and management, and want always the freedom to work independently.

And German departments have a high level of institutional knowledge, which is passed on to younger colleagues. It is seldom necessary for colleagues sit down and document all of the things they do in order to produce good work results.

Guideline and more

Discipline: Punishment; a field of study; training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character; control gained by enforcing obedience or order; orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior; a rule or system of rules. Latin disciplina teaching, learning, from discipulus pupil.

Deviation: Deflection of the needle of a compass caused by local magnetic influences; the difference between a value in a frequency distribution and a fixed number; departure from an established ideology or party line; noticeable or marked departure from accepted norms of behavior.

Flexibility: Capable of being flexed, pliant; yielding to influence, tractable; characterized by a ready capability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements.

Law: A binding custom or practice of a community; a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority; a rule or order that it is advisable or obligatory to observe; something compatible with or enforceable by established law; a rule of construction or procedure; a statement of an order or relation of phenomena that so far as is known is invariable under the given conditions; a general relation proved or assumed to hold between mathematical or logical expressions. From Old English lagu, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse lǫg law; akin to Old English licgan to lie.

Policy: Prudence or wisdom in the management of affairs; a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions; a high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures; a writing whereby a contract of insurance is made. From Middle French, certificate, from Old Italian polizza, modification of Medieval Latin apodixa receipt, from Greek apodeixis proof, apodeiknynai to demonstrate.

Rule: A prescribed guide for conduct or action; an accepted procedure, custom, or habit; a usually written order or direction made by a court; a regulation or bylaw governing procedure or controlling conduct; a standard of judgment; a regulating principle; a determinate method for performing a mathematical operation and obtaining a certain result; the exercise of authority or control; a linear design produced by or as if by such a strip. Middle English reule, from Anglo-French, from Latin regula straightedge, rule, from regere to keep straight, direct.

Guideline: A line by which one is guided; a cord or rope to aid a passer over a difficult point or to permit retracing a course; an indication or outline of policy or conduct.

Value-add: A product whose value has been increased especially by special manufacturing, marketing, or processing.

Richtlinie or guideline

Americans have a higher tolerance for deviating from processes. Americans see processes and procedures fundamentally as tools. Whereas a German colleague sees in a process a Richtlinie (order, instruction), his American counterpart often sees a guideline. The term guideline is often translated into Richtlinie. This translation is false and misleading.

Like their German colleagues, Americans seek that fine line between process-discipline and -flexibility. The moment a process makes unnecessary demands which do not serve the overall goals, that process is deemed rigid. Americans will deviate by reevaluating the most important factors: risk, resources, back-up contingencies, and the final value-added for the end-customer.

Results delivered in a timely fashion, even if the product of a process is not followed step-by-step, are preferred over results delivered too late, but the product of a process vs followed step-by-step. Americans, both as customers and suppliers, can “sleep at night” with the so-called 80%-solution, as long as the missing 20% is compensated by the advantage of speed, responsiveness or price (cost).

When to deviate: Americans are quick to deviate from steps within a process or procedure if: it does not add value, does not help, does not move their work forward; external forces demand it, such as schedule, budget or customer demands; after getting input from experienced colleagues and/or permission from their team lead or process owner; and as long as the deviation conforms (compliant) with laws and regulations.

Americans speak of taking a down and dirty approach, of doing whatever it takes to get the job done, of being pragmatic.

Flexibilität

The German dictionary Duden defines Flexibilität (flexibility) as: flexible property, quality, composition, character; bendability, pliability; the ability to adjust, adapt, conform.

Synonyms: Wendigkeit agility, maneuverability, mobility; Nachgiebigkeit compliance, softness, resilience, yielding; Geschmedigkeit malleability, litheness, limberness.

East meets West

In October 1990 the two Germanies were reunited. East Germany became a part of West Germany. Most of what the East Germans were familiar with disappeared overnight.

Social rules, attitudes and opinions, cultural life, recreational habits, all of these began to change. East Germans had to adapt to a German spoken differently. People greeted each other with a „Hi!“. They ate chicken wings instead of broilers. Pepsi and Coca Cola was substituted for the East German Club-Cola. Colleagues worked in teams instead of in collectives.

East Germans had to quickly adjust. They had to become wary of shifty West German „deal-makers.“ Appliances, machines, automobiles, telephones, etc. worked differently, were confusing. An entire society of over 17 million people had to suddenly adjust to the rules of another society.

The change was difficult and confusing for the East Germans. In every sense of the word they were at a disadvantage over and against their new fellow German citizens. The rules – the processes – were not theirs, not East German. They were West German.

Max Weber – Bureaucracy

Ever heard of Max Weber (1864-1920)? He was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist. Weber is among the most important theorists on the development of modern Western society. He saw himself not as a sociologist, but as an historian. What did Weber write about bureaucracy:

That it constitutes the most efficient and rational way to organize human activity. Bureaucracy means systematic processes and organized hierarchies, which are necessary to: maintain order, maximize efficiency, and eliminate favoritism.