Ein Prozess ist ein Satz von in Wechselbeziehung oder Wechselwirkung stehenden Tätigkeiten, der Eingaben in Ergebnisse umwandelt. A process is a set of activities which are interrelated, interdependent, influence each other mutually, and turn inputs into results.
The Bavarian Ministry for Commerce defines a process as: „The sequence of all activities which are linked with each other and convert inputs – based on customer requirements, legal boundary conditions, market demands – into a desired outcome.“
Simply put, a process is a set of work steps, which are sequenced logically, that have a beginning and lead to a specific desired outcome.
To deduce is to infer certain consequences from general premises (assumptions, propositions). Infer means to form an opinion, to reach a conclusion based on facts. Stated simply, to apply the general to the specific. This is a central part of how Germans think.
Deductive thinking is in German commercial law. What work processes should look like are very specifically defined. They should, for example, be based on German laws governing safety, but be shaped by overall knowledge of the respective company.
Work process, therefore, are based both on theory (safety laws) and on practice (knowhow developed over years).
The renowned German dual vocational training is based on this logic. The students in vocational schools learn at the same time theory and practice (or application). The so-called gray theory – classroom learning – is a requirement.
In 2011 PwC presented the results of its study ZukunftsthemaProzessmanagement – literally Future Topic Process Management, which surveyed its current state in German companies.
95% of executive management in Germany agreed that business process management was either important or very important to their success. Process management has become a critical function at the corporate level.
At the same time only 5% of those surveyed said that their process management was well developed. 46% of the companies did not have a clear plan on how to react to process deviation. Only 12% claimed to have an established mechanism for handling deviation from the most critical internal business processes.
While the study documents how much room for improvement there is in the area of process management governance, it was equally clear how flexibly German companies react to process deviation. Which, in turn, contradicts the cliché that Germans have a process for everything and always stick to the process.
The German Institute for Norms (Deutsches Institut für Normung – DIN) sets voluntary standards for material and immaterial things.
DIN norms are suggested typically by German industry. They are set only when all parties to the discussion are in agreement. DIN norms are to Germany what ISO and EN norms are to international and European industry respectively.
The first DIN norm was set in March of 1918. By 1927 the Germans had settled on more than 3,000 norms. In 1948 the number reached 8,200. As of 2012 there are over 33,000 DIN norms, most of which are in the areas of mechanical engineering, construction, air and space, information technology, environmental protection, optics and professional services.
Each year produces roughly 2,000 new DIN norms. Each and every norm is reviewed every five years as to whether it is necessary and or meets current standards. The DIN system has begun the process of integrating itself with European and international standardization systems.
Der Weg ist das Ziel. The path is the goal. Eastern thinking. Not Western. However, a figure of speech many Germans use, and an entry point into how they understand the importance of process, of how the work is done.
Prozesse. Processes. Garantie. Guaranty. KeinWerkzeug. Not a tool. Germans would say that a final product is only as good as the process which led to it. Process. how the work is done. And a process is only as good as the product it produces. Zwei Seiten einer Medaille. Two sides of the same coin. Processes. Not a tool.
If you work with Germans, you’ll know how intense and constant their focus is on how the work should be done. You’ll experience discussion after discussion, meeting after meeting, debate after debate. It can appear as if they are obsessed with process. All this at the expense of the user, of the internal or external customer. It can appear to threaten the very purpose, and success, of the activity.
But wait. When Germans engage about how the work is done, they are, in fact, talking about the customer, about how best to serve the customer. Two sides of the same coin. If you get the process right, you get the end product right. For the customer. In the German context, talking process is talking customer. The Germans may not use the term customer, or the term serve, or value. But this doesn’t mean that they are not focused on it.
For Germans true focus on the customer is focus on how to do the work right, correctly. The path is not the goal. In the West, the goal is the goal. The path gets you there. Chart that path carefully. Walk that path the right way. “The right way”, lots of room for discussion there.
Den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sehen – to not see the forest for the trees – is an often-used figure of speech in Germany (and in the U.S.) describing how one can fail to see the bigger picture due to focusing on the details.
This figure of speech always has a negative connotation and implies that a person does not have everything under control, is not capable of stepping back in order to assess the broader situation.
This is considered in Germany to be a serious weakness, for in their work they strive to orient themselves on universal (generally valid, admitted, accepted) conditions (prerequisites, requirements, premises, suppositions).
In doing so Germans try to maintain a certain amount of distance from the details of their work, in order to always recognize (be cognizant of) basic structures and patterns.
How the German company innotool&greminger markets their medical products provides insight into how important internal processes – how the work is done – are to Germans.
Their website states Fertigung ohne Kompromisse: Perfektion im Produktionsprozess – literally Manufacturing without Compromise: Perfection in Production Processes. They then spell that out.
“In medical diagnostics and therapy the key to quality of results is Handwerkszeug (the tools of craftsmanship). It is no different in the manufacturing of medical products.”
Our solutions are based on expert technical staff, high-performing physical plant and systems, and automated production, optimized for manufacturing medical implants and delicate instruments. With the help of CAD-CAM software we maximize the potential of our knowhow. We deepen that expertise via modernization and continual training of our staff. For quality doesn’t happen by itself.”
Instead of emphasizing the quality of their products, innotool&greminger focuses on the production processes which determine that quality.
Normierung – norm-ing – is defining a unified measurement (dimensions, proportions) for products and processes. Norms are not only practical, they save money. Up to 17 billion Euros per year, according to the German Institut of Norms (DIN).
DIN is well known to all Germans, even if they don’t think about it. DIN-norms were introduced to them as early as grammar school when they began to work with stardardized pape sizes such as the A4.
But what exactly is a norm?
The German Chamber of Commerce writes (loosely translated): “A norm is a rule (regulation, code of practice). It is legally accepted. It was established via a standarized process. It solves a problem, addresses a situation, addresses factual circumstances.”
Manufacturers can invoke or refer to a norm in order to save time and money. However, noone is obligated to follow a norm. They are often, nonetheless, written into production contracts, thus defining measurements and processes.
In that sense production proceeds deductively, base on theory or the norm. Industry norms are more firm, more binding, than industry standards, which are not generally accepted, which can be defined by manufacturer to manufacturer.
Interestingly, the English language does not distinguish between a norm and a standard. Perhaps this gives us deeper insight into German thinking.
The German Commission on Electronics and Information Technology is an independent, non-profit, national organization which standardizes practices in its industry.
The commission creates norms, sets standards for safety and represents Germany in several European and international norming bodies. Its work results are an integral part of German norms in the area of electronics.
The Association of German Engineers also sets standards, with over 2,000 by 2012. Voluntary experts manage the work and maintain close communications with German industry.
Gottfried Wilhem Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German philosopher and polymath (someone with expertise in many different areas). He is considered one of the strongest proponents of rationalism, a school of philosophy which stresses that knowledge is accumulated primarily, solely through thought.
Rationalists did not believe that authentic knowledge could be gained via the senses, through empiricism (experience). Cogito ergo sum – I think, therefore I am – as Descartes put it, the founder of modern rationalism.
The historians of philosophy contrast rationalism with British empiricism, led by David Hume, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. These empiricists argued that knowledge is gained first and foremostly via the senses. Simply stated, experience is more important than (informs) pure thought.
Although such overly simplified characterizations are questioned by today’s experts, they show a fundamental difference between continental philosophy (German and French) on the one side and British, and later British-American, philosophy on the other.
The competition between rationalism and empiricism is in the end a battle between deduction and induction.