What do emails, popcorn and tsunamis have in common?

As heat increases, corn kernel popping peaks and the scrambling activity accelerates like a tsunami. If not carefully watched, the popcorn kernels may burn, create that awful smell, and start smoking and trigger a fire alarm (waste).

This popcorn-tsunami analogy is similar to email strings. The seemingly calm flow of a typical day’s email flow may escalate to a tsunami level in a matter of minutes. For example, there might be a complaint email from a top customer who copied the CEO to elevate the heat factor. What happens next may lead to an email-popcorn-tsunami if no escalation path has been defined. Sound familiar?

At first glance, email communication may seem more efficient and faster than the old fashioned in-person discussion or telephone calls. This is probably true until the email distribution goes out of control and becomes an email-popcorn-tsunami!

How can an organization prevent this waste?

• Recognition of the waste. The first step is to identify and recognize this as a form of waste by pinpointing the source and quantifying the impact.
• Quantify the waste. This inefficiency is commonly encountered in businesses but often ignored since the gravity of waste is not readily quantifiable. There is a saying “if you cannot quantify the waste, it may not be significant to worry about.” Quantifying the waste increases its visibility and solidifies the benchmark value.
• Do something to minimize or eliminate the waste. Once measured, waste will not necessarily dissipate on its own – do something to reduce the waste! In the case of the email-popcorn-tsunami, create and implement email rules. For example, address the email to the target audience instead of sending the email to the entire plant.

Example

Company ABC practice of forwarding a complaint to all process owners was analyzed as part of a streamlining initiative.

Waste

It was determined that the average number of workers in this email distribution list was 50 but only 5 employees had the ability to investigate a complaint.

Deliverable

Quantify waste and recommend actions to reduce waste by at least 50 percent.

Actions

1. Limit the email distribution to personnel directly responsible for processing the complaint.
2. Create a central archive repository of all complaints to provide information access and minimize email distribution.

Measures of Success

Measure of email waste and savings after implementation of  initiative are shown in the table below.

* Frequency of five emails per week.