1) Company Y “O” code usage after insisting

 Situation: I was in charge with the inhouse print and the print process was pretty rough as the
sales advisors would have brought me the sales order and I had to put the works order through
the system. This was all done on paper and as it was difficult to keep track of the orders
mistakes would have easily happened. As they were working on improving the system, a
transition digital was done for the web orders and I was also involved in the decision making
of changing the process.
 Task: After a while, I discovered that, it was difficult to keep track on which ones were
outsourced and which ones were done in house because the focus was more on the weather
the print was ready to be done than where will it be done.
 Action: Even if it wasn’t part of the process I was in charge with, I identified this issue as it
was still affecting sometimes my print schedule and therefore, I raised it with the other person
in charge with the outsource print. I advised that if we insert a code “O” to identify the
outsourced ones it would provide more visibility. Adamant to change she wasn’t a fan of this
and refused to do it. I have then spoken to the manager in charge with process improvement
and I have been told not to complicate the process so they dismissed the idea. As I’ve received
this reaction, I did not press for it anymore as I realised hey were probably not understanding
how will this code improve the process and I preferred to focus on raising it when the actual
issues took place. When we identified an issue related to this I would have explained that if
we knew this was not outsourced then we could have avoid it. I made a note of all the
situations I have during that week and in the weekly meeting I explained to everyone involved
how big the problem actually is, what issues it caused and how this small change can help
using facts and figures.
 Result: The code was introduced and the confusion was eliminated. This resulted in less
pressure on the print capacity with last minute rushed orders so we can meet the deadlines
and provided higher transparency and therefore eliminated some level of stress.
 Lesson: I’ve learned that you have to persevere even if you are told no and that stakeholders
and colleagues will not understand the point you want to make unless you provide facts
figures and a logical explanation to how this actually affect bottom line or efficiency and how
it can improve their role and the business altogether. Also that there’s a point where you have
to stop and think of other strategy other than pushing the previous one.