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Variation or Standardisation?

4 October, 2017 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Standard work

The process guys will tell you that you should standardise and reduce variation. Variation is a bad thing.

The customer experience guys will tell you every interaction is different.  No customer is the same. Variation is a good thing.

Which camp is right?

The case for allowing variation

Some situations call for a little flexibility.  We have all been frustrated by organisations where employees blindly follow the process for fear of reprimand or punishment if they don’t.

The case for stamping it out

But there are other situations where you shouldn’t compromise an inch, driving out very last hint of process variation and non conformity.

So should you standardise?

That depends entirely on the situation.  But make a choice.  A conscious decision to allow flexibility is one thing.  Unconscious acceptance of random noise is something totally different.

Though which is which, I’m afraid you will have to work that out for yourself.

I believe in standardising automobiles, I do not believe in standardising human beings
~ Albert Einstein

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Image by Yuki Yaginuma

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: service design, standardisation, variation, video

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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