Are You Planning an Insane 2024?
Rick Phelps
Synchronous Solutions
Happy New Year! You may have heard of Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Are you planning an insane 2024 for your business, or are you going to make the fundamental changes needed to do things differently to get the different results you really want?
For many fabricators 2023 was a rough year. Business was soft and profits were down.
But what is true in general is not true for all. Some shops saw great success in 2023.
If your shop had a soft 2023, what are you going to change to make 2024 great again?
If your shop had a great 2023, are you leveraging that success to take full advantage of 2024?
Based on Einstein’s definition, I am afraid I may be at least partially insane. I have been preaching and teaching Synchronous Flow for over 42 years now, and I have been writing in the Slippery Rock Gazette about Throughput Dollars ($T) for over 18 months. For over 20 years, Ed Hill, the founder of Synchronous Solutions, has been preaching and teaching $T as well, with his focus primarily on the countertop industry.
As a result of this relentless crusade to get this industry to understand $T, Action Flow, Stone App, and the Stone Profit System have all integrated $T into their software. Action Flow and Stone App have even worked with us to implement some more complex Synchronous Flow concepts into their systems. And yet I bet if we surveyed their user bases we would find only a small percentage are taking advantage of these features. And of those who are using $T, virtually none take full advantage of what Synchronous Flow and $T can mean for their businesses.
If you understand Synchronous Flow and the power of $T, your business in 2024 will have:
1. One clear, unambiguous, #1 Objective (and it will be the same for ALL of you).
2. Three explicit S.M.A.R.T. Goals directly connected to that Objective.
3. Every department/function in your business will have their own clear, unambiguous #1 Objectives aligned to the business’ #1 Objective.
4. Every department/function will have their own explicit S.M.A.R.T. Goals tied to their #1 Objective and thus directly linked to your business’ #1 Objective.
5. Every manager in the business will have ONE current project (at a time) that is focused on moving the needle on one or more of their Goals.
The above is what truly understanding Synchronous Flow will mean for your business.
The elegance of Synchronous Flow is in its simplicity. Simplicity is also its bane.
This past summer I had a CEO of a $300M dollar business push back on the idea of running his business based on $T. He had an MBA from a prestigious school and had never heard of $T… We later found out that the CEO and Board Chairman “simply got ‘cold feet’ about the simplicity of the TOC approach” and chose not to engage with us!
Is that your problem, too? Is the difference between $T and Gross Margin too subtle, too little, that you can’t imagine it could possibly matter?
Are you afraid of being thought of as ‘insane’ for pursuing this craziness?
Here are three businesses you may have heard of running on the concepts of Synchronous Flow:
1. Chick-fil-a
Highest revenue and profitability per store of any fast-food chain, and not by just a little bit.
2. Southwest Airlines
Forty-seven consecutive years in a row of profitability in an industry that regularly sees airlines go bankrupt.
3. Amazon
Need I say anything more? The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, by Elihayu Goldratt and Jeff Cox is one of three books every manager at Amazon must read.
There is no time like now. Take the risk of being thought insane! Clearly you will be in good company!
Besides, being thought insane is a whole lot more fun than proving you are insane by doing more of what you are already doing, yet expecting different results!
Make 2024 a year of massive progress and prosperity.
Make this the year to find out how to get your entire team pulling in the same direction, driving the continuous improvement of that which makes the biggest difference to your business and your life.
You will be glad you did!
Happy New Year, and see you at T.I.S.E.!
If you think having a skilled facilitator to walk your leadership team through this process will make it go a lot more smoothly and efficiently, contact Synchronous Solutions though our website www.synchronous-solutions.com/contact-us .