Attila Dobai is Manager of Strategy and Innovation at Avis, the vehicle rental company. I thought this would be an ossified industry--after all, it has been around forever--but was surprised at how interested they are in continuous improvement. There are about 50 six sigma improvement professionals there.  

Attila is on the Cold Star Project to share details of an innovation he has recently made at Avis, giving access to a new distribution channel for truck rentals with a major retailer. We also discuss his proprietary DOITS continuous improvement methodology.  

Attila says:  Continuous improvement started in manufacturing.  Problems with efficiency and effectiveness in manufacturing are commonly solved using methods such as DMAIC (six sigma), SCORE (LEAN), TQM, or with the Toyota Production System.  These systems are great at solving problems in manufacturing and have seen some success in service or transactional based businesses.  

Traditional problem solving methods for efficiency and effectiveness in service or transactional businesses are difficult to implement and sustain or scale.  They often focus solely on cost reduction thus missing opportunities for real growth.   

I have developed the DOITS method for continuous improvement in service/transactional businesses.    

DOITS stands for:  

Define - define the problem to be solved and the optimal problem solving method (fire fighting or stop gap, efficiency/effectiveness improvement to margin, or innovation).  

Observe - observe the problem and identify potential root causes in context.    

Improve - start improving with a mentality that failure is ok.  We want small rapid failure to discover the best solution.  

Test - Test the improvement using solid data analytics.  Did the improvement drive the desired outcome.  

Sustain/Scale - If your goal is to maintain an improvement then implement methods to sustain it and scale it for the rest of the business.  If your goal is to grow then implement methods to scale the solution beyond your business.   

Continuous improvement implementations in service/transactional businesses seem to have a lifespan that is shorter than their manufacturing peers.  I believe this is because service and transactional businesses solutions are more centered in human behavior.    

Business owners/executives may feel that traditional continuous improvement fails to deliver improvement over the long term or they may feel that it puts them on a race to the bottom.  They may feel like traditional CI disavows the intuition that they have relied on to get to where they are.  I recommend the DOITS system for CI for businesses that want to drive growth and scale.    

If you're ready for the transformation having clarity on your processes and being able to put your finger on the areas needing improvements will bring to your business, we should speak. Book a call with us at http://bit.ly/talktocoldstar 

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