Muda-Free Zone™

What do all these items have in common?

Projects that don't finish
Rework
Constantly changing project scope
Staff is very busy and working hard, but nothing seems to be getting done
Emergencies and fire-fighting
Busy work
Staff being pulled in many directions
Outdated processes that we do, "because we've done them this way for many years"
Activities that simply add no value to the organization
Changing project scope will into the project
Projects that add little value to the organization but absorb organizational resources
False starts on projects or initiatives

Simple. These are all examples of waste.

Download a copy of our Muda-Free Zone Information Sheet

What is Muda?

What is Muda? Muda is Japanese for waste or uselessness. What then is a Muda-Free Zone? A Muda-Free Zone is an area of the organization that is free of waste or uselessness. Amazingly, organizations continue to make the same mistakes, yet constantly complain that they're tight on resources, they have no time to get things done, and they feel they can't get ahead. So, what's a Muda-Free Zone?

What are the characteristics of a Muda-Free Zone?

Reduced business cycle times .

All forms of work done in an organization, whether its normal business processes; projects, both large and small; continuous process improvement initiatives; strategic initiatives or the company holiday party, are all accomplished faster and with fewer resoruces. Get your products to market faster. Address new market niches like never before. Move your organization in the direction you need quickly. It's called, "Organizational Agility".

Virtually eliminate fire-fighting and emergencies.

In a Muda-Free Zone, we do work right the first time. Rework in one area is an "emergency" or a "fire-fight" in another area. It can be an upset client, a system's integration that's not going well, or simple mistake made by the marketing department on a catalogue. It draws critical human resources away from their regularly-schedule activities to handle a problem that should have been avoided in the first place.

Work is done right the first time.

In a Muda-Free Zone, we know how to define work so it's done right the first time. We know the flow of work, the purpose of work, and the value of work. We know how to define, delegate, and monitor the progress of work to ensure we achieve our goals.

Activities are value-added to the organization.

In a Muda-Free Zone, all activities not only add value to the organization, we fully understand what value they add. As an organization evolves, and as the world around us changes, we ensure that the work we're doing continues to add value, and achieves the goals and objectives of our organization.

Work is continuously re-evaluated.

In a Muda-Free Zone, projects, processes, operations and all areas undergo continuous improvement. This ensures that the work we're doing continues to add the best value it can, ensures our actions are the most efficient, utilize the most modern and up-to-date techniques and get the most out of our resources. Of course, too much continuous improvement, itself, can be muda. In a Muda-Free Zone, continuous improvement focuses on those areas that yield the highest return on investment.

All resources and activities are headed in the same direction.

In a Muda-Free Zone, the actions, activities, projects, programs, processes, operations, and all work done helps drive the organization in the same direction. In a Muda-Free Zone, we know where we're headed, and we know how to get there.

What's the scope of the Muda-Free Zone Technology?

Muda-Free Zone technology spans all areas of organizational activities. It starts with simple time management, expands to work and work-flow management, process management, project management, program management, portfolio management through strategic planning and strategic initiatives. Ally Business Developers has developed an exclusive technology for developing a Muda-Free Zone. This technology is aligned with primary standards organizations, including the Project Management Institute and the Software Engineering Institute and alignes with modern business management practices, include 6-Sigma, Continuous Process Improvement, and many others. A brief description of Muda-Free Zone technologies is shown here.

Time Management.
Most certainly, we can't manage a company until we learn how to manage ourselves. Whether your organization or department is a Muda-Free Zone or not, there's no reason not to get the most out of your day. Muda-Free Zone time management is what time management should have been from the beginning. Learn how to handle chaos. Learn how to define work so you can do it right the first time. Learn how to delegate so you're not constantly interrupted with questions. Learn how to prioritize your work based on real value to you, your boss, your department, your team, and your organization.

Work Management.
Do you work on a project or process team? Do you need to interface with others to get your work done? Interestingly, there is a gap in the defined sciences and disciplines of organization management. We call it work management. Work management doesn't reach the complexity of formal project management or process management, but requires more skill and involvement than time management. If you work as a member of a team, if you are given assignments that involve more than one activity or if you need to interface with others to get your work done, then work management is your area of interest.

In a Muda-Free Zone, you will learn how to develop simple work plans, you'll learn how to delegate more complex activities, you'll learn how to distinguish between time-critical and non-time-critical work, you'll learn basic estimating techniques, how to employ them and how to communicate your estimates. You'll learn how to identify and handle risks or concerns you may have on your work plan and how to communicate them.

Mastering Muda-Free Zone work management will allow you to do more complex activities and be a successful team member in a project, process, or larger operations action. With experience, you'll be a successful team or group leader on a project or business process.

Project Management.
A Muda-Free Zone project encapsulates those concepts of time management, work management and project management into a cohesive project plan. You will learn how to ensure your project supports and adds value to the overall organization. You will ensure your project is muda-free by synergistically integrating time management, work management, and project management tools. Muda-Free Zone projects are also PMBOK Guide aligned and map into the Software Engineering Institute's CMM and CMMI maturity models.

You'll be amazed at the results. You'll look forward to doing fixed-price projects. You'll pump out projects faster than ever before. You'll do work right the first time, build quality into your projects and run a highly motivated team. You'll have control of your stakeholders and be able to handle any political environment.

Business Process Management.
A Muda-Free Zone business process, just like a project, encapsulates and synergistically integrates time management and work management into a cohesive process work flow. Learn how to define work processes to ensure smooth operations, handle those 'occasional' activities that derail most business processes. Get the most out of your precious resources, employ an efficient continuous process improvement methodology, and ensure your business processes support and add value to your organization.

Program and Portfolio Management.
In a Muda-Free Zone, programs and portfolios don't just employ the best practices for project and process management, in a Muda-Free Zone, we integrate project, business process, program, and portfolio management into a holistic environment where work and resources are maximized, projects, processes, and operations seamlessly integrate and actually assist each other, yielding a concept known as "Organizational Agility". Learn how changes in one are can be handled efficiently without impacting other, ongoing projects and operations. Learn how to adjust staff, reassign staff and educate staff to achieve maximum effectiveness while quickly adapting to an ever-changing landscape.

Based on the basic rules that began in time management, program and portfolio management creates the complete Muda-Free Zone for the organization, creates Organizational Agility and gives you the ability to stay on top of your competition even in the most dynamic environments.

So, What is a Muda-Free Zone?

Simple: the most efficient way to achieve your organizational objectives.

So, Where Do I Start?

Where you start depends on where you are. Give us a call and we'll conduct a FREE, No Obligation initial consultation. Following the consultation, we'll make initial recommendations on how to proceed.

For more information, contact Ally Business Developers at 630/548-0399.

Muda-Free Zone is the trademark of Allibus Corporation.