Sublime

Wilke’s secret to success? A culture of operational excellence—built on lean manufacturing, statistical process control, the theory of constraints, and purpose-built software.‡ Lean manufacturing, of course, came from the Toyota Way, the fusion of Deming’s and Japan’s “East meets West” ideas and practices. Statistical process control, too, comes st

typical project which requires 50 percent of a senior’s time, 100 percent of a middle-level person’s time, and the full-time efforts of three juniors.

Simple calculations such as these show that, with eight seniors, the firm would need sixteen managers and forty juniors. The proportions remain constant: one senior to every two managers, to every five juniors. Unless there is a change in either the project team structure (i.e., the types of projects the firm undertakes), or the target utilization

services that begin as the domain of the creative, experienced professional inevitably “mature” and can be delivered by using more junior personnel and relatively well-specified procedures.

1. First one tries to identify and eliminate the things that need not be done at all, the things that are purely waste of time without any results whatever.

four seniors. If it is to meet its target of 75 percent billed senior time, its available senior time will be four times 75 percent, or the equivalent of three seniors working full-time. This implies six projects, if the typical project requires 50 percent of a senior’s time.