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Defect Dice™: A Simulation of Working Under the Prevailing Style of Management (v.0.7)
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Defect Dice is a lightweight, portable version of a simulation popularized (but not entirely invented by) Dr. W. Edwards Deming during his Four Day Seminars in the 1980s known as The Red Bead Experiment.
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The original experiment had up to ten participants assume roles in a fictitious plant charged with producing white beads for their customers. Six participants would take turns dipping a paddle
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with fifty indentations into a bucket filled with beads, 80% white, 20% red. The ruse was to try and pull out a paddle of all white beads while suffering under typical managerial inducements to
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not produce so many defects (red beads). Deming himself called the game "stupidly simple", but it helped to drive home the point to participants and observers that faults in a system's processes
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aren't overcome by berating and challenging workers to work harder or smarter, or by threatening them or tempting them with bonuses but by working on the system itself.
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And so it is with this simulation which I've developed to be playable by anyone with a set of dice or access to online dice rollers. I've borrowed the dice mechanic from some popular
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tabletop games to give a fun, push your luck edge that I think simulates the tension between working together as a team yet be driven apart by the process which rewards and punishes
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individual performance. I've included events that can be read off and played after each day's shift, or you can substitute some from your own experience.
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The chart on the right-side of the record sheet is a Process Behaviour Chart that tracks worker defects over the course of the simulation. It is automatically generated from
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the data entered into the Worker's record cells for each day, with the red process limit lines and green average line computed from the data itself. The process limits provide
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guides to observe the variation present in the game, or more specifically, the dice rolls and rules applied to them. As you play the game, note differences between players who use
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physical dice versus virtual dice - the chart will help make these differences more apparent.
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Deming was fond of saying that 97% or more of issues found in organizations can be traced back to the system, 3% to people; towards the end of his life, he increased that
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to 98% or higher! As you play this simulation, consider this observation.
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Post-Game Questions
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1. What was it like playing as a worker? What did you find enjoyable? What annoyed you? Why?
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2. What effect did the management interventions have on your performance? Why?
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3. What effect did low-performers losing a die to top-performers have? Why?
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4. What was responsible for the differences between each worker's performance?
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5. How predictable is the performance of the "team" ? Why?
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6. How would results differ if the game was played entirely with physical dice versus virtual dice? Why?
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7. How many sources of variation can you identify in the simulation? Which are common? Which are special-cause?
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8. How could performance be improved?
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9. What insight did you glean from the Process Behaviour Chart with respect to system stability and defects?
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10. What relatable examples from your own experience did the simulation bring to mind?
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Designer: Chris R. Chapman
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chris.chapman@derailleurconsulting.com
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