The Psychology of Quality and More

Value Delivery System (VDS)

Whether you are working in a sales organization or a factory or an R&D lab, you are also a part of a larger system of delivering value to customers. This end-to-end system that collaborates (at least in some fashion!) to deliver value to customers is called a Value Delivery System.

The problem with such situations is that breakdowns and lack of alignment within the whole system can hinder you from optimizing the value that you create and deliver. The activity of improvement thus focuses on the whole system.

In any VDS work, an early stage is in scoping out the system on which you are going to work. It can be soup-to-nuts stuff or can be constrained within a single organization.

Questions to ask of anyone in the system include:

• Who do you deliver value to? 
• How do they evaluate it?
• What is their current evaluation?
• Who delivers value to you?
• How do you evaluate it?
• What is your current evuation?

It thus becomes a game of suppliers and customers, linking people and systems together. A neat trick in asking these questions is that you can match up what the suppliers and customers said: are perceptions the same? Usually not. With a little communication, there is scope for immediate improvements.

Customers receive value every time they touch us or our products. This customer lifecycle has been characterized by the following stages, which spell the unforgettable word 'COILUSD':

• Choosing
• Ordering
• Installing
• Learning
• Using
• Supporting
• Disposing

Note: This is an archetype. Your customers may not use this exactly, but it is a good starting point for finding out what it actually it.

There is a Value Delivery System aligned to each stage of your end customer's lifecycle, whether it is recognized or not. And it may be delivering great value or very poor value.

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