July Duty, Part 3

By Pascal Dennis

Last blog we began to build a SIPOC analysis around a high level Jury Selection process:

1. Jury Panel Selection --> 2. Jury Selection --> 3. Court Case

What can muck up the process?

Last time we discussed an important Direct Cause: Poor information flow at step 1

Here's a possible Five Why Analysis:

Why is there poor information flow to Jury Panel members at step 1?

Because people working in the Jury Panel Selection process do not know critical information such as:

• How many cases are in the pipeline?
• How many courts openings are available?
• How many Jury Panel members do we need to fill these cases -- (i.e. what's our standard)?
• How many Jury Panel members have we called?
• What's the gap? Are we ok or not okay?
• What's the countermeasure?

Why do they not know this? Inadequate visual management... (I saw almost no evidence of visual management in my three days in court)

My guess is this critical info is "in the computer" -- invisible...

If so, then Jury Panel members are called with little knowledge of how many are actually needed.

(For Production Physics aficionados: Are we not, thereby, buffering variation with inventory?)

Effect? Over-processing, delay & defect waste. Frustration, hassle & anxiety for Jury Panel members.

Longer & longer queues in the court system, and ultimately, bad guys go free.

Regular readers will recognize the importance of making the invisible, visible.

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

July Duty, Part 3