June 1, 2020
David Koch, Senior Director of Supply Chain Planning for Beckman Coulter and a leader of Danaher Business System (DBS), has held several roles in his more than seven years at Danaher. But one thing remains consistent—he’s seen the power of DBS unite teams, clarify processes, and drive results. The former DBS director explains this uniquely Danaher approach, the opportunities he’s enjoyed so far, and a preview of the future.
DBS is a set of tools and processes, but it’s also a way of thinking that’s embedded in Danaher’s entire culture. It’s a mindset of continuous improvement—a belief that everything we do today, we can do even better tomorrow. The tools themselves include a variety of things, from the way we organize a process flow to a very specific template. In supply chain planning, for example, we might have a DBS approach to material replenishment, and within that, a Kanban calculator that helps you size a card.
DBS tools fall into four categories. The first is Fundamentals, which includes things like our problem-solving system that apply to every aspect of the business. Then there’s Lean, Growth, and Leadership, which tend to be more process-specific. They’re all incredibly helpful for organizing complex situations, structuring our thinking, getting people aligned, and driving action.
I remember it vividly! I was brand-new to Danaher, about two weeks in. We had just acquired a factory, and the integration wasn’t going as planned. It was overwhelming at first, but as soon as I got my hands on our tool set, everything was so much more clear. It was very logical—Here’s everything you need to make a material system work, now check things off the list. It allowed us to build an action plan and just start executing. We got back to north of 90 percent on-time delivery relatively quickly, and the whole experience was a big unlock for me. It was like a light bulb went off; it made me want to go tackle the next problem.
I think there are two reasons. One, we don’t make things more complex than they need to be. There are some companies where when you dig into one of their tools, you get 500 slides of incredibly technical jargon. It’s just not common sense, and it would take you 10 years to learn. With DBS, it’s simple enough to be accessible for everyone.
The other reason is DBS helps us create a blameless culture. We frame problems in terms of process, not people. Of course sometimes, a problem really is about people. But if you assume best intentions and start with process in mind, everything is much more collaborative. It helps us figure out how to do things better, faster.
“People who think about the whole over themselves do well here—it’s a very apolitical environment, no room for ego. I think it’s also important that people aren’t afraid of change. If you want the status quo, this probably isn’t a great place for you. But at the same time, we’re careful that whenever we make an improvement, we prove it out and sustain it.”
If you’re someone who likes to drive change, it can be tempting to just move on to what’s next, but the fact is things very rarely work out perfectly on the first try. We have to learn and iterate before we can confidently say, “Yes, this is truly a better process now.” It’s not change for its own sake. It’s change for the sake of real improvement.
It’s really been a force multiplier for me, because it’s allowed me to get both a depth and breadth of experience. My technical background is in global supply chain, and I’ve learned a lot in that area by using DBS. But because these tools are so universal, I’ve also been able to bounce around and apply them to all sorts of big, meaty challenges across almost every function of the business and even externally with our suppliers and partners.
The opportunity you get at Danaher to put your hands on and learn about so many different areas, and the opportunity you get to lead—there’s just nothing like it. Especially when you’re early in your career; I have friends that I graduated with 10 years ago who are just getting started on some of the things I was doing six months into my time here. Plus, I’ve been able to do it all—all these different projects and roles at all these different levels—with one company. I’ve never needed to go look for the next job.
In the short term, Beckman Coulter is working on some serology tests for COVID-19, and of course we’re all really eager to play a role in helping people on that front. Longer term, we’re going to be tackling some exciting challenges in connecting our distribution, finished goods, and upstream supplied networks.
I’m also excited about some changes we made recently to our Operations Leadership Program, to make sure new team members get the same broad foundation I had. I love mentoring and coaching those folks, even if it’s as simple as suggesting a DBS tool that could help them solve a problem. The system itself is so powerful, but to make the most of it, we need to keep developing leaders who have that continuous improvement mindset. Together with OLP, I think it gives us an incredible opportunity to put people in roles where they can make a massive impact in a short amount of time.