CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

1.     Key Quality Criteria – In the eyes of the customer

As any business owner knows, the most important component of a organisation is its customers. If your organisation is going to succeed, it needs to deliver what your customers want and need (note these are not always clear even to the customer).

It’s important to note that there are many “customers” both internal and external to an organisation. And the needs of these customers will vary depending on the service or product.

Any process improvements a business makes should be based on a full understanding of what the customer or market needs or wants (note these are not always the same thing), and what is critical to the quality of the product being delivered.

2.     The Value Stream

A key concept in Lean and Continual Process Improvement is the value stream, or the path that a product takes from its conception to its sale. A value stream map shows where quality issues might arise within the process, allowing them to be addressed through improvement initiatives.

3.     Understand the Business Process

A business process is not just defined as the steps it takes to complete a single task, but, it’s an entire system of activities and tasks which, when put together, result in the delivery of a specific service or product. Without a proper understanding of the processes in place, you can’t be clear on what you are improving. A good business process helps to deliver the maximum amount of value with minimum waste, which is important to stay competitive.

Under the continuous improvement model, an understanding of business processes is fundamental – how can you improve what you don’t understand? A step-by-step, well-built process should be clear to all stakeholders. This is not just a desktop exercise.  You will need to walk through each step of the process carefully – enact the process, fully understand the differences and where they are coming from and get “under the skin” of what is really happening within a process.  There will be many views on how a process operates – our goal here is to find the “best version of events”.

4.     Use Data for Process Improvement

Statistical methods are widely used in businesses today to track and measure performance. By analysing the data, you can identify areas that need improvement and what doesn’t. Quickly improving weak areas is an important part of the continuous improvement model. There are many tools for collecting data on a wide variety of systems, processes, and products.

5.     Trust and Empower People

Enabling employees to implement and benefit from change within their business area is fundamental to any continual improvement process.  Employees who are empowered to identify improvements and implement positive change themselves are more likely to enjoy the work that they perform, and it will also help build momentum towards an overall company culture of continual improvement.

Change is essential within any organisation for it to grow and adapt to a variety of external influences (the markets, customer attitudes, trends, socio-economic changes, etc). In order for organisations to change quickly, it is important that they are already able to manage change. A state of chaotic constant change can do more harm to an organisation than good.  But if an organisation is used to managing change, and can harness the power that controlled change can bring, they will outperform their competitors.

The major benefits of Continual Improvement really come when the implementation of improvements and positive change is completely decentralised.  When the teams responsible for the delivery of a product / process are also the ones responsible for ensuring the optimisation of that process.

Enabling employees and trusting them to make the right changes to improve processes will set in place a programme of improvements that will ultimately lead to a change in the organisation’s culture, and a steep change in its ability to sustain CI.

Employees are a crucial component of any business, so if you want to foster a productive office environment, it’s important to communicate your vision clearly and work as a team. You may also want to encourage your coworkers to contribute new ideas. By setting aside some time for brainstorming sessions, you’ll help the whole team move in the same direction.  Empowering employees to make decisions and changes in a process is key to ensuring a process continually evolves and improves.

6.     Drive for Perfection

A continual drive for improvement is based on a quest for perfection. Perfection is something that can never really be achieved, but it is necessary to set and achieve new goals consistently in order to keep moving forward- aim for the stars. When Henry Ford first set up his first production line in 1913, people would never have believed it was possible to build a car in a matter of hours.

Set ambitious goals.  If a process is taking 21 days – set a target of 3 days; then when you achieve this – set a target of 3 minutes. Continually challenge the perception of “acceptable”. Seek to achieve the exceptional! Identify what you believe can be improved then double it and aim higher. Acknowledge improvement, celebrate the wins, then set new goals and repeat.