Robin Tidd continues his look Continuous Improvement and/or Lean Six Sigma with a focus on the rewards that companies can see from implementing such schemes.
By Robin Tidd
Implementation
It is important to understand why it can be so difficult to implement change and transformation towards excellence. If we understand the key ingredients we can think about circumventing the difficulties.
Often the responsibility for introducing the transformation into the business in the first instance lies with the external trainers or consultancies. Lots of larger organisations recruit one or more Continuous Improvement managers.
One would assume that the commitment of the CEO was present at the outset, or the process would not even have started. But how can top management commitment be sustained, for it is that factor which is the most fundamental to the success of any change 'project'. If the commitment is there from the top, in the medium or long term it will succeed. Some CEOs just 'acquire it' as a means to an end but then set it aside when it conflicts with their own philosophy. This lack of commitment is at the root of most failures.
So what can we do to help to underpin the commitment? I believe that we have a massive contribution to make at all stages, mainly using management information, but also using our management and organisational knowledge and training.
Below is a list of some of the attributes of good culture. Look out for the role played in this by good information and good management practice.
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Good cultures deal in facts, in (relative) real time. Good teams do not argue in meetings about ‘what is’ but about what to do about it. They gain strength and capability from this, but they need Performance Indicators to tell them about key aspects in processes at all times preferably real time.
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PROPER PIs show the 'process leaks' and the opportunities for improvement and a good culture thrives on exposing errors.
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People in the front line are the experts in ‘what is’ and are very willing to help make a business process run more smoothly.
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Training is everything to a culture of continuous improvement. I heard a really good line on this from the owner of an award-winning business recently. They organise things so that the average employee spends 200 hours a year in training and improvement workshops. Fantastic! The MD was asked by a visiting MD 'what happens if we train them and they leave?' His answer was ‘what happens if you don’t train them and they stay? This sounds like pure faith, but this company has gone from £4m to £17m turnover going on £23m in nine years.
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People must be in dialogue and understand each others' area of expertise. Many an organisation has set fire ('to the blue touch paper') to dozens of front line improvements only to find the CFO saying that these efforts were yielding nothing in the bottom line.
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A gentle flavour of competition may be helpful but the overall feeling should be 'all one team'. A more valid reason for comparing each others’ performance would be to learn from understanding of variation and to examine different approaches. This cannot be done if people are protective of their knowledge.
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Although this is being done to improve profitability, quality and productivity, it is important to recognise that changes which improve morale also make sense.
Finally such words as rhythm, routine, discipline, helpful attitude, consistency and persistency are all good descriptors. All of the successful organisations have quite definite routines and patterns of behaviour. They know what their reasons for having sustained the culture are and they continue to think about behaviours and evolve routines. Their attention to KPIs, to review meetings, improvement drives and development is usually a daily routine ... sometimes, with some things ... hourly. This 'short interval control' is incredibly powerful. It takes commitment, but that is what is needed.
I hope you work in the kind of organisation which feels it can benefit from implementing these schemes. When you see it working it is a very pleasant experience and is actually simple and common sense, getting the best from ordinary people in an ordinary company to achieve extraordinary results.
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