A Ten Step Method To Continuous ImprovementContinual improvement is a type of change that is focused on increasing the effectiveness and/or efficiency of an organization to fulfill its policies and objectives. It is not limited to quality initiatives. Improvement in business strategy, business results, and customer, employee, and supplier business relationships can be subject to continual improvement. Putting it simply, it means getting better all the time'. Continual improvement should focus on enablers such as leadership, communication, resources, organization structure, people, and processes - in other words, everything in the organization, in all functions at all levels. Continual improvement should also lead to better results, such as, price, cost, productivity, time to market, delivery, responsiveness, profit, and customer and employee satisfaction. There has been a tendency in total quality management programs to focus on departmental improvements which do not improve business results overall. Departmental improvements may merely move the constraints or problem somewhere else in the process chain.
What continual improvement is not:Improvement is not about using a set of tools and techniques. Improvement is not going through the motions of organizing improvement teams and training people. Improvement is a result, so it can only be claimed after there has been a beneficial change in an organization's performance.
Gradual, incremental, or breakthrough?Continuous improvement is gradual never-ending change, whereas continual improvement is incremental change. Both types of improvements are what the Japanese call Kaizen. In the United States, Lean and Six Sigma improvement is common place. Breakthroughs are improvements, but in one giant leap - a step change. However, the method of achievement is the same, but breakthroughs tend to arise out of chance discoveries and could take years before being made.
When should continual improvement be started?
All managerial activity is directed either at control or at improvement. Managers are either devoting their efforts at maintaining performance, preventing change, or creating change, breakthrough, or improvement. If businesses stand still, they will lose their competitive edge, so improvements must be made to keep pace and stay in business. Every system, program, or project should provide for an improvement cycle. Therefore, when an objective has been achieved, work should commence on identifying what is meeting the requirements of the process, and what better ways of doing it.
There is no improvement without measurement. An organization must establish current performance before embarking on any improvement. If it does not, it will have no baseline from which to determine efforts.
There are ten steps to undertaking continual improvement:1. Determine current performance.
2. Establish a need to improve.
3. Obtain commitment and define the improvement objective.
4. Organize the diagnostic resources.
5. Carry out research and analysis to discover the cause of current performance.
6. Define and test solutions that will accomplish the improvement objective.
7. Produce improvement plans which specify how and by whom the changes will be implemented.
8. Identify and overcome any resistance to the change.
9. Implement the change.
10. Put in place controls to hold new levels of performance, and repeat step one.
Where do the ideas come from?If the organization has identified its critical success factors (that handful of things at which it must be supremely good in order to succeed), then focusing the attention of the continual improvement process onto one or more of these for a defined period might give rise to major improvements. No one in the organization, from top to bottom, is exempt from the responsibility for improvement. It is a normal component of all employees' jobs to search out ways of improving performance. Furthermore, no one in the organization can be expected to do this without help and the necessary support.
What tools should be used?The portfolio of tools used for continual improvement should be those which enable an organization to execute the ten steps above. These can include:
• Ishikawa fishbone diagram to examine cause and effect
• Failure mode and effects analysis to predict failure and prevent its occurrence
• Pareto analysis to identify the few influences on a situation which have the biggest impact
• Force field diagram to display the forces for and against change
• Charting techniques to demonstrate whether improvement is being achieved
Continual improvement is far more than a set of techniques.
For many organizations, it involves a radical change in attitudes. The defense of the status quo, and resistance to innovation, cannot be treated as normal management behavior. A fear of reprisals for reporting problems has to be replaced by congratulating people for identifying an opportunity to improve. Hoarding of good ideas within departmental walls must be a thing of the past as people share their knowledge and experience in the search for greater collective success. The importance of commitment
Continual improvement is about the entire organization and everything it does. It has to be a prime concern of executive management and its success depends upon commitment from the top. The commitment must also be highly visible. It is not enough to have a quality policy signed by the chief executive. If executive management does not demonstrate its commitment by doing what it says it will do, they cannot expect others to be committed.
Reward success !
The encouragement of people who have initiated improvements, however small, is an important component. This can be done in many ways, from displays on special improvement notice boards to the awarding of prizes. This is an area in which the culture and style of the organization has to be considered. The sudden introduction of a show business style into a staid environment may lead to cynicism rather than effective promotion of success.
