by James Rosenegk
I once worked with a service group who were incredibly focussed on continuous improvement. All staff at all levels were engaged in the programme, they met weekly to discuss performance from the previous week, what was expected to happen during the next week, how current improvement projects were running and to identify future opportunities for improvement. 5S and visual control were well understood and the discipline in following and using them was right where any excellent company should be. Senior Management praised the group for all their efforts and improvements, key customers raved about their “showcase workplace” and visitors were blown away by the 15 minute repair process.
But there was just one big thing that let this team down; customers still complained about repair cycle time.
What? You mean that even by today’s standards 15 minutes wasn’t short enough?
Well yes and no; 15 minutes was outstanding but it turned out that although this had been achieved with some incredible teamwork, great analysis and creative problem-solving this slice of time was just a very small fraction of the overall repair process. That was still being measured in days and even weeks!
You see, even if you used the world’s best food processor to make a cake – one that you could throw all the ingredients into at one time and have them mixed in moments – it still wouldn’t significantly reduce the overall time to make and bake a cake which end-to-end would still be nearly 30 minutes for a basic Victoria Sandwich! The cake making process, like the repair process is surrounded by other activities which may take significantly longer than the step of mixing and it is those other steps that when optimised and perfected may create significantly better overall results than today.
This is so often the case with problem-solving and process improvement initiatives. The skills and tools are taught, projects are identified and then off everybody runs optimising their work in isolation of their peers and internal suppliers and customers. So what happens is sub-optimisation of the whole organisation, resulting in many significant stand-alone improvements that have minimal overall affect because there is a lack of joined up thinking. Yet everyone walks around patting themselves on the back for having made great improvements everywhere. Meanwhile customers are still unhappy with the overall service and start to look elsewhere.
So stop just doing things right. Refocus your efforts, take control of your improvement programmes and identify the things that really will make a difference to your customers and bottom line. Then take the first steps in Doing the Right Things Right!
Your call to action:
- If you already have a continuous improvement programme in place schedule a programme review now to ensure that you are focusing projects on doing the right things right rather than just doing things right. If you would like help to conduct an independent review then contact us via email at directors@kaizen-training.com
- If you don’t have a continuous improvement programme in place then there is no better time to start. Email us at directors@kaizen-training.com so that we can arrange a time to talk through how we can help you start.
