For employee empowerment and engagement, choose a continuous improvement program

 

To maximize labor productivity, the continuous improvement consultants focus on reducing waste, enhancing product quality and customer service, and driving efficiencies. Since downtime adversely affects delivery schedules, customer relations, and general internal operations, the manufacturing industry places a premium on implementing efficient processes to reduce waste.

 

Time spent waiting, whether by employees or by work orders waiting for employees, is a frequent source of waste. Hiring a continuous improvement consultant provides your staff with the right resources to reduce downtime, enhance customer service, increase cost savings, and boost profitability.

 

What is a continuous improvement program?

 

Being better over and over again is the goal of a continuous improvement program. It involves identifying areas that need improvement, trying out different strategies to make those improvements stick, and then regularly putting the strategies that work into practice. The practice of continuous improvement is not limited to manufacturing companies. Regardless of the size or industry of the organization, it is a successful method for enhancing procedures, offerings, and services.

 

If you work for a company that has recently embraced lean principles, you might be unfamiliar with how to drive continuous improvement. Nevertheless, learning more about continuous improvement is always a good idea, regardless of whether your business has recently implemented lean principles or is just looking to increase your knowledge with another practical management tool.

 

Tools used by Group50® to implement a continuous improvement program

 

Group50® is a continuous improvement consulting company specializing in business optimization and continuous improvement. These two actions complement one another. A business's optimization, change management using Group50’s Business Hierarchy of Needs ® framework, and the production of strategic results are three main objectives of the incremental process known as Continuous Improvement.

 

It can be applied throughout the company in all functional areas and is a component of an efficient strategic execution process. There are several parts to the operation of continuous improvement. To create these elements, they collaborate closely with senior leadership. Rarely does a business develop an organization-wide program without first putting it through a few pilot projects to show how effective it is and win buy-in from all departments.

 

Planning, preparation, time, and patience are required. An effective change management plan must include these four components in the correct order, support the organization's strategic goals, and have the support of senior leadership.

 

Why should you choose Group50®?

 

The continuous improvement consultants of Group50® have experience implementing continuous improvement programs in all functional areas of a business, including Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing, Distribution, and Finance.

 

Knowing which tools are needed for each of the seven business processes you live or die is a prerequisite for using Continuous Improvement tools at the business process level. When redesigning workflows and tracking performance, Group50®'s continuous improvement consultants know when to use tools like Value Stream Mapping, Statistical Process Control, Six Sigma, and Kaizen.

 

They offer a full range of training courses specifically for each client's needs and include a perpetual internal use license. Their advisors are equally knowledgeable about the Manufacturing, Distribution, and Services industries.

 

 

 

Key Factors to Drive Continuous Improvement in the Organization

Every corporate organization needs constant evolution in its strategy, tools, processes, and skills. This continuous improvement program is one of the most efficient ways an organization can use to harness their response to change and create competitive benefits. Companies must have a plan in place before launching continuous improvement projects. The following five elements are required for an effective program to be successful and long-lasting. Here we are sharing the key elements you should keep in mind, according to Group50 experts, for continuous improvement in the organization. 

•         Connect continuous improvement with strategic goals:-

You should not consider continuous improvement as a stand-alone activity or goal; it must be linked to and have an impact on strategic goals. Before you start with a continuous improvement program, you should focus on delivering a quick impact to gain credibility and momentum.  Choose your battles wisely, and don't try to fulfill all of the objectives at the same time. It is good to use strategic objectives and the Business Hierarchy of Needs® as a litmus test when it comes to assessing whether or not something should be done and how it should be done.

•         Don't go overboard with process excellence right away.

 It is an evolutionary process, and you need to know from where you are starting it. Most businesses have a lack of knowledge and resources to undertake a major continuous improvement initiative. Following the alignment of the Continuous Improvement program, the organization should begin small and build momentum by working on projects that address strategic and operational gaps. Projects that contribute to filling the gap will receive a lot of attention and have a big impact. You should put your efforts into making the project in each functional area with the process owners and key influencers so that everyone understands what to expect and how to handle continuous improvement. On your continuous improvement roadmap, keep Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) in mind. 

 

•         Instill a culture of continuous improvement in strategic execution.

 There is preparation work that needs to be done to lay the groundwork for sustaining a program that is geared to meet the company's long-term needs. A defined plan is required for high-performance cultures. Establish your organization's vision, mission, and values, as well as goals. You need to understand that continuous improvement is important for the organization. For this, organization need appropriate guidance, the right tools, and the right help.

•         Focus on evidence-not feelings.

 It is not important that you always do things the same way. Accept the process's discipline and constant data-driven conclusions. Measures and metrics should be emphasized. Make people accountable for their actions. This will be your new way of working. Remember that only the company's strategy and data are utilized to justify and measure the success of projects.

The first step in implementing any change is to assess your current situation in terms of strategic, operational, and organizational shortcomings. Group50's Business Hierarchy of Needs® is a good benchmark framework for identifying those gaps. Do you also want to hire a professional to ensure successful continuous improvement in your organization? If yes, then contact Group50 experts today. 

Take a Progressive March Forward in All Areas of Your Business With Continuous Improvement Effectiveness Program

 Many have long considered continuous improvement activities mostly relevant to manufacturing and related operational functions. However, continuing competitiveness and growth is built upon a steady, progressive march forward in all areas of a business. Continuous improvement process is an incremental process that is focused on optimizing a business, change management and delivering strategic results. This ongoing effort enables in improving the quality of the product or services by eliminating wastes. Its aim is to achieve consistency which can give you a competitive edge. Continuous improvement process has become a necessity for organizations in order to have market dominance. This process can benefit every aspect of your business and can drive financial results. Continuous improvement leads the organization towards innovation which is extremely vital for long term business success. By running a continuous improvement process, the senior management as well as the employees consistently focuses towards improving every aspect of their business by increasing effectiveness, efficiency and profitability.

Choosing the right program design requires an understanding of the strategic objectives, the maturity of the organization, the business life cycle and developing a plan and selecting the right tools and methods. For your organization, consult Group50, a leading continuous improvement consulting firm who understand the process of developing and sustaining a continuous improvement program as a result of implementing them in every functional area in a business. They also provide a full complement of training programs that are customized for the specific needs of each client and come with a perpetual internal use license.

And since a company’s Market Effectiveness activities and functions are the most market-oriented and customer-initiated parts of a business, continuous improvement effectiveness are just as important as anywhere else in the business.

Market effectiveness is about how well you service your marketplace and your customers. It includes how you create products and services, how you market, sell and service them and how you manage the product revenue lifecycle. Planning, measuring and managing market effectiveness is the most important activity in every enterprise. Market effectiveness drives profitable growth. For marketing effectiveness, organizations require knowledge, processes and skills to manage and enhance the relation between customers, products and delivery. It is determined by how well an organization’s marketing strategies are and how they help in generating far more ROI.

Market Effectiveness Assessment

The Market Effectiveness Assessment looks at how well a company defines, produces, manages, markets and sells its products. The focus of this assessment is the effectiveness of these interrelated processes with particular emphasis on these areas:

·         Clearly articulated business and product strategies

·         Product and portfolio management

·         Product development

·         Marketing effectiveness

·         Sales effectiveness

To fulfill all your continuous improvement objectives, you can consult Group50, a leading consulting firm that will look at the effectiveness of your company’s wide programs and processes. Organizations getting involved in their program will have the fundamental structure in place and the tools needed to commence their continuous improvement process, including how to track results even once these consultants leave. They offer a variety of tools and workshops, to ensure your company’s methods and processes serve your customers and markets effectively, enabling your business strategy. 

For more information, you can talk to a Group50’s continuous improvement expert.  

 

Steps to Sustainable Continuous Improvement Program

Continuous improvement is an incremental process that focuses on optimizing a business and change management to deliver strategic results. Continuous improvement process is carried out to make sure that the business processes and practices are efficient and effective as much as possible. Efficiency of a business process impacts hugely on the company’s profitability and productivity. It is essential for long term business success and promotes innovation.  

Steps involved in the continuous improvement program are as follows:

Build a business case

It requires a commitment from senior leadership to have a clear understanding of the strategic objectives of the company and the underlying issues. It’s important to identify the problem areas that need improvement and the appropriate way to clearly understand this is through the people who are directly affected or use that particular process. It helps in clearly understanding what is wrong with the ongoing or current process. This continuous improvement program lets you to find what the problem is and how it affects other processes.

Identify the appropriate methods, tools and training

Once the issues are identified in the current process, appropriate tools and methods are adopted to give extra attention or for damage control. A leading continuous improvement consulting firm like Group50 knows which tools are required for each of your business processes. To fix all the issues, their consultants know when to use tools such as Six Sigma and Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping and Statistical Process Control. They also provide training programs that are customized according to the specific needs of their clients.

Create an implementation program

After the problem in the process has been found, the best way or method to overcome it is to implement it. If any improvement has been suggested to an ongoing process then more efforts have to be taken to implement it. The team involved in that process has to be convinced why the change suggested is worthwhile to implement.  

Design the management review process

Once the changes have been implemented, all that has to be done is to review and monitor the process. Everything is thoroughly tested so that there aren’t any issues left down the line. And if everything goes well and the continuous improvementobjectives are fulfilled, then it’s time to move ahead with the applied changes.

Group50, a reputed continuous improvement consulting firm specializes in continuous improvement and uses the right tools to uncover the problems and suggest the ways to fix them. After the implementation of continuous improvement program, they assure that every employee within the company has the appropriate understanding and skills required to sustain the program once they leave. You can contact them to discuss continuous improvement needs of your organization.   

9 Key Elements of a Continuous Improvement Initiative for Businesses

Continuous improvement program is crucial for an organization as it offers comprehensive solutions that are quite apart from the project based initiatives. A single-use solution doesn’t enhance the capability of an organization to effectively deal with the potential future risk factors due to its very nature of lack in continuity. Continuous improvement or CI allows an organization to evolve into its optimal form, instead of attempting to identify, plan and address each and everything to be optimal right from the start. 

An integrative, continuous improvement program requires engagement at all levels within an organization and evaluate where exactly a particular process area is on its journey. Though continuous improvement has a broad range of elements under its gambit, here we will discuss about the nine key elements that are very essence of any CI initiative.

Clear objectives: You need to be clear on your objectives. For instance, do you want to innovate for risk-reduction in onsite projects or looking to reduce costs within a particular function, or just striving to fulfill the management’s mandate to integrate a recent acquisition by your company?

      Layered audits: There should be a weekly, monthly or quarterly audit of the projects. The auditor should also be audited on regular basis.
    Layered metrics: There should be layered metrics of the key value drivers at the senior leadership level that need to be fed into the metrics at each subsequent level to measure the progress of the key value drivers.'
    Knowledge sharing: Knowledge should be held by those who are required to take well-informed decisions. Knowledge sharing ensures that key performance indicators are communicated to the appropriate levels at the right time in an organization. The stakeholders should be allowed to take risks as a well-placed mechanism will allow them to learn from their mistakes.
     Change management: Potential changes that may have an effect on the expectations of outcome by the people and processes need to be identified. This can be achieved by recognizing a potential change and forecasting its possible outcomes in good time. A retroactive feedback loop will provide the business managers ability to identify and prepare for the effect of a change that will not result in measurable improvement and enhance a business’s ROI.
     Risk identification: The potential risks in business processes should be purposely identified to achieve operational efficiency and discipline.
    Risk control: Spontaneous approach envisions that all risks shouldn’t be mapped and addressed in one go. There should be continuous assessment of the effectiveness of risk control actions so that the business managers can learn from the minor incidents and take steps to prevent their future recurrence.
     Periodic review: Periodic review of an organization’s management system should be done to assess its effectiveness and adequacy in achieving the operational excellence of the business processes.
   Employee accountability: It can be achieved by conducting the assessment and audit of process compliance and effectiveness in an organization’s business environment.

If you need to implement a continuous improvement initiative in your company, you can approach the experts of Group50 business consultancy. Their continuous improvement program specialists will help you uncover the areas and opportunities within your business environment and build up on your existing capabilities for best outcomes for your organization. Visit Group50.com to contact them.

Understanding the Benefits of Continuous Improvement Concepts

Continuous improvement is a method to identify opportunities for reducing waste and streamlining work of any organization. Continuous Improvement (CI) culture helps an organization change the way it executes its business operation, improves its business and develops the workforce.

Important components of continuous improvement culture

Educated, empowered and motivated people working as a team are the key to a successful CI environment. Businesses driven by CI are clear about their mission & goal. To ensure high continuous improvement effectiveness, every member of the organization relates to their team and individual efforts to accomplish the goals and mission of the company. Every individual in a team understands how their individual work is contributing to the success of organization. Efficient workflows save time and money, allowing businesses to minimize waste and effort.

Management demonstrates its support to the organization by investing in the training and skill enhancement of employees. They eliminate barriers that prevent individuals and teams from accomplishing their goals. Besides this, it ensures that the work of employees is aligned to the mission and goal of the organization.

What continuous improvement gives to the organization?

Streamlined processes require less resource, time and effort, thus delivering quicker results. It also results in the reduction of cost per customer served. The improvement of different processes also provides value to the organization. Operational cost is lowered due to the improvement of different processes.

CI creates higher quality service outputs and reduces the need for rework. Due to continuous improvement, an organization finds more time to accomplish their goals that they couldn’t achieve earlier due to the shortage of time. Organizations can deliver better and more services due to their ability to accomplish more with the same amount of resource and staff.

What continuous improvement gives to the customers?

Systematic implementation of CI culture helps organizations to easily meet or even exceed the customers’ expectations. It gives organizations the capacity to serve a large number of customers. It helps organizations to expand their services beyond their existing capacity.

Continuous improvement helps organization to develop a clear understanding of what the customer experience should look like and what the organization must do to satisfy the customers’ needs as completely as possible. As a result, organizations are able to provide the services and products to the customers they need and desire. Organization provides customers the service they require with a level of quality that matches the customers’ expectations.

Significance of restructuring services in continuous improvement

Turnaround and restructuring consultants help organizations stabilize finance and operations. They reassure that proactive measures are carried out by all parties-in-interest to enhance the value of organization.

Restructuring consultants work with the organizations to:

• Implement cash conservation guidelines and controls
• Facilitate communications processes
• Quarterback the restructuring process
• Develop / review cost reduction initiatives and execution milestones
• Manage creditor negotiations
• Evaluate revenue enhancement opportunities
• Implement operational restructuring
• Stabilize operations
• Develop and sensitize business plans

Final thought

The implementation of a CI culture in an organization can be an extremely challenging task and does take lot of efforts. However, if the organization is going to achieve its goal of providing exceptional services to the customers, it is a challenge worth taking.