Tools And Methodologies For Implementing Continuous Improvement Strategies And Objectives

Continuous improvement (CI) focuses on ongoing improvement of products, services and processes, through incremental and breakthrough improvements. It may include improving the smallest change that may add up over time, and goes hand-in-hand with adapting to change and building resilience. The idea behind continuous improvement is that no process is perfect, and there is always room for improvement. As per experts, such as Group50 consulting, continuous improvement objectives should be designed in a way to make an impact quickly for credibility and momentum. Its consultants use continuous improvement strategies and Business Hierarchy of Needs® as the litmus test for deciding if something should be done and how it should be done.

Business Hierarchy of Needs® is Group50’s change management framework that consists of three levels of activities that make up an effective change management process for creating continuous improvement strategies, optimizing the organization, and implementing change. Group50’s consultants also emphasize not to overdo process excellence at the outset as an organization first needs to understand the base it is operating from. Most organizations don’t have the skills or resources to launch a major Continuous Improvement program. Moreover, CI needs to be aligned, and a company needs to start small and gain some momentum by working on projects that deal with strategic and operating gaps.

Supporting long-term needs of the company

Continuous improvement and change management go hand-in-hand, and prep work needs to be done to create the basis for sustaining a program that is designed to support the long-term needs of the company. High performance cultures require clear continuous improvement strategies, and set continuous improvement objectives throughout the organization. For this, the organization needs to have direct direction, right tools, and the right support. However, focusing solely on CI methodologies can limit progress, diminish innovation, and restrain the organization’s ability to realize its full CI potential. For this, Group50’s consultants use the best tool for the activity picking from Six Sigma, Lean, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Business Process Re-engineering, and other techniques to deliver results.

Sustaining a continuous improvement program

The organization should focus on data, not emotions, and embrace the discipline of the process, and rigor of data-driven decisions. This should become a new company culture. A company’s continuous improvement strategies and data can be used to justify projects and measure their success. Since continuous improvement drives long term change, there are a series of steps required in the planning and implementation of a Continuous Improvement program. These consist of activities related to continuous improvement assessment, organizational assessment, planning and implementation, and sustaining a continuous improvement program.

Six Sigma and Total Quality Management

Implementing lean improvement techniques in continuous improvement will help in streamlining workflows, allowing an organization to reduce wasted time and effort. Six Sigma focuses on improving the quality of business processes, ensuring consistency, and increasing performance. On the other hand, Total Quality Management (TQM) holds all parties responsible for producing quality outputs. Having everyone contribute to quality improvement increases customer satisfaction and employee involvement. However, it is important to focus on the intersection of people, process, information technology, and cobotics, and not start a project without upfront planning, and making it a part of the strategic execution culture.

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