Key Steps to Continuous Improvement

The right way to achieve process improvement is through the core activity of identifying, quantifying, and eliminating waste. This activity, when done on a continuous basis by people educated in the use of the tools of process improvement, will bring higher and higher quality at lower and lower costs and can result in a world-class operation.

Success, therefore, involves getting people to develop the right mindset and use the right language and tools every day, in all their activities, as part of the culture-change required in moving to a system of ongoing Continuous Improvement. A series of related steps must then be taken so people can identify problems, causes and fundamental solutions, and prioritize to work on the right things. To ensure success, a follow-up system to assure that processes stay fixed is also required.

Read more...

Root Causes & Elusive Solutions

When seeking solutions to a work-related or process-related problem, people frequently miss opportunities for identifying sustainable solutions because they misunderstand the true root cause or causes associated with their problem.

Root causes are tricky and elusive things, and the most common culprit is an untested conclusion. Once people become convinced that they understand what’s causing a problem and that they know what’s needed to fix it, the search for the root cause stops. Consequently, group-think frequently prevents people from digging into the root of their problem.

Few things are more dangerous than common knowledge – when it is wrong!

Finding Possible Root Causes
Brainstorming and using the “5 Why” approach – a method developed by Toyota founder, Sakichi Toyoda, to identify the root cause by asking ‘why’ five times – is a good way to identify potential root causes, but only if you follow-through all the way to the “root” level.

Conway Management Company will be releasing a white paper on the best ways to identify and test root causes - we'll keep you posted!

Breakthrough Solutions

When trying to improve your work or work processes, have you ever had trouble trying to identify fresh ideas, more innovative approaches or truly breakthrough solutions? If so, have you often wondered where these new ideas that lead to lasting solutions come from?

Here are five different approaches to identifying new ideas and solutions:

1. Studying the work, which often produces new ideas and solutions
2. Classic brainstorming and the 6-3-5 method, which can produce a large quantity of ideas quickly
3. Humor, random association and other techniques that improve the originality and quality of ideas
4. Tools such as the Six Thinking Hats and Heuristic Discovery, which systematically change one’s perspective to open-up new possibilities for solving problems
5. Imagineering perfection, which helps you surface possibilities to leap past incremental improvements

If you would like to read more about each of these steps, click here!

Productivity Poka Yokes?

A poka-yoke is a specially designed feature of a process or a product that either prevents common mistakes or catches them before they cause trouble. "Poka-yoke" comes from the Japanese, meaning "inadvertent error" and "avoidance" and was popularized by the engineer Shigeo Shingo in his crusade to improve quality by eliminating human errors.

Whether our goal is to improve productivity, quality, safety, customer satisfaction, or return on assets, "human error" or failure to follow the process is a usually one of the causes. Since our workforce is made up of people and nobody is perfect, how do we get to a lasting solution? We design a poka-yoke.

We see and use poka-yokes every day. For example, years ago, a dead car battery due to forgetfulness was a common problem. Since then, a poka-yoke was designed to sound a warning bell if the lights are left on. A "warning" poka-yoke is a big help, but not fool proof. I know from parental experience that four teenagers can exit a car without one of them pausing to wonder why the alarm is ringing. A more powerful poka-yoke is built into newer cars and turns the lights on and off automatically. You must make a special effort to leave the lights on in these cars.

Read more about "poka yokes..."

Are You Serious About Improvement?

When we talk about Improvement, it is with a capital I. True Improvement is more than just a project here or there. It is a system where people work together within, throughout and across departments, divisions, product lines and supply chains, looking for better, faster, cheaper, more innovative or more reliable ways to achieve organizational goals.

Improvement is both large scale and small. On a macro level, it is looking at how an organization is or should be structured, what its strategy is (could or should be), helping people get ready for change. On a smaller scale, it is providing the help and support individuals need to bring about change and achieve excellence.

At Conway Management Company, we use imagineering - visualizing how things could or should be - and then devise ways to help organizations and individuals move towards perfection. We have developed a rigorous methodology for attacking waste (opportunities for improvement) that helps people to work on projects in a logical sequence. This methodology includes a series of related steps that identifies problems, causes, fundamental solutions and a follow-up system to assure processes stay fixed. It is comprehensive and, we have found, ideal for organizations that are serious about Improvement.

Is your organization serious about improvement? I so, we welcome your thoughts and comments!