Basic steps to big improvements

There are various acronyms on offer for how to go about improvement projects viz:

  • PDCA from TQM – Plan, Do, Check, Amend
  • DMAIC from Six Sigma – Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control
  • SREDIM from Work Study – Setup, Record, Examine, Develop, Implement, Maintain

 

All boil down to much the same process

Managers, whatever their level and team size, need to take just five basic steps to make big productivity improvements viz

1. Produce punchy corporate plans i.e. one page summaries for all employees – if they exist, they’re not seen or understood by most managers, never mind employees – most lie unused, gathering dust on shelves once written

2. Instal a set of performance measures – most managers have lots of measures but lack 80% of the measures they need

3. Analyse the potential to improve – most managers don’t know how to do this, not least because they don’t have good measures to start with

4. Run special improvement projects – again, most managers don’t know how to do this – and, if any projects are started by in-house teams, most run out of stamina to finish the course well before big improvements are achieved

5. Employ CI – Continuous improvement – most in the West ignore the huge benefits possible from seeking to improve any and everywhere, on a daily basis

It’s little wonder productivity improvement is slow at best, whatever the organisation – or nation

 

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