Tipsblog

Continuous Improvement Tip

A Step-by-Step Process for Focused Continuous Improvement

Organizations routinely struggle with selecting and verifiably making continuous improvements. The following seven steps can be used as an improvement process guide.

1) Select the project.
It is always advisable to select projects and activities in accordance with the company’s core objectives/themes. In addition to projects being selected in accordance with strategic objectives, there should also be justification for one project over another. Data should quantify, qualify and help define the opportunity. The data collected here helps to prioritize resources, frame goals and set measurements for improvement.

2) Establish a non-degrading starting point.
Stabilize the situation before starting. As relevant, restore to a like new status. This step alone will often have a significant positive impact. Understanding and addressing the root cause(s) of the instability may, in deed, resolve the issue. Bottom line, it is not feasible to invest in a lost cause. (I.e. why paint the car when the tires are flat and the engine is blown.)

3) Select improvement targets.
Utilize problem-solving tools, skills and analysis to select improvement target(s). This step more clearly quantifies and qualifies the before picture and sets the expectations for the after picture. Show the tools, processes, assumptions, conclusions and the data for improvement targets.

4) Evaluate and select countermeasures.
Quantify, qualify and select improvements. This may be an individual or team effort depending on the project and skill level of those involved. Cost benefit and or risk analysis is typically utilized here to understand feasibility or impact of options. Here again, show the process and the data that lead to the selected countermeasure(s). Do not hesitate to involve people outside of your functional area for input and validation regarding the evaluation process and selection of countermeasures. Particularly, get the finance department to help with the cost benefit returns and analysis. Also include areas, such as Engineering, Operations, and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), in the evaluation and selection of relevant countermeasures.

5) Implement countermeasures.
Implement the solution(s) and evaluate the results. Careful, do not make the changes and walk away. Evaluate the results. Note positive or negative changes. Any new problems created? Iterate through steps 1–4 as necessary.

6) Confirm effectiveness.
Let the data speak. Once the countermeasure has been implemented, prove that the issue has been resolved and that no counterproductive results have been achieved. Effectiveness must be demonstrated over a period of time. Confirm the improvement with defensible data. Show the Return On Investment (ROI), Economic Value Added (EVA), increase in uptime, improved throughput, mitigated risk or other accepted evaluation metric.

7) Standardize.
With the results confirmed, standards are established to sustain the improvements and further deploy lessons learned to other applicable areas. At minimum, this typically involves documentation and training. (Maintain the gain!)

Tip provided by Todd White, CMRP,
Management Resources Group, Inc.,
(203) 264-0500

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