PDCA

Continuous Improvement: The Simple Philosophy That Can Help Your Business Thrive

Posted on by Adam Payne

Continuous Improvement, The 1% rule, or Marginal Gains, whatever terminology you want to call it, they are all similar in philosophy and application. It is the idea of focusing on small incremental improvements to grow your business easily. The most successful businesses are always striving to improve to stay ahead of their competition.

In this blog I’ll explain how the philosophy of small incremental improvements can improve your business. This is a technique that many successful companies use in addition to Lean Thinking – a company’s philosophy of eliminating waste. It has been used for decades and can be found in micro businesses right through to corporate business models across industry and service sectors.

I’ve been a lean Sensei for 25+ years and implemented these small incremental changes in Hairdressers to Big Corporate Manufacturers. By implementing these marginal gains, it’s possible to make a huge impact on the performance of your company in a relatively short period of time. It’s Simple! and the data has proven time and time again that this method works!

You CAN NOT ignore the role of Continuous Improvement in business – and here’s why.

What is Continuous Improvement?

“Be Better Today Than You Were Yesterday, Plan To Be Better Tomorrow Than You Are Today” is a quote I have lived by for 25+ years of my working career.

The 1% Rule is a relatively new contender but has now become a business management philosophy that states that you should focus on improving your product or service by at least 1% every day. It was developed by Sir Dave Brailsford, former performance director of British Cycling, and used as a means to achieve micro improvement in the British Cycling Team. The concept behind the 1% rule is simple: if you focus on small improvements, you can achieve significant results over time.

The concept of the 1% rule in my opinion is based on Kaizen, which is Japanese for “continuous improvement.” Kaizen was first introduced to the Western World in the 1970s by Toyota, who taught that companies should embrace a culture of continuous improvement rather than trying to maximise efficiency one big hit at a time. Kaizen aims to reduce inefficiency in its 3 major forms. These are muda (waste), muri (overburdening work), and mura (inconsistency of work).

When we look at these strategies, we can see how the power of tiny gains really makes a difference.

1% Improvement Every Day 1.01365 = 37.78%

1% Decline Every Day 0.99365 = 0.03%

How does the Continuous Improvement work in business?

The PDCA Cycle, also known as the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, is a model for continuous improvement that uses four phases to drive process changes through the organisation. This linked to the 3 forms of in-efficiency, muda (waste), muri (overburdening work), and mura (inconsistency of work) gives a superb structure and focus for all employees.

The PDCA Cycle Explained:

Plan: In this phase, you identify a problem or opportunity for improvement. You also create a plan for how to solve the problem or capitalise on the opportunity.

Do: In this phase, you carry out your plan and implement your solution.

Check: In this phase, you review your work to see if it was successful in achieving its objectives and if there are any unintended consequences of your actions.

Act: In this phase, you make adjustments based on what you learned in the check phase and continue with another iteration of the cycle to drive continuous improvement.

By continuously improving your processes, your organisation can achieve higher levels of performance at lower cost. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also helps an organisation achieve its goals faster.

The key to this and building on the marginal gains is to empower everyone to make these short, sharp improvement cycles small enough to be managed at a local level. This will enable them to use their creativity and judgment to find the most effective solution for their teams and customers.

The second aspect of this is that the improvements have to be visible and celebrated. This is not just about being proud of what you have achieved, but also about helping others see what you have done. This creates an environment where people are constantly looking for new ways to improve, which in turn leads to innovation.

The third aspect is that it has to be built into every process in a business. You cannot expect people just to do it because you asked them to – they need processes that encourage continuous improvement across everything they do from how they order stock through the distribution system all the way through customer support.

Why use the Continuous Improvement?

Continuous improvement is a process that can be used in every business setting of all sizes and all sectors, from small businesses to large corporations.

It’s Good for Business

The benefits of continuous improvement can be seen throughout the business world. By using this approach, companies are able to stay competitive while providing better quality products and services at lower prices. This helps them grow their customer base while increasing their profit margin through increased sales volume.

It’s Good for Employees

Continuous improvement is also good for employees because it provides them with job security. If you have implemented a continuous improvement program in your company, then you have created an environment where everyone is constantly making improvements which makes your company more competitive in the marketplace and less likely to be outsourced in favour of cheaper labour costs elsewhere.

  • People feel empowered because they have more opportunities for growth and development.
  • Employees feel more engaged because they feel like their work matters and makes a difference.
  • The company attracts better talent because employees want to work for companies that are doing great things for their customers.

Does Continuous Improvement really work?

Yes! Continuous Improvement absolutely works!

I’ve implemented and completed Lean Thinking and Continuous Improvement Projects in 100+ businesses over my career and have no doubt on the impact it can make.

On my very first project back in the 1990’s we took a machine change over from 480 mins to sub 20 mins, saving a £250K capital expenditure. As Senior Exec I’ve saved £10m+ year on year through the implementation of Continuous Improvement. I’ve seen every employee within a business take pride in completing numerous small incremental changes that compound in delivering a huge result.

In order to achieve these results, you need to be prepared to put in the work. It’s not an overnight process—it takes patience as well as an unwavering commitment to creating positive change at every level of your organisation. But once you’ve seen the first results, you’ll find it’s worth every minute invested!

You’ve only got to read some of our Case Studies to realise the potential.

Takeaway: Challenging yourself and your employees to make small improvements every day can have a dramatic effect on your overall business growth.

Leadership Standard Work

Posted on by Adam Payne

Now most of us know and understand Standard Work, and hopefully when I say standard work your thinking of Process Capacity Tables (PCT), Standard Work Combination Tables (SWC), Standard Work Layout (SWL) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and NOT just standard operating procedures????.

As a refresher

  • PCT – illustrates the production capacity of each process involved in producing a part.
  • SWC – combines human movement and machines cycle times based on Takt time.
  • SWL – A cell which is able to meet changing Customer requirements, as identified by Takt Time, with any number of Team Members, whilst maintaining productivity, without the waste of waiting.
  • SOP – is the document that details the current best method of operation. It includes quality checks, safety checks and any other activities that are included in the standard operation.

Now standard work also applies to management! Known as Leadership Standard Work.

Not to be confused:

Standard Work = a tool used to provide consistency of outcome

Leadership Standard Work = provides a structure and routine

It follows these three keys to leadership

  • Go See – spend time on the frontlines, be it, manufacturing, service, health sector, finance, etc.
  • Ask Why – use the “Why technique daily”
  • Show Respect – Respect your people

Leadership standard work is about walking the frontlines, seeing the abnormal from normal conditions. What is the work that’s is being done? What is the process? Is it adhered to? Are the business results being achieved? What is the next improvement that has been identified?

Leadership Standard Work in the case of a Production Manager may involve

  • A daily plan
  • A workplace walk across all areas
  • A conversation with a person from each area
  • Checking that Senior Management walks are completed
  • Is the 5S to the agreed standard?
  • Are actions being closed out?
  • Etc.

As we go up the hierarchy the standard work may become weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
A Senior Manager or General Manager may do the following:

  • Weekly frontline walk to touch base with associates, supervisors in each area to understand how the plant is running.
  • Spend time in the problem solving meetings, asking why, coaching and mentoring
  • Checking all critical audits are complete?
  • Are standards being adhered to?
  • Etc.

Leadership Standard Work Audit

Frontline associates see things first and we want to let them know what to do and feel at ease in highlighting the abnormal from normal conditions.

Leadership Standard Work is based on walking the frontline, observing waste and abnormalities, asking questions and supporting the improvement process.

By embedding this practice, leaders can begin to create a culture that:

  • Solves problems quickly and permanently.
  • Drives continuous improvement.
  • Develops the next generation of leaders.
  • Make continual gains in performance.
  • Embeds the culture of team working.

My early appreciation and benefit of this practice was implementing it at Unipart early 2000’s. It was implemented throughout the structure, from Team Leader to Managing Director, an example of which is the image above, showing the leadership pyramid/timing and Senior Manager standard work. Due Diligence is key to this practice, not paying it lip service or tick in the box mentality.

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One of the Least used Tools – Standardised Work

Posted on by Adam Payne

Standardised Work is one of the most powerful but least used tools within business, yet it is one of the foundations to Lean Manufacturing

From my experience “without standards we do not have continuous improvement only chaos”.

The declarations I have heard, “we don’t make cars”, “You see, we are different”, “We’re unique….this isn’t an assembly line!”

My response to such statements is “everyone works a process that process can either be destroying or creating value added for the customer, which would you rather it be. Whether you’re building cars or delivering life-saving patient care, it takes a sequence of highly coordinated tasks and processes to deliver the end result. When this sequence of tasks is standardised, you’re on your way to fundamentally improving and eliminating significant sources of waste.”

Standardised work is the simple understanding that every task that can be repeated requires a written instruction of the most efficient and effective way to complete it to the highest quality Standard. We then use the selected standard work process each time the task is performed ensuring that the same results are achieved, in the same amount of time, regardless of who completes the task.

Now, we must understand here that the first step is to document what the current best practice is, this may be not be delivering the outcome you require currently, but without first understanding, how will you control any changes and what improvements have had what effect? We can’t, it would be guess work!

Key Elements of Standard Work

  • TAKT
  • Process Capacity Table
  • Work Combination Table
  • Work Layout
  • Standard Operating Procedure

Standard Work Documents

Takt Time – “Takt” is a German word which refers to the pace or beat of a musical composition, the metronome. The calculation of Takt time gives us the rate of production for meeting customer demand

Work sequence – “The time for an employee to do a prescribed task and return to his original stance.” – Taiichi Ohno
Standard inventory – In manufacturing this refers to parts, but in other sectors it can refer to applications, data inputs or other resources necessary to perform the job.

Bear in mind the following

Involve employees in the process – they are the ones who determine the best practice for each task. This also helps ensure engagement and ultimately adherence to the standard work.

Focus on the details – it must be in-depth to be useful in reducing variation. No detail should be omitted. Even the little nuances need to be understood, these are improvements that can be engineered out. (I can remember a process I worked with where the Associate had to lean on one part for the other part to fit, a stack up of tolerances had occurred. This knack had to be written in the standard work until we could engineer it out, imagine the amount of lost time/production if others weren’t aware of this)

Use visuals – Images, photographs, diagrams and examples will help bring your standard work definition to life and increase the likelihood of consistent compliance. A picture is worth a 1000 words.

Make it accessible – The documentation must be accessible at the time and place that the work is to be performed.

Innovate – While you don’t want employees deviating from the standard work process, there must be a method to give consideration to changes when new conditions or new ideas warrant revision. A governance process will increase the likelihood that changes will be analysed and approved rather than being implemented ad-hoc.


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The Process of Improvement for any Business

Posted on by Adam Payne

Standardise

In standardising a process you want to be able to see the Abnormal from Normal conditions. When the process is disrupted by an obstacle or issue, you can see it. The Standardise, Do, Check, Act cycle.

Stabilise

Now you can begin to systematically simplify, Combine, Eliminate the issues to Stabilise the process. Whether it’s achieving TAKT, a cycle time, changeover, order entry, bid-no bid process, etc. The Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle.

Standardise and Stabilise play off of one another. (and you must be applying the rigorous PDCA management process as a business, if you can’t do that or sustain it ultimately you will fail)

Optimise

The drive towards perfection should always be sort within our processes across all functions, departments, businesses. This is optimisation, in driving for continuous improvement. Once we have standardised and stabilised our processes internally we can also start to look externally within our supply chain and support the SDCA and PDCA within those businesses that are struggling, remember we want a way of understanding the Abnormal from Normal conditions, no reason we can’t apply that in measuring our supply chain and why not pass on the learning, we all benefit. (and I don’t mean how some OEM’s have applied this before, internally a mess but let’s concentrate and beat up the supplier, short termism!)

Optimise also goes hand in hand with Grow in my eyes, all of the improvements align to our Strategy, and our Strategy will have new business, innovation in our products, so optimise and utilise all of those resources to ensure future growth.

Grow

Apply the SDCA, PDCA into Sales and Marketing processes. Integrate the tools and techniques of Lean Manufacturing, Operational Excellence with the proven sales methods and drive sustainable increases in sales performance and profitability.

In improving the efficiency of our company’s sales processes, we enable the sales and Customer facing teams to reduce waste and duplication and free up much needed Customer contact time in the sales cycle creating greater customer value.

As the orders come in, we come back to our Standardise and Stabilise cycle and the cycle repeats.

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