Importance to Facilitate Continuous Improvement - Assignment Example

Facilitate continuous improvement Assessment Task 1: Outline your role as a leader of your business unit in the contribution to quality that your organization delivers to its customers, both internal and external customers. I will put emphasis on planning and organization features in a number of facets of the quality improvement process. This will take form of developing a clear long-term approach for Total Quality Management (TQM) which is integrated with other strategies such as operation and human resources, information technology, and the business plans of the organization, and of building products, and service quality into designs and processes, developing prevention- based activities, and putting quality assurance procedures into place which facilitate closed loop corrective action. Similarly, planning the approach to be taken to the effective use of quality systems, procedures, and quality management tools and techniques, in the context of the overall strategy is important, as is developing the organization and infrastructure to support the improvement activities and pursuing standardization, systemization, and simplification of work instructions, procedures and systems. I will also apply the use of quality management tools and techniques in order to support and develop a process of continuous quality improvement. I will use the tools and techniques to facilitate improvement and integrate into the routine operation of the business. I will develop a route map for the tools and techniques to aid get the processes of improvement initiation, and also make the employees use them by involving them and letting them feel that they are making a contribution, and enhancing quality awareness , and making a change in behavior and attitude, and also encouraging the successful conclusion of projects. One of the quality management tools that I will enhance is the employee education. Employees should be provided with the level of training and education to improve their general awareness of quality management concepts, skills, and attitudes are appropriate and suited to the continuous improvement philosophy; and it also provides a common language throughout the business. A formal program of education and training needs will be planned and provided on a timely and regular basis to enable them cope with the increasing complex problems. I will also make available the means of suggestion schemes to various forms of team work and consider the broad achievement of employee’s interests, participation and contribution in the process of quality improvement, and also seeking and listening their views by acting upon their suggestions. Consideration needs will be given to the operating characteristics of the employed teams, how they fit into the organization structure and the roles of member, team leader, sponsor, and facilitator. TQM will also stress the need to recognize positive performance and achievement, and celebrate and reward success (Ihlen 2009). This will need to be constantly encouraged through active communication. Measurement and feedback needs to be made continually against a series of key results indicators, both internally and externally. The later are the most vital as they relate to consumer perceptions of product and services improvement. The indicators should be developed from existing business measures, external (functional and competitive), and internal benchmarking, as well as customer surveys and other means of external input. This will enable progress and feedback to be assessed against a roadmap or checkpoint(s). From these measurements, action plans will be developed to meet objectives, and to identify the bridge gaps. TQM will stress the need to create an organizational environment which is conducive for continuous quality improvements, and which everyone can participate and work together. Quality assurance will also be required to be integrated in all of the organizations processes and functions. This is often framed in terms of changing peoples’ behavior, working practices and attitudes. The following are the typical: Everybody in the organization must be involved in “improving” the processes under their control on a continuous basis and take personal responsibility for their own quality assurance. Defects must not be passed, in whatever form, to the next process. Employees must inspect their own work. Mistakes must be viewed as an improvement opportunity. Each person must be committed to satisfying their customers, both internal and external. Honesty, care, and sincerity must be an integral part of daily business life. Assessment Task 2: What continuous improvement models have you discovered whilst undertaking the training. Please select two (2) models and outline how you would explain their functionality to your peers. i. PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT, and, ii. KAIZEN Continuous development models. a) PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT: This is the most popular methodology for continuous improvement, plan-do-check-act (PDCA), which was developed by Walter Stewart. It emphasizes the role of learning in improvement. PDCA is a model of continuous improvement. By developing a measuring action plan, decision making based on facts can happen, putting the plan into action. The cycle must be continuous to achieve important improvements. Figure: 1.1. As depicted in Figure 1.1, the four steps of the PDCA/PDSA cycle are: 1. Plan. Recognize the opportunity for improvement and gather the data or do the research to answer, "What are the key targets the team expects this proj­ect to achieve?" When a problem is identified, the situation needs to be observed and data gathered to give a better definition of the problem. A pop­ular and very effective tool for root cause analysis is the five whys tool. By asking the question "Why?" at least five times, a series of causes and effects results. This domino effect should end with the root cause. After the root cause has been iden­tified, a countermeasure needs to be created and planned out. Know what the criteria is so progress can be measured—how will the team know if it was worth it? Or how will the team know if it is working? Data need to be gathered to deter­mine whether the plan will work . 2. Do. Communicate the plan and implement according to the plan. As Paul Palmes says in his mp3 audio cast on the PDCA cycle, "If you change horses in midstream ... people drown."1 Communication is important. Everyone affected by the implementation of the countermeasure needs to be involved. If possible, the proposed solution should be deployed on a small scale first with as much data being collected as possible noting the conditions that occur as the change is being implemented (Brown, Blackmon & Cousins 2001). 3. Check. Check according to the plan just as the team implements according to plan (in the do cycle). The team analyzes the information collected from the do phase. Did the action produce the desired results? Were new problems created? 4. Act. A decision is made on whether it is feasible to adopt the change. If the change is adopted, the team uses the PDCA cycle as a continuous improvement cycle and looks for more opportunities for improvement. Sometimes as a result of the check phase it's decided that the plan should be altered and the PDCA cycle starts over again. Other possible actions include: abandoning the idea, increasing or reducing the scope, and then, always, beginning the PDCA cycle over again (Lewis & Slack 2003). b) KAIZEN Kaizen is a combination of two Japanese words (kai + zeri) meaning incremental and orderly continuous improvement. Kaizen is a process-oriented system encom­passing the whole organization, with the key to success being management's dem­onstration of complete support. Some of the goals of kaizen include: Continuous improvement Elimination of waste Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing Standardized work Total quality control The kaizen philosophy works on the principle of having a strong respect for people. Improving the quality of the workforce impacts the quality of product and/or service. When there is a focus on improvement in all aspects of the work­place, problems are not looked at as mistakes but as opportunities (Brown, Blackmon & Cousins 2001). When a work­force embraces kaizen they participate in: Training on problem solving and quality tools Doing the problem solving Implementing improvements Receiving recognition for their successes A suggestion program (which costs little to nothing to implement) 1. As the manager of your business unit what model of quality/continuous improvement would you adopt for your area? KAIZEN Continuous Improvement Model. 2. Outline in dot points the steps that you need to undertake if you were to introduce one of the models to your functional area. The introduction of continuous improvement is by means of: Communication Involvement Process development, and Training Managers play a big role in these activities. 3. What different communication strategies would you use with different stakeholders to ensure that your message of continuous improvement is received? Communications can originate from almost anywhere and almost in the world using a variety of media including audio, printed word, electronic data and video. With all this variables, it becomes vital to offer a diversified mix of media to reach as many people as possible. Hence the communications strategies that I will apply as a leader involves: Integrated messages: in an organization undergoing such a change, it is significant to integrate messages; to communicate both the big picture and the detail for each individual (“what does this mean to me”). Consistent Messages: Messages across the organization and to the stakeholders should be consistent. A key to achieving consistency is the in-depth involvement of leadership in the communication process. Public memos and letters, public presentations, and e-mail responses from the appropriate spokesperson to questions allow stakeholders to check rumors and possible misinformation against an authorized source (Westcott 2006). Upward communication: employees have good ideas, including about improved productivity, better customer service, and more effective management. To capture these ideas, leadership should incorporate upward feedback mechanisms, including upward appraisals of management. Evaluation of communication effectiveness: the communications process should be subject to continuous improvement. Build ongoing feedback mechanisms to measure communication effectiveness and to help management structure ongoing communications with its stakeholders. Know your stakeholders: identify and define stakeholder groups and assess the effectiveness of current communications. To identify the strategic challenges surrounding the restructuring transaction, conduct interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys, during these sessions, asses the current willingness to accept the change, how each group prefer to receive information, what feedback mechanisms currently exist so that progress can be tracked and measured, and gain a snapshot of the current state of attitudes, perceptions and concerns. Develop a targeted communications strategy: through the development of the communication strategy, key questions will need to be answered, that will allow the organization to deliver relevant and timely communications. The communication strategy should include the identification of stakeholders and their information needs as well as how and when to deliver the relevant messages. It is intended to be a living document to define and manage the communication needs of the organization as it undergoes transformation. The communication team will have to continue to define information needs and messages as the restructuring progress (Cornelissen & Joep 2011). Assessment task 3: Review the documentation outlining your team’s performance against organizational quality standards, especially focusing on customer service. If documentation is not available, please conduct a quality check and undertake some analysis for your business unit over the previous 12 month period. Analyze your findings and then answer the following questions: 1. In what areas does your team perform well? My team performs well on: Total Quality Management Human relations Model and theories about Organizational culture Social Constructions’ 2. What challenges does your team face in meeting customer service standards, both for internal and external customers? My team has considered that the extent to which customer expectations, perceptions and satisfaction may change during the course of extended service delivery and consumption. In particular, they found, from repeated measures of expectations through a year-long service experience, that levels of expectation, both ideal and predicted, changed during the process of service consumption, and that expectations were not a key variable in predicting satisfaction with the service. 3. What specific improvements within your operating environment are required over the next 6-12 months? Reviewing of the Quality System improvement. In the Quality System review, the entire quality system must be reviewed periodically to ensure that it continues to meet the requirements of the organization and the customer. 4. How would you monitor whether your continuous improvement initiatives are working? By monitoring the progress, which is the step-9 of measuring and reporting performance. This is a significant part of implementing improvement initiatives in measuring its effectiveness in delivering the required objectives. A range of Key Performance Indicators are identified to measure the performance of the project. Then this is information is used to aid the team in: Confirming the changes that have been made in the right direction Identifying any further problems that need to be addressed, and Revising the plans to make further refinements to the process. 5. References: Lewis, M. & Slack, N. 2003 Operations management: Critical Perspectives on Business and management, Routledge, USA. Ihlen, O. 2009 Public relations and social theory: key figures and concepts, Routledge, New York. Westcott, R. 2006 The certified manager of quality/organizational excellence handbook, (3rd Ed), American Society of Quality, Quality Press, Milwaukee 53203, USA. Cornelissen, J. & Joep, PC. 2011 Corporate communication: A Guide to Theory and Practice, (3rd Ed), Sage Publications Ltd, London. Brown, S, Blackmon, K. & Cousin, P. 2001 Operations Management: policy, practice and performance improvement, Butterworth-Heinemann, USA. Read More