Operational Excellence – it’s about hitting your goals each time to ensure customer satisfaction. There are multiple interpretations to how to establish an operational excellence program, and I propose that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. A system must be designed to fit your company’s culture and growth strategy.
One of the keys to success is ensuring that a clear vision is developed, and all of the team members buy into the vision and want to ensure success. Your team is at the heart of the matter…. Ensuring that the people believe in the vision. Shifting the mindsets and behaviors is key to success of any program.
How do you get there? Go to the gemba and get a good understanding of what is happening on the shop floor. Talk to your team members and get their insights to what process (systematic/equipment/etc..) improvements they would like to see. Have those conversations at each area and level of the organization.
Part of developing systems is listening and understanding the current state. You can’t fix things if you don’t understand what’s going on. More importantly, people feel like they are part of the journey and development of the program and will more likely want to participate and push the programs forward.
How have you started this journey at your business? What are your thoughts?