Order 329042: Coaching
AustralianHardware-Intranet.htmlcontinuousimprovement1 xBSBMGT403Assessment2v1.0 Appendix1-Scenarios xBSBMGT403StudentWorkbook
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Please follow the instruction and when it says conduct a coaching then you just have to write the sсrіpt/ role play.
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Documents
Click the tabs below to access documentation for Australian Hardware’s head office and the Wollongong store.
- Head Office
- Wollongong Store
- Australian Hardware Vision and Mission
- Australian Hardware Organisational Chart
- Australian Hardware Business Plan
- Australian Hardware Marketing Plan
- Australian Hardware Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan
- Australian Hardware Head Office Financial Management Manual
- Australian Hardware Finanical Performance: FY2011 to FY2013
- Australian Hardware End of Financial Year Statements FY2013
- Wollongong Employee Induction Checklist
- Wollongong Employee Handbook
- Wollongong General Operations Manual
- Wollongong Operational Plan
- Wollongong Financial Management Manual
- Wollonging Store Budget FY2013
- Wollongong Budget Variation Report FY2013
INTRANET – STAFF ONLY
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Draft questions
· During implementation of the continuous assessment, the following question should be developed.
· Are the employers and employees possess relevant skills for the profession?
· Do the organization execute human resource procedures effectively?
· Do organization perform and undertake transparent recruitment procedures?
· Are the services provided to the customers satisfy their needs?
· Do the members of the organization follow the policies?
· Are there challenges to the established plan and what should be added to the plan?
Presentation
Decision-making process reflects the selection of logical progressions from the available choices. The purpose of making decision entails achievement of the organization goals through evaluation of the alternatives. This presentation will give an illustration concerning the implementation of continuous processes and involvement of employees in decision-making. The process inculcates design that ensures the employees have the required knowledge and skills to inculcate.
Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once.
Continuous improvement can be depicted as gaining of quality and value with time. Besides, it is associated with systematic approaches that facilitate making substances better. Nonetheless, continuous improvement needs assessment, monitoring, and management to ensure a smooth running of the system. Thus, it precise that continuous improvement act as a philosophy reinforced by the elements including outputs, inputs, internal operation and management.
In the process of expounding the control section, the system should ensure that the communication processes are encouraged from the senior staff and the employees. This increase cooperation and the managers can detect and act responsibly when a challenge arises. Besides, evaluation of the suppliers promotes goal accomplishment of an organization. Delivery inspection and purchase documentation facilitate continuous improvement. Not to mention, the management is mandated with the responsibility of ensuring quality in sections such as hospitality, finance, services provision, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing.
In the Australian hardware, the section has portrayed effective decision-making and continuous improvement through incorporation of the following strategies. The hardware ensures that the employees are aware of the commitment and the management process. The employees are given a chance to oversee improvements and give recommendations, work as a team and measure daily quality improvements participate in the planning process, facilitation in the goal setting and offer a training session for the employees.
In the establishment of the planning process, methodologies and the environmental factors play a crucial role in decision-making and process improvement. In the plan, the organization should provide a definition of the problem. They should set a goal that is matched with the timeframe, realistic, agreeable and smart. The communication should be facilitated to the stakeholders for the decision-making. This process would also inculcate the employee’s views. The association would analyze through mapping and brainstorm. They together identify the favorable approach for the hypothesis formulation. The stakeholders would approve the procedure depicted and utilize the key performance indicators.
Nonetheless, despite the establishment of the appropriate mechanism the managers should perform their role. In this case, in the process of ensuring the establishment of the continuous improvement, operation plan should be assessed and review of the operations such as retention of the skills strategies, training needs, recruitment strategies, staff skill and determination of human resources procedures. Referencing the desire of the customer, the manager should ensure that the customers acquire quality services. Valuing the customer will promote customer retention and thus continuous improvement. In this regard, each of the individual in an organization has a role to play. The top managers are required to ensure that resources are allocated; strategies are formulated and ensure implementation of the procedures and systems.
The middle managers should deal with monitoring of the performances role. They should take charge of ensuring that the employees are educated and relevant skills in the field of operation. The supervisors who act as the frontline managers and promote improvement through the application of strategies such as offering coaching and mentorship problem to the employees, creation of an open forum for the communication purpose in the place of work. Referencing the employees, the frontline workers should utilize the available tools, make suggestions, participate in learning of new strategies, and indulge in activities that promote continuous improvement.
The manager should ensure that the employee participation in continuous improvement through changing their perfection. The manager should change the altitude of the employees and induces that continuous improvement plays an essential role in their dealings. They should be made believe that the concept applied is much worth spending their life on. Managers should ensure that they believe that their mentors who they believe in put into application the concept of continuous improvement. The influencing individuals have basic root in continuous improvement should also be in their perception. Thus, the subjective norm of the continuous improvement should have a positive effect on their lives. Not to mention, employees should be made believe that they have what it takes to take the responsibility of the continuous improvement.
The manager should understand the employee’s motive in order to create the right altitude. In the effort to counter the subjected norm and promote continuous improvement mentality, the frontline managers should ensure consistency in various fields such communicating clear goals, the standard expected, recognition and reward for the employees, acknowledgment of the employee’s views, and the creation of awareness of the continuous improvement.
In the aim of controlling the perception of the employees, the manager should ensure during decision-making process the right data is presented. The presentation may be in term of the control process and the histogram portraying the dealing of the organization. The managers should ensure that the employ the individuals who possess knowledge and skills in the execution of the continuous improvement. The managers should ensure training and maintaining of the right behaviour in the workshop. The manager should empower the employees and allow them to make the decision that contributes to continuous improvement.
Managing an organization requires effective communication skills. The manager should be acquitted with the challenges associate with communication such as mood, communication and personality preferences, thinking style, incongruence, language, information overload, and reasoning style. The managers should develop communicating approaches that favours employees for continuous improvement. In these processes, the manager should gauge the feedback of the employee through the application of various strategies. For instance, the manager can use the anonymous channel to his feedback. Besides, the manager can avail a platform for brainstorming. The employees would reflect different strategies anticipate in an organization leading to failure. Teamwork also plays a role in the process of continuous improvement and decision-making. Teamwork facilitates elimination of the challenging factors and promote the improvement of the service delivery. Nonetheless, cooperation in teamwork is affected by various diversities such as visibility, simple information for cool channels, communication that are warm for the complex statement and proximity. Maintenance of the data for the company would allow proper decision-making, promote cohesion, and encourage positivity of the employees towards an organization.
Application of these strategies would result in the improvement of the Australian hardware. The initiation impacted and the responsibility sharing would result in the improvement of an organization. Creation of the awareness of the goals of the company facilitates cooperation and determination of the workers toward achievement of the objective.
Assessment 2
Coaching demonstration
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement
Page 1 of 3
Assessment 2 – Coaching demonstration
Assessment purpose
This assessment requires you to make plans to improve performance by changing
processes and procedures. You should take into account the current performance at
Australian Hardware’s Wollongong store and formulate and communicate
recommendations for improving customer service at the Wollongong store.
You are strongly encouraged to complete all activities within the student workbook
before attempting assessment activities.
Required evidence
You must submit a:
1. recording of yourself leading a coaching or mentoring session following your
developed plans and measures
2. coaching or mentoring notes based on data and performance measures
3. list of recommendations for changes to operations to improve customer service
at Australian Hardware’s Wollongong store.
Submit all required evidence (videos and documents) electronically via Moodle:
● Files must be named, saved, and uploaded as
For example: BSBMGT403-Assessment2-Coaching Notes-JM
● For instructions to record and upload video recordings, see
http://help.opentraining.edu.au/?q=video
Your trainer will be looking for:
● use of data and documents created and recorded during your investigations
into the Wollongong store to accurately reflect the performance measures (for
example, of customer services processes to meet the five strategic goals):
○ increase sales revenue and gross profit
○ maintain or increase market share
○ control direct and indirect operational costs
○ maintain superior product and service quality standards
○ establish Australian Hardware’s reputation as a socially and
environmentally responsible company
● reference to the Wollongong store operational plan, with its goals, operational
objectives and performance measures (such as marketing and sales KPIs) as
well as action plans
http://help.opentraining.edu.au/?q=video
Assessment 2
Coaching demonstration
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement Page 2 of 3
● appropriate references, as the source of data, to one or more data monitoring
tools, with samples for evidence
● appropriate use of the data provided and one or more analytical tools, to
review current processes to determine where improvements can be made
● use of one or more appropriate tools to analyse barriers to improved performance
● your recommendations, which are consistent with the data and analysis and the
organisation’s goal and customer requirements as well as standards and
regulations for customer service
● appropriate prioritisation of recommendations
● evidence that you have taken into account what is required to communicate to the team
effectively and change people’s behaviour in creating the implementation plan.
Assessment instructions
You will, on the basis of provided data such as KPIs, implement continuous improvement
processes by preparing and delivering a coaching or mentoring session. In this session,
you will recommend changes to operational processes to improve the customer service
of Australian Hardware’s Wollongong store and obtain feedback data. You will make
recommendations for further process and procedure changes, if necessary, to improve
delivery of strategic goals.
With prior consultation with your trainer, the role-plays (for the coaching and
mentoring session) can be adjusted. Your trainer may play multiple roles to assist
you complete this unit assessment. The role-play for this task can be varied to take
place using Skype conferencing (or any other video conferencing tool available to
both you and the trainer).
To record and upload video recordings, read the instructions in the Required
evidence section.
Assessment 2
Coaching demonstration
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement Page 3 of 3
Tasks
1. Review the scenarios Appendix 1 and simulated business information within the
Resources section. Obtain feedback (from your simulated operational teams) on
the following:
a. the results of performance to-date at the Wollongong store in terms of
quantity and quality
b. the key areas for future improvement
c. suggestions for improving processes.
2. Prepare to implement the continuous improvement (CI) policy you developed
with your team in Assessment 1, by coaching or mentoring another candidate
in customer service techniques or processes:
a. analyse the data
b. consider your notes from the previous task, including team discussions
and decisions taken
c. make notes on how you will conduct the coaching or mentoring session
d. arrange with your trainer who will be playing the role of the coachee and
make arrangements for the trainer to observe the role-play.
3. Conduct the coaching or mentoring session.
4. Develop a list of recommendations for changes to operations to improve
customer service in order to achieve the goals of the Wollongong store of
Australian Hardware, from its business plan:
a. increase sales revenue and gross profit
b. maintain or increase market share
c. control direct and indirect operational costs
d. maintain superior product and service quality standards
e. establish Australian Hardware’s reputation as a socially and
environmentally responsible company.
5. Submit all required evidence (documents and video recordings) according to
instructions in the Required evidence section. Keep copies for your records.
Appendix 2: Scenario – JKL Industries
Appendix 1 – Scenarios
Consider the following scenarios (or prepare your own) and complete the template. These may be dramatised by candidates for demonstration purposes (urgency, phones ringing, loud noise interference, frequency of incidents, etc.):
|
January 2012 |
Problem |
Policy Item |
Recommended |
|
Joe has been wandering around the store for 20 minutes. |
|||
|
Helen submits a sales receipt along with a returned item that seems unfamiliar to you (different CRM/POS system?) |
|||
|
Mena asks for a 10% discount on her paint purchase and says she completed a feedback questionnaire some time ago. |
|||
|
Marco rings the store to say he has rung three times this week to make a complaint and now wishes to speak to the manager. |
|||
|
Adam would like comparative information about the quality of an outdoor setting recently purchased at the store. |
Appendix 1 – Scenarios
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement Page 1 of 3
Customer data sheet (for January 2012)
January 2012
Complaints
Refunds
Feedback
questionnaires
Enquiries
phone
Enquiries
email
Enquiries
online
Enquiries
in-store
Week 1
15
5
0
30
2
1
15
Week 2
20
4
0
35
3
2
20
Week 3
25
3
0
40
2
2
25
Week 4
30
2
0
40
1
2
30
Staff KPIs and actuals
Staff member
Sales
number
>8
Safety checks
>3
Training hours
>1
Record keeping
>3
Coaching CI
>2
Complaints
< 1 Sales leads >5
Staff
leads
>1
CI implement
>1
Team support
>3
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Est
Act
Alan Brown
(Timber)
9
15
3
–
2
2
5
5
2
–
5
6
10
11
2
2
1
–
5
7
Janet Jones
(Plumbing and Electricals)
20
25
3
3
2
2
5
3
2
2
3
–
10
15
2
1
1
–
5
6
Xian Wang
(Garden and Products)
15
25
3
2
2
4
5
6
2
–
2
–
5
–
1
1
1
1
3
–
Van Tring
(Hardware and Home)
10
3
3
3
2
4
5
3
3
6
1
2
4
–
1
1
1
3
3
–
Poppy Queen
(General sales)
30
31
3
–
2
1
5
4
3
–
1
–
10
15
2
2
1
3
5
4
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement Page 2of 3
Implement
continuous
improvement
BSBMGT403
Student Workbook
1st Edition
Part of a suite of support materials for the
BSB Business Services Training Package
Student Workbook
BSBMGT403 Implement continuou
s
improvemen
t
1st Edition 2015
Acknowledgement
Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council (IBSA) would like to acknowledge
HASCOM Pty Ltd for their assistance with the development of the resource for
BSBMGT403A.
BSBMGT403A Writer: Kevin Dwyer
We would like to thank www.funpaperairplanes.com for paper plane designs
Revised by IBSA for BSBMGT403 (2015)
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© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
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Published by: Innovation and Business Industry
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First published: June 2015
1st edition version: 1
Release date: June 2015
ISBN: 978-1-925328-10-3
Stock code: BSBMGT4031D
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BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement 1st edition version: 1
© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
Table of Contents
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..1
Features of the training program ………………………………………………………………………1
Structure of the training program ……………………………………………………………………..1
Recommended reading ……………………………………………………………………………………1
……………………………………………..2
What skills will you need? ………………………………………………………………………………..4
Continuous improvement principles ………………………………………………………………….4
Continuous improvement systems ……………………………………………………………………7
Total Quality Management (TQM) ……………………………………………………………………..7
Lean Manufacturing …………………………………………………………………………………….. 12
Six Sigma …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 15
Continuous improvement techniques ……………………………………………………………. 17
Section summary …………………………………………………………………………………………. 30
Section checklist ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 30
Further reading ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 30
…………………………………………………………………………. 31
What skills will you need? …………………………………………………………………………….. 32
Your role as a manager ………………………………………………………………………………… 32
Getting participation …………………………………………………………………………………….. 33
Communicating to teams ……………………………………………………………………………… 38
Providing coaching and mentoring support ……………………………………………………. 42
Section summary …………………………………………………………………………………………. 46
Section checklist ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 46
Further reading ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 46
……………………………………………………………………….. 47
What skills will you need? …………………………………………………………………………….. 48
Methods for monitoring performance ……………………………………………………………. 48
Implementation audits …………………………………………………………………………………. 49
Improving customer service ………………………………………………………………………….. 50
Translating customer requirements ………………………………………………………………. 51
Identifying factors which inhibit performance …………………………………………………. 53
Communicating recommendations ……………………………………………………………….. 54
Section summary …………………………………………………………………………………………. 57
Section checklist ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 57
Further reading ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 57
1st edition version: 1 BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement
© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
……………………………………………………………………………….. 58
What skills will you need? …………………………………………………………………………….. 58
Celebrating success ……………………………………………………………………………………… 59
Documenting and managing process changes and results ……………………………… 60
Annual review ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 62
Section summary …………………………………………………………………………………………. 63
Section checklist ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 63
Further reading ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 63
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 64
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 67
Appendix 1: Paper plane manufacturing company – Work instructions ……………. 67
Appendix 2: Manufacture, quality control and testing procedures …………………… 68
Appendix 3: Case studies ……………………………………………………………………………… 70
Appendix 4: Organisational diagram ……………………………………………………………… 71
Appendix 5: Seven Wastes audit form …………………………………………………………… 72
Appendix 6: Check sheet ………………………………………………………………………………. 73
Appendix 7: Decision matrix ………………………………………………………………………….. 74
Appendix 8: Exercise intention survey ……………………………………………………………. 75
Student Workbook
Getting Started
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement 1st edition version: 1
© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd Page 1 of 76
Getting Started
Features of the training program
The key features of this program are:
● Student Workbook – Self-paced learning activities to help you to develop a
n
understanding of key concepts and terms. The Student Workbook is broken down
into several sections.
● Facilitator-led sessions – Challenging and interesting learning activities that can be
completed in the classroom or by distance learning that will help you consolidate
and apply what you have learned in the Student Workbook.
● Assessment Tasks – Summative assessments where you can apply your new skills
and knowledge to solve authentic workplace tasks and problems.
Structure of the training program
This training program introduces you to implement continuous improvement. Specifically,
you will develop the skills and knowledge in the following topic areas:
1. Introduction to continuous improvement
2. Implement systems
3. Monitor performance
4. Keep improving.
Your facilitator may choose to combine or split sessions. For example, in some cases, this
training program may be delivered in two or three sessions, or in others, as many as eight
sessions.
Recommended reading
Please note that any URLs contained in the recommended or further reading, learning
content and learning activities of this publication were checked for currency during the
production process. Note, however, that IBSA cannot vouch for the ongoing currency of
URLs.
Every endeavour has been made to provide a full reference for all web links. Where URLs
are not current, we recommend using the reference information provided to search for
the source in your chosen search engine.
Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous Improvement Student Workbook
1st edition version: 1 BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement
Page 2 of 76 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous
Improvement
This section describes three continuous improvement (CI) systems and the techniques
that are used to assess processes and procedures to improve quality.
Case study: Continuous improvement systems improve quality
By R. P. (Joe) Racine, Gopher Bearing Co., Inc.
Several years ago, we realised that there was no consistency in how we were handling
basic processes. Everybody did something different; we had very few processes that
were written down. We made money, but as we grew, the errors were killing us. So
[company president and CEO] Suzette [Racine] and I realised we needed to do
something.
We identified a handful of processes that were done five different ways by five different
people. We had a meeting with each department: office staff, inside sales, outside
sales, receiving, and so on. We started each meeting by documenting what we were
doing and then had roundtable discussions to decide what we thought was the correct
way. We went back and forth, adding steps we’d missed, taking out unnecessary steps,
making improvements. We did that for every major process. And here’s the scary part:
once we started digging, we found 20–25 problems we didn’t know existed.
We were very fortunate to have other PDTA [Power Transmission Distributers
Association] members who had very successful quality programs and were willing to
share their experiences with us. We looked at their quality manuals and realised
everything we were missing. We didn’t even have a mission statement.
Since then, we have created a quality manual. Everyone has their own copy and the
master copy sits on my desk. If there’s a question on how to do anything, anyone can
refer to it. It is very comprehensive, I literally could take a person off the street and put
him in front of one of our computer terminals and the procedure would walk him
through how to process an order, from booting up all the way to entering the order.
We have three branches and 30 employees and all of them work off the same manual.
It’s not something that sits on a shelf and gathers dust; it truly is a critical part of how
we do business.
At first it was difficult because everyone was so used to doing it their own way. Having
to refer to the manual slowed employees down a bit. It used to take them about a
minute to enter an order, but when we introduced the new process, it might take two or
three minutes since they had to look up the correct way to do it. But within a month or
so, it took less than a minute and everyone was doing it the same — they couldn’t even
remember how they used to do it.
Many people seem to think of quality systems as a big company thing, but we are small
in the scheme of things and we’ve seen tremendous returns. We have experienced
savings on total operating costs of over five per cent, and reduced our internal error
rate by over 90 per cent.
Student Workbook Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous Improvement
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement 1st edition version: 1
© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd Page 3 of 76
We have dramatically reduced errors by adding in checks and balances to eliminate
problems in receiving, phone orders, you name it. Now, 99 per cent of our returns are
due to customer errors, not ours.
Anything that is processed through the computer goes back to the originator and
checked. The originator sends it to the warehouse, the warehouse people pull the
order. Someone else checks the stockman’s work to make sure he pulled the right
stuff. The packer checks it as it goes into the box. In the end, there are four checks
before it leaves the building and each one is documented.
Before, one person would grab the paperwork, pack the order and ship it without even
looking at it. They assumed everything was fine, but our return rate was through the
roof. When you think that every return costs about twice what it costs to bill it, fewer
returns add up to big savings.
The checks and balances for materials we receive from the manufacturer are as
stringent as those for product going out to customers. We have got a much better
handle on purchasing and receiving.
We used to have situations where the computer would show we had five of something
in inventory but there were only two on the shelf. Now, we have a process that allows
us to track every item from check-in at receiving until it goes back out the door.
Incoming product is put in the correct spot in the warehouse every time. It is double
checked before it goes into inventory. People are human and errors still occur, but now
when something was put away in the wrong spot, we can find the missing piece in
minutes and correct the error.
Quality systems have to be part of a commitment to continuous improvement. When we
first started, we would meet with every department every 30 days. Now that we have an
established process, it’s every 60 to 90 days. We get together and go through the
relevant parts of the manual page by page, asking if there’s anything we could or
should change. Some processes have been revised six, seven or eight times.
Our quality manual also is an invaluable resource for training new hires, helping us get
new people up to speed quickly. We don’t have to do as much training. There are
always questions and exceptions, but for the standard, the manual lays out exactly
what to do. Our customers win too. Most of our larger customers do some type of report
on our performance on a regular basis, and we’re consistently in the 99th per cent
quartile. We’re very pleased with that, and I credit it to our quality processes.
Bottom Line
A commitment to quality and to continuous improvement has benefited our company by
ensuring consistency, streamlining processes and reducing errors. Whether you’re a $1
million niche player or a $100 million behemoth, these systems really pay off in
increased profits.1
1 J. Racine, 2006, ‘Continuous improvement case study, Saint Paul’, PTDA, viewed November 2009,
Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous Improvement Student Workbook
1st edition version: 1 BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement
Page 4 of 76 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
Quality pays, it doesn’t cost. Modern workplaces operate in a global marketplace and
must continually improve products, processes and services in order to stay competitive.
Your role in the workplace will require you to understand continuous improvement
systems and techniques.
‘It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.’
– W. Edwards Deming
What skills will you need?
In order to understand continuous improvement, you must be able to:
understand continuous improvement principles
understand and explain continuous improvements systems
understand and explain continuous improvement techniques.
Continuous improvement principles
What is continuous improvement?
Continuous improvement is something that people naturally do. For example, some of us
tinker with our cars to try and improve performance and handling, some people
experiment with the soil in our gardens to grow better roses.
Continuous improvement is a systematic approach to making things better. Ironically,
though, while many people do this in their personal life, continuous improvement needs
to be managed in order to flourish in the work environment.
Continuous improvement is a ‘programmed, and an almost unbroken, flow of
improvements realised under a scheme such as Kaizen, lean production, or total
quality management (TQM).’2
2 Business Dictionary, ‘Continuous improvement’, viewed May 2015,
Student Workbook Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous Improvement
BSBMGT403 Implement continuous improvement 1st edition version: 1
© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd Page 5 of 76
Learning activity: What is continuous improvement?
It may help you to try and come up your own definition of continuous improvement. Try
using these search terms in a search engine:
● continuous improvement
● Kaizen
● Walter A. Shewhart
● W. Edwards Deming.
Other elements of continuous improvement
Since 1939, continuous improvement has emerged as a philosophy with four reinforcing
elements:
● management
● inputs
● internal operations
● outputs.
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Management
Continuous improvement starts with senior management communicating to staff by way
of policies, system audits and document/records management.
Senior management must build a continuous improvement framework or system
comprising of:
● Continuous improvement or quality policy.
● Regular audits, at least annually, to evaluate whether activities and results comply
with established process documentation and are suitable to achieve the
organisation’s goal.
● Definitions of performance indicators (PIs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
● A formal Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) process.
● A system to collect and analyse improvement suggestions from customers,
suppliers and employees.
● A formal document/record management system.
Inputs
Standards are required for all inputs, including:
● Supplier evaluation based on their ability to help the organisation meet its goal.
● Clear documentation of purchases.
● Inspection of incoming deliveries.
● Maintenance of any equipment used to verify that products and services meet
customer’s requirements.
Internal operations
Continuous improvement should address all elements of internal operations whether the
organisation is involved in manufacturing, distribution, marketing, sales or the provision
of services such as finance or hospitality.
Standards of operation including work instructions, where necessary, are created to:
● execute processes
● track products and services, end-to-end from supply to customer use
● monitor and evaluate processes
● provide regular quality training to appropriate staff based on a formal training
needs analysis.
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Outputs
Standards are created to address after-sales service and customer satisfaction.
Specifically, standards should:
● Identify and document quality requirements of customers.
● Identify organisational processes which impact the quality requirements of
customer’s, document them and ensure they are carried out correctly.
● Track after-sales servicing, ensuring it is carried out correctly.
● Measure customer satisfaction over time.
Continuous improvement systems
Since 1939 continuous improvement has continued to morph. Deming took an American
idea to Japan, where it was embraced and improved in conjunction with Toyota. The
Japanese refer to continuous improvement as ‘Kaizen’.
Kaizen is a ‘Japanese term for a gradual approach to ever higher standards in quality
enhancement and waste reduction, through small but continual improvements
involving everyone from the chief executive to the lowest level workers. Popularised by
Mosaki Imai in his books ‘Kaizen: The Key To Japan’s competitive Success.’‘ 3
Continuous improvement was subsequently re-exported to the United States. From that
time in the 1960s and 70s three streams of conceptual thinking and philosophy have
emerged which relate directly to continuous improvement. These are:
●
Total Quality Management (TQM)
●
Lean Manufacturing
● Six Sigma.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
TQM is a collection of ideas to improve the profitability or customer satisfaction of an
organisation by improving the quality of the product and increasing productivity.
Deming, Juran and Crosby had the most influence on the development of the aggregate of
concepts and tools that make up TQM.
3 Business Dictionary, ‘Kaizen’, viewed May 2015,
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W. Edwards Deming
Deming, in addition to the ‘Deming Cycle’ had a 14 point plan for the management of
quality:
1. Create a plan; publish the aims and purpose of the organisation.
2. Learn and adopt the philosophy of quality.
3. Understand the purpose of inspection; stop depending on inspection.
4. Stop awarding business based on price alone.
5. Improve the system constantly.
6. Institute training.
7. Teach and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear, create trust, and create a climate for innovation.
9. Optimise the efforts of teams, groups and staff areas.
10. Eliminate exhortations and targets for the workforce; provide methods of
achievement.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship.
13. Encourage education and self-improvement for everyone.
14. Make it everyone’s job to accomplish the transformation.
Joseph M. Juran
Juran introduced the 80:20 rule – 80 per cent of trouble comes from 20 per cent of
problems.
Juran’s ten steps to quality improvement are:
1. build awareness of improvement opportunities
2. set goals
3. organise to reach goals
4. provide training
5. carry out projects to solve problems
6. report progress
7. give recognition
8. communicate results
9. keep score
10. maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the systems and
processes of the organisation.
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Philip B. Crosby
Crosby, the author of ‘Quality is Free’, emphasised meeting customer requirements by
focusing on prevention rather than correction. He proposed four absolutes in managing
quality:
1. Quality is not ‘goodness’; it is conformance to requirements.
2. Prevention is the means by which quality is achieved, not evaluation.
3. The performance standard is zero defects.
4. The price of non-conformance is the measure of quality.
Crosby considers 14 points when implementing a quality system:
1. management commitment is communicated to all employees
2. quality improvement team, comprising of department heads, oversees
improvements
3. quality measurement is established for every activity
4. cost of quality is estimated to identify areas of improvement
5. quality awareness is raised among all employees
6. corrective action is planned
7. zero defects is planned for
8. supervisor training in quality implementation is provided
9. zero defects day is scheduled
10. goal setting for individuals
11. error causes are removed by having employees inform management of problems
12. recognition is given, but is non-financial, to those who meet quality goals
13. quality councils meet regularly
14. do it all over again (repeat steps 1–13).
Learning activity: Your own six points
In your own words, rewrite Deming’s, Juran’s and Crosby’s points as six key points that
you think are essential to the implementation of continuous improvement in a
workplace.
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Improvement methodology
Organisations that are serious about continuous improvement, must establish an
environment and methodology to allow continuous improvement to flourish.
Continuous improvement has its origins
in Walter Shewhart’s book, ‘Statistical
Method From the viewpoint of Quality
Control’ (1986)4.
In his book, Shewhart discussed the
concept of the continuous improvement
cycle known as the Plan-Do-Check-
Act
(PDCA) cycle or Shewhart cycle. The
PDCA cycle provides a simple
methodology for continuous
improvement.
The cycle was later popularised by W.
Edwards Deming and is now often
referred to as the Deming Cycle. This
Cycle has specific objectives for each
stage of the cycle.
PDCA is a cycle
Plan
Identify the
problem –
what?
● create a problem definition statement
● set SMART (Specific-Measurable-Agreed-Realistic-Timeframe) goals
● identify stakeholders and develop a communication plan for them.
Analyse the
problem –
why?
● map processes
● brainstorm causes of the problem
● collect and analyse data to validate root cause
● formulate a hypothesis
● verify or revise the problem definition statement.
Tools used ● observation of the process
● process mapping
● flowchart
● cause and effect diagrams (Ishikawa)
● 5 Whys
● Pareto analysis.
4 W. A. Shewhart, 1986, Statistical method from the viewpoint of quality control, Dover, New York.
Student Workbook Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous Improvement
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Do
Develop
solutions
● determine criteria for experimental success
● design experiment and test hypothesis
● gain stakeholder approval.
Implement
solutions
● pilot the experiment.
Tools used ● design of experiment
● on-the-job training and mentoring.
Check
Evaluate the
results
● record and analyse data
● validate/invalidate hypothesis.
Implement
solutions
● if successful; Act
● if unsuccessful; return to Plan.
Tools used ● observation
● graphical analysis – bar charts, histogram, scatter, dot plot
● control chart
● Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Act
Implement
the full scale
solution
● identify systemic changes required
● identify training needs
● develop and deliver training
● plan and implement ongoing monitoring
● look for further improvement opportunities.
Tools used ● process mapping
● process standardisation
● training needs analysis
● formal training
● visual management.
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Lean Manufacturing
Lean Manufacturing is a westernised version of Just in Time Manufacturing (JIT) and
Kaizen (Japanese for continuous improvement). Although the origins of JIT go back to
Henry Ford’s time it was in the 1970s that Toyota built a culture in their plants of joint
responsibility between managers and workers to reduce waste of space and materials. As
a result of the implementation of Lean/JIT/Kaizen, Toyota reduced the time needed to
produce a car from fifteen days to one.
Lean Manufacturing combines five systems in one:
● inventory control
● set-up improvement
● maintenance improvement
● quality improvement
● productivity improvement.
Lean manufacturing systems
Lean manufacturing differs from mass production. For example, the economic order
quantity favoured by mass production has an ideal value of one under Lean. In addition,
customer pull is favoured over manufacturing push.
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What are the Seven Wastes?
A focus of Lean Manufacturing is the reduction of ‘Seven Wastes’. Specifically:
Waste Impact
Transportation Moving material unnecessarily wastes time and energy.
Inventory Overstocking equals unnecessary cost of storage.
Motion Moving people or components excessively and
unnecessarily.
Waiting Wastes time of employees, vendors and customers.
Over-processing Wastes employee’s time.
Over-production Extra storage costs and space required.
Defects Reworking wastes employee’s time and materials.
Tip: TIM WOOD
In order to remember the seven wastes, take note that the first letters of each waste
form the acronym: TIM WOOD.
Learning activity: Lean Manufacturing; the Seven Wastes
Search the internet for examples of organisations efforts to reduce each of the seven
wastes and what were their results.
Waste Organisation Result
Over production
Waiting
Transportation
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Waste Organisation Result
Inventory
Processing
Motion
Defects
What is 5S?
Lean manufacturing, borrowing strongly from Japanese culture, specifies a set of five
actions, the five ‘S’s to build a workplace that intrinsically reduces waste.
The concept is derived from a book by Hiroyuki Hirano; 5S: Five Pillars of the Visual
Workplace5.
The five ‘S’s are:
Name Interpretation Description
Seiri Organisation
(aka Sort)
Separate out all the things that are not necessary
and eliminate them or tidy them away.
Seiton Neatness (aka
Set in Order)
Arrange the essential things in order so we can
quickly and easily access them and put them away.
Seiso Cleaning (aka
Shine)
Keep our working environment and machines
clean.
Seiketsu Standardisation Make cleaning and checking a routine practice;
maintain a pleasant environment.
Shitsuke Discipline (aka
Sustain)
Standardise the previous four steps and constantly
improve them.
5 H. Hirano, 1995, 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace, Productivity Press, Kentucky.
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Learning activity: Lean Manufacturing; 5S
Think of your office activities. What are examples of activities that you could do to
implement 5S?
5S element Office activities
Organisation
Neatness
Cleaning
Standardisation
Discipline
Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a process improvement system that was developed by the Motorola
corporation in the 1980s. The key principle of Six Sigma is measurement. It concentrates
on measuring and improving those outputs that are critical to the customer.
Six Sigma has, at its centre, these concepts:
● Everything we do is a process. Each process has inputs and outputs and
substantially changes the inputs to add value to the customer.
● Every process has measurable characteristics. Inputs and outputs are measured,
for example, by number, size or weight. Process characteristics are measured, for
example, by time or counts. The process has requirements for the inputs and
customers have requirements for the outputs.
● Measurements follow a frequency distribution. Frequency distributions are
histograms showing how many measurements fall within a given range of data. The
range of data is divided into buckets. Each data point is allocated to a bucket.
Plotting the number of data points in each bin against the data range produces a
frequency histogram. A normal distribution histogram has the characteristics:
○ The centre point is the mean (half the measurements above the mean and
half below)
○ The curve is a bell shape
○ The variation of the curve is measured by the standard deviation, the
distance between the mean and either side where the curve changes from
convex to concave. The distance is known as sigma.
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A bell (normal) curve
● Most observations fall within three sigma. A normal distribution curve has 99.74%
of all outcomes falling within three sigma.
● Customers have expectations of process performance. For example, customers of a
fast food restaurant will expect a clean environment with little or no waiting and
simple food. Customers of a five star restaurant may be willing to wait for a table if
they have not booked but expect impeccable, individualised service and foods
which they would not be able to cook themselves at home. Customer expectations
can be determined and process output measured. How they match up is the key
point.
● Three sigma is the normally accepted standard.
● Three sigma applied to consecutive process still adds up to a lot of failed
expectations. Manufacturing and services processes are generally designed for the
majority of customers, not individual customers. A customer receives the final
output after several processes. The 0.26% failure is cumulative resulting in,
typically, a 7% error rate.
● Six Sigma means a failure rate of less than 4 in a million.
● Six sigma is a philosophy, methodology and a quality metric.
Six Sigma improvement methodology
The first of two Six Sigma Methodologies, DMAIC, assumes we can measure the output as
a function of inputs.
DMAIC comprises five steps:
1. Define: define the problem or improvement opportunity.
2. Measure: measure process performance (outputs).
3. Analyse: analyse the process to determine the root causes of poor performance.
Determine whether the process can be improved or should be redesigned.
4. Improve: improve the process by attacking root causes.
5. Control: Control the improved processes to maintain the gains. Set up pilot runs to
establish process capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms
and continuously monitor the process.
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Learning activity: Six Sigma
Search the for Six Sigma videos on YouTube. Specifically look for interviews with Jack
Welch, who drove Six Sigma in General Electric. Note down the key points below.
Continuous improvement techniques
There are a number of techniques that can be used in continuous improvement activities.
All of the CI systems discussed previously (Lean, TQM, Six Sigma, Kaizen) use these
techniques in one form or another. You need to have a basic understanding of these
techniques and be able to select techniques as required by the situation.
Process Mapping
Process mapping is a flowcharting method that is used to visualise the steps in a process.
Once the process is completely mapped, it helps to identify value adding and non-value
adding (wasteful) processes.
Operation – value added
Transport – no value added
Delays – no value added
Inspecting – no value added
Storing – no value added
Handling – no value added
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Example: Accounts payable
Danielle has recently been employed as an accounts payable clerk in a busy office. She
found that the account payable process involves approvals from 3 partners. However,
getting the approval to make a payment often required several days because some of
the partners were either busy or difficult to find. It made her job difficult and slow.
Danielle tried explaining this to the partners but they couldn’t see what the issue was,
so she mapped the process out so that it could be visualised.
The circles in the process map are the operations where something is actually being
‘done’. Danielle suggested that there were too many non-value adding operations and
she recommended that they make one of the partners responsible for payments and
that she would document all payments that could be reviewed at the monthly meetings.
The partners agreed and the resulting process looked like this.
Process mapping is completed at different levels of detail. The highest level map, a ‘Level
0’ map contains the inputs, and outputs with the process designated in one box.
A ‘Level 1’ process map has more detail showing the relationships of the output of one
sub-process as the input of another sub-process.
Most process maps do not go below ‘Level 4’ maps which are more like work instructions
due to the level of detail.
An example of a ‘Level 1’ process map for the DMAIC process in Six Sigma is below.
A process map may also include the results of a RACI analysis. That is who is:
● responsible for a process
● accountable for a process
● consulted about a process
● informed about a process.
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In continuous improvement systems, a specific approach to flow charting is often used. It
is called value stream mapping.
The process in value stream mapping is to visualise all the processes which occur from
the procurement of inputs to delivery to the customer and all the information flows.
The method is to draw the current state and to work with a cross-functional team
representing all stakeholders to develop what the future state should be like.
The objective is to reduce waste which does not add to value to the customer.
Use process mapping when:
● Documenting what happens and seeking to eliminate waste.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a tried-and-true way to come up with ideas in a group. You might use
brainstorming to analyse problems or to generate solutions to problems.
The method is simple. The problem is stated, and the recorder stands in front of a room
with a flip chart or a whiteboard. People in the group say whatever ideas pop into their
minds. The recorder writes down all of the comments made.
Brainstorming, or rapid noting of alternatives no matter how ‘silly’, is an excellent
discovery process.
1. Quantity is wanted: The whole point of brainstorming is that you don’t stop the flow
of ideas to separate good and bad ones. Obviously, your chances of finding good
ones go up if you have a really long list of ideas to choose from. In a ten minute
brainstorm you should generate at least 10 to 20 ideas.
2. Free-wheeling is necessary: You can’t generate a good number of ideas if you
restrict them in any way. Don’t worry about saying something ‘silly’. Silly ideas may
actually have some merit, or may inspire you or someone else to say something of
significance. Say anything that pops into your head; say variations on what other
people have said; just say things!
3. Defer judgement: Don’t judge other people’s ideas. Saying things like ‘yes but we’ve
tried that and it didn’t work’ goes against the principles of brainstorming. The
purpose of brainstorming is to get all of the ideas out on the table and then start
sifting through them.
Note: Brainstorming in ancient times
It is said that ancient Persian leaders would meet twice when they had to solve a hard
problem. The first time, they got drunk, so that the ideas could flow freely. The second
time, they were sober, so that the ideas could be judged carefully. The Persians were
very successful, conquering most of the known world and holding it for generations.
You might want to follow their lead by refusing to judge any idea during the brainstorm.
Do not say, do not even think, that any idea is too stupid: just write it down and
generate the next one.
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4. Tag-on: If ideas start to slow, take a previous idea and change it a little. For
example, if you have already said ‘pay people to pick up litter,’ you can change it to
‘give free balloons to people to pick up litter’ or ‘punish people for not picking up
litter’ or ‘have volunteers hand out certificates to people they see picking up litter’.
As you can see, there are many variations to any idea.
Use brainstorming when:
● Analysing problems build creative solutions and involve employees.
Affinity diagram
An affinity diagram is a special type of brainstorming process that is used for organising
large groups of information into meaningful categories. It helps us to clarify and make
sense of a large or complex problem:
1. Define the problem or issue to be explored.
2. Brainstorm for ideas, but instead of everyone shouting out ideas, everyone silently
writes down their ideas on ‘Post-it’ notes.
3. When the brainstorm is complete, mix up all of the notes and stick them on a wall.
4. Arrange the notes or cards into related groups as follows:
a. Take two notes that are related in some way and put them together.
b. Find other notes that belong to this group and put them with the first two.
c. Build other groups of notes in the same way until all of the notes have been
grouped (about ten groups maximum)
5. Now you can decide what to call each grouping. Header notes are created and
placed at the top of each grouping. The header note should clearly define the
common thread that ties all of the notes in the group together (usually a 3–5 word
description).
6. You may now find that some notes do not belong to a group. If so, continue sorting
until everyone is satisfied with the final picture.
Solution to maintaining a successful process
Customer
requirements
Understand
requirements
Consult
customer
Interpret
customer
needs
Provide
operational
output
Identify
customer
Provide training Know quality
improvement
tools
Investigate
efforts
Communications Access to
information
Employee
involvement
Break down
barriers
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Controls Establish
measurement
system
Develop
corrective
action
system
Determine
process
capability
Define
process
Project
improvement
Management Establish
reward
system
Provide job
security
Staff
support
Clear
program
goals
Create
steering
committee
Force field analysis
A useful technique for looking at all the forces for and against a decision is force field
analysis. In effect it is a specialised method of weighing up the pros and cons of the
decision. By carrying out the analysis you can plan to strengthen the forces supporting a
decision, and reduce the impact of opposition to it.
At times when we want to change something, we tend to concentrate on the things we
need to do more of, to get change to happen.
We all know someone when faced with speaking to another person who does not speak
English well, speaks louder in an effort to be understood. It does not work does it?
What does work is finding a phrase book, working with pictures, maps or even hand
signals. Removing the barrier to communicating in this example using the English
language, works better than speaking English more forcefully.
Force field analysis is finding out the things which help us make the change we want and
those which make it difficult to make the change we want.
When we can identify what is stopping change, it is often better to eliminate what is
stopping change (e.g. like removing a chock from behind a wheel) than it is to push
harder on something which will make change happen.
Use the worksheet below following these steps:
1. Describe your plan or proposal for change in the middle.
2. List all forces for change in left arrows, and all forces against change in the right
arrows
3. Assign a score to each force, from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong)
4. Total the scores
Use force field analysis to work out how to make change happen. You have two choices:
● to reduce the strength of the forces opposing a change, or
● to increase the forces pushing a change.
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Example: Force field analysis
Use force field analysis when:
● Analysing barriers to performance or implementation.
Cause and effect diagram/fishbone/Ishikawa
Ishikawa diagrams were developed by Kaoru Ishikawa, who pioneered quality
management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards in the 1960s. They help to examine all
possible causes of problems.
To create a fishbone or Ishikawa diagram:
● Determine the problem.
● Determine the major causes. The standard causes are materials, machines,
methods, people and the environment.
● Determine subsidiary causes and keep determining subsidiary causes until you
have got to root cause (see the example of a car that will not start on the next
page).
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Use cause and effect diagrams when:
● Establishing possible causes of a problem.
5 Whys
The 5 Whys technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was later used
within Toyota Motor Corporation. The process for 5 Whys technique is to state the
problem and ask the question ‘Why’ about the outcome five times. For example, if the
problem is, ‘my car will not start’, the sequence may go something like this:
1. Why will the car not start? – The battery is dead.
2. Why is the battery dead? – The alternator is not working.
3. Why is the alternator not working? – The timing belt is slipping.
4. Why is the timing belt slipping? – It is old and has been stretched over time.
5. Why is it so old? – I have not been maintaining the car according to its maintenance
schedule.
5 Whys is used often in conjunction with a cause and effect diagram.
Use 5 Whys when:
● Drilling into probable causes of a problem.
Defect check sheet
A defect check sheet is a form for collecting and analysing data. It is a generic tool that
can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
To create a defect check sheet:
1. Determine what problem will be observed. There may be multiple problems. You
may want to brainstorm the problems with the team doing the work being observed.
2. Determine when and how long to collect data for.
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3. Design the form – see a generic form below for daily measurement. The form may
be designed to collect data from different people irrespective of days.
4. Label all the spaces on the form.
5. Test the check sheet to be sure it collects the test data you want
6. Record the data whenever a problem occurs with a tick or a cross and total the
problems observed across shifts, days, people, machines, sources of raw materials.
Example of a check sheet
Defects/
Mistakes
Days
Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Total
Total
Use check sheets when:
● Collecting data on the frequency or patterns of events, problems, defects, defect
location, defect causes, etc.
Histogram
The histogram evolved to meet the need for evaluating data that occurs at a certain
frequency. This is possible because the histogram allows for a concise portrayal of
information in a bar graph format.
A plot of the number of seedlings germinated each day after planting may have data
such as:
Days after
planting
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Seedlings
germinated
0 0 0 3 7 12 12 13 7 4 2 0
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In this example, the Histogram provides a rapid visual insight into the average time to
germination and the pattern of germination.
Use histograms when:
● the data is numerical
● you want to see the shape of the data’s distribution
● analysing whether a process can meet the customer’s requirements
● analysing what the output from a supplier’s process looks like
● determining if a process change has occurred from one time period to another
● determining whether the outputs of two or more processes are different
● you wish to communicate the distribution of data quickly and easily to others.
Example: Typical distributions
NORMAL
A normal distribution is:
● depicted by a bell-shaped curve
● most frequent measurement appears as centre of distribution less frequent
measurements taper gradually at both ends of distribution
● indicates that a process is running normally (only common causes are present).
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BI-MODAL
● distribution appears to have two peaks
● may indicate that data from more than one process is mixed together:
○ materials may come from two separate vendors
○ samples may have come from two separate machines.
CLIFF-LIKE
● appears to end sharply or abruptly at one end
● indicates possible sorting or inspection of non-conforming parts.
SAW-TOOTHED
● also commonly referred to as a comb distribution, appears as an alternating
jagged pattern
● often indicates a measuring problem:
○ improper gauge readings
○ gauge not sensitive enough for readings.
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Control chart (statistical process control)
A control chart measures the variation of a measure over time. The measure has control
limits around an average target figure. See the example below of the proportion of defects
per day.
Control charts:
● Demonstrate how consistently a process is performing, and whether an attempt
should be made to adjust it.
● Compare the process performance to the customers’ requirements, providing a
process capability index as an ongoing, accurate direction for quality improvement.
● Quickly evaluate the results of quality initiatives designed to improve process
consistency.
Use control charts when:
● Analysing patterns of process variation from special causes (non-routine events)
or common causes (built into the process).
The control limits may be calculated in a variety of ways, the simplest one being
observation and setting empirical limits. Control limits are calculated different ways
depending on their use.
Learning activity: Control charts
Search the internet for the following types of control charts and write down how the
control limits are calculated.
X-bar chart.
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R chart
S chart
Scatter diagram
Scatter diagrams make the relationship between two continuous variables stand out
visually on the page in a way that the raw data cannot. Scatter diagrams may be used in
examining a cause-and-effect relationship between variable data (continuous
measurement data). They can also show relationships between two effects to see if they
might stem from a common cause or serve as surrogates for each other. They can also be
used to examine the relationship between two causes.
Use scatter diagrams when:
● Identifying potential root causes of problems.
● Determining objectively whether a particular cause and effect are related.
● Determining whether two effects that appear to be related, both occur with the
same cause.
● Testing for autocorrelation before constructing a control chart.
Scatter diagrams are easy to construct.
1. Collect at least 40 paired data points: ‘paired’ data are measures of both the cause
being tested and its supposed effect at one point in time.
2. Draw a grid, with the ‘cause’ on the horizontal axis and the ‘effect’ on the vertical
axis.
3. Determine the lowest and highest value of each variable and mark the axes
accordingly.
4. Plot the paired points on the diagram. If there are multiple pairs with the same
value, draw as many circles around the point as there are additional pairs with
those same values.
5. Identify and classify the pattern of association using the graphs below of possible
shapes and interpretations.
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Scatter diagram interpretations
Learning activity: Tools and techniques
Search the internet for another five techniques used in TQM, Lean Manufacturing and
Six Sigma. Write down what they are used for and how they are constructed.
Tool What for How constructed
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Tool What for How constructed
Section summary
You should now understand continuous improvements systems and some of the tools
used in the execution of the systems.
Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you are able to:
explain continuous improvements systems
explain continuous improvements techniques
Further reading
● Crosby, P. B., 1995, Quality is still free: making quality certain in uncertain times,
McGraw Hill, Ohio.
● Brue, G., 2005, Six Sigma for small business, Entrepreneur Press, California.
● Todd, J. K., 2006, On track to quality, Lighthouse Point Press, Pennsylvania.
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Section 2 – Implement Systems
This section describes the role of a manager in implementing continuous improvement. It
describes:
1. the levels of engagement that people must pass through to implement
2. methods for communicating with individuals and with teams
3. the difference between mentoring and coaching
4. how to apply the techniques when implementing continuous improvement.
Case Study: Getting engagement in financial services
by Kevin Dwyer, Change Factory
Implementing a continuous improvement program is not restricted to the
manufacturing industry.
For example, the Emergency Department (ED) at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte,
North Carolina, implemented a continuous improvement system through 2006.
In an article written by Gina Gabriel6, Operational Improvement and Lean Six Sigma
Advisor appointed to oversee the program, she reports they had little success initially in
implementing a continuous improvement program because the staff was not engaged
and the data required for making process improvements was not readily available.
Gina reports that considerable time was spent collecting baseline data before they
engaged the staff. The baseline data was used to establish trends and patterns and
create benchmarks. They also created value stream maps with a focus on reducing
patient length-of-stay and improving patient flow.
Using statistical processes, the ED team determined that the number of patients in the
waiting room at 3 pm was the strongest correlation with patients who left without being
seen, which was running at 7%. It was clear if they could improve the time taken from
arrival to getting to a room during the first shift, the flow of the subsequent shifts would
also be improved.
Now they had something to engage the staff about; something specific rather than the
general concept of continuous improvement.
The engagement process involved interviewing staff and constructing Pareto charts of
their views of the causes of delays during different periods of the first shift. Rather than
being resistant to change, the staff began to come to the table, helping to propose
ideas and solutions and then implementing the changes. A deliberate tactic was to
include staff members who wanted to embrace change, as well as resistant staff who
were among the social leaders within the organisation, in process improvement teams.
6 G. Gabriel, 2008, ‘The journey to hospital operational excellence’, viewed May 2015,
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Soon staff members began to urge each other to embrace the efforts to make changes.
The next step in the implementation was to look at patient process flow in segments;
door to room, room to doctor, doctor to disposition, disposition to discharge.
Using the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, continuous improvement teams went down a list of
projects, taking on one at a time that would make the biggest impact, then watching for
sustainable results.
In 2007, there were ten major projects which resulted in incremental changes and two
major breakthroughs. In 2008 more projects were added including the introduction of
5S to support improvement projects.
The continuous improvement team turned the ED into a visual department with colour-
coded charts showing how many patients left each day without being seen. Control
charts, Pareto diagrams and mind maps were posted in break rooms and hallways in
the emergency services area, along with patient satisfaction scores and other charts
and graphs.
The results were very positive. The average patient walkout rate was cut by almost half,
from 7 per cent to 3.9 per cent during the last six months of 2007. Accordingly, patient
satisfaction scores also jumped. Employee turnover was cut by more than 50 per cent,
from 43 per cent in 2006 to 18 per cent in 2008.
What skills will you need?
In order to implement continuous improvement, you must be able to:
actively encourage your staff to support and participate in making decisions
communicate your continuous improvement processes to individuals and teams
actively seek feedback
mentor and coach effectively.
Your role as a manager
Customers determine what quality is. Different customers receiving the same product
may have different uses for it and will determine that the same product has a different
level of quality. Customers also have needs in terms of delivery, scheduling, billing and
after-sales support. Each of these elements will add to the customer’s overall perception
of quality. What’s more, customers’ needs are changing daily meaning that continuous
improvement is a necessity to staying in business, not a management fad.
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In implementing continuous improvement everyone has a role, from top management to
first line employees:
● Top management must allocate the resources and establish the strategy, systems,
procedures and organisational structures necessary for continuous improvement to
be implemented successfully.
● Middle managers are responsible for facilitating the implementation of continuous
improvement. They must monitor the performance of the continuous improvement
program, and ensure that employees are educated in the use of the necessary
tools.
● Supervisors (frontline managers) are responsible for implementing continuous
improvement. They must encourage suggestions; coach and mentor employees;
and create an open two-way communication at the workplace.
● Frontline employees must make suggestions, learn new jobs, use the tools, and
generally participate in continuous improvement activities individually and in teams
Frontline managers in being responsible for implementing continuous improvement
should abide by general principles:
● Question the norm – standards are necessary but work rules and norms must be
broken with time as customers’ requirements change and new ideas emerge.
● Develop resources – it is a priority to develop the resourcefulness and participation
of everyone in continuous improvement.
● Get to the root cause of problems – do not to solve problems superficially.
● Eliminate the whole task if it is possible – question whether a task is necessary.
● Reduce or change activities – be aware of opportunities to combine tasks.
Getting participation
For employees to participate in continuous improvement there are three imperatives:
1. They must have the attitude that continuous improvement is good for them as an
individual, the team they work in and the organisation as a whole. In addition they
must believe that it is better for them than the many other things that they could
concentrate their time on.
2. They must believe that their friends and colleagues who they respect believe that
continuous improvement is a good thing to engage in. Further, they must believe
that the people who influence them the most in their work environment have
respect for and encourage their participation in, continuous improvement. The
subjective norm they experience must be positive towards continuous
improvement.
3. They must believe that they have the necessary skills authority and data available
for them to actually carry out the tasks of continuous improvement. They must
perceive that they have control in execution continuous improvement.
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Creating the right attitude
Creating the right attitude towards continuous improvement requires an understanding of
what motivates an employee. Generally, it is the working environment that motivates
employees. Environmental considerations may include but is not limited to:
● mutual respect – frontline manager to employee
● a clean and tidy workplace
● the right tools for the job
● future employment security
● satisfied customers
● mutual respect amongst team members
● a clear goal; consistently, persistently and insistently followed.
Understanding what motivates your employees can be determined by observation,
conducting focus groups or undertaking a quantitative survey or a combination.
Once you have determined what working environment aspects create the right attitude
amongst a large majority of employees, it is your role as frontline manager with support of
your one-up manager, to create that environment.
A word of caution
Not all employees are affected positively by the working environment you create. There
will always be some cynics; people who believe that their notoriety is more important to
them than meeting customers’ needs. Your role is to manage for the large majority, not
the noisy minority.
Learning activity: What working environment works for me?
Reflect on your attitudes to work. What elements of a working environment create a
positive attitude from you in relation to your work?
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Creating the right subjective norm
Altering people’s subjective norm to one which supports continuous improvement
requires frontline managers to be:
● consistent in their communication about the goal
● consistent in their approach to all employees
● consistent in their application of continuous improvement standards
● consistent in their reaction to errors as something to be eliminated
● consistent in the manner in which they reward and recognise employees and the
reason for rewarding employees
● consistent in making sure all voices are heard when discussing the nature of and
solutions to problems
● insistent about employees learning the tools of continuous improvement
● insistent about errors being reduced
● insistent about two-way communication
● insistent with their one-up manager in the provision of appropriate tools and
availability of data for employees trying to implement continuous improvement
● persistent in their communications about the benefits of continuous improvement
● persistent in their encouragement of employees to bring forward ideas to improve
processes
● persistent in the process of continuous improvement despite setbacks which occur
from time to time
● persistent in the application of a rewards and recognition scheme for people
actively pursuing continuous improvement.
Learning activity: Subjective norms
Think about a bad habit you or a family member or friend has that they want to but do
not seem to be able to break. Smoking is a common example.
● Who influences them most in respect of the issues surrounding this habit? This
may be individuals or groups of people (rank the top three).
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● What is the attitude of those people about the habit?
● Of the groups which are against smoking, how persistent, insistent and
consistent are they about the helping (not nagging) the individual to give up the
habit.
● What would you expect the result of your family member or friend to be given
insistent, persistent and consistent support from those people that influence the
individual?
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Creating the perception of control
For employees to perceive they have control over their involvement in, and application of,
continuous improvement, they require the:
● Right data available at the time of decision making to make decisions.
○ Make histograms, process control data etc. visible at employee’s place of
work, not hidden in a database or file on a network drive.
● Behaviour, skills and knowledge to execute continuous improvement processes and
use continuous improvement tools.
○ Recruit people that demonstrate the right behaviour.
○ Train them to give them the right skills and knowledge – include on-the-job
coaching, posters, e-learning and check lists.
● Authority or empowerment to make decisions and contribute to the implantation of
continuous improvement.
○ Make it clear who has responsibility for processes and what decisions they
may make in the execution of that process.
○ Be clear that all employees are responsible for making alterations to
processes.
Learning activity: What is your perceived level of control over your key job deliverables?
Reflect on your job and jobs you have had. Think of ones you really enjoyed and ones
you did not. Contrast the level of data, competence and authority you had between the
ones you enjoyed and the ones you did not.
Jobs I enjoyed Jobs I disliked
Data availability
Behaviour
Skills
Knowledge
Authority
See Appendix 8 for an example that utilises a questionnaire about what is required to
form the intention to exercise. Questions marked A relate to attitude. Questions marked B
relate to subjective norm. Questions marked C relate to perceived control.
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Communicating to teams
Functions of Communication
Communication has four functions:
1. to acquire and share knowledge
2. to assist decision making between alternatives
3. to coordinate work activities
4. To relate to individuals on a personal level.
Communication Process
The steps in a communication process are:
● sender
● the message as the sender encodes it
● the channel used by the sender
● the message as decoded by the
receiver
● the receiver
● repeated process from receiver to
sender.
Receivers of communication will filter, distort
and delete elements of the communication
during this process.
These barriers to effective communication
depend on personal attributes and
characteristics of the encoded message sent.
1. Mood – if the receiver is in a bad mood they are less likely to listen actively.
2. Personality and communication preferences – the receiver may prefer a verbal
channel of communication over a written channel.
3. Thinking styles – the receiver may prefer to hear about detail rather than the
overview or the ‘big picture’.
4. Information overload – they may be receiving too much information both in terms of
being told too many things at once and being overloaded on a sensory level with
words, pictures and sounds all at once.
5. Language – the receiver may not understand the language either from a cultural
perspective or from the use of business jargon, acronyms and slang terms.
6. Incongruence – the sender may be sending out two different messages with the
words they speak, the tone and pace of their voice and their body language, forcing
the receiver to judge which is the real message. Note the normal hierarchy is body
language>>tone and pace of voice>>words.
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To develop an approach to communicating with employees and obtaining feedback on
their organisation’s continuous improvement process, managers must take into account
the communication process when they communicate and when they receive feedback.
Feedback
Sometimes people are reluctant to give personal feedback by way of verbal
communication.
Two approaches can help overcome this reluctance:
● Use an anonymous channel to give feedback. This is best done, if people have easy
access and are comfortable with electronic communication and intranet pages,
through the internet. This offers the anonymity of remote use and the absence of
handwriting.
● Give your employees opportunities to participate in negative brainstorming. Instruct
employees to come up with all the negative ideas about why an initiative will not
work or why a problem cannot be fixed. It is a strong human nature to be negative.
Work with it and ensure that people know that you want them to be negative rather
than positive.
When you get the output you will have a detailed and broad range of elements of
the problems you face. Summarise them and in subsequent sessions turn the
team’s attention to solving the problems one by one. They will already know half the
solution by the nature of the negative ideas they have already expressed. For
example, ‘We can’t get orders out on time because product is not cleared from
quality control early enough!’ is a prime topic for a 5 Whys approach or an Ishikawa
diagram.
Getting team cooperation through communication
Communicating successfully to and within teams requires
● proximity
● warm communication channels for complex communication
● cool channels for simple information
● visibility – visual management.
Proximity
Removing barriers to the communication process is an obvious step in improving
communication. Much of the way people filter, distort and delete information reduces
when there is a rapport between the sender and the receiver and when the sender and
the receiver communicate often. Rapport builds with trust and trust builds with shared or
at least, understood and acknowledged values.
Employees who work in proximity of each other and their manager are more likely to talk
about their personal lives. This leads to an understanding of values between employees
and managers, more open and frequent questions of one another, and an increase of
shared knowledge. Employees who work remotely are more likely to have a superficial
knowledge of each other personally and professionally.
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Ensure that the implementing continuous improvement team finds ways of using
proximity to take advantage of informal and formal communication channels.
Communication channels
Communication effectiveness varies with the use of different channels (see figure below).
Two-way channels such as email or phone communication, where the sender and receiver
can ask and answer questions, are generally more effective than one-way
communications such as memos, posters or audio tapes.
The more that the sender and receiver can enjoy observing all elements of
communication including the words, tone and pace of voice and body language the more
effective the communication becomes.
Video is an effective communication channel as even though it is one-way it allows the
receiver to view all three elements of communication.
Communicate complex information by means of two-way channels. Communicate simple
information by way of two-way or one-way communication channels depending on the
importance of the message.
One-way channels are made more effective when we:
● use colour, size and font choices that attract attention for written communications
● change the colour shape, size and nature of posters so that people do not ‘see’ the
same message when you change the message
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● allow the user to interact, for example, by using checklists:
Communication checklist /
1. I understand the receiver’s preferred thinking style
(big picture, people-oriented, logical thought, detail)
2. I understand the preferred communication style of the receiver
3. I have used a channel which is appropriate for the complexity of the
communication
● use pictures to support text when messages are complex. for example, set up the
breakfast station like this:
Visibility
Visual management is an important tool in the implementation of continuous
improvement.
There are two types of visual management:
1. Displays of information to enable employees to make decisions to create the
perception that employees are in control.
2. Visual controls that guide the actions of employees, for example, STOP signs, traffic
flow indicators, shadow boards for parts or tools.
The major concepts behind visual management, particularly for the implementation of
continuous improvement include:
● Performance data is available for everyone to see.
● Visual controls describe workplace safety, material flow, production throughput or
other information that helps employees understand what to do, where to go when
to do something and how to do it.
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● Visual information helps prevent errors by colour coding dial gauges, pipes, wires,
connectors etc.
● Visual management allows employees to know when something is out of place and
when error rates are outside of bounds.
Learning activity: Visible management
Think about a work area at home. It may be the kitchen, a home office, where you study
or the garden shed. Inspect the area and think about the work that is carried out there.
Identify opportunities to visually manage the work carried out there.
Work activity Visual information Visual control
Providing coaching and mentoring support
What is the difference between mentoring and coaching?
The differences between mentoring and coaching are described in this table.
Mentoring: Coaching:
● focuses on the individual ● focuses on performance
● facilitator with no agenda ● specific agenda
● self-selected ● comes with the job
● value to the individual
● value within the organisation –
holds a higher position
● affirmation/learning ● teamwork/performance
● life related ● task related
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What is the difference between coaching and counselling?
Counselling: Coaching:
● broad focus ● narrow focus
● the goal is to understand and
correct the root causes of long-
standing performance
problems/issues at work.
● the goal is to improve an
individual’s performance at work
● a short-term intervention, but can
last for longer time periods due to
the breadth of issues addressed.
primarily addresses behaviour
● tends for be a short-term
intervention to improve skills or
behaviour
● counselling can be used to address
psycho-social as well as
performance issues
● coaching does not seek to resolve
any underlying psychological
problems
● the agenda is generally agreed upon
by the individual and the counsellor
● the agenda is typically set by the
coach
● other stakeholders involved
including human resources and line
management
● no other stakeholders are involved
When is Coaching required?
● to aid an employee assuming new job duties
● to develop or provide new skills through on-the-job-training
● to introduce new processes or technologies
● to enhance job performance and correct deficiencies
● to prepare individuals for career development
● to develop members of a work team.
Who should be Mentored?
● high-potential employees who are capable, ready and willing to advance several
levels
● succession candidates
● employees seeking a career transition
● experienced new employees looking to broaden their skills.
When is counselling required?
● when performance has been consistently below that which is required, despite
open and honest feedback
● when poor behaviour has been demonstrated.
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Coaching methodology
Two types of coaching are required to implement continuous improvement.
The first is a directional model which follows these steps:
1. Explain to your employee what you want them to do, why, what the expected results
should look like, and how to do it.
2. Ask for questions of clarification.
3. Demonstrate the technique.
4. Ask the employee or team to try the technique in a non-threatening environment.
5. Review their performance and give feedback using the ‘sandwich technique’
a. this is what you did well
b. this is what you can do better
c. remember what you did well and try again, concentrating a bit more on what
you can do better.
6. Repeat steps one to five as often as necessary at the beginning or end of the shift
until you are confident that the employees can adopt the new technique under
production conditions.
This model assumes the coach is skilled at the technique, much as a sports coach might
be.
The second is a non-directional technique used to work with employees to help them
develop their skills. It is a coaching technique used to help others solve problems. A
useful model for this style of coaching is the GROW model. GROW is an acronym for:
Goal
Current Reality
Options
Will
The steps for using the GROW model are:
1. Establish the Goal – ask questions of the employee about the goal, for example:
a. What will success look like?
b. How will you know when you have been successful?
2. Examine the current reality – ask questions about what is happening now, for
example;
a. What impact is the problem having?
b. Who is it impacting?
c. When does it happen?
d. Where does it happen?
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3. Explore the options – ask questions about what is possible, for example:
a. What is stopping us getting the result we want?
b. What can we do differently?
c. What would we do if we had a ‘clean sheet of paper’ to work on?
4. Establish the will – ask questions which establish commitment and underscore
what is required to motivate the employee, for example:
a. So what will you do now?
b. What help do you need from me or others?
c. Will this option help you reach the goal?
d. What could stop you from implementing the option?
e. What benefits will you get when you are successful?
Learning activity: Coaching
Think about coaching a child to walk. Think of the process you would employ over a
period of several weeks to coach the child to walk. Remember at this age, verbal
communication is still mostly a one-way exercise and coaching is done by way of
encouragement, praise and practice in a safe place. A baby learning to walk benefits
from parents instinctively implementing continuous improvement coaching.
Reflect on your thoughts and describe how the steps may be applicable to coaching
adults in continuous improvement.
Steps in the process of teaching a baby to
walk.
How is this applicable in an adult learning
work environment?
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Section summary
You should now understand your role as a frontline manager in using two-way
communication with your team and gaining their participation. You should understand the
difference between mentoring, coaching and counselling and understand two different
methods of coaching.
Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you are able to:
actively encourage your staff to support and participate in making decisions
communicate your continuous improvement processes to individuals and teams
actively seek feedback
mentor and coach effectively.
Further reading
● Whitmore, J., 2002, Coaching for performance: growing people, performance and
purpose, Third Edition, Nicholas Brealey, London.
● Maurer, R., 1994, Feedback toolkit: 16 tools for better communication in the
workplace, Productivity Press, Kentucky.
Student Workbook Section 3 – Monitor Performance
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Section 3 – Monitor Performance
This section describes techniques for monitoring quality and how to translate customer
requirements into process change using the Quality Function Deployment process and
tools.
It describes techniques for understanding and prioritising factors which hinder delivery of
customer needs. Additionally, it explores appropriate methods for communicating
changes to processes and procedures to those who have a role in their development and
implementation.
Scenario: Changing old technology and old ways
The product they were making was old technology. Its performance in high temperature
applications had been surpassed by new technology twenty years ago. Production
volume was dwindling, it was difficult to make on grade because it was made so
inconsistent. Only one of the employees in the plant remembered the nuances of its
manufacture. No effort was made to change the processes even though results were
available to demonstrate that the processes used to make the product needed a
review, because the product was considered a ‘nuisance’ product.
The marketing manager decided against removing the product from the portfolio,
instead increasing prices substantially. The rationale was that if customers did not
value the product they would switch to alternative, cheaper products. The price
increase was sixty per cent and went some way to recovering the costs of manufacture.
The two customers who bought the bulk of the product sold, complained about the
price increase. The rationale behind the price increase was discussed with them and
they were advised that another price increase was in the pipeline. The customers very
reluctantly agreed as they stated they had no alternative.
An alert salesman enquired what they meant by no alternative because there were
several products in the market that performed much better at high temperatures. The
customers replied that they were not interested in high temperature performance but
water resistance. Water resistance in most applications was not an issue. In this niche
market, however, water resistance was crucial.
The marketing manager decided to survey the market and found that imported
products accounted for more than eighty per cent of sales in the area for which these
two companies required the product. The imported product was good quality but supply
was inconsistent and expensive. The market needed a reliable supply of product for
which they were willing to pay a premium.
The marketing manager ordered a review of the manufacturing process. It was found
that cheaper ingredients had been sourced over the years to reduce costs and the
product was manufactured in old equipment with a lower level of temperature and
pressure control resulting in varying results. This decision was made because the plant
was limited by the availability of the modern equipment and that equipment was
preferentially used for ‘high quality/high temperature products.
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A trial was ordered with a new source of ingredients, in new equipment with trained
staff. On-grade results increased from 45 % of all batches to 80 % of all batches.
The marketing manager instructed that the product be put into premium, rather than
low grade packaging.
The product was re-launched into the previously unknown niche market with a further
20 % price increase.
Costs of production were reduced 55% due to the decreased rework on a previously
faulty product, space was made available in the plant where rework had previously
been stored, volume increased by 55% in one year and the product went from making a
loss to a handsome profit.
This story demonstrates an unintended understanding gained of what customers
needed. However, the review of the manufacturing process through understanding the
value stream and the root cause of problems from a customer perspective not a
production perspective, is a classic continuous improvement story.
What skills will you need?
In order to work effectively as a frontline manager, you must be able to:
monitor and review progress of plans and operational processes
translate customer needs into organisational processes and measures
formulate recommendations to improve processes
communicate the recommendations to the appropriate stakeholders.
Methods for monitoring performance
Monitoring of progress is completed to achieve one or more of three aims:
1. To determine the gap between existing and desired performance.
2. To review the progress of implementation and maintenance of a continuous
improvement program.
3. To ensure procurement, production or delivery of your products and services are
not moving outside customer requirements.
Performance and progress over time may be monitored by a wide range of methods
including:
● hard copy continuous improvement records, for example, check sheets
● templates including excel templates for check sheets, histograms and process
control charts
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● databases of information cross-referenced against people, equipment, time of day
and source of inputs
● Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems including wireless remote data
collection devices automatically linked to the system, and data recorded directly
from robotics, scales, process logic controllers etc.
● feedback from service users
● performance indicators related to organisation goals
● performance indicators related to customer requirements
● performance indicators created from benchmarking against internal or external
competition
● audits of the continuous improvement process
● Workplace Health and Safety audits
● incident/accident reports
● service user surveys
● complaints system
● suggestion boxes
● third party quality assessments/audits
● staff performance appraisals
● evaluations of staff in-service training.
To improve progress in the implementation of a continuous improvement system or in
closing gaps in performance within an operating continuous improvement system, the
factors which inhibit performance must be identified and addressed.
Implementation audits
Audits of implementation of continuous improvement systems require some form of
standard upon which to base the audit.
One of the most commonly used quality management standards is ‘AS/NZS ISO 9001:
2008 Quality management systems – Requirements7’.
This is an international system for recognising organisations that have appropriate quality
management systems in place.
‘AS/NZS ISO 9001: 2008 Quality management systems – Requirements’-based
management systems focus on putting in place quality controls to ensure consistency and
improvement of key processes, which in turn provide products and services that better
meet customers’ requirements.
7 International Organization for Standardization, ‘ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems –
requirements’, viewed May 2015,
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The specific requirements under ISO 9001 cover:
● management system
● management responsibility
● resource management
● product realisation
● measurement analysis and improvement.
To audit a continuous improvement system against standards such as ISO 9001 requires
audit teams to be assembled.
Internal audit teams should be drawn from a pool of people experienced in quality
systems and continuous improvement systems.
External audit teams can be procured from registered firms who have certified auditors in
the particular continuous improvement systems.
Conducting an audit begins with understanding the goal of the audit and what specifically
is to be assessed. For example, the goal may be to analyse the effectiveness of
monitoring. The specific areas to be assessed may then include but not be limited to:
● training of new staff in monitoring processes
● training of existing staff when monitoring processes change
● effectiveness and consistency of monitoring
● effectiveness of the communication of the results of monitoring
● use of appropriate tools to monitor
● timeliness of monitoring
● appropriateness of monitoring in delivering customer requirements.
Internal audits can be conducted on a cyclical basis; the entire operation and the entire
continuous improvement system are analysed on a regular basis. In large operations with
a large continuous improvement system, this may be as much as every two years.
Improving customer service
Most formal continuous improvement techniques – e.g., Lean, Six Sigma – begin with
improving delivery with customer requirements in mind. However, even if an organisation
is not implementing a formally structured continuous improvement program and is using
the tools in an ‘in-house’ continuous improvement program, customer service should be
the main focus.
The quality of customer service is determined by the customer. The starting point,
therefore, of improving customer service, is to understand what it is that customers value
about the services/products and how they rate our delivery.
What customers value may be determined by focus groups and surveys or by interviewing
sales people, distributors, delivery drivers, despatch clerks, receptionists and other
frontline staff in the organisation. These positions receive the opinions of customers
about products and services.
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It is important to understand what customers consider is important before understanding
how they rate our service. Note: Customers are protected in Australia from false and
misleading conduct by law. Legislated under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010
and regulated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, all Australian
businesses must comply with Australian Consumer Law. Any activities involving
alterations to the product or service being sold or relating to after-sales services will need
to meet the requirements of the law. These requirements primarily relate to product
repair, replacement or refund; compensation for damages and losses; and ability to
cancel services. For more information, see:
● Australian Consumer Law, viewed May 2015,
Once it is known what is important to customers and what the gaps are, the process of
translating customer requirements into the organisation’s processes can begin.
Translating customer requirements
Continuous improvement processes are focused on delivering more efficiently and
effectively, what it is that customers need. Translating customer requirements into
operational requirements is a key step in any continuous improvement system.
Some organisations use a comprehensive technique for translating customer
requirements. The technique is called Quality Function Deployment (QFD).
QFD has four phases of translating customer requirements.
The four phases are:
1.
Product planning:
a. define and prioritise customer needs
b. analyse competitive opportunities
c. plan a product to respond to needs and opportunities
d. establish critical characteristics target values.
2.
Product design:
a. identify critical components
b. translate critical product characteristics into critical component
characteristics and target values.
3.
Process planning:
a. determine critical processes and process flow
b. develop requirements of equipment used to create products
c. establish critical process requirements.
4. Production planning (process control):
a. establish process control plans, maintenance plans, and training plans in
order to control operations
b. establish inspection and test methods and parameters.
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Learning activity: Customer requirements
Review your current workplace. If you are not currently working think of a workplace you
have attended or if you are a student that has not worked yet, think of yourself as the
customer in this exercise.
Write down what you think or, if you have data, know, are the top three customer
requirements for product or service quality. For example, on time delivery in full.
Examine where in your system you have explicitly placed specifications or controls in
product planning, product design, process planning and production planning that
acknowledges and tries to deliver theses prime customer requirements.
How well do you translate customer requirements into continuous improvement
processes?
Customer requirement Explicit specifications or controls
Product planning:
Product design:
Process planning:
Process Control:
Product planning:
Product design:
Process planning:
Process Control:
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Customer requirement Explicit specifications or controls
Product planning:
Product design:
Process planning:
Process Control:
Identifying factors which inhibit performance
There are many methods for analysing the factors which inhibit performance. Five of the
more commonly used techniques are value stream mapping, brainstorming, 5 Whys,
cause and effect analysis and force field analysis.
Value Stream mapping
Use value stream mapping to get the ‘big picture’ of your end-to-end processes. When you
are unsure of what the problem area is or when you want to unearth where issues exist in
a set of processes.
Use a cross-functional team with all stakeholders represented. Your organisation may
have software which helps in the generation of the value stream, however, pencil and
paper are just as useful and often more engaging for the team; all team members can be
involved. Consider purchasing value stream mapping pads which come with defined icons
you may use to establish a common visual language.
Brainstorming
Use brainstorming to access the creative sides of employee’s brains, to get broad
stakeholder input and to be able to build on each other’s ideas.
Brainstorming can be used to both identify and to solve factors which inhibit
performance.
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A mode of brainstorming which is particularly good at identifying factors that inhibit
performance, is negative brainstorming. In negative brainstorming the question to be
asked is why we cannot improve our performance. Human nature is such that we find it
easier to think of ‘why not?’, rather than ‘How can we …?‘ Utilising this negative aspect of
our nature in brainstorming quickly creates a list of factors inhibiting performance.
Cause and affect analysis
Use cause and effect analysis to focus in on particular problems. You may want to use
some of the often-used categories:
● human resources, methods, materials, measurements, and equipment
● clients, workers, supplies, environment, and procedures
● what?, how?, when?, where?, who?
Brainstorming the elements that may contribute to performance inhibition and creating
an affinity diagram can be used as a precursor to building the fishbone (Ishikawa)
diagram.
Note: Fishbone diagrams
The fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram does not establish root cause. It creates a visual
record of hypotheses about root cause. Each hypothesis still needs to be tested.
5 Whys
Use the 5 Whys alone or in conjunction with a fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram to try to drive
to root cause. 5 Whys may be conducted subjectively using the experience of employees
and other stakeholders involved in the process under analysis. However, if quantitative
data is available, the 5 Whys technique becomes much more powerful.
Force field analysis
Use force field analysis to analyse the impact of physical processes, employee’s skills and
knowledge, and the psychological aspects of employees and other stakeholder’s
behaviour on performance. It is often more instructive in a force field analysis to think
about ways of reducing the forces against performance than redoubling the forces
pushing performance.
Communicating recommendations
Recommendations for change in processes should be addressed to all stakeholders
involved in the analysis of the problem and all stakeholders impacted by the changes.
A RACI (pronounced ‘racey’) analysis (Responsible-Accountable-Consulted-Informed) is a
good means of determining who needs to be communicated with, and in what form.
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed are the four words at the core of RACI
mapping.
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RACI mapping:
● Responsible: the ‘responsible’ role is the one that carries out the work for the
process. There may be multiple responsible roles for a single process, or perhaps
an entire team.
● Accountable: the ‘accountable’ role is the one that periodically reviews the
effectiveness of the process and is the only role that can make changes to the
process itself.
● Consulted: a role that is ‘consulted’ about a process engages in two-way
communication with the responsible role. The person consulted may, for example,
be a subject-matter expert.
● Informed: a role that is ‘informed’ about a process only receives information in one-
way communication. The informed role may then use the information received as
an input into one of their own processes, but they are not actively engaged in the
process for which they are listed as an informed role.
In a continuous improvement process, the person accountable for the process
communicates the changes.
All people who are responsible for the process are informed through changes to work
instructions, toolbox meetings and any visual management elements. Only use email or
other cold communication channels when the change is very simple.
All people who need to be consulted about the changes because they are directly
impacted by an output of the process or directly impact and input of the process are
informed in detail about the changes, as they should have been included in the analysis.
This may be done by way of an email or a report.
All people who need to be informed of the process change, because it has an indirect
impact on their role, may be informed by email or a written report.
Learning activity: Communicating recommendations for work changes
Think about communications you have received as student, at work, at home or at your
sports or social club, about changes to processes and procedures.
1. Split them into simple, complex, or very complex (if applicable) changes.
2. Order the changes from low to high complexity.
3. Write in the next column which channel was used to present the communication.
4. Write in the next column how much effort was put into ensuring people
understood the communications. For example, high, such as in-person question
and answer sessions, frequently asked questions, forums; or low such as simple
emails and memos.
5. Write in the next column how successful the change was. For example, very
successful; successful but with further explanation required; and not successful
– they just did not seem to get it.
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Complexity (order
high to low)
Channel used Effort to ensure
understanding
Level of success
● Do you notice any pattern of what makes for successful communication of
change?
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Section summary
You should now understand how to monitor and review progress of both the
implementation of continuous improvement and the results of processes within the
organisation. You should understand the importance of knowing customer requirements
and translating these requirements into your organisation’s processes and specifications.
You should also understand what techniques are useful in discovering what prevents
performance to the level customers require, and to whom you should communicate your
recommendations.
Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you are able to:
monitor and review progress of plans and operational processes
translate customer needs into organisational processes and measures
formulate recommendations to improve processes
communicate the recommendations to the appropriate stakeholders.
Further reading
● AS/NZS ISO 9001: 2008 Quality management systems – requirements, viewed
May 2015,
● Australian Consumer Law, viewed May 2015,
Section 4 – Keep Improving Student Workbook
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Section 4 – Keep Improving
This section describes feedback methods for advising employees on the business goals
and how their efforts are contributing to the achievement of the goal. It describes good
recordkeeping practices for monitoring results, and process change recommendations. It
describes some methods for celebrating success.
Scenario: Sharing the know-how
You are working in a small privately owned business. The owner is very conscious of
preserving his intellectual property having built the company from a three person
company to a staff of 75 in ten years.
The owner does not share profit targets or results. He shares sales targets with the
sales team alone, and swears them to secrecy regarding their targets. He believes that
sales targets and profit targets are sensitive information that his competitors would like
to have.
The owner has a personal habit of not writing things down, preferring to rely on his
memory, experience in the industry, and high intellect to get him through any situation
where data is required.
He can remember every significant customer interaction and has a very good grasp on
the company’s costs which he only shares with the finance manager.
He likes to be involved in every decision about customers, processes and procedures,
reserving the final decision for himself. No processes are documented as he thinks the
processes they use are sensitive intellectual property. His belief is that writing down
processes may lead to information leaks, or employees may leave with them.
Before he could solve the puzzle of why the organisation has not been able to grow
beyond 75 people – to be truthful, it struggled at anything over 50 people – he died.
What do you rate the chances of the 74 remaining people being able to continue to run
the company even if they bring in a new CEO? Why?
What skills will you need?
In order to work effectively as a frontline manager, you must be able to:
ensure the team is aware of their impact on the organisation achieving its plan
document work performance to aid the identification of future opportunities
manage the records created by the continuous improvement process.
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Celebrating success
The desire to belong to a successful group is strong. This is amply demonstrated in the
workplace by the sense of teamwork that occurs in groups who are successful at
overcoming adversity compared with teams with similar or better results who do not have
the same appreciation of their success.
It is important, therefore, to celebrate each successful step along the path of continuous
improvement.
Acknowledgement
The simplest method of celebrating success, and given the effort required, the method
with highest return on investment, is acknowledgement of the successes made. It is
important when you acknowledge success to:
● Retrace where you have come from. People do forget and the sense of success is
strongest when they can see and feel a big-picture change rather than the small
incremental changes that continuous improvement brings.
● Acknowledge change in attitude and forming of relationships as much as the
success in changing processes and meeting customer needs.
● Be specific about the success (who?, what?, where? and when?). Recognition
drives people to repeat the behaviour that got them recognised. If you are not
specific they will not know which behaviours to repeat
● Acknowledge failures, praising efforts at the same time.
● Acknowledge success.
Reward systems
Reward systems commonly utilised include monetary and non-monetary rewards.
Monetary rewards may be individual or team based. They may include direct relationships
to company, team or individual performance.
Non-monetary rewards include but are not limited to:
● extra training to improve employee’s portable skills and improve their chance of
promotion
● high cost vouchers for a dinner or a stay in a resort – they will associate what they
did with getting to relax by the pool
● low cost vouchers for coffee etc.
● lunch with the general manager and an opportunity to ask them about the company
in a small group
● work in another area of the company for the day with no performance expectations
as a learning experience
● team outings
● certificates.
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Senior managers
Use senior managers to deliver the message of improvements in productivity and
customer service. Bring them to an office meeting to say ‘Thank you’ with specific
references to how the team’s efforts helped achieve the business plan. Using senior
manages alerts the team to the fact that senior managers care about what they do;
employees’ efforts are noticed and are meaningful.
League tables
Consider using league tables to show where different teams are compared with their
goals. Take care in constructing the tables as some teams who are lagging behind may
feel extra efforts are not worthwhile. Acknowledge a range of performance metrics on a
league table such as:
● Best performance each month, quarter and year – allows every team to receive
visual recognition at any time of the year.
● Most improved – allows teams coming off a low base to be recognised equally.
● Most innovative – allows teams who are creative to be recognised.
● Most consistent – allows teams who do not stretch themselves as much as others
but always deliver small increments, to be recognised.
Documenting and managing process changes and
results
Importance of document control
Only approved current documents should be used in continuous improvement systems.
The consequences of even inadvertent use of out-of-date documents on quality, customer
satisfaction can be severe.
Document control is the most common non-conformance of systems aspiring to a
standard such as ISO 9000.
Document control is also instrumental in retaining corporate memory to pass on lessons
learned in experiments or pilots to others so that an organisation does not have to relearn
how to correct errors.
Layered structure
Develop a layered structure of documents which has four levels:
● policy
● procedure – including a RACI map always and process flow charts when
appropriate and any decisions relating to changing procedures
● work instructions
● forms and records – check sheets, histograms etc.
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This cascading structure assists in ensuring that lower level documents conform with
higher level documents.
If you use an electronic document and record management system (EDRMS) then add
meta data and cross references to aid searching of documents at a later date.
If you do not have an EDRMS then use a database or at least create a master list of
documents in Excel or other spreadsheet application.
Reviews and approvals
Limit the number of signatures required to review and approve processes to those people
who need to be consulted, and the one person who is accountable. All other stakeholders
are informed of the change but do not need to be consulted.
Short approval processes reduces bureaucracy and speed up cycle times of the
continuous improvement process.
Controls
All policies, procedures, work instructions forms, specifications and other organisational
documents affecting quality or customer satisfaction should be controlled.
A document control process according to ISO 9000 must comprise these processes:
● approve documents for adequacy prior to issue
● review, update and re-approval of documents as necessary
● identify changes and current revision status of documents
● ensure relevant versions of documents are available at point of use
● retain legibility and identification of documents
● Identify and control documents of external origin
● prevent use of obsolete documents and to apply suitable identification to them if
they are retained for any purpose.
Metrics
As with any process created under the banner of continuous improvement there needs to
be a method of determining if the processes are working.
Some metrics to consider are:
● user satisfaction
● document errors
● up-to-date per cent
● cycle time – initial draft to release
● cost of documentation.
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Annual review
Review your records and reports at least annually to determine what improvements you
can make to the continuous improvements system itself; evaluating processes that need
more urgent attention.
The review process to identify opportunities should:
● review records
● analyse trends
● look for waste not already identified
● review employee suggestions not already
acted upon
● review customer complaints and
requirements for underlying
opportunities
● look for employee
disempowerment.
To prioritise the opportunities identified use a decision matrix.
Potential projects
Quality improvement projects: Decision matrix
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Rank potential projects from one (least) to five (most) against each of the elements:
● ease of implementation
● potential impact
● cost – one for high cost, five for low cost)
● urgency
● most requested by customers
● obstacles – one for many obstacles five for few obstacles.
Total the scores. Rank your projects by the highest score.
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Section summary
You should now understand why it is important to celebrate success to amplify the
message when you inform team members about progress. You should be aware of the
greater effectiveness of non-monetary rewards and be able to think of your own examples
of rewards appropriate for your workplace.
You should understand the importance of recordkeeping and annual reviews in
maintaining corporate memory and providing a platform of data for future projects. You
should be aware of at least one mechanism for prioritising continuous improvement
projects.
Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you are able to:
ensure the team is aware of their impact on the organisation achieving its plan
document work performance to aid the identification of future opportunities
manage the records created by the continuous improvement process.
Further reading
● ASQ: The global voice of quality, viewed May 2015,
● NSW Government, ‘State records’, viewed May 2015,
recordkeeping.
Glossary Student Workbook
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Glossary
Term Definition
Audit A methodical examination and review with the intent to verify the
measure/procedure/process/activity.
Benchmarking Searching for the best practices or competitive practices that will
help define superior performance of a product, service, or
support process.
Competitive benchmarking allows a company to know precisely
where their operation is in relation to a direct competitor, to
determine its competitive position, and to identify major
performance gaps.
Process benchmarking searches out the best practices of a
particular industry process and compares the performance of the
company to a recognised performance leader. It focuses on the
process not who the company is or whether or not they are a
competitor.
Check Sheets A simple means of data collection. This type of data collection
can be used for almost anything from checking off the
occurrence of particular types of defects or the counting of
unexpected items (e.g. the number of times the telephone rings
before being answered).
Control charts Charts used to distinguish between normal and abnormal
variation. Shows whether or not the process is performing
correctly or if there is a problem. (Does not help solve the
problem)
Defect Operationally, it is useful to work with two definitions of a defect.
From the producer’s viewpoint: a product requirement that has
not been met or an attribute of a product that is not in the
statement of requirements that define the product.
From the customer’s viewpoint: anything that causes customer
dissatisfaction, whether in the statement of requirements or not.
Fishbone/cause
and effect/
Ishikawa diagrams
Diagrams that examine root causes of problems. Continually
asking ‘why?’ until the real cause is revealed. They are typically
used to depict causes of a certain problem and to group them
according to categories, often ‘people’, ‘equipment’, ‘supplies’,
and ‘procedures.
Student Workbook Glossary
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Term Definition
Flowchart A diagram consisting of a set of symbols (such as rectangles or
diamonds) and connecting lines that shows step-by-step
progression through a procedure, process or system.
Functional flowcharts picture movement between different work
units. They identify how vertically oriented functional
departments affect a process flowing horizontally across an
organisation.
Geographical (or physical layout) flowcharts analyse the physical
flow of activities and help to minimise the time wasted while work
output and/or resources are moved between activities.
Histograms Bar charts that show the distribution of a variance. They also
show deviations from the norm, i.e. they show a snapshot. They
are used to measure the frequency with which something occurs.
ISO 9000 A series of three international standards and supplementary
guidelines on quality management and quality assurance, which
were first published in 1987. The standards can be used by both
manufacturing and service industries. The standards require that
a basic quality system be in place to ensure that the company
has the capabilities and systems to provide its customers with
quality products and services. To become registered to ISO 9001,
ISO 9002, or ISO 9003, a company must have an accredited,
independent, third party to conduct an on-site audit of the
company’s operations to verify that it meets the requirements of
the appropriate standard.
PDCA Stands for Plan-Do-Check-Act. The PDCA cycle is derived from the
science of system analysis. The main goal of the PDCA cycle is to
eliminate variation in a process.
Process Any activity or group of activities that takes an input, adds
value to it, and provides an output to an internal or external
customer.
Run (trend) Charts Plot data and show results of a process over a period of time
(day, month, etc.), for example, sales per month. They provide
some preliminary indications of trends, cycles and other patterns
on the process.
Scatter Diagrams Diagrams that show the correlation between variables but not
necessarily the cause and effect relationship. They show the
relationship between two variables – as one increases so does
the other. Analysis should allow for possible intervening variables
which may be the ‘drivers’.
Glossary Student Workbook
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Term Definition
Standards The measures used to evaluate products and services and
identify non-conformance. Standards are yardsticks for
measuring quality, performance, duration, and so forth.
Standards can relate to work output and performance, and
customer service.
Performance standards link performance expectations of a
position to customer requirements, customer satisfaction, and
competitive performance.
Work standards refer to the amount and quality of work or output
employees are expected to produce within a given time frame.
They are often referred to as measures of productivity . Some
companies call these performance standards.
Customer service standards reflect the levels of service that a
company has decided it needs to provide to meet marketing
goals and profit and market share objectives.
Statistical Process
Control (SPC)
Statistical process control is the use of statistical techniques and
tools to measure an ongoing process for change or stability.
Total Quality
Management
(TQM)
A management approach of an organisation, centred on quality,
based on participation of all its employees and aiming at long
term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to the
employees of the organisation and to society.
Student Workbook
Appendices
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Paper plane manufacturing company –
Work instructions
Instructions for making paper planes can be found on the internet. Go to this website to
obtain instructions for making paper planes.
● Fun paper airplanes, viewed May 2015,
When you get to the site, you’ll see instructions in the form of PDF files and Video
demonstrations of how to make the planes. There are over 15 different types of planes on
this site.
Downloadable
PDFs of procedure
for making them
Videos showing
how to make
them
Appendices Student Workbook
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Page 68 of 76 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
Appendix 2: Manufacture, quality control and testing
procedures
Build the plane
To manufacture the aeroplane:
● copy the design from the master on to 80gsm paper
● cut as directed with scissors
● fold as directed
● test quality
● mark acceptable quality aeroplanes with a blue highlighter pen
● mark unacceptable quality aeroplanes with a pink highlighter pen
● pack acceptable quality aeroplanes in glad sandwich bags
● put unacceptable quality aeroplanes in the rework bin.
Test the plane
To test aeroplane quality:
● Tape masking tape to the floor to designate the throwing line.
● Tape masking tape to the floor perpendicular to the throwing line for a length of five
metres from the throwing line to designate the centre line.
● Tape masking tape at a point five metres from the throwing line from points 2.5
metres either side of the centre line in a direction perpendicular to the throwing
line.
● Stand at the throwing line and throw the paper aeroplane in the direction shown.
● Repeat twice more.
● Enter data into Appendix 6: Check sheet.
● If the plane travels more than 5 metres and lands no further than 2.5 metres either
side of the centre line two times out of three, it is acceptable quality.
Student Workbook Appendices
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Appendices Student Workbook
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Page 70 of 76 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd
Appendix 3: Case studies
Case Study 1 – Cause and effect
A company used painted floor marking to identify pedestrian routes and vehicle access
points to their distribution warehouse. On the face of it, it’s a good thing to do to try to
segregate pedestrians from moving vehicles in the workplace. The company arranged for
the floor of the goods access point to the warehouse to be repainted but when the work
had been done they didn’t close the shutter door or barrier the area off until it had dried
or even post ‘wet paint’ signs. The vehicle entrance happened to be right next to the
pedestrian access door where staff came into work.
An employee arrived for work and, on finding the normal staff entrance obstructed by a
pool of water and carelessly discarded cleaning equipment, had to go in through the
adjacent vehicle entrance. She had no way of knowing that the paint on the floor was still
wet and, quite unsurprisingly, slipped on it and fell heavily. Not only did she get covered in
the wet paint but the fall also broke her wrist.
Case Study 2 – 5 Whys
A 16 year old girl was employed at a fast food outlet to cook fries at a frying range.
She slipped on water leaking from an ice-making machine and instinctively put out her
hand to break her fall. Unfortunately her hand went into the deep fat fryer containing oil
at a temperature of 360°F and she sustained severe burns to her left hand and forearm.
The outlet was short staffed on the day of accident and the team leader was working on
the tills instead of monitoring workplace safety.
Although the company policy was to mop up spills it was common practice to leave spills
at busy times and cover them with a sheet of cardboard, which itself can create a tripping
hazard. At busy times it was usual to give greater priority to serving customers than to
cleaning spills.
The ice-making machine had been leaking for several days and various attempts had
been made by different contractors to fix the leak. Nobody had sole responsibility to
coordinate the repair of faulty equipment. Lack of communication between different shift
managers left the equipment leaking over a long period of time.
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Appendix 4: Organisational diagram
Paper Aeroplane Manufacturing Company Organisation Diagram – Round One
Appendices Student Workbook
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Appendix 5: Seven Wastes audit form
Waste What we do now Question What we should do
Waiting
Can we complete some tasks in
parallel rather than in series?
Transportation
Can we reconfigure the process to
eliminate or reduce transportation?
Processing Can we combine some processes?
Motion
What tools or aids could speed up the
process?
Poor Quality
Where can we mistake proof to
eliminate or reduce errors?
Inventory Do we need inventory?
Over Production
Can we produce to order for the
customer rather than for inventory?
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Appendix 6: Check sheet
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Appendix 7: Decision matrix
Potential projects
Quality improvement projects: Decision matrix
Summary
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Appendix 8: Exercise intention survey
Answer each question honestly. Regular exercise for this survey is defined as 30 minutes
of vigorous activity three times a week.
A. ‘For me, exercising regularly over the next 2 weeks would be…’
1 2 3 4 5 6 1
useful useless
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
wise foolish
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
enjoyable unenjoyable
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
pleasant unpleasant
B1. ‘Most people in my social network want me to exercise’ – think about what you know not
what you suspect
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
strongly agree
strongly disagree
B2. ‘I feel pressure to exercise from most people in my social network’ – think about what you
know not what you suspect
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
strongly agree strongly disagree
B3. ‘Most people in my social network think I should exercise’ – think about what you know not
what you suspect
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
strongly agree strongly disagree
C1. ‘For me, exercising regularly is…’ – think about time, commitments and access
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
extremely easy extremely difficult
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C2. How much control do you feel you have over exercising regularly? – think about time,
commitments and access
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
complete control very little control
C3. ‘How much I exercise regularly is completely up to me’ – think about time, commitments
and access
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
strongly agree
strongly disagree
- Getting Started
Features of the training program
Structure of the training program
Recommended reading
Section 1 – Introduction to Continuous Improvement
What skills will you need?
Continuous improvement principles
What is continuous improvement?
Other elements of continuous improvement
Management
Inputs
Internal operations
Outputs
Continuous improvement systems
Total Quality Management (TQM)
W. Edwards Deming
Joseph M. Juran
Philip B. Crosby
Improvement methodology
Lean Manufacturing
What are the Seven Wastes?
What is 5S?
Six Sigma
Six Sigma improvement methodology
Continuous improvement techniques
Process Mapping
Brainstorming
Affinity diagram
Force field analysis
Cause and effect diagram/fishbone/Ishikawa
5 Whys
Defect check sheet
Example of a check sheet
Histogram
Control chart (statistical process control)
Scatter diagram
Scatter diagram interpretations
Section summary
Section checklist
Further reading
Section 2 – Implement Systems
What skills will you need?
Your role as a manager
Getting participation
Creating the right attitude
Creating the right subjective norm
Creating the perception of control
Communicating to teams
Functions of Communication
Communication Process
Feedback
Getting team cooperation through communication
Proximity
Communication channels
Visibility
Providing coaching and mentoring support
What is the difference between mentoring and coaching?
What is the difference between coaching and counselling?
When is Coaching required?
Who should be Mentored?
When is counselling required?
Coaching methodology
Section summary
Section checklist
Further reading
Section 3 – Monitor Performance
What skills will you need?
Methods for monitoring performance
Implementation audits
Improving customer service
Translating customer requirements
Identifying factors which inhibit performance
Value Stream mapping
Brainstorming
Cause and affect analysis
5 Whys
Force field analysis
Communicating recommendations
Section summary
Section checklist
Further reading
Section 4 – Keep Improving
What skills will you need?
Celebrating success
Acknowledgement
Reward systems
Senior managers
League tables
Documenting and managing process changes and results
Importance of document control
Layered structure
Reviews and approvals
Controls
Metrics
Annual review
Section summary
Section checklist
Further reading
Glossary
Appendices
Appendix 1: Paper plane manufacturing company – Work instructions
Appendix 2: Manufacture, quality control and testing procedures
Build the plane
Test the plane
Appendix 3: Case studies
Case Study 1 – Cause and effect
Case Study 2 – 5 Whys
Appendix 4: Organisational diagram
Appendix 5: Seven Wastes audit form
Appendix 6: Check sheet
Appendix 7: Decision matrix
Appendix 8: Exercise intention survey