lecture 5 - operational improvement Flashcards
What is operational improvement ?
- DEVELOPING operational capabilities to further improve performance
– Responding to failure, risk .. & opportunity.
Quality Management
- Several approaches to understanding quality management as an improvement strategy
Manufacturing-based approach assumes quality is all about making or providing error-free products or services.
The user-based approach assumes quality is all about providing products or services that are fit for their purpose.
The product-based approach views quality as a precise and measurable set of characteristics.
The four levels of the quality management hierarchy goes in which order:
inspection - usually at end of process, involves the measurements, tests, and gauges applied to certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity.
quality control - review the quality of all factors/processes involved in production
quality assurance - refers to the planned and systematic activities implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled.
total quality management -
Total quality management can be viewed as a natural extension of earlier approaches to quality management … an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes.
Improving productivity
- Generating more output from the same or fewer inputs
- Every organisation is interested in improving its productivity
- Reduces the cost of operations
- Improves efficiency of plant and people
- Requires less working capital
- In most cases will also result in higher levels of quality and customer satisfaction
popular approaches to generating more output from the same or fewer inputs.
- Benchmarking
– Process of identifying best practices by comparing critical processes within one’s company with that of other organisations both within and outside the industry. - Statistical Process Control (SPC)
– A method of collecting measured data about the operational process to see if quality standards are being met or whether correction is needed. - Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
– Radical redesign of existing business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements by focusing on critical performance criteria.
benefits if benchmarking?
improves your business - provides motivation for people involved - stretches thinking boundaries by looking outside - identifies new opportunities
BPR – changing the operations structure
functional structure and process structure - diagram.
DMAIC Framework
Define the problme and set formal goals through CTQs (critical to quality characteristics).
Measure. hard evidence. how to measure the process and how it is performing; identify key internal processes that influence CTQs
Analyse. find and understand the root cause of problems.
Improve - ideas developed address the root problem. solutions tested and then implemented and formalised.
Control - maintain improvements. last point most signifigant.
Improve Performance Measurement
before a change is made we need to know if performance is bad, must be quantifiable.
Traditional performance measures
– Financial - costs, revenue, profits (losses)
– Operational – productivity, output (volume of)
– Customer – market share, complaints
– Employee – how many, turnover
Organisational Improvement -
Breakthrough improvement
graph. an approach that implies a major and dramatic change in the way the operations work.
figure out if the improvement is to fix something or improve performance. then figure out how we should approach it. through BREAKTHROUGH IMPROVEMENT talk about diagram. can be costly, very quick and disriptive.
pros and cons of breakthrough improvement
- Breakthrough – highly creative and innovative solutions, short term/dramatic, big steps, intermittent and non-incremental, abrupt and volatile. Technological breakthroughs, new innovations, large investment, results profit …
- But breakthrough’ improvement may not provide the dramatic leaps in performance hoped for
Continuous improvement
instead of attempting major, disruptive changes, this approach focuses on continuously identifying and implementing numerous small improvements to increase efficiency and effectiveness over time.
not the rate of improvement but the overall improvement. explain the little box. small modifications.
pros and cons of continuous improvement
- Continuous – stresses stability, adaptability, teamwork long term, undramatic, small steps, continuous and incremental, gradual and consistent, conventional technology, requires small investment, process and efforts for better performance overall.
- But it might mean we are behind our competitors.
Operational excellence
Where the core operational functions are so well planned and controlled that the business as a whole has an excellent reputation.
built on well-developed and managed operational processes. using quality improvement . Operational excellence reduces costs and improves revenue.
technical and social.
teams and continuous improvement
respect for people and team principles. goal focused, no blame and just wokring culture.
