Continuous Improvement Consultancy

So, you have implemented your management system and have gained your Certificate of Registration or Accreditation and you are feeling both relieved and very pleased with yourself.

You look back and say, ‘it was worth it’ and you are glad it is all over

WRONG!

You have only just started this journey, you have taken the first step on this journey, for that is what it is – if you do it properly. Implementing a management system is not about gaining a Certificate of Registration, it is about:

• benefiting your business
• constantly improving the way you do business
• increasing customer satisfaction with your products and / or services

You need to implement a Continuous Improvement (CI) programme to gain maximum benefit from your efforts. CI is a process which stresses adaptability, teamwork, and attention to detail, it builds on the accumulated experience within your employees that operate your business processes and involves the gradual improvement of existing processes and not the whole-scale redesign or re-engineering of processes. This can be done internally with your own employees, but the optimum benefit is from using an experienced external consultant to assist you in designing and performing your CI process.

The reasons for having a CI process are twofold:

• once a change initiative (e.g. implementation of a management system) has achieved its goals, it is all too easy for the energy, enthusiasm and momentum to vanish, as the demands of your daily operations overwhelm those involved in implementing the change. This can ‘undo’ all the progress achieved from the change initiative, build up a level of scepticism in your employees and make the next change initiative harder to implement
• in some cases, your front-line employees, who are the primary ones affected by the change initiative, feel ignored and do not become integrated in the change initiative and so feel little ownership of, or involvement in, the change initiative. This can lead to apathy in adopting the new ways of doing things, and – in some cases – overt obstruction

Both these scenarios lead to:

• potential cost savings are not realised
• sub-optimal levels of customer service
• the damage to internal morale and effectiveness is significant.

There are some important lessons to learn in the CI process:

• CI engages the knowledge and experience of your employees in the improvement activity – identifying areas of improved customer service or cost reduction. This draws on their detailed knowledge of their own process – a level of understanding that their Line Managers will rarely have themselves
• CI makes your Managers and employee see process improvement as part of their job – and not simply ‘something that Managers do’
• even small changes can make a significant impact.
• it is OK to fail, so long as you learn from the failure and don’t repeat it
• significant cost savings can be realised from a well-run CI process as well as measurable improvements to customer service and satisfaction – critical in competitive market places.

There are a number of tools and methodologies that A-GRC uses to achieve a comprehensive CI process, these include:

TQM is an integrated approach by your Top Management to focus all functions and levels within your organization on quality and continuous improvement.

Over the years, TQM has become very important for improving process capabilities in order to achieve them and sustain competitive advantages. TQM focuses on encouraging a continuous flow of incremental improvements from the ‘front line’ workforce.

TQM is not a complete solution formula as viewed by many – formulas cannot solve Managerial problems, but a lasting commitment to the process of continuous improvement can TQM requires a cultural transformation within your organisation and to institute the process, your Top Management and Consultants must bring about a cultural transformation wherein all employees shed their individualism for a unified set of corporate values.

With TQM, quality is not the product but the process.

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed by Carnegie Mellon University. CMM states that it “is specifically developed to support an organization’s need to assess and improve their systems engineering capability”. It can easily coexist with any business process and has defined 5 levels of maturity:

• level 1 – Initial – process is unpredictable, poorly controlled and reactive
• level 2 – Managed – process is characterised but is often reactive
• level 3 – Defined – process is defined, repeatable and proactive
• level 4 – Quantitatively Managed – process is measured and controlled
• level 5 – Optimised – focus on process improvement

There are a number of CMM models that can be used for different processes within your organisation, these include but are not limited to:

• BCMM – Business Continuity Maturity Model
• BSIMM – Building Security in Maturity Model
• CMMI – Capability Maturity Model Integration – there are various models for Services, Development etc. – can be used for any part of the business
• H&SMM – Health and Safety Maturity Model
• IQMM – International Quality Maturity Model (Dipsticks)
• ISM3 – Information Security Management Maturity Model
• ITSMMM – IT Service Management Maturity Model
• OSIMM – Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model
• P3M3 – Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model
• P-CMM – People – Capability Maturity Model
• SSE-CMM – Systems Security Engineering – Capability Maturity Model

The EFQM excellence model consists of nine criteria, these being broken down into five Enablers and four Results elements and is applicable to all size organisations in all sectors:

The enablers are:

• leadership, which drives
• policy and strategy, which is implemented by
• people and
• partnerships and resources through various
• processes

This delivers:

• customer results
• people results
• society results
• key performance results

The results are then analysed and used as a means of both monitoring improvements as well as the driver for further adjustments of the business in order to further improve results i.e. continuous improvement.

The model can be used in four ways:

• as a framework which you can use to help develop your vision and goals for the future in a tangible, measurable way
• as a framework which you can use to help identify and understand the systemic nature of your business, the key linkages and ‘cause and effect’ relationships
• as the basis for the EFQM Excellence Award, a process which allows you to recognise your most successful customer experience (internal and external) and promote them to achieve the organizational targets identified by your mission statements
• as a diagnostic tool for assessing the current health of your organisation. Through this process, you are better able to balance your priorities, allocate resources and generate realistic business plans. This fourth, diagnostic use, is also known as self-assessment

The EFQM Model is a non-prescriptive framework that allows for enough flexibility to be adapted to any type of organisation, regardless of size or sector. In addition, the Excellence Model is considered an over-arching framework that can be used alongside other tools and standards such as IIP, Charter Mark, Balanced Scorecard, etc.