Areas of Excellence

These nine areas of excellence reflect those found in many of the widely acknowledged Operational Excellence frameworks such as the Baldrige Criteria and the Shingo Model of Operational Excellence. It is my take on these assessment criteria to allow business owners an insight on where they could be adding value to their business.

While it is not a comprehensive review and analysis, it is intended to provide leadership teams enough guidance on where they may compare against acknowledged standards.  It is also to be used as a guide on where organisations can improve their performance in key areas of business, help set goals. 

Improvements can take two forms - proactive and reactive.

Reactive, as I see it, are the improvements many teams and individuals make to improve their job.  It is in response to an error or a rework issue, really anything that has made the job frustrating.  These are awesome and need to be encouraged.

Proactive improvements tend to focus on more strategic improvements.  Changing a process, or something significant that goes across more than one team to align the work to the direction or goal of a business.

By assessing your business against Business (or Operational) Excellence frameworks, this will inform and drive proactive improvement activity. I would encourage businesses to step back and review themselves against an excellence criteria at least quarterly.

Here are my key areas of excellence:

1.0 Leadership & Direction

It is all about how the leadership shares and communicates information about the business to the rest of the organisation. It also acknowledges the role of leadership to actively demonstrate and role-model the expected behaviours to support the values of the business. Does the leadership set regular and consistent time in their schedules to work on the performance of the business?  This might be spending time with staff through regular Gemba Walks of mapping out processes, facilitating problem solving sessions.  This should be regarded as critical elements of a typical week for a leader in the business.

2.0 Improving the organisation

Is the business focused on supporting individuals and teams to improve their work and add value to the customer everyday.  Are there opportunities to identify and acknowledge errors and mistakes in a no-blame environment?  Are team members supported and encouraged to use these opportunities to learn and improve the business as a result.

3.0 Customer Focus

Creating value to the customer is the primary goal of Lean Thinking.  Is there continuous activity focused on improving the value to the customer and always aiming to improve the overall experience? Information about the customer experience should be accessible to all team members so they can act on the feedback and adjust their work and performance accordingly. Improving the business to improve the customer journey and experience must be at the forefront of decisions and improvement.  While it might be tempting to create a system and series of processes that suit the business, this can lead to a poor customer experience.

4.0 Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management

Are there metrics used to measure the overall performance of the business and are these metrics transparent to the individuals and teams who complete the work.  Every organisation will use a variety of metrics, presenting them in a usable format for the teams to be fully informed on aspects such as targets, quality and overall performance. Team members receive all the information in a timely manner to enable them to complete a quality job.

5.0 Workforce Culture

Culture is the current accepted behaviours and expectations of a group at any point of time.  Across the organisation, are there consistent actions and activity that encourage and role model the expected behaviours?  Does the leadership of the business take action to improve or sustain positive cultural aspects of the business?. Is there enough trust and respect across all the team members so that the hold each other to account where standards slip.  Is it a culture where people are able to thrive and come to work inspired and encouraged to achieve something special? 

6.0 Operational Management

Are there clear and easily followed systems and processes that support a strong and efficient business? For a business to be able to deliver world-class services or products, their systems and processes that support daily operations must be well organised, documented and supported by regular training of staff. The work should be supported by excellent visual management, transparent information and delivered by an empowered workforce.  The 'system' should not be reliant on a few key staff.

7.0 Preventative Maintenance

Is there a clearly defined preventative maintenance programme with staff enabled and encouraged to complete the necessary tasks to a high standard.  Is preventative maintenance seen as a non-negotiable and value added aspect to the overall operational performance of the business.

8.0 Results & Outcomes

Does the leadership group consistently use the results and outcomes of the services and goods provided to identify opportunities for improvement? Can teams and individuals easily see and access information pertaining to their work and workflow so they can understand their performance against standards or expectations.  Are there regular and open conversations about the results and outcomes with time set aside to problem solve when trends are identified.  Are the results used positively and not in a way that is used against individuals performance?

9.0 Supplier Relationships

Just like the focus on the customer, are there ongoing efforts to proactively work and improve the way the business is supported by its suppliers? Are suppliers regularly brought in to understand the business to collaboratively identify ways to improve the end to end flow of work, including information and materials? Having string positive suppliers can build a more responsive and high performing business.