Operational excellence principles

Operational excellence in one word means improvement. However, this improvement can mean in turn other things such as better quality products or services, lowered operating costs, reduced inventory time and costs, and so on. Nonetheless, regardless of the organization, the improvement process should involve its management part that has to set goals and teach the company’s employees how they can change their way of working in order to achieve a better performance which can benefit not only them, but also the business.

 

In order for operational excellence to be achieved, there are some principles that have to be followed, regardless of the involved business. The first principle deals with designing lean value streams. This works by planning on paper a lean value stream beginning with the very moment in which a service/product order or request is received, and ending with the moment when this has to be delivered. In order for this to function perfectly, the information and the needed material should move on only when the right processes are ready for them.

 

The second operational excellence principle is represented by making the value stream flow a lean one. This is the moment when the design must be taken out from the paper and moved into reality. This must be followed by implementing the final design plan with the help of all the company’s employees. The third principle is represented by making the flow a visual one. Once the design has been physically created, it is recommended for all of the employees to see the connection between the manufacturing processes and the client. In addition, all visual indicators should be related with the way the product is evolving in its creation until this reaches the customer.

 

The fourth principle deals with creating a standard flow work. After the visual lean flow has been created, the standard work flow has to be created as well. Standard work must be applied not only at the processes, but also between them, in order for the end-to-end flow to be completed and for the variation to be reduced. This way, the entire flow will become regular. This principle should be followed by the identification of an abnormal flow. All employees must be able to observe when something goes wrong in the production process. For this, they should know what is normal and what is not. This way, they will be able to correct possible mistakes in time.

 

The sixth principle of operational excellence deals with creating abnormal flow standard work. Although employees know how to maintain a normal flow, this cannot go on forever. Therefore, they must also be taught what course of action to take when something goes wrong. In addition, they should also learn how they could improve the flow. This is the seventh principle. Finally, the last principle deals with performing offense activities. The management part of the business should use its time for creating processes to help the business grow. For this to happen, management can get involved in innovation, sales, engineering, and so on.

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