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BSBMGT516 Facilitate Continuous Improvement

Assessment Task 1 1. Explain the importance of establishing a formal system and process to support continuous improvement. Formal system refers to the proper establishment of systematic application of activities which is very important for the development of a workplace. A Continuous Improvement Plan is a set of activities designed to bring gradual, ongoing improvement to products, services or processes through constant review, measurement and action. 2. Explain at least two key elements of a formal continuous improvement system. Element 1 - Leadership: audits, assessments and metrics allow leaders to make informed decisions and learn what they did right or wrong from past decisions. Element 2 - Employee Accountability: audits and assessments for process compliance and effectiveness re-enforce accountability. 3. Explain how the Plan, Do, Check Act Cycle can be used to support effective continuous improvement. Explain each part of the cycle in your answer.    

Plan: identify and analyze the problem or opportunity, develop hypotheses about what the issues may be, and decide which one to test. Do: test the potential solution, ideally on a small scale, and measure the results. Check/Study: study the result, measure effectiveness, and decide whether the hypothesis is supported or not. Act: if the solution was successful, implement it.

4. Explain how brainstorming with staff can be used for effective continuous improvement. Brainstorming sessions or think tanks open the door to continuous workplace improvements by bringing members of management together to resolve problems. Invite key members of management as well as floor supervisors to participate to have an accurate representation present. Provide a schedule of topics to discuss to keep the session running smoothly and to ensure that it is productive. When a topic is on the table, each participant proposes a solution, and each solution is examined, analyzed and discussed for feasibility and cost to implement. Annual brainstorming sessions can consistently improve business operations. 5. Explain the relationship between continuous improvement and knowledge management. Continuous improvement is deemed essential for organizations in achieving flexibility, responsiveness and the ability to adapt quickly to changes within the environment. A continuous improvement approach to business activities will enable an organization to improve its competitive position either by increasing its revenue through improved relationships with customers or by achieving cost efficiencies through process improvement. It is suggested that the achievement of such goals is dependent upon the organization having a learning culture to promote improved performance. The decision to adopt continuous improvement in itself implies a learning approach, as the organization will be focused on improving its current business operations. Learning develops insights, knowledge and associations between past actions, the effectiveness of those actions, and future actions. Organizational learning is about the acquisition of new knowledge and highlights the importance of acquiring and disseminating information to assist organization actions.

6. Explain the importance of continuous improvement as part of a quality management system. The role of continual improvement is one of the most important principles in any quality management strategy, and enables a core goal for all improvement practices within the organization. The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has the following to say about continuous improvement: "continual improvement should be a permanent objective of the organization." There are many major benefits that can be seen through continual improvement, including a performance advantage that comes from improved organizational proficiencies, the alignment of improvement strategies at all levels with strategic goals and the flexibility to react promptly to opportunities that may arise. 7. Discuss why the goals of lean manufacturing and sustainability are synonymous. Lean Manufacturing has always been seen as a mean to improve efficiency by reducing operations costs, but the recent focus on sustainability and its three pillar (economic, environmental and social) brought new issues to be addressed. In this paper, a new framework that links lean manufacturing with sustainability is proposed and then refined through a cross-sectorial multiple case studies. The results highlight the need to align the lean implementation process with the sustainability strategy in order to avoid the negative impacts that lean production could have on the environmental and social components of sustainability. 8. Discuss the relationship between performance management and continuous improvement within an organization. The relationship between quality improvement (QI) and performance management (PM) is mutually reinforcing. However, sometimes the connection between them is not always so well demarcated. Performance management is a process by which managers and employees work together to plan, monitor and review an employee’s work objectives and overall contribution to the organization. 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.

Assessment Task 2 Continuous Improvement Research 1. Benefits of continuous improvement A company that adopts the continuous improvement approach will see immeasurable benefits, including:      

Increased productivity Improved quality Lowered costs Decreased delivery times Improved employee satisfaction/morale Reduced employee turnover rate

2. Continuous improvement models Six Sigma Model The aim of Six Sigma is to minimize faults, defects and any variation from the established process so as to increase the overall quality of outputs. The term denotes the ratio of faulty products expected per million units, which is 3.4, or to put it another way, a 99.99966% success rate. Six Sigma uses one of two methodologies depending on whether it’s being implemented to improve an existing business process (DMAIC) or create a new one ( DFSS). Within these methodologies, a range of quality management tools and workflows are used, including the Five Whys, axiomatic design and cost-benefit analysis. One of the well-known features of Six Sigma is the various roles needed within the organization, including Master Black Belts, who work full-time within a Six Sigma program as in-house coaches, and Champions, who take overall responsibility for the implementation of Six Sigma. Kaizen Model A Japanese word meaning ‘improvement,’ Kaizen’s ultimate goal is waste elimination. Its origins are in post-WWII Japanese businesses but it now used worldwide. It is an inclusive model of continuous improvement in that opportunities for improvement are expected to be identified by everyone from the CEO downwards - this is unsurprising considering its ubiquity in manufacturing, where front-line workers are often best able to spot inefficiencies in the production cycle. But what this also means is that there’s a distinctive cultural element to Kaizen and the implementation of processes and procedures must work alongside cultural re-alignment to the continuous improvement mindset in order to drive employee suggestions. When Kaizen is used for continuous improvement there are two distinct elements: flow kaizen and process kaizen. The former deals with how information, products and services flow throughout the organization, while the latter focuses on small changes individuals can make quickly to improve efficiency. Six Sigma model will be suitable for E-OfficeWorx for it’s preferable features and outcomes.

3. Ways of Building in continuous improvement There are many ways to build a workplace culture of continuous improvement. They are; 

Choose small, manageable improvements

Companies and employees do best when a culture of continuous improvement is instituted in small, manageable ways. 

Monitor improvement with the plan-do-check-act method

Driving a culture of continuous improvement requires monitoring to ensure performance goals are met. A good method to use is plan-do-check-act. This works as a loop. First, roll out a plan so every employee knows the requirement. If salespeople are to increase sales, have informational meetings about it. Then, once the initiative for sales increases is implemented, see how your people do. Set a meaningful time frame to track the changes. Check to see the status of the improvement. 

Unleash and monitor employees

A passionate and committed workforce is your biggest asset in driving continual improvement. Employees are on the front lines with customers and products – selling them, creating them, building them. Finally, make sure your employees are encouraged. Mention those that met goals or created a new method in an email newsletter. Have an award for best new plan of the month. 4. Continuous Improvement Tools Continuous Improvement Check Sheets Check sheets are manual data collection forms used to collect data in real time at the location where the data is generated. Some benefits are;    

Capture how often something occurs Build up records of how many or how much Provide visual indication of a problem Involve the whole team

Analyze Data with a Histogram or Bar Chart Another simple tool from most people’s school years, the Histogram or Bar Chart is a simple method to graphically represent collected data and allow simple visual analysis of that data. The Histogram will quickly and clearly tell you how good your process is at meeting the required tolerances as well as pointing out any unusual situations. 80:20 Rule to drive continuous improvement The 80:20 rule originally proposed through the research of Vilfredo Pareto regarding 80% of a countries wealth belonging to just 20% of its population. This ratio is as applicable in business as it is in economics. This analysis allows us to focus our resources on the critical few to gain the maximum benefit. Continuous Improvement Fishbone Diagrams The fishbone diagram or Ishikawa diagram as named after its creator Kaoru Ishikawa is a way to represent cause and effect. The effect forming the head of the fishbone and the potential causes forming the skeleton behind. .

5. Strategies for encouraging staff to participate in continuous improvement decision-making There are many strategies to encourage participating staffs in continuous improvement decision making. They are;        

Focus on strengths Have an end goal in mind Communicate the goal to everyone Educate and spread awareness Make changes of everyone’s responsibility Enhance communication Measure outcomes Recognize and reward improvement work

6. Strategies for delivering the continuous improvement processes and outcomes      

Send weekly correspondence to all employees in the company. Hold town hall meetings. Put on an annual senior leadership conference for your top leaders. Emails Newsletters Update information by office bulletin

7. Collecting feedback       

Customer feedback surveys Email and customer contact forms Usability Tests Instant feedback from your website Suggestion box. Assign feedback coaches. Follow up with employees.

8. Ongoing mentoring and coaching processes 

 

Plan: involving needs analysis to clarify the problem or opportunity for improvement, whether it is a skill and/or knowledge deficiency, and if so, what actions should be planned to address the issue. The measures of success must be specific, measurable and achievable. The coaching action plan documents the actions that will be taken to achieve the measures of success. It’s important that both coach and learner reach agreement on the issue to be addressed, the measures and the action plan. Implement: the action plan is implemented by the coach and the learner. Monitor: Like any continuous improvement initiative, the coaching process must have inbuilt mechanisms to evaluate progress and modify strategic intentions and desired outcomes where necessary. The process must be able to track the learner’s progress towards the measures of success is regularly monitored, and feedback provided to either recognize achievement and reinforce the desired behavior, or further coaching provided if the measures are not yet achieved.

9. Strategies for ensuring continuous improvement in sustainability

There are many strategies to continuous improvement in sustainability. They are;    

Build Understanding with a Prescriptive Content Framework Engage the Organization with a Structured Deployment Approach Drive Execution with a Well-Defined Managing Process Hold People Accountable with a Sequential Governance Model

10. Accessible knowledge management strategies KM strategy is a plan that describes how an organization will manage its information and knowledge better for the benefit of that organization and its stakeholders. A good IKM strategy is closely aligned with the organization’s overall strategy and objectives. Some KM strategies those are applicable for E-OfficeWorx; Segment Everything into Spaces Knowledge management software allows one to create spaces specifically for projects, teams, or groups of documentation. It prevents information overload from disrupting your ability to easily find the information one needs, when one needs it. Segmentation is especially useful for help desks, as it cuts down on the amount of time it takes for someone to find what they’re looking for when assisting a customer. Segmentation makes it easier to navigate one’s KMS and organize documents in a way that makes sense to one’s team. Set Monthly Benchmarks Incorporating monthly benchmarks into the knowledge management strategy makes it possible to monitor activity within your KMS. So one can easily assess the productivity. Benchmarks provide concrete goals for the team to achieve. Best of all, they’re completely flexible in that one can adapt them to reflect changing priorities

2. Continuous Improvement Policy for E-OfficeWorx

Purpose of the Policy This policy provides details of the E-OfficeWorx approach to continuous improvement in its business processes and practices in order to drive organizational excellence and provide stakeholder satisfaction. Scope of the Policy

The scope of the policy of E-OfficeWorx is applicable for all staffs, actions and areas of business. Continuous Improvement Principles The specific continuous improvement principles of E-OfficeWorx are not limited to;     

Focus on understanding and satisfying the customer of E-OfficeWorx; Regularly review approaches and methods with improvement cycles and conclusions implemented; Benchmark and regularly measure the performance of key processes of E-OfficeWorx; Manage business using facts rather than opinion; Maintain a culture of clear, open communication.

Continuous Improvement Model and Implementation Six Sigma model is the most suitable for E-OfficeWorx continuous improvement model for its actionable features. The aim of Six Sigma is to minimize faults, defects and any variation from the established process so as to increase the overall quality of outputs. The term denotes the ratio of faulty products expected per million units, which is 3.4, or to put it another way, a 99.99966% success rate. Six Sigma uses one of two methodologies depending on whether it’s being implemented to improve an existing business process (DMAIC) or create a new one ( DFSS). Within these methodologies, a range of quality management tools and workflows are used, including the Five Whys, axiomatic design and cost-benefit analysis. One of the well-known features of Six Sigma is the various roles needed within the organization, including Master Black Belts, who work full-time within a Six Sigma program as in-house coaches, and Champions, who take overall responsibility for the implementation of Six Sigma. Staff Participation and Communication Staff participation and communication of continuous improvement of E-OfficeWorx will be conducted by;      

Send weekly correspondence to all employees in the company Hold town hall meetings Put on an annual senior leadership conference for your top leaders Emails Newsletters Update information by office bulletin

Tools to Support the Continuous Improvement Process

E-OfficeWorx will use some specific tools to support the continuous improvement process. They are; Continuous Improvement Check Sheets Analyze Data with a Histogram or Bar Chart 80:20 Rule to drive continuous improvement Continuous improvement register

   

Responsibilities Staffs of E-OfficeWorx including all managers, supervisors will be responsible for the continuous improvement process of the workplace. Any kind of rectification and modification will be communicated with all the staffs immediately. Continuous Improvement Tools

1. Feedback Form Date: Name:

22.03.2018 Mark Brown

Company:

E-OfficeWorx

Position title:

Relationship Manager

Telephone contact:

+xx-xxxxxx

1. Which of the following most appropriately describes your relationship with E-OfficeWorx? ☒ Staff member ☐ Customer ☐ Management ☐ Supplier ☐ Other: 2. Please provide your feedback, including any suggested improvements

The continuous improvement process is impressive. But more intensive care should be taken over regular reviewing approaches and methods with improvement cycles and conclusions implemented. 3. Please give a rating on the importance and/or urgency of making this improvement. ☐ Low priority – not urgent Signed: Office Use Only

☐ Medium priority – low urgency

☒ High priority – urgent

Mark Brown

Register No:

2018332

Suggestion recorded:

Initial: John Leonard.

Review date:

25.03.2018

Decision:

Remodel review approach and improvement cycle. 30.03.2018

Timeline:

Date received:

22.03.2018

Date: 23.03.2018

Responsibility:

Operation Manager

Recorded:

Initial: John Leonard Date: 25.03.2018

Completed:

Initial: Aisha Singh Date: 30.03.2018

Recorded:

Initial: John Leonard Date: 30.03.2018

2. Continuous Improvement Register Origin Human

Reported opportunity Skilled and

Actions Training and

Deliverable s New

Responsibili ty HR Manager

Priority

Timelines

Complete

Comments

Medium

MAY 2018

Processing

Monitor

Resource Development

trained staff

Marketing Development

Developed promotion and customer reach Increased customer satisfaction

Customer Service Development

Continuous Improvement Sustainabilit y Development

Increased sustainable practices of the business

Continuous Improvement Tool Development

Increased effectiveness of continuous improvemen t process

developmen t process by training and courses Market research and proper planning

knowledge and experience Marketing study and report

Marketing Manager

High

JUNE 2018

Processing

Understand, receive, monitor, analyze and feedback Plan, Do, Check and Act

Better customer service

Customer service and QA department

High

MAY 2018

Processing

Product and service quali...