Thought Provokers...
Quote: Continuous improvement is not about the things you do well - that's work. Continuous improvement is about removing the things that get in the way of your work. The headaches, the things that slow you down, that's what continuous improvement is all about. - Bruce Hamilton
Inventory
Inventory ties up capital, uses storage space, requires handling and is subject to deterioration and obsolescence, yet is often overlooked as a crucial resourse to manage properly on an ongoing basis.
As economic times and market changes, do you review your stocking policies?. Safety stocks and order quantities need constant checking that the levels are still relevant in your current climate, otherwise you could be carrying excessive inventory that costs you money!
Check your inventory turns, age of stock, order quantities and order cycles and ensure they reflect a sufficiently responsive level without unnecessary excess.
Quote: Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material. - Henry Ford
More on Inventory Management
We've been spending a chunk of time recently exploring the new Inventory Optimising module in Syspro 6.1, and to be honest we are impressed!
The new upgrade adds some great tools for managing stock levels utilising various stock policies which can also be date driven for those businesses which experience change in demand due to seasonal fluctuations.
Full Sales Forecasting perfomance measures are also available, including tracking of Stock Outs and Forecast Accuracy.
The new Excess Stock Review process also allows you to focus on the inventory that needs the attention, rather than having to review all of your stock, and the Pareto Analysis also identifies your winning products.
You can find out more about Syspro on their website here
TQM for Small Businesses
Total Quality Management (TQM) is all about putting customer satisfaction first, making it the highest priority in your business, with measures to ensure the company succeeds. Areas such as error reduction, streamlining processes and employee satisfaction are targeted to improve overall performance. This may prove challenging in smaller businesses lacking the proper resources, but with the right strategy and goals a company of any size can utilise TQM principles for future success. Here are some thought starters:
Customer Feedback for your Benchmarks: What better place to start than from feedback from your own customers? Encourage feedback, good or bad, with suggestion boxes or questionnaires. Ask managers to talk to customers to promote feedback, or have your employees rate customer satisfaction themselves after sales or service calls.
Give your Employees Ownership of the Project: often small business do not have the resource of management to drive a TQM project - this is where your employees need to join forces to drive success! Communicate the importance of TQM, give examples of other successes, and train in the principles of TQM.
Empower your Employees: employees who feel empowered to suggest changes are more likely to take pride in their work and to be on the lookout for new opportunities to make the company function better. Reward good suggestions appropriately, and communicate successes and results to all staff. Your employees are directly involved "hands on" with your processes and are in the ideal place to suggest improvements given the right environment.
Watch your Competitors: customer retention is king, know what your competitors offer, learn how they treat their customers using "secret shoppers" and if you see a competitor using a tactic you like look at ways you can integrate it in your business. Find out what your point of difference is, what makes you stand out from the rest, and ensure this is promoted.
Plan, Do, Check, Act: made popular by Dr W. Edwards Deming, who is considered by many to be the father of modern quality control, the PDCA circle describes the process of: Plan - establishing the objectives and processes necessary to deliver the required results; Do - perform/implement the new process; Check - measure the new process, comparing the results to those expected to ascertain any differences; and Act - analyse the differences to determine the cause and where to apply changes that will include improvement. The circle can then be repeated to build on past gains, constantly improving the process step by step.
Hire Help: employing the services of an experienced consultant in this area pays dividends. Many small business lack the full time resource available, and utilising the services of a short-term consultant is cost effective to get you started on the TQM route.
Gordon Ramsay a Kaizen King?
Hard to imagine really, but is the UK Celebrity Chef demonstrating the virtues of Kaizen in his television show Ramsay's Kitchen Nighmares?
Matt Hrivnak in his website blog seems to think so.
The modern usage of a "focused kaizen" is designed to address a particular issue over the course of a week, often referred to as a "kaizen blitz" or "kaizen event", and are generally of limited scope with issues arising out of this even being the subject of later kaizen blitzes.
This is where Matt Hrivnak draws his comparisons, to quote "..each episode seemed to be very much a kaizen event: quick bursts of energy focused on problem solving and improvement. Ramsay's goal in each of the episode is generally the same: to turn a poorly performing restaurant into a successful one."
He goes on to add "While this show lacks the team participation aspects of a kaizen event, it still shows the drastic positive changes that are possible within just a few days."
His observations regarding the similarity of a process kaizen event are quite accurate, and goes to show that there is no mystery surrounding TQM and quality improvement techniques. In practice, we are all probably either participating in or witnessing these events without us realising it!
You can read more about Matt Hrivnak's blog on this subject by clicking this link.
Contact Valued Results on (09) 427 6020 or Mobile (021) 762 402 and see where we can help you out.