6 Principles of Continuous Improvement

So you have implemented a process improvement methodology, like Six Sigma, and it was successful. While this is a reason to celebrate on its own, there’s still more work to be done. One question that pops into mind is: how do we make sure the positive results of the process improvement stick? As an organization, you don’t want to go through a Six Sigma event only to have the promising results gradually revert over time.

With that in mind, one thing that becomes clear is that there’s a need for continuous improvement, or as the Japanese call it: Kaizen. This means improving anything, whether it is a process or product, on an ongoing basis. When your organization adopts a culture of continuous improvement, all improvements made will become cemented, meaning the organization will be optimized and primed to smoothly deliver value to customers uninterrupted.

So how does an organization ensure they build a culture of continuous improvement? Here are six principles to follow.

1. Focus on making small changes

Many organizations think continuous improvement is only about implementing big changes only. But large changes are disruptive and can often face resistance from employees. On the other hand, small improvements, when done incrementally, are less disruptive and more manageable. This means the whole organization doesn’t need to grind to a halt whenever improvements need to be made.

2. Look in the 6Ms

Six Sigma has the concept of 6Ms, which are believed to be behind process variation. In every process, there’s an expected amount of variation in output that is considered natural to it. However, there is some variation that is unnatural to the process known as special cause variation. This causes the variation in output to differ greatly to the point of producing non-conforming products.

By focusing on eliminating the 6Ms, which are man, machine, materials, mother nature, measurement and method, processes can be improved on an ongoing basis.

3. Mistakes teach lessons

Nobody likes to make mistakes, especially if they are costly. However, mistakes can also serve as a valuable lesson on what works and what doesn’t. Employees carrying out the continuous improvement effort need to feel that mistakes are part of the process. They must be given enough room to experiment without being reckless and fearing blame. That way, they will feel comfortable in revealing what they did wrong in order to produce the undesirable results.

4. Ideas from employees have value

Management should take a top-down approach to continuous improvement. Feedback from employees from the lowest levels should be treated like gold since the further down the chain we go, the more that person is in direct contact with the process being improved. And the more direct their knowledge of the process is, the more they are likely to know how to make effective improvements. It is up to management to listen to what their employees are saying in order to make informed decisions.

5. Continuous Improvement is everyone’s job

When the question about who is responsible for continuous improvement is asked, the answer should be that everyone is involved. It doesn’t matter if that person is a janitor, operator, leader or manager. It must be clearly communicated that every employee on every level should take ownership and be involved in all ongoing improvement efforts.

6. Measure effectiveness constantly

Without coming up with a yardstick for measuring success, it would be hard to know if the improvement efforts are working. Process improvement efforts always have an end goal in mind, and results must constantly be measured to ensure the organization is moving towards that goal. Also, by coming up with a way to measure the success, what works can be made apparent for repeatability and what doesn’t work can be eliminated.

Making improvements is not an event that you do once and forget about it. It is an ongoing process, leading to the concept of continuous improvement, which the Japanese have dubbed Kaizen. While it might seem like too much work from the offset, the benefits of continuous movement greatly outweigh the number of resources you use to instill this culture in your organization. Hopefully, the above-mentioned principles can help.

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While the leadership in a merger can become consumed with the new systems and processes of the new organization, the most important element in the transition is the people. So, the leadership must ensure that employees receive timely and accurate information to combat rumor mills and bad information that might foster dissention and loss of commitment to the organization. To do this, many HR departments work with their internal communications departments to develop a consistent message that managers at all levels can relay to their employees.

Additionally, some merger efforts employed a tactic that sent the leadership from one company to speak to the employees of the other company at their respective locations. This helped put a face to the other organization with which they were merging, to feel comfortable, confident and trusting of that leadership, and to hopefully dispel any bad information or myths that employees of one company might have used to form quick, negative opinions of their sister company. Other communication efforts employed the use of webcasts, blog sites, regular newsletters, and bulletin board postings. Additionally, HR as the proponent for training and development ensured that managers at all levels were not only trained on new procedures and systems but also educated on the details of the merger. Studies have shown that employees feel more comfortable hearing change information from their first-line supervisors, so while HR may be tagged as the voice of the change effort, many times, they must use others, such as first-line supervisors and those most trusted by employees, to deliver the message.

However, when using so many voices to broadcast corporate messages, it is important that too much information is communicated. This is the danger in having so many managers empowered with information, because the change execution rarely progresses as originally planned. By providing managers with too much information on the change effort, HR and the leadership may be setting their organization up for disappointment or trust issues when certain planned change efforts are modified to a point that they are inconsistent with the manager’s previously published messages.
So, it can be important to keep change information brief and somewhat vague as the message addresses efforts planned beyond the immediate future.

Lastly, the most important concern on an employee’s mind throughout a merger would have to be, “Will I keep my job?” With mergers, duplication of staff work will surely surface. This is sure to force personnel downsizing, so it is important to execute the downsizing in a quick manner and as early in the merger process as possible in order to reduce some of the anxiety among the workforce. If the majority of cuts come early, then the remaining employees should be more relaxed and able to focus on their work.

Mergers can be challenging and stressful for both the organization’s leadership and its employees. As the voice of change, HR must ensure a communication effort that is characterized as consistent, timely, accurate, and concise. Platforms for delivering these messages should be varied, but they should include those most trusted by the employees.

Lastly, downsizing efforts should be executed quickly and as early as possible in the change process.

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A financial loss could include loss of customers, issuing a refund, or costs incurred to fix the defect. In Six Sigma, there are six elements that contribute to variation in a process. They are called the 6M’s.

The 6M’s

Method: The process used to manufacture the perforated holes; was it an assembly line that ran on a conveyor belt? Perhaps another method used would have been better.

Mother Nature: These are environmental causes. The weather could have caused the machine slow down, thus causing the holes to be punched in the wrong place.

Man (People): Allowing any one staff member to stop the process if he/she deems an error had taken place.

Measurement: If the supplier measures in units, and the manufacturer uses the metric system, this would be a huge problem.

Machine: An old machine, which has parts that are worn, would impact the overall manufacturing process of your product.

Materials: Some materials are more difficult to work with than others. This could dull the blade of the machine that makes the perforated holes.

Consistency in your product or service is the reason your customers come to you, rather than someone else. When Coca-Cola changed their recipe, it did not go over very well. The company went back to its original formula because it lost millions in revenue, and the recipe change is now referred to as the worst flub of all time.

This change was done intentionally, but we bring it up because variation in an established product is the number one enemy in businesses. A variation is an automatic defect. The 6M tool will help establish the cause of the deviation.

There are two types of causes:

Special Causes: These can be found with the Six Sigma tool, through the 5 Whys. The special causes only account for about 15% of the variations.

Common Causes: These are factors that affect the entire system and account for 85% of the variations.

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