Your Process Improvement Solution May Not Be as Fit for the Purpose as You Think

Old bike at Äkäslompolo Logging Museum ("Savottamuseo").

Process improvement is all about ambitions. If you settle with only small or no improvements at all, you don't need to worry about the performance of your process improvement efforts. However, if you really want to realize the total potential available through process improvement, you need to pay close attention to the process improvement solution used in your company. No matter how much, or for how long your company has improved its processes, chances are that your improvement solution is fit for the museum, just as the bicycle in the picture above.

It is rare that companies truly understand the mission-critical flaws in their process improvement solution, as most companies apply more or less the same solutions as the others do. And no, AI won't get you off the hook in this matter. The trick here is to understand what process improvement yield (PIY) level the solution deliver in real-life, at what time frame, using how much effective working time, to what costs.

In short, the process improvement yield tells how effective (improving the right issues) and productive (improving the issues right) the improvement efforts are. To calculate the score (0-100%) you need to understand how to define the quality of your improvement plans and the quality of the implementation. In addition, you also need to factor in the coverage of both the planning and implementation (the dedicated scope).

Most companies run their improvement efforts with a low process improvement yield level (0-5%). As this happens year after year, tremendous amounts of both internal and external improvement potential remain unrealized. This affects thus both profitability and growth (owner satisfaction), besides employee and customer satisfaction.

To start your high-performance process improvement journey, you first of all need a clear and committed picture of what to do. This is not an easy task to define, as there are several key issues you need to define and master to arrive at the correct answer. Besides, it also matters how you arrive at the answer. I know, because I wrote my doctoral dissertation regarding this very subject (dissertation entitled "Process Improvement Essentials: a Framework for Creating and Implementing Operational Improvement Plans"). Take my word that the method I have developed in my dissertation will do the trick. It produces a process improvement plan that ticks all the boxes. Correctly done it provides an 100% quality improvement plan, the "VISTALIZER Report", assuring the improvement effectiveness for a specific process. The coverage requirement when defining the PIY is managed by simply creating a VISTALIZER Report for all important processes.

Once the process improvement plan is ready, and the management has decided to implement it, its time to assure the improvement productivity. Basically, this is done by improving further the improvement system and deliverables, and running the improvement efforts within the PDCA (plan, do, check, act) or Deming circle at a quality level of above 85% (preferably 90-100%), also when the ambition levels are increased. How to achieve this is not an easy task, as both the real-life PDCA quality level and coverage are low in companies. A low PDCA quality level equals a low overall implementation performance. The app "VISTALIZER for Enterprises" and related VISTALIZER services provide a dedicated support to constantly assure the required and sufficient knowledge base on different organizational levels (executives, managers, employees). For larger scale implementation, the app is delivered and deployed as a private (customized) app named "VISTALIZER for YourCompanyNameHere" using either Apple Business Manager (iOS / iPadOS) or managed Google Play (Android).

What could VISTALIZER solutions do for your company? If you would like to explore your company's options how to make use of high-performance process improvement solutions, step-by-step, just drop us a line (pdca@vistalizer.com) and we'll take it from there.