Continuous Improvement
LEAN Six Sigma
The race to improve performance and optimize practices has always been a part of everyday business life. In this regard, continuous improvement aims to gradually reduce process weaknesses, customer dissatisfaction and risk potential through an operational approach.
Among the practices behind continuous improvement are the LEAN and Six Sigma tools. Each of these approaches allows us to make specific and global interventions that will promote efficiency, effectiveness and quality of production, products and services.
At MELIUS, we strongly believe in the philosophy behind continuous improvement, which advocates management buy-in. By taking this stance, the organization ensures the success and sustainability of any change. This new way of thinking will encourage ingenuity, mobilization and accountability in the community.
“By taking this stance, the organization ensures the success and sustainability of any change.”
Optimization of operational performance
The optimization of operational performance is based on the notions of effectiveness and efficiency. Among the tracks to observe, we can find two of the three categories of waste: Muri and Mura.
Originating from Japanese culture, Muri (excess) involves the overloading of personnel, facilities and inventories. On the other hand, Mura (variability) focuses on the irregularity of equipment, employees and raw materials (suppliers).
An informed look at the performance of your operations will help you achieve your ultimate goal of meeting your customers’ expectations.
Identification and elimination of sources of waste
The most well known category of waste is Muda, which means: unnecessary or inefficient and of no value to the customer. There are eight sources of waste that apply to both the industrial and service sectors.
These sources of waste can easily be identified by both the employees in place and by external viewers. The elimination, or at least the reduction, of these sources will promote the creation of value and thus facilitate the optimization of the company’s processes.
These eight sources are: transportation, travel, overproduction, waiting, inventory, over quality, defects and finally competence.
Implementing value-added initiatives
In a context where the environment of organizations is changing very rapidly, companies would be tempted to implement a large number of initiatives without asking themselves certain questions. For example;
- Does this initiative generate significant and recurring expenses and/or actions?
- Does this initiative create and/or transform a product or service into something for which the customer will be willing to pay?
- Does this initiative give me a competitive advantage?
It goes without saying that value-added initiatives require the involvement of all personnel, thus promoting great flexibility for organizations by responding quickly to consumer desires.
Customer Alignment - Aligning the voice of the customer / the business process
Often, in the actions of daily life, organizations can tend to forget their primary reason for existing, which is to meet the needs of their customers. It is therefore essential for the company to identify the sources of concern and dissatisfaction of its customers.
By listening to the voice of the customer, the company will be able to understand the changes needed to retain its customers and to increase its market share by attracting new customers.
It will therefore be important for the organization to convert this voice into critical customer requirements in order to establish standards aligned with customer needs. Moreover, this conversion translates the needs into tangible and measurable elements.
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A broader look at your organization will allow you to take actions that will influence your strategic positioning. Our advisory services offer our clients the opportunity to increase their efficiency while promoting employee engagement and engagement.
