I am a true advocate of continuous improvement and therefore also strongly believe in the importance of learning, no matter your age or experience!
A proper adaptation of a continuous improvement culture requires strategy, a structured approach and a change mindset. Starting with a strong commitment from the board and senior executives, but also understanding the main challenges and objectives for your company. The focus of improvement initiatives should always be on those that help solving these challenges and/or meet the key objectives. Understanding the root cause of an issue instead of fighting the symptoms is key.
In order to establish initial buy-in it is always a great idea to start with the low hanging fruit, ideally the initiatives that have a high priority and are relatively easy to implement.
An important and in my eyes crucial characteristic of a true continuous improvement culture, is the ability to measure the success or impact of your improvement initiatives: I strongly advise to start with an unbiased “as-is” baseline and continue with measuring the impact of initiatives by using a clear and unambiguous assessment method like Predixa’s own artificial intelligence application Predixa Dynamics.
Standardizing the way you deal with issues and handle improvement initiatives will definitely lead to a number of benefits. It gives you the chance to structurally measure your successes and highlight the areas for improvement. This helps you implementing a robust solution and therefore achieving sustainable improvements.
Who does not want to have insight in data, be able to predict where potential issues arise and take preventive action? Or do you prefer to be a firefighter?
