Every business has some functional areas where there is a dire need for improvement. Most of the time, these changes happen slowly and gradually in the organization. But, it is challenging to make meaningful and effective changes in the process.
Achieving operational excellence is yet another way through which organizations bring change to their processes. Operational Excellence or OpEx is a concept that prioritizes leadership and problem-solving as a means of achieving continuous improvement.
OpEx learning enables managers with a problem-solving mindset rather than a set of activities or rules. Unlike other methodologies, OpEx is more about the perspective of the organization and its employees rather than the rules and methods. This is why operational excellence is not restricted to one industry but can be adopted by various industries.
Through OpEx, an organization can achieve its goals and improve performance and company culture to ensure more sustainable growth.
Various approaches for achieving operational excellence have been adopted into mainstream company culture throughout the years.
Here are the top 3 methodologies of operational excellence
- Lean Manufacturing
The main objective of lean manufacturing is to eliminate inefficiencies and wastes in the production procedure. It emphasizes that an organization should only prioritize activities that add value to the customers.
Every production process has a bottleneck which acts as a point of congestion for the whole process and slows the production down.
So, lean manufacturing methodology dictates that focusing efforts to improve such bottlenecks is the best way to attain maximum efficiency. It also focuses on improving the overall quality of products or services by eliminating waste to provide more value and decrease costs.
Lean manufacturing helps managers to identify seven common areas of waste, also known as seven deadly wastes.
- Overproduction
- Waiting
- Transport
- Motion
- Over-processing
- Inventory
- Defects
- Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a collection of tools and strategies for improving business processes to produce a better product or service. The objective of Six Sigma is to detect and eliminate variation to enhance the customer experience.
It is an effective methodology as fifty percent of all the fortune 500 companies have adopted this methodology to some extent which has helped them save over $427 billion in the past two decades.
The goal is to produce no more than 3.4 defects for every million opportunities, wherein a defect is defined as anything that does not exceed the customer’s expectations.
According to this methodology, if you manufacture a million units, only 3.4 defective units should be defective as per the six sigma process.
An organization can achieve Six Sigma quality by implementing DMAIC, an acronym for defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling.
- Kaizen
It is a Japanese term that means “continuous improvement,” and it is used in the workplace to implement positive, long-term improvements.
The primary guiding principles of the Kaizen approach dictate that teamwork is crucial, good processes will fetch positive results, and any process can be improved.
Kaizen is adopted by organizations to foster an environment of continuous improvement and increase employee collaboration to achieve ongoing workplace improvements.
The approach teaches that even if minor improvements are made consistently, they will compound over time and yield significant results. The Kaizen approach emphasizes the importance of participation by the employees to bring changes to the organization.
Kaizen emphasizes the need for ongoing improvement, highlighting that making a change once and hoping it sticks is ineffective. You must continue to improve on a regular basis. Many companies have implemented Kaizen to boost employee productivity, reduce expenses, and enhance customer service.
Once an organization implements these three methodologies, it is one step close to achieving operational excellence. These approaches have made it clear thatOpEx learning is not a one-time job but rather a constant learning process for the organization.
There is also some room for improvement. Only continuous improvement will help you to lower your costs, increase productivity and keep your customers happy.