How to achieve operational effectiveness
Operational effectiveness means performing similar activities and practices better than your competitors and making the best use of your resources to do so. Effectiveness is achieved by focussing on quality assurance, cost management, and delivery systems; the aim is to foster continuous improvement and evaluation. But the key is to choose the appropriate tools or strategies that can help you retain an ongoing and sustainable competitive advantage. Here are some of those proven tools and techniques...
1. Embrace the spirit of kaizen.
Kaizen focuses on the continuous improvement of current processes, most famously exemplified by the successful turnaround at Toyota Motor Company. The philosophy embraces ongoing improvement by all staff through the elimination of waste, working to new standards, and innovation. Kaizen uses a range of techniques such as small-group problem solving, suggestion schemes, brainstorming, work study, and statistics. Workers are inspired to participate for the satisfaction of using their creative skills to improve the operations they themselves perform and the goods or services they produce.
2. Consider what TQM has to offer.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy for focusing on process improvement. Each employee (as a supplier) in the organisation takes personal responsibility for delivering quality to the next employee (as a customer). The end product is to maximise the satisfaction of the organisation’s final consumer at the lowest possible price. TQM aims, through quality standards and awards, to get products and services right the first time rather than waiting for them to be finished before checking them for errors.
3. Explore the possibilities of reengineering.
Reengineering, also referred to as business process reengineering, is a process that challenges the operation and even existence of an organisation’s fundamental processes. It is aimed at radically redesigning business processes in order to dramatically improve an organisation’s competitiveness. Hammer and Champy first introduced reengineering in 1990 as a response to the failure of traditional business tools to make a positive impact on costs, quality, and service. Despite its offerings, reengineering has been criticised as the root cause of much business cost-cutting, downsizing and staff redundancies.
