Implementing a Culture of Continuous Improvement - Business Plan Example

BPP Professional Education Business Foundation May 19, 2008 Business Strategy: Implementing a Culture of Continuous Improvement (A Case Study Output) Underlying the success of a business is the continuous implementation of effective measures and techniques for improvement. There are no specific guidelines to follow as to having the exact step-by-step formula for success because different businesses vary, meaning a strategy might be effective to one but not to the other. What is essential for a business’ success is to have a manager that is very keen and smart enough to identify the particular business aspects for which he will focus on. Brown enumerated in his article “What Makes A good Manager?” the qualities of a good manager and these include: must have a charisma, a strategic planner, with integrity, fights for her/his people, selective in building the organization, and spends the extra time to collect the information necessary to show how valuable the organization is to the company (June, 2007). The OKI (UK) Ltd. and Blue Circle Cement are two examples of big businesses that were managed strategically and successfully. To provide an abstract of each business above-mentioned, OKI (UK) Ltd. is a Japanese electronics company that branched out in UK (United Kingdom) and gained tremendous prestige of success within its four years of business operation through implementing ‘kaizen’ strategy – the establishment of a process for continued improvement involving everyone (managers and workers alike). While the Blue Circle Cement, after surpassing the business dilemma of having a lack of international competitiveness during the 80’s, is now UK’s largest cement producer (supplying about half of the country’s needs) after implementing a strategic program of employee empowerment working as an integrated team involving the use of new technology. For purposes of comparing the elements of the business strategies applied by these two companies that contributed to their success, we will consider three important aspects of strategy implementation: First, the roles and responsibilities; second, the resource requirements; and third, the propose targets and timescales. 1) Roles and Responsibilities for Specific Strategy Implemented OKI (UK) Ltd. Blue Circle Cement Strategy element: Open communication line within the different levels of the organization. The manager created a system (Cell Production and Performance Targets) for good communication between staffs and immediate supervisors. The supervisor conducts an appraisal interview to the employees twice a year. The lowest level workers have direct contact with the product, thus they do the monitoring of quality performance and any problem on the previous day’s production is communicated for resolve the next morning of working period. Strategy element: New ways of working based on increasing teamwork and shared decision-making. The senior manager looks at all aspects team building including the nature of team’s performance and structure. The middle manager or supervisor focuses on how to put teamwork into operation. The team leader is responsible for the performance of the particular team he/she handles. The lowest level workers participate and cooperate with the new ways of working. 2) Resource Requirements to Implement a New Strategy OKI (UK) Ltd. Blue Circle Cement Strategy element: Training and further education. providing new recruits with full induction courses existing staffs are encouraged to take between six and fifteen days of training per year sponsoring staffs to take further education evening courses Strategy element: Enhancement of skills and team training. senior managers workshop staff team training team leader briefings team building workshops To tackle more on the resources required for the implementation of kaizen business strategy in OKI Ltd., here are the training programs of the Kaizen Institute implemented by the company in developing managers and supervisors through practical skills workshops for the enhancement of their potentials in team-building, group facilitating, and proper and intelligent communication styles that would inspire their subordinates – making them lean and not mean managers. Kaizen training costs, duration and implementation varies on the type of kaizen management training levels cited from Kaizen Institute, 1985-2008 including: (1) Kaizen Practitioner (1st level of competence) equipped with knowledge in JIT (Just-in-Time/4 days training), TPM (Total Productive Maintenance/5 days training), and Kaizen foundations (4 days training) for a total duration of 13 days training seminar and implementation; (2) Kaizen Coach (2nd level of competence) who has the ability to manage teams and lead workshops on site and has a command further techniques for process design and the practical implementation of improvements, as well as the responsibility to inform and train staffs with 21 additional days (2 days examination, 3 days service management, 3 days quality management, 5 days flow management, 3 days kaizen toolbox usage and mastery, and 5 days kaizen coach mastery) of training duration from the 1st level of training; and (3) Kaizen Manager (3rd level of performance) who has the total overview of all methods and activities as to planning, implementation of kaizen business strategy, and motivation to all employees in the entire organization with 10 additional days (2 days examination, 2 days kaizen controlling, 3 days leadership in kaizen culture, and 3 days kaizen management) of training duration after finishing the 1st and 2nd levels of kaizen training. In OKI Ltd, for instance, Mr. Kojima is the kaizen manager while department managers (assembly and production departments) are the kaizen coaches and the kaizen practitioners are the supervisors and team leaders. Implementing another concept of kaizen is the just-in time system. JIT principle cited in QAD Inc.’s Streamlining for Success: The Lean Supply Chain”, 2003, p. 18 is “The concept of reducing inventories by working closely with suppliers to coordinate delivery of the right materials, in the right quantity, just in time for use in the next step in the manufacturing process/supply chain” and so applied by OKI Ltd. in creating two-stage production process, with five split cells on the cell production alone, where one acts as a supplier and the other as a customer. Any defective material handed on from supplier to customer was immediately returned back to the relevant PCB workers. This method cuts off waste portion of raw materials needed for production as well as identifies where exactly (as to the distinct cell production stage) the product defect had originally occurred, thus the order of electronic spare parts from suppliers are standardized and a close monitoring too of each production stage’ proper functioning. Also, JIT was applied on the speed of work that was adjusted through maximizing the capacity of its working force without affecting the working quality, thus increasing their production and supply. To rigidly monitor the efficiency of work force in production, OKI Ltd. implemented the hourly monitoring of product defects in all its production cells to prudently monitor any product defects within an hour and reports about these deficiencies were being discussed in a 5 to 10 minutes meeting every morning of the next day’s operation so that any existing problems within the organization are prudently attended with. 3) Propose Targets and Timescales for Achievement OKI (UK) Ltd. Blue Circle Cement From 2,400/week printer production with 300 staffs to 6,000/week with staffs doubled level in twelve months. From 25% to 11% defect rate also within a year (1992 to 1993) conveying a more efficient work and entailing less time of rework for defective products. For quality target, they record the number of defective products and monitor as to what particular area did the fault occurred. For the speed of work, from 120 minutes in 1988 for a printer to be fully assembled to 75 minutes target in 1994. No specific target (numerical value) as to the company’s production performance was mentioned on the case but for the timescale it took two-and-a-half years to implement the strategy. Other than the strategy elements mentioned above, there are some important factors that had contributed to the success of OKI (UK) Ltd. One is the strategic location of the company that is accessible to air and sea transport and its closeness to numerous electronic suppliers. Second is the very nature of the project leader, Mr. Kojima – a Japanese national, and as mentioned in Workman’s article “Japans management style is participatory and values teamwork” (April, 2008). While Blue Circle Cement implemented a simple pay structure with the elimination of paid overtime and bonuses and increased basic wage levels. They also significantly reduced manning levels reducing total labor costs. Continuous Improvement of the kaizen concept is indeed a competitive and effective strategy for industries to promote organizational growth and success eventually. The essence of this business strategy is the utilization of the human resources of the firm to produce a constant stream of improvements in all aspects of customer value, including quality, functional design, and timely delivery, while lowering cost at the same time. OKI (UK) Ltd. and Blue Circle Cement are just two of the many business entities that became successful through the implementation of this business strategy, and their intelligent top-level managers will continue to take the challenge of identifying more variables that may significantly affect the overall performance of their business operation as the business continues to operate. Work Cited: Brown, Darwin. “What Makes A Good Manager?”. June 17, 2007. The Good Manager. 2005 Kaizen Institute. “Our Key to Success is to Make Our Clients Experts”. 1985-2008. Kaizen and GembaKaizen, Kaizen Institude. QAD Inc. 2003. “Streamlining for Success: The Lean Supply Chain”. Workman, Daniel. “Japanese Culture Leadership Style: Participative Leaders in Japan Exemplify Theory Z Managers” April 9, 2008. International Trade Leaders. Read More