Sustainable Results

Keep Focused, Keep Moving, Keep Doing,Keep Benefitting

A properly deployed process improvement program will show, among other things, better customer satisfaction, cultural changes and significant financial impact on the company. Often in the initial stages these returns are quite remarkable and noted by many managers of the organization. The same managers must play a key role in having these results reoccur, year after year.

Here are the key steps to sustainable returns within your program:

1. Document and Communicate Lessons Learned. By doing so, you are validating all of the efforts to ignite a program through demonstrative returns to the company.
2. Think Green. Not necessarily in the environmental way but rather in the “belts”. Identify and add more resources at the Green Belt level. This will add to the momentum throughout the company and give the new team members a “card in the game”.
3. Certify and Retain your Black Belts. This will continue your encouragement of these full-time process improvement technicians to continue on the right path. In addition, it gives the program proof that the returns are genuine.
4. Compensate the Doers. Make it clear within the organization that when results are made, a significant incentive is returned to the team. What greater satisfaction could there be for a ‘job well done’.
5. Involve your Suppliers and Vendors. All along the value chain improvements can be made. Improving your vendors’ quality before their resources are used will increase your quality.
6. Assess and Reassess. Documentation is the key to a good deployment and a good assessment. Look to all of the factors that result in bringing returns. Adjust when and where needed.