Unit 002: Engineering organisational efficiency and improvement

Continuous improvement

Introduction

• We will consider the following: -

• What is Continuous Improvement?

• Why Continuous Improvement?

• The benefits of Continuous Improvements

• Who is involved in Continuous Improvement?

• Process Analysis Tools

• What are the stages of Continuous Improvement?

• What are the Principles of Continuous Improvements?

• How flexible working supports Continuous Improvement?

What is continuous improvement(CI)?

• Continuous Improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes.

• These improvements can be incremental “ Small Steps” or Breakthrough “ Big Bang”.

• The institute of Quality Assurance definition is as follows: -

“ Continuous Improvement a gradual never ending change focused upon the effectiveness and/or the efficiency of an organisation.”

• This approach is used in Environmental Management Systems ISO14000 series. We discussed in Waste Reduction.

Why Continuous Improvement?

• The Importance of Continuous Improvements

“In the current challenging business environment, continuously improving the way we operate must become part of everyday life.

Living with the status quo isn’t good enough for us to remain competitive.”

COO Rolls-Royce plc 2014.

What are the benefits of CI?

• What do you consider the benefits of Continuous Improvement?

Please consider and include any experience of CI you have had

What are the benefits of CI?

• Improvements are based on many small changes rather than the radical changes that might arise from Research and Development

• As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement

• Small improvements are less likely to require major capital investment than major process changes

• The ideas come from the talents of the existing workforce, as opposed to using research, consultants or equipment – any of which could be very expensive

What are the benefits of CI?

• All employees should continually be seeking ways to improve their own performance

• It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can help reinforce team working, thereby improving worker motivation.

Who is involved with CI

• Improvement in business strategy, business results, customer, employee and supplier relationships can be subject to continual improvement not purely Quality or Shop floor processes.

• Put simply, it means ‘getting better all the time’

• Hence all the workforce are involved in improvements and solving problems.

Problem Analysis tools

• Deming’s “94/6” rule – 94% of problems lie with the system and only 6% with the person.

• Six Honest Working Men by Rudyard Kipling

“I knew six honest serving men,

they taught me all I know;

their names are what and why and when,

and where and how and who,”

• Deming and Kipling an interesting combination

W E Deming

William Edward Deming(14/10/1900 to 20/12/1993)

• American Engineer Statistician

• Best known for his work in Japan after WWII,

• Inspirational to the Japanese with Statistical

Process Control

1. Better design of products to improve service

2. Higher level of uniform product quality

3. Improvement of product testing

4. Greater sales through global markets

• Promoted Plan - Do - Study- Act(PDSA)

approach

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling – 30/12/1865- 18/1/1936

• Short story writer, novelist, poet and Journalist.

• Nobel Prize for literature in 1907.• Notable works, The Jungle Book,

Kim, “If_”• He asked the right questions in “Six

Honest men

What are the 4 stages of CI? (PDCA)

• The 4 stages of the continuous improvement cycle are: -

• Plan – begin with the customer seeking to understand their requirements. Plan is not just about planning what to do but about scoping, discussion, consensus and communication.

• Do – Try the improvement in practice perhaps in a test phase.

• Check – Is it working as planned? If not, why not? What can be learnt for next time.

• Act – In most cases an adjustment will be required. Once satisfied with the change standardise to implement the change.

• Note: Deming advocated – PDSA where S was study.

What are the principles of CI?

• Continuous or more correctly Continual improvement as the improvements are incremental. “Small steps rather than flow”

• The aim of any improvement is to “Delight the Customer”

• Any activity that does not add value to the Customer is waste and should be removed or minimised.

• Ensure improvements are captured and standardised across the organisation.

• Develop a culture of improvement across the whole work force.

How “flexible working” apply to CI?

• Flexibility is the basic ability to react to a situation.

• This could be in having agreements on flexibility of working hours.

• Alternatively having flexible machines that allow for small batches to be machined economically.

• The ability to offload work to the supply chain.

• Multi-Skilling of the work force further adds to flexibility

Conclusions

• We have looked at the following:-

• Continuous Improvement and Breakthrough improvements.

• The need for Continuous Improvement in organisations.

• The benefits of Continuous Improvement.

• Process analysis.

• The 4 stages of Continuous Improvement.

• The Principles of Continuous Improvement

• Flexible working in Continuous Improvement

Process Improvement

• Feedback on work sheet exercise.

• Knowledge Gained ? R/A/G