Skip to main content

Getting Results: A Two Stage Process?

When you first get involved with an improvement activity you often find that you can split the improvement into two halves. One part is fixing things that are broken, the other part is doing things that will make the process work so much better than it does currently. Making this distinction can help to improve the way that the improvement works out for your business.

When you don't make this distinction it is possible to lose focus and not make tangible progress. Critical actions get lost in the mix of activities and you find that you are still stuck with today's lacklustre process. So, whilst you are trying to make things better you still have to get the day job done. If this takes longer than it needs to be that can be a problem.

Distinguishing between the fixing and improving tasks doesn't take long to do, but it can help provide clarity and focus, and more importantly speed to the improvement project.

A good example of this is one of my clients; they were trying to sort out the performance of their business' ERP system. We completed a current state map and it was clear that there were a great deal of gaps in their day to day working practices. These were clearly things to fix and we could also see ways to improve them longer term. We also conducted a future state mapping session, to see where we could get to with the system, and this included closing some of the gaps that we found, but the majority of the items were improvements.
The improvements were tempting, that's for sure, but the focus in the first instance had to be closing the gaps out (fixing stuff). This is the approach we took, with rapid results, and goes back to the two stage improvement approach that I often witness.

When you start out on an improvement project that splits down into these two stages, as I have described above, it does help your focus to categorise the two groups; things to fix and things to improve. Then comes prioritisation within the things to fix category. 'Do less better' is a mantra I have adopted, close out one gap after another rather than trying to do all of them at the same time.

Once you have a complete process (i.e. all the gaps have been closed) then you can get to work on the improving part. Not all improvement projects will require a fixing stage, but many do. If you are spending a lot of time on your improvement projects and not seeing progress, or results, it might be time to take a step back and ask if your project also has this two stage theme. If it does, you know what to do.



Giles Johnston
...optimising MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

Popular posts from this blog

Take the pressure off! Using the Y-curve with your Kaizen improvements

Do you feel under pressure when you have to make changes happen in your business? It can be scary when we try something that we have never done before. I remember thinking to myself 'how on Earth am I going to figure this out?' on many occasions. I think the last time was a few weeks ago! Years on from becoming reasonable at the art of change I am still faced with the same dilemma. It is scary and it is clear to me why so many people shy away from making change happen. It is natural to get stuck in this oscillation. On one hand you need to make change happen; the business needs the improvement benefits. On the other hand you don't want to screw up... Last week I was talking to a young engineer that I am mentoring. He was paralysed. Changes were not happening at all. There was always some early promise with his projects and then, as completion (and judgement day) loomed, progress would evaporate. The engineer asked me for my views on this  during a recent conversati

The Kaizen Checklist is here!

Do you want to get better results from your Kaizen programme? Improve your business results quickly with my downloadable kit (including guidebook, workbook and templates) for only $39. Are you looking for a sustainable way to identify and implement improvements across your business? Practical improvement strategies The Kaizen Checklist is a downloadable kit that you can use with your management team to develop a system that suits your business and allow you to quickly implement Kaizen effectively at your place of work. This works great if you use it as the centre piece of your own internal workshop. The kit includes a 40 page guidebook, a workbook, four appendices and three templates. All parts of this kit are designed to get you up and running as fast as possible. If you are unfamiliar with Kaizen, let me stress that this is a simple improvement philosophy that is so much more than just  ‘a Japanese word for continuous improvement’. I’ll cover what it rea

Do you need a burst of improvement ideas for your business?

If you haven’t created your improvement action plan for 2020 yet then I have something for you. I have just completed my latest project – The CI Focus Tool . This Android App is now available on Google Play and provides a simple method for generating as many effective improvement ideas as you need. This is the same basic method that I describe in my book Effective Continuous Improvement  and is now available as a simple to use app. In essence it is a brainstorming focus tool. Press the focus button and you will be presented with a random continuous improvement focus. Brainstorm ideas around this focus with your team (whilst the timer is running) and there you go – a number of great ideas for you to prioritise and implement. The reason that this works so well is because of the focus. When your business runs out of its immediate problems to fix you need a different strategy. Very focused brainstorming helps you break past this problem and configuring the app to meet t