The Smartspeed Performance Improvement Blog

Many years ago I helped a team with their future state mapping problem. Available from Amazon They had mapped out their current state and highlighted a few issues that needed resolving. However, they were stumped by the request to ' create a future state map '. The senior management team wanted something revolutionary that would really change the performance of the function they were mapping. I'd seen this problem quite a few times before. The team gets a big challenge with no real plan and they end up being paralysed. I knew the team from a previous project and I was keen that they won, so I offered them a step by step process to follow. We therefore didn't have to rely on flashes of inspiration to create a future state map. I was able to support them through a series of questions that led them to solving their challenge. They avoided having an empty presentation to the senior management team and managed to slash around 80% of their lead time and associated costs from...

When you are up against it, you can't spread yourself thin. You need to focus. This is especially important when you need a change to keep your business operations afloat. So, if you can't do everything, what do you choose? Some prompts If you find yourself in this predicament, try these prompts to clarify your thinking: What flavour is the change you need to make? Is it production? Is it sales? Is it financial? What area is going to create the greatest relief if you tackle it? Where can you do less? What activities can you drop temporarily to free up resource? Who can you ask to join you? Who in your business has the skills and motivation to help you take action and get results fast? Where would some good old fashioned discipline and routine work well? What standards have you dropped that you need to put back in place? Hit it until you hit it Available from Amazon Once you have chosen an area and decided to focus, you need to keep your target in your sights. If you have manage...

I was standing in a workshop a few weeks ago, discussing how we could improve the flow of materials and increase the productivity of the workshop. It was a tough crowd. They seemed to think how they were working was fine, just the way it is. It isn't fine. Over half of their time was spent material handling, in a manner that was unsafe. We knew what we were going to do to resolve the material handing issue. The conversation in question was around the workstation design and setup. They didn't seem keen to engage. Then I ask them a question, after I had set the scene: Imagine that we are standing with a customer, we've just entered the workshop, and they say 'wow!'. They don't see the mess and dis-organisation that we have today. They say 'wow!'. What would they see in order to say 'wow!'? That's the question. What would make your customer say 'wow!'? It gets the mind whirring, coming up with ideas. Put a few of those ideas into action ...

Did you know that I have a free continuous improvement course ? If you are looking for some quick and easy ideas to get more out of your time and effort, when it comes to improvement projects, then check out The CI Primer . It comes in nine short lessons and covers: A fast way to generate improvement opportunities. A ranking method to ensure you work on the best improvement at any point in time. Methods to control the rate of change. A team working method that gets results, even when work is crazy busy. Ideas to improve your personal productivity. As I said, the course is free to join and there are no hidden fees. To get started, visit: https://continuousimprovementmadeeasy.com/funnel/the-ci-primer/signup/ Enjoy, Giles About the author: Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen. Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and ' What Does Good Look Like? ...

I've had a few conversations over the past weeks about rules. Not policies that cover a business, but rules around operations and scheduling. The core of the debates has been around 'will we hamstring ourselves if we implement rules to help guide the teams?'. My view is that rules will help iron out many problems and make your life easier in the long run. Pros and cons Some benefits that jump to mind: People know where they stand (including customers). Decision making becomes clearer. You stop having to re-invent the wheel! Performance improves . Some drawbacks that come to mind: You need to think through the scenarios where the rules don't help you and decide (in advance) if you want to cater for the 10% of situations (hopefully less!) that don't work perfectly with your rules. You need to be firm and enforce the rules. In real life A long time ago I worked with a manufacturing business that was having a nightmare with their on time delivery performance . A handful...

What do you do, once you have defined what results you want in your business? After you have told your team, how do you keep track of what you want? Something I write about from time to time is 'abdication versus delegation'. So, once you have told your team what your expectations are, how do you check that you are getting what you want? Leaving them to it and never checking in falls under abdication, not delegation. There are a few good ways to do this that jump to mind. Here are some of them. KPIs Developing simple, but meaningful, KPIs ( Key Performance Indicators ) is a brilliant way to do this. Just like the dashboard in your car, you should be able to tell whether you are getting the results you want or not at a glance. If the KPIs truly are useful, you'll be able to make decisions on the back of the information. RAG tracking The traffic light system of Red, Amber and Green (RAG) is another really useful way to track results produced. Determine what each status means ...

It is a challenge to not do the work of your team when they mess up. I see this in lots of places I visit. Someone on the team messes up, there's no time left, so the manager rolls up their sleeves and takes over. Two observations. Available from Amazon 1. You don't increase the capacity of your team if you step in. 2. The person you help out hasn't felt your pain and therefore isn't incentivised to avoid this situation in the future. Now, we all make mistakes. I am talking here about the consistent mistakes. So, without being vindictive about this situation, how do you ensure that your team feel some of the pain whilst also learning how to avoid this situation in the future . I'd like you to use this musing as a prompt to help you avoid crises in the future. Here is one idea, to get you started. Look at the work that needs to be done, to get you out of the crisis, and give the most 'painful' part to your colleague. Help them, but cherry pick the best bits f...