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.

This is the modified slideshow from my presentation delivered to the Advanced Manufacturing Forum earlier today. It includes ten points to help you get more out of your MRP system. Giles Johnston ...optimising MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

Over the past year I have been involved in a number of MRP projects ; systems to help drive manufacturing operations. Most of these projects have involved working with businesses that have already done the hard work of specifying, selecting and installing the software. Similarly, staff have been trained – it’s all ready to go live!  So, if a business is still operating in chaos and / or is not achieving the results needed from a system like this, well there’s a problem! But what is the issue? In my experience it is often lack of ‘buy-in’ to the project by senior members of staff. And yes, this really does make all the difference.

The way that we plan the initiation of our projects, as well as the way we intend to complete them can make a huge difference to their performance. For many improvement projects there needs to be a flurry of activity at the start and the end in order for the project to be delivered effectively.

Over the past couple of weeks I have had numerous conversations with my clients about getting started with improvement activity , when a 'perfect' solution is still quite a long way off. Getting started is often one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to making process improvement changes within a business. Getting started anyway can bring with it several benefits.

... and not a shot gun. It is written time and time again that having focus in any walk of life is important, and this is certainly the case with  Continuous Improvement .

Delegation and abdication are two words that often get confused when it comes to effective management.  When a process has been improved, there is always an ongoing need to manage the process (delegation). Just walking away and hoping everything is fine is fatal (abdication!) Why is this distinction so important?

When you are starting out on a Continuous Improvement adventure there is always a risk... that our view of the world doesn't include the best that we could have. Knowing what 'good' looks like is invaluable when we are charting our course of action.

When I was driving to my client yesterday I was listening to an interesting debate on the radio about GPs being paid to diagnose dementia ( you can read more here ). The reasoning behind this is to increase the number of people on a 'dementia register'. This is good example of how measuring a specific feature of a business / organisation can affect the outcome. In this case they have added an incentive too. So, how would this relate to your business?

Do you use checklists in your business? I do, many of my clients do, and many other businesses do. They use them for one very good reason; they help to drive up productivity .

When you are changing a process you need to get 'buy in' from the people who are key to operating the process. What do you do when everyone is 'too busy'?

Planning is an interesting subject to me, hopefully it is to you too. Having a different perspective over different time periods, and having a (reasonably) firm grasp of what needs to happen when is a basic feature of good management.

When will running around, trying to go faster than the day before through sheer physical exertion, stop being the strategy of choice for many businesses? You know the common phrase 'running around like a headless chicken', don't you? We joke about it, but it can waste a huge chunk of time from our working weeks. When I first start working with a business this is often the approach that we are trying to overcome.