Efficiency and continuous improvement through
Operational Excellence
WHY IS OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE so IMPORTANT?
Operational excellence is a way of managing a business that focuses on making things work better. It’s about always finding ways to do things more efficiently and continuous improvement. This helps save resources and makes sure the products or services provided are of the highest quality, and competitive cost. The main aim is to gain competitive advantage and make the whole organisation work even better.
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CUSTOMER FOCUS
Meeting or exceeding customer expectations
every time to enhance satisfaction and increase brand loyalty.
STANDARDISATION
Standardising all processes to create consistency, minimising variations and reducing mistakes. Standardisation helps to improve quality, ensure safety and boost productivity.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Consistently driving improvements helps businesses stay ahead of the competition. Small, incremental changes are key to lasting improvements.
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
Using key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress against targets and identify any areas of improvement.
PROCESS OPTIMISATION
Ensuring business processes work as well as they possibly can. This leads to working more efficiently, eliminating unnecessary steps in the process.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
All workers feel connected to the vision, mission and values of the company, and aim to do the best job they can everyday.
OUR APPROACH TO OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
The Sharing in Growth approach to operational excellence, through the Lighthouse concept, aims to balance a cross-functional approach with efficient focused results. This concept involves creating a stand-out area within the organisation that showcases excellence. This area serves as a model for others, promoting a culture of improvement. Centres of excellence also help promote capabilities to customers. By using the centres of excellence, organisations avoid trying to improve too much at once, which can lead to challenges. Sharing in Growth’s approach brings clear understanding, a motivated workforce, and better chances of excellence. In short, this concept shows excellence in one area, inspiring improvement throughout the business. It helps maintain progress and fund further improvements.
Case studies
DEVELOPING PEOPLE, IMPROVING QUALITY, AND BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH THE LIGHTHOUSE METHODOLOGY
Invotec planned to increase sales by 26% over a two-year period. To achieve targeted growth, both output and quality would have to increase across the business. The existing rates of output were averaging at 3,500 units per week, Right First Time was base-lined at 93%. Capacity planning indicated that these levels of output were achievable with the current manning levels and shift patterns. The lines suffered consistent stoppages hindering performance. Little was understood regarding the nature and duration of loss across the three key assets.
A lighthouse cell creates best practice that can be rolled out across the organisation. By implementing Sharing in Growth’s lighthouse cell initiative in the Inner Mech cell, Invotec saw many benefits to the business including reduction of unplanned downtime by 15 hours per week and monthly scrap cost reduced by £39k each month. Skills and versatility of the workers in the cell improved from 48% to 100% (Full Flexibility). The lighthouse cell is now operating with five people rather than seven.
As a result of this project, the team were able to address a number of critical issues contributing to non-conformance. The cell has managed to reverse a negative trend and improve product yield from 94% to 98%. This level of improvement has been maintained; the team has finally achieved its 99% target.
“Prior to the Sharing in Growth team’s involvement, we would have more bad days than good, and the pressure on the team in the area was high. Now the control is in the setup, and we can load the work with confidence.”
JASON CLEWES
OPERATIONS MANAGER
ENHANCED BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
FROM CELL LEVEL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
Hyde Details Ltd faced some significant commercial issues; these have also impacted on the operational performance of the business. They had received poor customer feedback and the business had not seen the expected growth. A new Senior Management Team was appointed 2-3 months prior to the start of the lighthouse project and they were striving to raise performance standards.
Hyde Details were faced with high level of arrears (1,500 packs) and poor delivery schedule adherence (14-22%). They had the potential to win more contracts if the quality and lead times improved.
When Sharing in Growth suggested implementing a centre of excellence within the business, this dove tailed well with the objectives and goals of the Senior Management Team.
Over a short period of time, Hyde Details have seen improvements in safety, quality, delivery and cost, and staff are more empowered to take action and make improvements. The lighthouse has created the environment for the business to build on and grow.
“Working with Sharing in Growth helped to transform the Hyde Details business in a relatively short period. We have seen significant improvements to the structure of the company, front end processes, quality management, MRP data, routing quality and teamwork across the business. The change that led to the greatest success and impact was the introduction of the Production Enablement Team (PET); this helped to minimise production pauses and gave us the data to solve the right problems. The business has continued to improve post the lighthouse by building on the changes made and achievements gained during this journey.”
ANDREW HARDING
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Our Operational excellence Team
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Our success record
Our team of 100 industry experts work with ambitious companies to deliver ‘Insight & Intervention’, working alongside them to create a compelling vision and emotional connection for the people. Business growth, capital investment and net worth from companies engaged with Sharing in Growth have shown strong positive trends beyond their peers in the wider supply chain. We have a proven track record with our clients, increasing their resilience, revenue and improving their profitability.
