Continuous improvement - Success rates and factors (article 4 of 4)

As we’ve seen in the previous articles, success of continuous improvement projects depends on some critical factors such as project prioritization and selection, management commitment, and training. These factors must be mastered by managerial initiatives and techniques. This article is providing you the top impact initiatives to implement in your organization.

Make sure you have an up to date strategic planning available

Per the empirical studies analysis, project prioritization and selection are key factors to ensure continuous improvement success. In order to enable an alignment of projects with the organizational direction, an up to date strategic planning must be available.                            

In any organization, strategic planning shall be the compass that guides the actions of the individuals. The efforts of all individuals must be orchestrated uniformly to achieve the common goals set in the planning.

Trevor and Varcoe (2017) indicate that aligning the organization is a game changer and is a winning prequisite for businesses. They also indicate that most of the executives tend to focus on one of the improvement areas while excluding others. In contrast to that, research shows, that it is not the improvement of just one area that leads to success; it is rather the alignment and balancing of all areas and aspects of improvement that leads to success.

Refreshing an existing strategic planning is an exercise that shall be done at least every 3 years. This exercise can be done internally with or without a strategic planning consultant/coach. The International Coach Federation is providing lots of resources and a directory to help you select a professional in your area.

Get a proper roadmap

As seen in article 3, management must see that the continuous improvement projects are enablers for the strategic planning goals - without succeeding in continuous improvement projects most of the strategic goals cannot be obtained. You shall see with the interrelation diagram that the way to get management onboard is by selecting the right projects a priori.

A proper continuous improvement roadmap for the coming 3-5 years is a must have. As of now, with the fourth industrial revolution ongoing, transforming your organization can be achieved by combining the right technologies and applying the correct management principles.

Vinodh and al. (2020) performed an SLR (Systematic Literature Review) related to the topic of Industry 4.0 and continuous improvement. Lots of benefits and applications of the combination of the two topics are listed and show a great potential for years to come.

Industry 4.0 Maturity Center from Germany has developed a standardized methodology to derive a roadmap in order to achieve process improvements through digitization solutions. The methodology called the Maturity Index Application is derived from the acatech institutes’ extensive research combining scientific research and industrial practices. It permits to define a detailed roadmap to achieve the strategic goals in a holistic way.

A detailed and thorough study of a companies processes precedes the creation of the roadmap; it combines the status quo of the company and its strategic planning to ensure the roadmap is aligned with the companies goals. The methodology is the results of the application of years of leading edge research in Germany.

ARIV is the Canadian point of contact for the Maturity Index. You can book an exploratory meeting with my college Hendrik Fr?lian and I to discuss the Maturity Index program and roadmap by using the Microsoft Bookings scheduling tool.

Have a well structured training program

Training is of critical importance to ensure the success of continuous improvement projects. Human learning is a well documented topic and has been built on years of psychology and cognitive science. Kolb (1984), over his academic research, has mapped a learning process based on four phases that optimally permit a human to learn.

Kolb's learning style is explained on the basis of two dimensions: how a person understands and processes the information. The main takeaway from his conclusion is that human learning is reaching it's highest potential when theories can be discussed and validated through practical exchange and application of new knowledge.

Based on learning objectives and knowledge generation targets a proper training program has to be defined. Businesses need to integrate training best practices and training professionnals in order to create interactive training that represent the state of the art. Measurement methods to ensure trainings are effective shall be put in place as well. Furthermore, quantitative data on research helps to optimize resource allocation and increase its effectiveness.

The following diagram resume the present article. For each of the top 3 success factors, a practical solution is proposed in order to maximize the potential outcome. As the scheme illustrates, the roadmap is derived from the strategic planning and includes the structured and data based training.

At ARIV, we are working on the next series of article to provide the industry with actualized and leading edge content. My college Hendrik Fr?lian will be publishing the next series dedicated to the Industry 4.0 topic.

Bonus : Involve the end users through the agile methodology

Employee commitment is one of the critical success factor of continuous improvement. As seen in the bonus section of article 3, it's the most dependent factor of the whole set. Management commitment and training have a major impact on employee commitment. The agile methodology, that ensures close end user engagement is a good way to bring projects to success. This method needs to be selected by management as a project management method a priori.

The agile methodology appeared in 2001 and was mainly used in software development projects. However, the agile method is applicable for other projects as well and is now widely used for continuous improvement projects. Vandersluis (2014) is stating that applying the agile methodology to change management project is an excellent fit.

Rigby and al. (2016) stated that John Deere uses the agile methodology to develop new machines and Saab to produce new fighter jets. C. H. Robinson, a global third-party logistics provider, applies agile in human resources. It’s just a few examples to show that the agile methodology is now used for projects outside of software development and is gaining in popularity.

The agile methodology involves the end users along the development of the project so that at the implementation phase the concepts, process and tools are familiar and mastered by them. This close involvement and continuous integration of the end-user in the development process is a great way to naturally train the workers along the way. At every 2 weeks, after a so called sprint, the end users are invited to see the new developments done by the agile team and to provide their feedback. The developed tools and solutions shall be available to the end users to perform some testing and to have a look and feel, as much as it's possible. This allows for much better feedback.

On top of that, by using this incremental and collaborative approach, project cost tends to be lowered and being of better fit with the process requirement by getting constant feedback from the end user.

If you want more information on the agile methodology you can book a time slot with my colleague Antoine Morin via the online scheduler. He will be pleased to have a discussion with you and guide you through your endeavor.

Bibliographical references

Harvard Business Review (2016). Embracing agile. Spotted at https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile

Harvard Business Review (2017). How aligned is your organization. Spotted at https://hbr.org/2017/02/how-aligned-is-your-organization

University of Leicester (2020). Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle. Spotted at https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/doctoralcollege/training/eresources/teaching/theories/kolb

Vandersluis, C. (2014). Apply agile methodology to non-software enterprise projects. Paper presented at PMI? Global Congress 2014—North America, Phoenix, AZ. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Vinodh, S., Antony, J., Agrawal, R. & Douglas, J. A. (2020). Integration of continuous improvement strategies with Industry 4.0: a systematic review and agenda for further research. TQM Magazine.