How Operational Excellence can support business growth

I would like to share my thoughts on the subject of Operational Excellence and how it can support business growth, improve quality and drives customer satisfaction.

In over 15 years of experience in process improvement, Lean and Six Sigma, some of the fundamental observations include a lack of understanding and appreciation of "the customer" and their expectations. Often individuals, and sometimes whole companies, operate in a vacuum about customer expectations and value. Processes occur because of a perceived "need" to happen, not because they add value. All too often the customer is forgotten in process delivery and, when asked why do processes operate in the way they do, the response is typically "because that's the way it's always been done".

Operational Excellence drives at the foundations of any organisation, seeking to support the strategic vision and business objectives. It enables customer and company values to be visible throughout the organisation, ensuring the effective and efficient delivery of products or services. It challenges the "why" and delivers the "what". - Why are we doing things this way? What are we going to do to achieve it?

The core to business success is not soley to make money or profit: it is the desire to meet customer demand in the most efficient and effective way - money and profits are the end result.

Operational Excellence supports these values through a focused view by ensuring:

• People understand their role and the value they add;
• Processes are visible, understood and continually refined;
• Technology is utilised in the most effective way to support the processes;
• Performance is measured, reported and actions taken where the desired outcome is not achieved.

Operational Excellence supports a broader agenda than continuous improvement, however, through the methodologies of Lean, Six Sigma and Kaizen, a structured approach to understanding value, operational efficiency and ultimately improved business growth can be achieved.