How to sustain process improvement benefits beyond the duration of an external support programme

To ensure benefits can be sustained beyond the duration of the programme, first the programme needs to be successful. 

Too many continuous improvement programmes can fall into one of the below categories: 

a.    They are seen from the start as ‘just another initiative’ or lack leadership sponsors and so fail to engage a critical mass of the organisation. 

People expect Leaders’ attention to move onto something new in a few weeks or months, and so are wary of being closely associated with ‘old news’. 

b.    They may start with a big launch, but then take too long to build-up the capabilities, develop the methods, and deliver and scale any tangible improvements. 

The lack of early results (demonstrable return on investment, direction of travel of key KPIs) leads to them losing support and fizzling out. 

c.    They deliver good results but rely heavily on the skills of outside support (consultants etc.)

Almost invariable, they cannot sustain (let alone accelerate) the results after the duration of the programme. 

So, how can you mitigate these risks? 

a.    Engage leadership from the start   

A Visioning and Scoping session will build leadership consensus around business strategy and the key areas that must be improved. It will make clear that the process improvement programme must be built top-down to ensure it delivers on the priorities of leaders. Benefits Tracking (Mission Control) and a robust cashing-in strategy are essential to show leaders the results their teams are achieving (and request their early intervention support with counter-measures if the results are not on track).   This approach rapidly builds Leaders’ confidence; accordingly, they offer strong, visible and on-going support to ensure that the programme is not seen as ‘just another initiative’ 

b.    Find a partner who can provide not only expert transformation coaches, but also a proven Business System methodology 

i) adopt a proven method (rather than creating one from scratch), and adapt it (language, branding, messaging etc.) to dovetail with your business' vision and goals;  

ii) set-up effective Benefits Tracking early; 

iii) use a top-down approach to identify the focus areas that will contribute most significantly to business challenges; and  

iv) deploy a ‘learn-by-doing’ approach. 

In this way, you won’t lose time at the start of the programme, will build capability quickly and generate results early to avoid the programme ‘fizzling out’ 

c.    Build capability at all levels

by means of training and knowledge-transfer, coaching, accreditation and learn-by-doing, and by embedding a method and governance structure (COE), leaders can build their organisation's internal capability. They themselves may require coaching on how to empower and equip their teams, and they will need to trust in the system to provide their people with the skills to identify and solve problems. 

With this approach, confidence builds as the results come in, belief and engagement increases, experienced and up-skilled teams become comfortable and confident leading and running events themselves. Scaled across an organisation, this invariably leads to culture change.

To build capability, not just grow theoretical knowledge, you need to find coaches who ‘lead from the back’, help your people find their feet then teach them how to walk and run. These coaches build capability through respectful challenge, questioning and showing best practice – you don't want consultants who simply tell people what they should be doing (or do it for them). 

Finding a partner with the right coaches and a transformation system you can quickly adopt and adapt allows you to build a durable platform on which process improvement benefits can be sustained beyond the duration of the programme. 

Case Study: NHS Blood and Transplant (UK) - Operational Improvement Programme (OIP).

NHS BT based their OIP on the proven Simpler Business System. They invested in building their capability through knowledge transfer and accredited Lean Competency System training certified by Cardiff University (over >200 people were accredited by Simpler to LCS 1c, 18 to 2a, 14 to 2b. Today, almost 85% of their people are trained to introductory level, and around 25% to advanced level.)

Early in the programme, Simpler's coaches helped them to make significant improvements to well-established but complex business-critical processes. In one area of their operations, blood processing batch sizes were reduced from >1,000 to 24-36 units, and flow time tumbled from 330 minutes to 62 minutes. The expert support and proven change methodology provided their internal Continuous Improvement team with the confidence they needed to tackle big challenges and deliver exceptional early results, which cemented the support of senior leaders for the programme.

As the OIP continued, the NHS BT's confidence and capabilities to identify and make significant improvements increased. As their people became more experienced and qualified, the number of improvement events they were capable of running simultaneously (with oversight from an experienced coach) increased from 2 to 3 and on occasions to 5. As a result, their productivity doubled (taking them from European bottom quartile to top quartile), their CI teams presented their stand-out results at conferences , and they now report on-going savings of ￡55m / year compared with the start of OIP. 

Their 2014-2015 plan stated that the organisation would ‘continue to implement lean manufacturing principles which have already contributed to us achieving world-class productivity levels in processing and testing.’ Lean is listed in the report as one of the organisation’s 5 priorities and they are now keen to benchmark their performance against other international blood services. The organisation is proud that 'senior management actively participate in lean initiatives and can often be seen participating in gemba walks and sponsoring rapid improvement events and value stream analyses' and recognise that the organisation now has ‘significant experience and expertise at successfully delivering changes.’ 

The external coaching they received allowed them to build their capability to the point that they are authorised by Lean Competency System to train accredit their own people (and offer this service to other areas of the NHS). The return on their investment was exceptional and their successful cultural transformation means that Lean remains ‘an integral part of [their] 2020 strategy’. 

NHS BT have demonstrated how to sustain process improvement benefits long after the engagement with their external partner came to its successful conclusion. 

“The productivity levels achieved through OIP (Operational Improvement Program) makes NHSBT the best in the UK and placed in the top quartile in Europe. Utilising knowledge transfer and certified training in lean transformation techniques from Simpler has accelerated the program and led to a culture of continuous improvement.” 

Clive Ronaldson – Director, Blood Supply, NHSBT