Driving Continuous Improvement with Robotic Process Automation

Most of you reading this are probably familiar with continuous improvement and the Japanese management practice called Kaizen which roughly translates to "Change for the better" or "Good Change". Wether you're familiar with Kaizen from school, practical implementations professionally or from the 1980s movie Gung Ho with Michael Keaton, its core principles are timeless and can be applied both professionally and personally. At the core of Kaizen are the following 10 principles:

1. Improve everything continuously.
2. Abolish old, traditional concepts.
3. Accept no excuses and make things happen.
4. Say no to the status quo of implementing new methods and assuming they will work.
5. If something is wrong, correct it.
6. Empower everyone to take part in problem solving.
7. Get information and opinions from multiple people.
8. Before making decisions, ask “why” five times to get to the root cause. (5 Why Method)
9. Be economical. Save money through small improvements and spend the saved money on further improvements.
10. Remember that improvement has no limits. Never stop trying to improve.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is essentially the automation of processes using virtual bots. RPA has reached a high level of enterprise maturity and can serve as a platform and driving force for continuous improvement. Bots can be designed, developed and deployed operationally in weeks providing significant ROI to organizations in terms of improved quality, higher efficiencies, faster throughput or new capabilities. The uses and applications are almost endless. The enormous benefits of RPA align with the core principles of Kaizen and continuous improvement. If you're unfamiliar with RPA, it's benefits and how you can use it it as a platform for continuous improvement, you can find more information here. www.cantongroup.com/rpa.