Today, when we speak of excellence, some phrases are remembered that, although quite old, remain to this day. The philosopher Aristotle said: "with regard to excellence, it is not enough to know it, we must try to have it and use it."
In the pursuit of excellence for Continuous Improvement, one must think as new philosophers of today's business society.
This must be today's goal: to have excellence and use it. It is urgent to see a little further along the way. Open your eyes to new and better ways of achieving constancy of purpose. Provide guidelines to be followed in pursuit of excellence for Continuous Improvement.
The goal in the search for excellence goes back quickly to the early days, because its purpose described in one word is: survival, the survival of Costa Rican society in a competitive world economy, the survival of the way of life, as known today.
Quality of life depends on broad industrial productivity, its ability to add value to products and processes.
It is true that some business is being done in a highly competitive world economy, but it has lost ground in traditional products.
It is also true that competition has been reacted positively by making some adjustments to the way business is done and by reducing some barriers.
There will always be something that needs to be done to improve the quality of products and the efficiency of operations. Excellence must be achieved everywhere.
The purpose of the individual or collective search for Continuous Improvement is to survive in a highly competitive world.
The new excellence is large and complex and presents us with four dimensions: perspective, direction, integration and work team, of which today we will analyze the first two.
PERSPECTIVE:
It has come a long way from "times and movements." Today the VISION has expanded and the perspective is clear. Today the focus is on the client who requires more than the product of work.
Today we talk about the flow, in materials, ideas, people and clients. A while ago, manufacturing was seen as a series of distinct and separate processes. Today, a complex combination of people, materials and technologies is seen flowing, as something dynamic, which must be carefully managed to achieve maximum productivity.
Today's expectations are much higher than years ago. The perspective should be global rather than individual, more towards the organization than oriented to specific tasks. It is expected that one must be in tune with the company's strategy, must be guided by changing market conditions and help develop the capacity to compete effectively in this long career.
Traditional borders must be crossed, going from the established standards of piecework and incentives to more important aspects such as motivation and teamwork. Make wider use of the behavioral sciences, trying to determine why people work and what motivates them, studying the socio-technical implications of the machine / man combination and learning more about how people behave and react in groups.
Today more involvement in sophisticated business planning is required, serving as consultants to dozens of functions throughout the organization. Helping to define the mission, analyzing risks, or making or buying decisions.
Intensive use of the "state of the art" of computers should be made, modeling precise and inexpensive ways of comparing the value of different processes.
New materials flow concepts must be pursued in pursuit of manufacturing excellence.
All its capacity must be developed to meet the demand to permanently expand the perspective to achieve: global, organizational, market-oriented concept and something that definitely produces results and has been called competitive advantage, the ability to create a superior quality product, presentation, cost and delivery.
Mark Twain said about perspective: "The world looks different to everyone, but what makes all the difference is how the world looks at you."
DIRECTION
You need to be on the right track and in the right direction. This is the second dimension of excellence for Continuous Improvement.
The direction must be given along with something called VISION, which is the ideal state of the organization or any function within it. Where you want to be and the role you want to have.
Strategic planning and management techniques must be used in creating the VISION, as well as staff involvement. This makes VISION a powerful tool, because everyone is committed to it. But the great value of VISION implies a direction towards Continuous Improvement.
Eight elements are pointed out in this Continuous Improvement model: flow of materials, leadership, quality, administration, availability of the process, innovation, people and information.
In VISION these dimensions must be synergistically balanced with a view to continuous improvement.
An "IDEAL STATE" model should be created, which can be compared to the current state and see what needs to be improved.
It must start with a formal process of organization that continually points out where one is and where one wants to be, establishing the variations through the current state and the analysis of the ideal state. These variations are then evaluated and prioritized in terms of the greatest benefits. Finally, an improvement plan and implementation teams are created to reduce the gap.
A key role must be played in this process, getting involved in every step from creating the excellence model to identifying and prioritizing problems, guiding and working with the continuous improvement teams.
This process is heading in the right direction for several reasons. First: it is based on a philosophy of Continuous Improvement and a belief in the possibility of improvement. Second, it is a practical tool. Third, an important contribution is made.
When you are comparing where you are with where you want to be, the differences really are obvious.
When these differences are attacked with good industrial engineering (or reengineering), good problem definition, and prioritization, you focus on adding value to the problem, and you're going in the right direction, you're really getting gold rather than just prospects.
