Continuous Improvement implies understanding and working in the value chain:
Suppliers-Organization-Client, and directly in the Processes that make up this chain, adding the different improvement initiatives. The work that is carried out must be understood as a series of processes that must be constantly improved on the basis of:
1. - Team behavior.
2. - Commitment to constant improvement.
3. - Establishment of local objectives.
4. - Establishment of measurement mechanisms.
5. - Verification of results.
6. - Application of corrective or preventive measures, according to the results obtained, etc.
Process improvement means optimizing effectiveness and efficiency, also improving controls, strengthening internal mechanisms to respond to contingencies and demands from new and future clients. Process improvement is a challenge for any company with a traditional structure and for conventional hierarchical systems. To improve processes, we must consider:
1. - Analysis of work flows.
2. - Set customer satisfaction objectives to lead the execution of the processes.
3. - Develop improvement activities among the protagonists of the process.
4. - Responsibility and involvement of the actors in the process.
Process improvement means that everyone in the organization must strive to do things right every time. To achieve this, a company requires those responsible for the processes, documentation, defined supplier requirements, well-defined internal customer requirements and needs, requirements, expectations and establishment of the degree of satisfaction of external customers, indicators, measurement criteria and statistical improvement tools..
To establish a clear methodology for understanding the sequence of activities or steps that we must apply for Continuous Improvement of the processes, first, the person in charge of the area must know what to improve. This information is based on the compliance or non-compliance with the local objectives of the organization. Therefore, if we wanted to establish a sequence of steps for Improvement, these would be:
1. - Define the problem or the deviation detected on the indicators and objectives.
2. - Establish the most appropriate measurement mechanisms according to the nature of the problem.
3. - Identify the causes that originate the problem, determining which is the most relevant, establishing possible solutions and taking the most appropriate option, through the analysis of the data obtained.
4. - Establish action plans, and implement the improvement.
5. - Control the improvement of the process, making the necessary adjustments, through constant monitoring.
In order for the aforementioned steps to have a solid basis for analysis and monitoring, it is necessary to resort to the Improvement Tools, which must be selected according to the nature of the problem and the stage of the improvement process itself in which we let's find.
We can talk about tools to Define, such as an Affinity Diagram or a Brainstorm, we can choose for the Analysis stage a tool such as: Ishikawa Diagram, Pareto Chart, Frequency Histograms, etc., and so on in each stage.
Organizations, in the first instance, will benefit greatly if the Quality System is channeled as a basic tool, which must be permanently improved. In other words, having a certified System must be more than just a « Certificate»; should be the starting point of a dynamic process, based on the following considerations:
a.- The quality depends on the user and the conditions of the processes are changing.
b.- The performance of the Quality Management Systems is proportional to the level of commitment of the Senior Management.
c.- Having procedures and work instructions helps organizations to monitor their processes, defining the input elements, as well as the output elements and their relationship with another process.
d.- Internal Audits must be constituted as a control mechanism, correcting non-conformities and deviations of the process, becoming an excellent improvement tool.
Now then, the Continuous Improvement of our processes, aligned with the rest of the principles of Quality management, should lead the organization to achieve Excellence, or in other words, achieve total quality.
Precisely, Total Quality is based on five principles, of which Continuous improvement is a fundamental part, the other four being: Customer focus, Total staff involvement, Measurement and goal setting, and finally support to the effort for the quality and the Leadership of the Directorate.
These criteria are deeply rooted in the values, mission and vision of world-class organizations.
Now, Continuous Improvement, aligned with innovation, broadens the perspective of our organization.
By process innovation, we understand a fundamental reconsideration and radical redesign in organizations' processes, drastically achieving improvements in critical results measures, such as: costs, quality, service, response capacity, etc.
By radical redesign of our processes, we understand the comprehensive rethinking of the "way we do things", so that these processes must be innovated to the extent that market conditions, competition, customer requirements and globalization and technology imposed on us as a latent need.
Sometimes the improvements are insufficient, even when they are often desirable or may even be what the organization needs, so we must analyze current and established schemes and, if necessary, we must innovate.
Process innovation implies considering:
1. - Establishment of the Business Vision.
2. - Establishment of Policies and values.
3. - Identification of Objectives.
4. - Establishment of Objectives.
5. - Planning.
6. - Establishment of Strategies.
7. - Identification of resources.
8. - Endowment of resources.
9. - Measurement of results
We must not confuse the concept of Process Innovation with Process Improvement.
Innovation pursues a level of radical change, while improvement seeks to carry out the process in the same way, but with a higher level of efficiency or effectiveness. Now, in any Quality System that pursues the goal of Total Quality, both concepts must coexist in a balanced way, since some processes are subject to innovation and others are constantly improved.
In order to innovate, there is a methodology, which considers the following criteria:
1. - Identification of the process to innovate.
2. - Identification of the supports to identify the change.
3. - Development of the vision of the new process.
4. - Analysis and understanding of the existing process.
5. - Design of the new process.
6. - Realization of a prototype.
7. - Validation of the prototype.
Each of these criteria leads to a series of steps for innovation, for which we can apply the techniques of process reengineering.
Continuous Improvement means improving standards, establishing higher standards, so once this concept is established, the maintenance work by the administration or by the person responsible for the process, consists of ensuring that the new standards are observed..
Lasting Continuous Improvement is only achieved when staff work to higher standards, thus, maintenance and improvement are an inseparable dumbbell. For this reason, when improvements are made in the processes, these in the long run will lead to improving quality and productivity, thus avoiding concern for results.
As already mentioned in previous paragraphs, the starting point for Continuous Improvement is to recognize that there is a non-conformity, deviation or problem, so we conclude that improvement gains more ground when a problem is solved. However, to consolidate the new level of improvement, it must be standardized, either in a procedure, work instruction or in performance levels.
Therefore, we will reinforce the concept of improvement and innovation as an organization's development dumbbell, controlling the way in which innovation and improvement interact, observing that when an innovated process is established, a new standard is also established, which, it must undergo the improvement process, which guarantees the development of the new process, and so on.
An innovation in itself, it forms a revolutionary standard of achievable performance. In the short term, the level of performance will decline unless it is constantly refuted and improved. Consequently, I deduce that whenever a new standard for innovation is implemented, it must be followed by a series of efforts by the person in charge of the process and his staff, to maintain and improve it, as a strategic basis for the development of each of the processes that make up the company.
In conclusion, if we include within our organizational culture, the controlled coexistence of Continuous Improvement and Innovation, we have guaranteed the path to competitiveness and, of course, the achievement of the objectives that will consequently be the desired results, avoiding costs for correction, fostering a commitment to quality by all those involved, gaining ground in individual, collective and, as a whole, growth of the entire organization.
