There are multiple models of continuous improvement existing in today's business reality, most of these are associated with improving the quality of products or services, but in general their steps or stages can be applied to any desired business function or process. to perfect.
This work includes considerations on some of the improvement programs from the General Problem Solving Method (considered the simplest and oldest) to contemporary ones such as the Permanent Productivity Improvement Program, the Quality Improvement Program and the process recommended in ISO 9000 standards.
This work includes considerations on some of the existing improvement programs such as: Quality management system. Total Quality, Permanent Productivity Improvement Program, Benchmarking, business improvement and Reengineering.
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS
In today's world there is an urgent need to continuously improve due to the increasingly growing demands of the markets and together with this, the techniques and theories of experts have evolved to achieve business success. For this, it is necessary not only to have skilled workers, motivated and willing to change, but also executives capable of leading said change, with a future vision and a true disposition towards improvement.
Continuous improvement, more than an approach, is a strategy and as such constitutes a series of general programs of action and deployment of resources to achieve complete objectives in all the processes in which it is applied. There are multiple models of continuous improvement existing in today's business reality, most of these are associated with improving the quality of products or services, but in general their steps or stages can be applied to any desired business function or process. to perfect.
From the General Method of Problem Solving (considered the simplest and oldest) to contemporary ones such as the Permanent Program for the Improvement of Productivity (Pacheco, 1993); the Juran Improvement Program (1993); and the process recommended in NC ISO 9004 - 2000, have the following common points:
- Cyclical character They demand active participation and commitment of human resources They walk the path of symptom - cause - solution, reinforcing the need for diagnosis They contribute to the creation of an organizational culture Marked emphasis on performance linked to objectives Preponderant role of management With a strategic approach, they require the control and evaluation of results through indicators.
This analysis shows the need for a strategic approach and an adequate HRM system for the practical application of the philosophy of continuous improvement.
The route is outlined, the path is up to you.
Quality management system. Total quality.
When the Union of Japaneces Scientists an Engineers (JUSE) created a committee made up of different schools, engineers and officials concerned with improving productivity and increasing the quality of life in 1949, its principle was to prevent and reduce costs of non-quality with a strategy directed towards the client and promoting continuous improvement and teamwork, it is also an administrative strategy through a systems approach, integration and continuous improvement.
Currently there are a number of standardized rules, for example:
The ISO 9000: 2000 series is made up of the following standards:
ISO 9000: 2000. Quality Management Systems. Fundamentals and vocabulary.
ISO 9001: 2000. Quality Management Systems. Requirements
ISO 9004: 2000. Quality Management Systems. Guidelines for performance improvement.
In recent times, concepts such as quality management system and others have acquired notable diffusion and importance in the business world. Doing things right is not a recent invention. Correct methodologies have always existed to obtain good results and possibilities to appreciate the satisfaction of the processes. However, the issue of quality in current times has become one of the most important aspects in the business world.
After World War II, the Japanese were the first to adopt quality systems, since the war left the country's economy in a battered state, with products that were not very competitive at an international level, thanks to the implementation of these management systems, Japan registered a spectacular growth.
It was in the 50s, when the term "quality assurance" emerged, which encompasses all those systematic activities that give confidence that a product or service will satisfy the requirements for which it was planned and that were established. in such planning. It is at this time when it begins to speak of procedures and technical instructions that encompass the activities of the company, and not only the final control of the products, since it begins to be perceived that to achieve quality, it is not only necessary to control what that is produced, but involve the suppliers of raw materials and services that are incorporated into the production process.
It was from the 50s, when the concept of quality began to be talked about as a management system to satisfy the needs of customers, workers, shareholders and society in general, and therefore transcends from the scope of production to the entire company. It was from the 80s when the definitive impulse began to be given to the concept of Total Quality.
The concept of Total Quality implies concepts such as:
- Satisfy the needs and expectations of customers, both internal and external. The commitment of the Organization's Management towards the system to be implemented. The application of the concept to all processes of the organization and not only to the product or service. Total quality refers to the permanent improvement of the organization, taking the company as a whole where each worker, from the General Director, to the lowest-ranking official, is committed to business objectives and continuous improvement. principles and tools for continuous improvement of the system
The implementation of total quality as a management system is a long and complicated process and entails a change in the way of governing and managing the company, having to consider the following most relevant aspects:
Satisfy customer needs
- Adding value to the client Doing things right the first time and avoid rectifications Applying quality in all aspects of the organization Giving priority to quality, deadline and cost Accepting that quality is defined by the client Accepting that continuous quality improvement needs the customer client.
Meeting the needs of workers
- Applying a collaborative and participatory culture that allows creativity and innovation Strengthening the creation of multidisciplinary teams Strengthening self-control to external control Strengthening ongoing training Respecting the environment Strengthening Safety and Hygiene at work
Meeting the needs of shareholders
- Avoiding superfluous and unnecessary expenses both in inventories, equipment not available due to damage or maintenance, personnel dedicated to repetitive or non-productive tasks, papers and excess paperwork, excess reports and meetings, unnecessary internal controls Be profitable in the medium and long term, within the returns accepted by the sector where the organization carries out its operations.
Satisfy the needs of the Society in General
- Improving within the organization, we influence society through the relationships that the organization maintains with it and therefore an improvement of the Society occurs.
Quality system
A quality system is a regulatory mechanism for the management of organizations in the following aspects:
- quality of the products or services provided economics of processes and profitability of operations satisfaction of customers and other interested parties continuous improvement of the above characteristics
Quality systems are based on two fundamental principles:
- Pre-schedule the activities to be carried out Control compliance with the schedule
In particular, the ISO 9000: 2000 series of standards identifies eight quality management principles to guide the organization towards performance improvement:
Focus on the client.
Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand their current and future needs, meet their requirements, and strive to exceed their expectations.
Leadership.
Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. Leaders should create and maintain the appropriate internal environment for staff to be fully involved in achieving the organization's objectives.
Participation of all staff.
The staff is the essence of any organization, their total commitment enables their skills to be used for the benefit of the organization.
Process based approach.
Desired results are most efficiently achieved when activities and related resources are managed as a process.
System approach to management.
The identification, understanding and management of the interrelated processes as a system contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization in achieving its objectives.
Continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement of the overall performance of the organization should be a permanent objective of the organization. It is the fundamental point and the one that defines the basis and structure of the entire Standard.
A fact-based approach to decision making.
Effective decisions are based on analysis of data and information.
mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
The organization and its suppliers are interdependent, and a mutually beneficial relationship increases the ability of both to create value, never valued as an inferior-superior relationship. The standard will determine the establishment of the policy and the objectives, as in the Risk Prevention System, of quality as a point of reference to direct the organization, applying the necessary resources to achieve the desired results.
Continuous improvement becomes the permanent objective of the system to increase the probability of increasing the satisfaction of customers and other interested parties.
Permanent Productivity Improvement Program (PPMP)
In increasing the productivity of goods and services companies, the Permanent Productivity Improvement Program (PPMP) seeks to implement change processes with the philosophy of continuous improvement, it consists of the following stages: Involvement, diagnosis, strategy of solution, instrumentation and evaluation and adjustment.
The application of the PPMP implies in each of its stages the active participation of all workers and the management of the organization and operational units. The term productivity used in this program is defined as the emerging quality of the production and service processes that makes them improve permanently and in all senses, that is, in an integral way.
According to Heinz Weihrich, productivity is the ratio between resources and results within a period with due regard to quality. This concept implies effectiveness and efficiency of individual and organizational performance.
For a process to improve, the convergence of three elements is necessary: Wanting to improve, being able to improve (including knowing how and having what) and acting accordingly.
The “Wanting” to improve is directly related to the attitude of the workers involved in the design. If you have skilled and motivated workers, your organization will get where it wants at a lower cost and in the right way.
The "Power" to improve depends in turn on two conditions: "Knowing" how to improve and "Having" the necessary and sufficient means to improve.
The "Knowledge" refers to the competence, knowledge, experience and ability of the worker, not only to perform their tasks well, but also to be able to improve them, the future of your organization depends on their performance.
The "Have" must have the technology and the appropriate raw material. On many occasions the most current technology is not available, but if efforts are united and the material is adequate, many goals are achieved with the effort of all.
Having, like Knowing and Willing, has its essential dimensions through which the influence of the object to be diagnosed on the results of the system is determined.
The "act accordingly" It is the managers who have the responsibility that the first four factors act accordingly, that is, in the quantities, qualities and with the opportunity necessary to achieve that productivity improves and develop the necessary competencies of each worker managing to motivate him for future changes within his organization and in the environment.
The PPMP in your application must have the following characteristics:
- Involucrative: (participatory): The application of the PPMP implies in all its stages the active participation of all its workers and the direction of the organization and operational units, and the involvement actions must be permanent at each stage of application. This principle is unavoidable. Remuneration: Workers and leaders must receive in all respects remuneration and benefits for its application, which satisfy needs; This feedback will allow to make their participation more effective, and therefore, their involvement Permanent: The PPMP must be understood within the philosophy of continuous improvement and not a program to solve a particular problem, it must be cyclical, and in each cycle it must be adapted to new states more demanding in the evaluation of productivity;With its application, a capacity for permanent change must be generated in the organization and in the operational unit Preventive: It must tend in its essence to prevent problems, it will not only be a set of corrective actions once the problems are detected, to the extent the same Tend more and more to prevention, its application will bring greater benefits. Adaptive: It must be based on the specific characteristics of the organization and its environment, based on this to adapt the stages and strategies to be followed in its application.Its application will bring greater benefits. Adaptive: It must be based on the specific characteristics of the organization and its environment, based on this to adapt the stages and strategies to be followed in its application.Its application will bring greater benefits. Adaptive: It must be based on the specific characteristics of the organization and its environment, based on this to adapt the stages and strategies to be followed in its application.
The PPMP consists of the following stages:
Stage 1. Involvement.
If all personnel, commitment and active participation from senior management to workers are not involved from the beginning and throughout the process, the next stage cannot be carried out.
Stage 2. Diagnosis.
The diagnosis will implicitly measure the results through productivity indicators and inhibiting factors in order to see the influence of these factors on productivity.
Stage 3. Solution strategy.
The strategy to be followed must be drawn up collectively to follow the correct path focused on solving the diagnosed problems.
Stage 4. Instrumentation.
It is based on the application of the strategy developed in the previous stage.
Stage 5. Evaluation and adjustment.
This stage consists of evaluating the instrumentation and evaluating the desired states with the real ones in order to ensure sustained productivity and the start of a new cycle with levels higher than the current ones as a sign of permanent improvement.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking defined as the process of identification, knowledge and adaptation of practices and procedures from organizations anywhere in the world, to help an organization improve its performance. It generally consists of the following phases: Planning, Analysis, Integration, Action, and Maturity. Benchmarking goes beyond the analysis of available indicators, by delving into how the activities that make up the process are carried out, where they generate value and how we can adapt it in our process.
Around the year 1979, the Xerox Corporation company adopted in the United States an approach similar to that of the Japanese in the first decade of 1950, this process consisted of copying high-demand products to know the main deficiencies and develop alternatives for improvements at a lower cost.
In the reviewed literature, different specialists have pointed out that becnhmarking is a natural evolution of concepts such as competitor and market analysis, quality improvement programs, total quality management and Japanese practices, and they are treated as a short-term improvement management.
According to Michael J. Spendolini, becnhmarking is a systematic and continuous process to evaluate the products, services and work processes of organizations that are recognized as representatives of best practices, with the purpose of making organizational improvements, according to the American Productivity & Quality Center, is a process of identification, knowledge and adaptation of practices and procedures from organizations anywhere in the world, to help an organization improve its performance.
Establishing operational purposes based on best possible industry practices is a critical component in the success of any business.
The phases of this process are five:
Planning: in this stage, the most competitive companies or organizations in the activity or activities on which the study will be carried out are selected, drawing up a study plan in which the objective of data collection is determined.
Analysis: In this stage, the necessary data is obtained in the companies or organizations on which the comparison will be carried out, this stage is decisive because it is difficult to obtain reliable data from strong companies and extreme care must be taken with the data In order to be able to compare them with internal data, current negative or positive differences are quantified and projected in order to outline future actions and close the analysis cycle.
Integration: In this stage the improvement objectives to be achieved are determined and an action plan is determined for each of them, here the involvement of all to achieve the objectives is of utmost importance.
Action: This stage is where the action plans are developed and followed up, evaluating the results and determining their contribution to the organization's operational plan.
Maturity: At this stage, the Benchmarking processes are adjusted with the desired states objectively traced by the organization.
Benchmarking, like other improvement processes, can be adapted to any process with a strategic nature, which is necessary both in the process of searching for best practices, as well as in the adaptation itself, where creativity and versatility of skills are required to the achievement of the established objectives It is considered that this tool can be taken into consideration in the improvement of any activity by allowing the adaptation of successful experiences in other organizations in general.
Business Improvement
At present, the Cuban business system is in a process of improvement where the required conditions have been created to begin with the necessary autonomy a process of continuous improvement in all spheres of business activity, which ensures high efficiency, hence to the extent that it is supported by advanced approaches, specified in the Know-how for each subsystem in the company, better results will be obtained. It is made up of the following phases: Preparatory stage of studies, diagnosis, development of the improvement study, evaluation of alternatives and solution proposals, implementation and control of the results and adjustments.
It is highlighted that in this improvement process, one of its basic principles is the training of all workers in the organizations where it is applied, which is essential both in the implementation of the improvement system itself, and in its maintenance and successful development.. This implies that viable technologies must be applied in organizations to carry out the improvement process, so that the expected results are obtained.
The purpose of the Business Improvement process is to guarantee the implementation of a Management and Direction System (SDG) in state companies and senior management organizations that achieve a significant organizational change within them and comprehensively manage the systems that compose it, Its supreme objective is also to guarantee the development of an organized, disciplined, ethical, participatory, effective and efficient business system that generates greater contributions to socialist society and that all companies become organizations of high social recognition.
Reengineering
This philosophy is based on the redesign of the processes to achieve the optimization of the organization's resources and establishing short, medium and long-term objectives according to the strategy outlined by the company and that must be aimed at the satisfaction of customers and the market, determining their new expectations to satisfy them in the most efficient and profitable way possible.
Reengineering has a five-phase methodology:
- The first is the analysis phase, here the areas that will be the object of diagnosis and the opportunities for improvement are determined.The second (definition phase) this is a crucial stage since the strategy determined by the company and the objectives to be achieved are established, as well as deadlines and work groups. The development phase is where the organization begins to be trained for change through new operating procedures. The implementation phase is the approval of the procedures, their communication and deployment to The entire organization.The last phase is the continuous improvement process, in which teams will be created for the maintenance and improvement of the processes and system.
The Reengineering process implies starting from scratch and therefore if an entire improvement process is established from the beginning, the desired changes will be reached much faster and gaining an image within the market, as the changes are more continuous, you will gain speed and create a competitive advantage over other organizations.
In the world these and other improvement philosophies have been developed, but the results are not always as expected and therefore the reengineering techniques that can lead to success in one organization could lead to failure in another and that is where they should be adapted. solutions to achieve permanent productivity improvement to achieve change to a higher state.
Paradigm of improvements
Although there are shortcomings that are corroborated when the factors that prevent the expected results of the improvements are analyzed, among which are:
- Passivity among senior executives and managers, those who evade responsibilities People who think that everything is going well and that there is no problem, are satisfied with the status achieved and lack understanding of important aspects People who think that their company is the best People who think that the best way to do something is the one they know People who want to stand out, always thinking of themselves People who trust their own and sufficient experience People who only think about their own company, who do not see what that happens beyond their immediate surroundings, that they know nothing about other facilities, other companies or the world in general.
Finally, we can present as common points in the improvement processes analyzed the following:
- They are cyclical in nature. They require active participation and commitment at all levels. They reinforce the need for diagnosis, via a symptom ─ cause ─ solution. Performance linked to the objectives. They promote the organizational culture. Strategic approach of management as the main guideline. Control and evaluation of results through indicators.
In general, both in the improvement programs referenced and in others analyzed, real progress is achieved in their implementation when, in the first place, the top management decides to lead the change, and in addition, a system is required in the organization that allows have versatile, motivated workers who put effort into their work, who seek to carry out tasks in the best possible way, who suggest improvements and who are willing and able to adapt to the changes required by the organization and its environment.
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