Continuous Improvement Project Implementation (by GE Consult Professionals)

January 24, 2010
by Fred Victor

Continuous Improvement (CI) is undoubted a philosophy to ensure the sustainability of your Company’s competitive edge in today’s rapid-changing environment. But, have you thought that how to implement it? How to start then?

CI is all about continuous performance improvement. Thus, Performance Benchmark (PB) is essential if your Company intends to perform CI. PB aims at comparing and measuring your Company’s policies, philosophies, practices and performance against any high-performance company in a relevant industry.

DMAIC, a Six Sigma methodology, has been widely used by GE Consult professionals to implement CI projects. As the name suggests, DMAIC comprises five phases:-

1. Define the problem, the voice of the customer and project goals.

2. Measure key aspects of current business processes collected relevant data.

3. Analyze the data to investigate cause-and-effect relationships within the processes. Ensure all factors have been considered. Find out root cause of the defect under investigation.

4. Improve the current processes based on data analysis by using techniques such as poka yoke (ポカヨケ) or mistake proofing, and standard work flow to create future state process (if necessary).

5. Control the future state process to ensure that any deviations from target set are corrected before any defects occurred. Processes are continuous monitored and reviewed in Balanced Scorecard (BSC).

Features that CI implementation includes:-

1. A clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable results.

2. An increased emphasis on strong leadership and teamwork.

3. A clear commitment to make decisions on the basis of verified data instead of mere assumptions.

Since 2003, GE Consult professionals have actually combined Six Sigma ideas with BSC to maximum yield for clients.

Results have been fascinating!