Continuous Improvement

Introduction
 We must strive to achieve perfection by continuously improving the
business and production processes
 We continuously improve by
 Viewing all work as a process, whether it is associated with production or
business activities
 Making all our processes effective, efficient and adoptable
 Anticipating changing customer needs
 Controlling in process performance using measures such as scrap reduction,
cycle time etc.
 Maintaining constructive dissatisfaction with the present level of
performance
 Investigating activities that do not add value to the product or service, with
the aim of eliminating these activities
 Eliminating non conformities in all phases of everyone’s work even if the
increment of improvement is small
 Using benchmarking to improve competitive advantage
 Incorporating lesson learned into future activities
 Using technical tools like SPC, QFD, BM etc.
 An organization attempt to reach a single minded link between quality
and work execution by evaluating its constituent to “continuously
analyse and improve their own work, process and their work group”
Kaizen-The Japanese way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcBXtwGexNc
Process
Refer to business or production activity of all
organizations, eg. purchasing, marketing etc.
Input: 5M, Information
Output: information, product / service
Output of one process can be input to other
Output are designed to achieve certain desirable outcomes on
customer satisfaction.
Feedback
Provided to improve the process
Process
Interaction of some combination of mean, material, machine,
method, measurement and environment to produce an output, such
as product / service
In addition to input and output, a process must have value added
activities and repeatability
It must adhere to certain conditions imposed by policies and
contract or regulations
Process – contd..

Customer defines the purpose of the organization

and every processes within it
Organization exists to serve customer, process
improvements must be defined in terms of
increased customer satisfaction
All process have at least one owner
Frequently the process will cross multiple
organization boundaries and supporting sub
processes will be owned by individuals
Improvement
What are the basic ways to Improve?
 5 basic ways to improve.
 Reduce resources
 Reduce errors
 Meet or exceed expectation of downstream customers
 Make the process safer
 Make the process more satisfying to the person doing it
 Reduce resources
 Reports that are distributed to more people than necessary
 Waste of copying, distribution time, material, user read time etc.
 Reduce errors
 Errors are sign of poor workmanship and require rework
 Errors detected after printout – results in opening a file, correction and printing
again
 Meeting or exceed expectations of downstream customers
 Better welding – less grinding required – appearance or finish is good
 Improvement of process by making it safer
 Less accidents and hence lost time, less compensation etc.
 Improve the process to increase the satisfaction of individual performance
 Ergonomically correct chair
Juran’s Trilogy
Juran: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsMU0JsF7gM
Explain the various components for Process improvement.
3 components for process improvement – planning, control
and improvement
Planning
 Marketing determines the external customer while organizational
personnel determine internal customer
 A Pareto diagram can be used to determine the vital few customers
 Customer needs are identified, based on their own words, but real needs
may differ, but internal customer may not tell real needs due to fear
 Develop product / service that respond to customer needs, meet the
needs of organization and supplier and optimize the cost of stakeholders
 Developed by cross functional team and different tools like QFD, DoE
are used
 Develop process to produce the product, which is also done by cross
functional team
 Product will move from laboratory, prototype to process environment
and process validation is done
Juran’s Trilogy – contd..
Controlling
 Used by operating forces to meet the product process requirement
 Uses feedback and have the following steps
 Evaluate actual performance
 Compare actual performance to goals
 Act on difference
 Statistical process control (SPC) and 7 QC tools are used
Improvement
 Aims to attain levels of performance that are higher than current levels
 It is based on the effective infrastructure of quality council
 Quality council need to identify improvement project and project
teams
 Necessary resources have to be provided
 Process improvement can be incremental or breakthrough
Improvement strategies
 What are the various strategies for process improvement. How
they are different?
 Four strategies – Repair, Refinement, Renovation and Reinvention
 Choosing the right strategy for right situation is critical
 Repair
 Anything broken must be fixed, so that it functions as designed
 This level is temporary and it is a short term measure
 Second level occurs, when an individual or team identifies and eliminates root
causes of the problem and effects permanent solution
 Repair strategy does not make the process better than original design
 Refinement
 Involves activities that continually improve the process, that is not broken
 Improvements happen, but in incremental basis but it improves efficiency and
effectiveness
 It should be integral part of employees
 It relies on doing things quicker, better, easier etc.
 Change may be gradual, no appearance of change
 Benefit is that, it produces little resistance from employees
Improvement strategies – contd..
 Refinement – contd..
 Change is gradual, management may not recognize and reward the
employees
 It may not be properly documented or communicated
 Organization program like suggestion system and empowerment are
combination of repair and refinement
 Renovation
 Strategy results in major or breakthrough improvements
 Resulting output may appear different from original, but it is basically
the same
 Innovation and technological advancements are key factors in this
approach Eg. Process of drilling – hand and then shifted automatic
 It is more costlier than repair and refinement
 Reinvention
 Most demanding improvement strategy and it happens because current
approach will never satisfy customer requirement
 Reinvention an reengineering beings by imagining previous conditions
does not exist , Eg. Laser jet and water jet
 Helps to maintain competitive advantage, but used sparingly because
resistance to change is high
PDSA cycle
 Developed by Shewhart and this was called PDCA cycle
 It was modified by Deming, which is called PDSA cycle
 Effective improvement technique
 Plan: What is to be done
 Do: Carry out the plan
 Study: Did the plan work as intended?
 Act: Act on result by identifying what worked and what
planned
 Process improvement achieves greatest result when it operates
within framework of problem solving method
 In initial stages, quick results are obtained, as solution are
obvious, but in long term, systematic approach is needed to get
better result
 They are several phases in PDSA cycle
 Phases are integrated and are dependent on previous phases
 Continuous improvement is the objective
PDSA cycle – contd..
Plan
Identify the opportunity
Analyse the process
Develop optimal solution
Do
Implement
Study
Study the results
Act
Standardize the solution
Plan for future
Identify the opportunity
It consists of three parts
 Identify the problem
 Form the team, if it is not existing
 Define the scope
PDSA Cycle – contd..
 Problem can be identified from
 Pareto analysis of repetitive external alarm signals like field failures,
complaints, returns etc.
 Pareto analysis of internal alarm signals like scrap, rework, sorting etc.
 Proposal from suggestion schemes, managers etc.
 Data on performance of competitor
 Comments from customer, supplier, journalist, government rules etc.
 Problem identified provide opportunity for improvement
 For a condition to qualify as a problem, it should satisfy three criteria
 Performance varies from established standard
 Deviation from the perception
 Cause is unknown
 Prioritize the problem based on
 Is the problem important and why?
 Will it contribute to attainment of goals?
 Can the problem be defined clearly using objective measures
 Maximum benefit should be got, solving it with minimum effort
PDSA Cycle – contd..
 Form a team
 Natural work group or cross functional and choosing it depends on
problem
 Team leader is identified and team is selected and assigned the specific
problems
 Goals and milestones are given
 If it is repair or refinement, then individual can be used
 Define the scope
 Failure in problem solving occurs due to poor definition of problem
 Criteria for good problem statement are
 Describes the problem clearly as it currently exists and easily understood
 States the effect – what is wrong, when it happened, where it is occurring and
not who is responsible and why it is wrong
 Focuses on what is known and what is unknown and what needs to be done
 Uses facts and is free from judgement and emphasize on the impact of
customer
 Eg. 150 bills showed 18 errors and required one hour to correct
 It should also include authority, expected output, team members,
methods, resources etc.
PDSA Cycle – contd..
 Phase 2: Analyse the current process
 Objective is to understand how it is currently performed
 Key activities are defining process boundaries, output and customers,
input and suppliers, process flow, materials needed, gathering data and
identify root causes
 Process flow diagram that translates complex work into easily
understood graphic description
 Target performance measures are defined. If something cannot be
measured, it cannot be improved
 If new ones are needed
 Establish performance measures with respect to customer requirements
 Determine data needed to manage the process
 Establish regular feedback with customer and supplier
 Collect available data and information
 Data helps to
 Confirm whether a problem exists
 Enables team to work with facts
 Makes it possible to measure the criteria for baseline
 Enables team to check effectiveness of solution
PDSA Cycle – contd..
 Data can be collected using check sheet, gauges etc.
 Common item of data and information are
Customer information like complaints, surveys
Design information like BOM, drawings, etc.
Process information like routing, equipment, component etc.
Statistical information like mean, median, range etc.
Quality information like Pareto, scatter diagram, run chart,
control chart
Supplier information like process variation, sample etc.
 Cause and effect diagram is used, through brainstorming to list
down only possible causes and not solution
 Identify too causes
 Phase – 3: Develop optimal solution
 Establish potential and feasible solution and recommend best solution
 Creativity and brainstorming play a major role
PDSA Cycle – contd..
Phase – 3 – contd..
3 types of solution can happen
 Create a new process
 Modify existing process
 Combine different process
Evaluation or testing of solutions - to test which has the
greatest potential and the advantages and disadvantages
Criteria include cost, feasibility, effect, resistance to change,
training etc.
Solution must prevent reoccurrence
Phase 4: Implement changes
Preparing the implementation plan
Getting approval and implementing it
PDSA Cycle – contd..
Phase 4 – contd..
A written or oral report is given
 Why will it be done?
 How will it be done?
 When will it be done?
 Who will do it?
 Where will it be done?
After approval, it is necessary to get consensus among people,
department, functional area etc.
After implementation, monitoring has to be done
 What information will be monitored?
 Who will take measurements?
 What is required?
 How it will be taken?
 When?
Phase 5: Study the results
 To check the effectiveness of improvement efforts
 It is necessary to evaluate the results to check for any fine tuning
 They will check for any unforeseen problem getting developed
PDSA Cycle – contd..
Phase 6: Standardize the solution
Once team is satisfied with change, it must be institutionalized
by positive control of the process
Positrol (positive control) a tool that ensure important variables
are best under control
It specifies what, who, how, where and when of the process
and it is a updating of maintaining activity
Operator must be trained on what to do, how to do etc.
If required job rotation is done, so all people knows about it
Phase 7: Plan for future
Objective of achieving improved level of process performance
Key activity is to regularly scheduled reviews
Management must identify future area of improvement by
tracking internal and external customer requirements
Lessons learned in problem solving etc. should be transferred
to other with in organization
Kaizen
 A philosophy that defines management role in continuous
improvement by continuously encouraging and implementing
small improvements involving everyone
 Improvements are usually accomplished at little or no expense
without sophisticated technique or equipment
 Focuses on simplification by breaking down complex
processes into sub process
 Kaizen focuses on
 Value added and non value added activities
 Muda: waste of over production, inventory, transportation, wasted
motion, delay, defective parts etc.
 5S
 Pokayoke
 Documentation
 Principle of motion study and material handling etc.
 It relies on culture that encourages suggestion by operators