Continuous Improvement -

A customer recently asked what continuous improvement questions you would you ask
your organisation when developing a new process or procedure

Hi Ken,

Interesting question.

Ken said:

"A customer recently asked what continuous improvement questions would you ask your organisation when developing a new process or procedure"

Firstly I would say that you need to establish what the procedure or process is trying to achieve (objectives). This will be done by determining the suppliers (providers of inputs) and the customers (receivers of outputs) and by clearly understanding their requirements, capabilities and limitations. (Internal and/or external suppliers/customers).

By doing this you will understand what the process must do to meet the customers requirements and you can then determine how you will meet these requirements and the resources that are necessary.

In order to determine the Effectiveness of the process (ability to achieve desired results) and the Efficiency of the process (results achieved V's resources used) will require monitoring and measurement before, during and after the process.

The above is not only necessary for achieving the status quo of meeting the customer requirements but also provides a basis for continual improvement.

As Lord Kelvin said:

"If you can not measure it, you can not improve it"

In answer to your question you need to ask your organisation: What are the objectives for the procedure/process? What are the key performance measures for the procedure/process? What are the targets for improvement? These questions should be asked regularly and not just when developing the procedure/process - Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Measures/targets should be implemented (where appropriate) at each level, at higher levels these may be customer satisfaction, customer complaints, unit cost, on time deliveries etc. At a production level these may be waste, rejects, rework, time etc.

Take a look here for some useful articles and links to information on process management:

http://www.saferpak...._management.htm

Well that's my take, I hope It's helpful.

Regards,
Simon

A customer recently asked what continuous improvement questions you would you ask your organisation when developing a new process or procedure

Hello Ken

My 2p-worth. The 'continuous' [or continual] part of the CI phrase is less interesting to me than the 'improvement' part.

I suggest a powerful question is "if you believe in CI, what will you improve next, then?"

I agree with Simon's reminders about objectives (what are you planning to achieve) and about the need to measure - and improve - both effectiveness and efficiency.

rgds Jim