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Constant Process Improvement
 Collaborative Process Improvement
Faster. Better. Cheaper. Whether you're in the increasingly scrutinised public sector or the heavily competitive private sector, there's constant pressure to improve every aspect of your operation, from the quality of products to the treatment of customers.
Improvement results from process evolution, not from an increase in scale. Whats the difference? Scale increases when we hire another person, increase expenses, or purchase more assets in order to acquire or service more business. Process evolution occurs when we change the process and as a result can release hidden capacity and service more business without adding any costs - and this is a form of efficiency. You can measure efficiency with the formula: Efficiency = Output / Costs
But process evolution is about more than just changing costs. It is about changing time, increasing process velocity, and getting more output from the costs you already have. Cutting costs, by itself, does not evolve a process. In fact, reducing costs, without properly understanding how those costs relate to the process, can actually decrease process evolution (devolution).
Consistency is the key to productivity. Making things the same, doing things the same way, institutionalizing your methods and tools--this ensures both quality of product and speed in delivery. When Henry Ford introduced the assembly line, he revolutionized manufacturing because he created a consistent, repetitive system for producing his product. The Big Mac that you buy from the McDonald's in Atlanta, Georgia is the exact same hamburger as the Big Mac that you buy from the McDonald's in Sydney, Australia because the company has perfected a rapid, consistent, institutionalized process for preparing the product. Creating a standard, repetitive, consistent process ensures that there will be fewer errors and faster delivery.
Innovation is the key to progress. Constantly coming up with new and better ways of doing things ensures that you'll always be out in front of the pack. Fresh ideas, new approaches, and radical departures from the norm open up new markets and stimulate lagging sales. With innovative concept vehicles such as the Dodge Caravan, the first ever "mini-van," Lee Iacocca took the Chrysler Corporation from near bankruptcy to a leading contender whose legacy of innovation still produces unique vehicles such as the retro-styled PT Cruiser. Stepping outside the lines is clearly the path to continued success when the rest of crowd stubbornly clings to the tried and true. You have got to do things differently in order to do things better, or to improve.
And to succeed you need to do both constantly make incremental improvements to you processes whether its the introduction of new products and services, or just finding a better way of doing what you already do in a reliable, consistent and repeatable way.
This selection of papers explores why and how to improve your operational practice, how to communicate your constantly evolving methodologies in such as way that they are reliably applied at the next opportunity, and measured to ensure the changes have the desired effect.
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