How can operational excellence lead your company to success? Check out!

If the term “operational excellence” is unfamiliar to you, I would imagine the general concept of excellence is. Anyway, the fact is that we are all in search of achieving excellence in what we do.

With some examples, it's even easier to observe: who has never tried as hard as possible to get 100% on a test in college or even beat their record in the gym?

In the organizational environment, there is no difference, but excellence is related to several internal issues of the company and, therefore, the term "operational excellence" makes sense in this context.

Just like individuals, companies also see the need to achieve excellence and, for this reason, we are now going to learn the first steps for your company to move towards operational excellence. Check out the main topics to be covered:

• What is Operational Excellence?
• Where did the concept of operational excellence come about?
• How does the Operational Excellence Program work?
• 5 Practices to achieve operational excellence in your company
  
  

Have you got a pencil and paper? So here we go!

What is Operational Excellence?

Operational Excellence is a concept widely used by companies to indicate the quality and productivity of their processes and projects.

The search for excellence, regardless of which methodology is applied in your company, in fact, it is related to the vision, mission and values of your business.

Operational excellence goes hand in hand with continuous improvement, which are two of the most applied concepts in the market today. With the VUCA concept, operational excellence and continuous improvement have become essential to ensure competitiveness.

Where did the concept of operational excellence come about?

The term “Operational Excellence” first appeared in Tom Peters' book "In Search of Excellence" in 1982. In the work, the author explains that operational excellence is different for each company and must be formulated according to its objectives and needs.

Despite this, Toyota was responsible for the dissemination of this concept, for having created the "Toyota House" model. Shown in the image below, it exemplifies the Toyota Production System (TPS).

The model brings an analogy of the construction of a house, in which each element has its role in the structure, namely: base, walls/columns and ceiling.

It is possible to see that each element is dependent on one another in the system, thus creating a chained link that makes it possible to achieve the best quality, reduce costs and reduce time spent on processes.

With the development of the TPS model, the Lean Manufacturing methodology emerged, which proved to be very versatile and, over time, merged with the Six Sigma methodology.

Lean's relationship with Six Sigma showed an increase in productivity, reduction of waste and, consequently, higher quality. With these concepts combined, the focus is always on continuous improvement, which allows us to move towards operational excellence.

Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that seeks to increase the profitability of companies through the improvement of their processes.

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How does the Operational Excellence Program work?

The Operational Excellence Program is created exclusively for each company, based on its principles, processes and objectives. There is no standard for creating an operational excellence program, as each business has an organizational structure.

It is essential to carry out a study to identify the main problems and their causes. In this way, it is possible to map inefficient processes more accurately.

There are some strategies to guide the elaboration of an operational excellence program, the main one is called the Operational Excellence Wheel. This plan is divided into 4 elements: Strategy, Management, Processes and People.

1.Strategy

It should be the first element to be planned in order to establish the way forward in the process. It is essential that the organization has all business strategies established.

Some questions to ask are:

• What do we want to achieve?
• How do we get?
• Why do we want to achieve this?

The answers to these questions lead everyone involved to clearly understand all the points in the process.

2.Management

Management is a very important concept, being the basis for continuous improvement. Similarly, for your day to go smoothly, management is necessary, so that the planning and organization of tasks is possible.

Business management moves in the same direction, as a company needs to manage its processes and obtain a standard for the processes to be executed.

3.Processes

At this point of process analysis, it is essential to understand which processes do not add value to the company or product.

One solution is to create process maps so that you can illustrate all activities and visualize how they are being performed.

4.People

The last element, but not the least, is to keep people empowered, engaged and aligned with the company.

An example would be the implementation of training, workshops, meetings to assess processes, among other measures.

Therefore, when preparing the operational excellence program, it is very important not to forget the involvement of all areas of the company, since all areas are interconnected.

To start down the path of operational excellence, pay attention to the 5 tips that we're going to share with you!

5 Practices to achieve operational excellence in your company

In order for operational excellence to be achieved, the company must establish a route of goals. See now 5 practices you can implement in your organization to achieve operational excellence.

1.Set your goals

We all have our goals and your company cannot be different. Determine the objectives and prepare a strategic, tactical and operational plan.

With clear and well-structured objectives, your business will be directed towards the path of excellence.

2.Manage your processes

Have a routine and ensure that everything being done is in line with the organization's goals. It is very important that each process is carried out correctly to ensure a point-to-point vision, that is, always thinking about where the final product will go.

Process management is the best way for the company to assess its results and seek continuous improvement.

3.Empower employees

It's no use having everything planned and managed if you and your team are not trained for such an operation. Knowledge is essential for any activity, so provide training, workshops and meetings with your team.

4.People Management

People are always susceptible to problems, for a number of reasons, which is why it is necessary to interact with them, so that their employees are aligned with the same purposes of the company.

After all, a company is a group work, with a good relationship between people and excellent communication, consequently, it reduces problems and generates better results in the organization.

5.Invest in resources

The investment is related to training people regarding technologies as well, thus offering the best for your employees. Currently, there are numerous technologies that help in the process of improving the quality of processes and reducing time.

Make no mistake that using machines means replacing humans, in fact, it's improving the execution of processes.

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