Five Star Performance

Process improvement is the processes, techniques, strategies, and initiatives being implemented by companies around the world that aim to reduce unnecessary and unproductive tasks, activities, and behaviors in the work environment. Because the times have become hard, demanding, and intense due to political and turbulent concerns affecting all nations, firms are currently facing challenges to be able to keep their profitability and efficiency. Process improvement not only reduces operational costs but also targets to boost, restore, and significantly raise the competitiveness of a company. The greatest advantage of process improvement in terms of cultures adopted by companies is that process improvement makes the differences between management and personnel reach to a verging point. Companies should implement process improvement principles. It is high time to reap its advantages.

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Successfully,
Patrick "Coach" Frazier

Patrick S. Frazier, CBC
Five Star Performance, LLC

[email protected]
http://coachingauthority.net
(574) 286-1123
A Theory of Motivation and Process Improvement

"Managers do not motivate employees by giving them higher wages, more benefits, or new status symbols. Rather, employees are motivated by their own inherent need to succeed at a challenging task. The manager's job, then is not to motivate people to get them to achieve; instead, the manager should provide opportunities for people to achieve, so they will become motivated." - Frederick Herzberg.

So what does this theory have to do with process improvement? When done properly, motivation is a core component to process improvement, total quality, 6 Sigma, lean, or whatever other description one uses to express this philosophy that according to W. Edwards Deming causes 85% to 90% of an organization's problems. It has been proven time and time again that "bad processes will always squash good people."

Typically employees do not go to work with the preconceived attitude of, "I can't wait to get to work to see what I can screw up today." Most employees are committed to doing a good job and providing results. Very often, however, when management does not see the desired or forecasted outcomes, they begin the search for the bad apples. "Who caused this to happen, rather than what caused this to happen?"

It is our experience that the "what caused this to happen" i.e. a bad process, is more often the actual cause of bad outcomes rather than "who caused it to happen?". "What caused this to happen" is typically a defective or ineffective process. In the classic sense a process is the series of interrelated steps it takes to complete a task, and this applies to both business and manufacturing processes. Management designs the majority of a company's processes and employees are instructed and trained to follow them - good or bad. If the process is good then the outcomes are good. However, if there is waste and variation built into the process the outcomes will neither be consistent nor predictable. This lack of predictability causes frustration at all levels within an organization but the frustrations are often magnified at the employee level, because they live within the processes daily. As such, employees know there is a better way to do things, but management doesn't allow or encourage them to find it. Even if permission and encouragement is given, it is important that it be done correctly. Without the proper understanding and knowledge of process improvement tools to guide the discussions, greater frustration is created during the analysis, the decision process and the improvement phases.

A more effective approach is to provide everyone with the training necessary to best understand and utilize proven process improvement tools and to create a structure to allow employees to find and eliminate variation and/or waste in an existing process. Giving employees this opportunity is one way to operationalize Frederick Herzberg's above definition of motivation. Highly motivated employees who have been given the opportunity to be involved in process improvement will generate accelerated results for the organization allowing them to run circles around their competition. Additionally, the results of process improvement when identified and implemented by the employees who are actually doing the work achieve quick, bottom-line economic gains, greater employee loyalty with higher moral, and more satisfied customers who will be loyal to your products or services.

April 2, 2013
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Process Improvement

Changing the way things are done in order to meet customer demands and increase profitability has become one of the foremost business issues of our day. Unfortunately, this quest has met with varying degrees of success and a graveyard filled with "programs of the month." Yet the objective of improving or gaining customer loyalty and enjoying its result through increased profit is valid. It's valid because competition in business is stronger than ever. As a result, the necessity to get better has never been more critical. Many organizations are implementing changes through a strategy of process management which has improved customer satisfaction, growth, profitability, and identification of new business opportunities.

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Five Star Performance, LLC

Five Star Performance
51818 Bonanza Dr.
Granger, IN 46530
(574) 286-1123
SAVE 10% on any
Cycle Time Reduction event
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If there is one business strategy that is worthy of being singled out as a major point to achieve a competitive advantage, it is the strategy of speed. Refocusing attention from cost to time is enabling organizations to run circles around their slower competitors. Time-based competitors offer greater varieties of products and services at lower costs and in less time.

Cycle Time should be considered a viable option when an organization is trying to improve: efficiency, productivity, cost base, customer responsiveness, speed to market of new offerings, merging of processes post acquisition, and flexibility. 

Offer Expires: April 30, 2013