Simplifying world-class operational excellence

Many organizations boast of their quality and productivity improvement program by focusing on 5S representing five Japanese words in the following order – seiri (sort), seiton, (set in order), seiso (sweep), seiketsu (standardize) and shitsuke (sustain). But having to boast of 5S as the end-all of quality and productivity is incorrect.

5S is the basic foundation of continuous improvement. No doubt. You can’t proceed to higher levels of quality and productivity without 5S. However, even with their 5S, go and visit their offices and factories to judge for yourself the real score.

You can immediately understand the opposite reality when you enter their lobby and its broken wall clock, if not a smelly toilet, to list a few of their inadequacies.

That’s why I can’t understand why they have to brag when the truth is easy to detect. Psychologists tell us that bragging is self-pride which is not exactly bad as long as it’s part of a “healthy self-esteem.” Psychotherapist Richard Joelson says that “pride in itself is not the problem.” What’s bad is when bragging constitutes excessive pride.

Unfortunately, there is no known cure for excessive pride. So, where does this leave us? An excellent measure is world-class operational excellence as a template. If we’ll ask ChatGPT, it will give you more than 30 elements and sub-elements, starting from having a “Clear Vision and Strategy” to “Scalability and Flexibility.”

Reading from that long list would be enough for any organization and its management team to be discouraged by the number of basic requirements that can’t be accomplished even in five years. That’s because it’s an “ongoing journey that requires a holistic approach, integrating strategy, culture and systematic methodologies.”

Roadmap

So, how do you achieve the minimum standards of world-class operational excellence? If I were to be chosen from that long list, I’d recommend a Continuous Improvement Culture that involves “lean principles” (waste elimination) and agile practices (responsiveness to change) that can only be done with the help of an army of workers acting as problem-solvers.

If we focus on continuous improvement a.k.a. kaizen for the Japanese and lean for Westerners, you can readily secure instant success in efficiency and effectiveness. That’s how Toyota did it in 1945 after Japan was defeated by the Allied forces, marking the end of the Second World War.

Since 1993, I spent more than 30 years studying Toyota’s system during my management scholarship under the tutelage of the Nippon International Cooperation Center in Tokyo. Looking back on that experience, I’ve listed down four basic requirements to achieve the minimum standards of a world-class operational excellence status.

The following elements, arranged in their order of priority are easy to understand and implement, assuming that your management team is serious about it:

One is the respect for people policy. It’s all about “industrial democracy,” except that we don’t normally use that term for fear of alienating the union busters and their dictatorial managers. Lest that we may be misinterpreted here, “respect for people” means active listening and soliciting the ideas of all workers by using the best possible courteous language.

I recommend having it written down as a policy so that all team leaders, line supervisors and managers are properly guided.

Two, 5S good housekeeping. Forget about 6S and 7S which include safety and security. They are a given. Adding these two to 5S makes it superfluous and confuses a lot of people. If you can focus on 5S, or even 4S like what Toyota is doing, then you can achieve a lot with visual control in its simplest format.

That means, you can judge an organization in less than one minute as soon as you enter its premises. After all, 5S is about cleanliness, orderliness and discipline.

Three, standard work. “Without standard work, there can be no kaizen.” This mantra was often drilled into me by my mentor, Masaaki Imai (1930-2023), known as the kaizen guru. That’s because we can’t improve a system that uses different methods that produce different results. There must be only one performance standard of work.

In other words, having standardized work means avoiding too many variables in the process that make it complicated for everyone.

Fourth, waste elimination. If all work processes have been stabilized and standardized, the next approach is to eliminate, if not reduce all types of waste. The Japanese call it muda (waste), mura (imbalance), muri (stressful condition).

In general, the focus is on waste elimination under the DOWNTIME category of defects, overproduction, waiting, non-use of resources, transportation, inventory, motion and extra processing.

The easy part

Focus on the above-listed four requirements. They’re the easy part of the journey. If you’re successful, then proceed to secure the following optional affirmations, like having an ISO certification and being recognized under the Philippine Quality Award and The Deming Prize or The Shingo Prize, considered as the highest level of recognition in quality and productivity.

I spent more than 30 years coaching different organizations on their journey to world-class operational excellence. I watched with pride how their progress bar inched closer to their goal without having an ISO certificate or recognition from the Philippine Quality Award, The Deming Prize or The Shingo Prize.

This is not to say they’re not important. All I’m saying is to focus on the easy part before embarking on the most difficult side of having a world-class operational excellence license. By focusing on the easy part, you’ll understand your organization way better by maximizing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses along the way.

Rey Elbo is a quality and productivity improvement preacher. Get free insights on your management issue by sending it to [email protected] or via https://reyelbo.com.