CATEGORY: Performance and Productivity

Operational Excellence

Course Access: Lifetime
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Course Overview

Duration: 3 days

Description 

The purpose of the training is to initiate a process of rapid improvement, by means of equipping work teams and leaders in the business with the requisite skills to help drive down waste and variation in the business to achieve better quality, delivery and unit costs. This will help the organization to achieve its goals and stay ahead of the competition in a sustainable manner. 

Why you need to Attend 

Operational Excellence and Operational Managers are increasingly getting concerned about how to attain and maintain a competitive advantage at a time when new competitors are popping up and customers are increasingly demanding for better quality and faster performance. 

Operational Excellence (OPEX) enterprise-wide transformation supports the drive for sustainable profitability and growth within your organisation by adopting a holistic approach to improvement. 

Operational Excellence is the execution of the business strategy more consistently and reliably than the competition, with lower operational risk, lower operating costs, and increased revenues relative to its competitor. It is needed more than ever in today’s technology-driven rapidly changing business models, which require organizations to undergo an end-to-end business transformation. Operational Excellence can also be viewed as execution excellence. 

Some of the key process methodologies used are Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, Hoshin Planning, Balanced Scorecard etc. 

However, the focus of Operational Excellence goes beyond the traditional continuous improvement methods to a long-term change in organizational culture. Companies in pursuit of Operational Excellence do two things significantly different than other companies: they

manage their business and operational processes systematically and invest in developing the right culture. 

Operational Excellence manifests itself through integrated performance across revenue, cost, and risk. It focuses on meeting customer expectation through continuous improvement of operational processes and Culture of the organization. 

The goal is to develop one single, integrated enterprise level management system with the ideal flow. The second component, a culture of Operational Discipline, is commonly described as doing the right thing, the right way, every time. This culture is built upon guiding principles of integrity, questioning attitude, always problem-solving, daily continuous improvement mindset, level of knowledge, teamwork, and process driven mindset. 

Many improvement initiatives fail due to a fragmented approach to the alignment and execution of practitioner activities… 

This AAEMI Operational Excellence training seminar will equip attendees with the knowledge, skills and behavioral competencies required to support an Operational Excellence programme and contribute significantly to the bottom line of your organisation, reducing variation, defects, cycle times, lead times, waste and costs within your operations 

Who Should Attend 

Operational Excellence training is appropriate for everyone in the organisation but may be of special interest to anyone charged with driving the improvement of operating performance. 

What you will learn 

  1. Problem or opportunity identification and prioritization. All organizations face a myriad of problems at any one time. The resources, such as time and money, required to resolve these problems greatly outweigh those available. The key to productive problem solving lies in identifying those few problems that will have the highest impact on the company goals and are within reach. 

  1. Current state analysis: For any problem or opportunity selected leads need the ability to analyse relevant data and business processes and determine the capability of the process to meet the needs of the customers. This should then be represented using appropriate performance indicators that are related to the organization goals. 

  1. Goal setting. Goals are the starting point of all achievement. “Success” means “The achievement of a goal”. Therefore, clarity of purpose, Goal focus, is a very important quality of the leader. It means the ability to set a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound) goal and to guide efforts and act as a measure of success for any initiative or project. 

  2. Root cause problem solving: Many organizations lose a lot of time and money implementing solutions to problems that are not adequately understood. This not only wastes limited resources but also discourages further problem solving. Root cause analysis helps organizations create a deep understanding of any problem to be able to develop viable solutions. This further deepens the learning and thinking within the organization to better understand the effect that various actions and behaviors have on their organization. 

  3. Facilitation -Guiding dialogue and consensus: Many unimplemented ideas sit in the minds of employees in the business and very few get expressed and much fewer get implemented if at all. Organizations cannot develop and prosper if they cannot harness the ideas that are in the minds of their employees. At the same time not all ideas should be implemented as some may not be feasible at all. The problems solving process employed by the company needs to develop the capability to focus, collect and filter through employee ideas and combine the best ideas to develop optimal solutions. Other benefits arising from this include providing a creative expression channel for employees that cements their engagement and commitment to the organization. 

  4. Planning and delegation. Rational, logical planning skills. The ability to analyse facts and formulate detailed, written plans of action that will achieve the goal, in the most efficient manner possible. As opposed to failing to plan and making up actions as you go along, with no plan. Planning, preparation and prioritisation is the success formula. 

  5. Manage change. The ability to manage change in a professional and objective manner and to nip any resistance problems in the bud. Rational change leaders can create a climate for change, inspire change and sustain change to achieve their project goals.

  6. Verify results and follow-up: Many projects fail to deliver the goals promised in their business cases. Little or no follow-up and corrective actions are undertaken. Effective leaders need to conduct appropriate follow-up and, on any changes, implemented and verify whether the goals promised at the beginning are being achieved or not. Appropriate corrective actions should be instituted if required and any successful change should be embedded in the management systems used in the company including SOPs, control charts and trainings.