Operational excellence is a powerful competitive driver that aims to take advantage of company activities to ensure growth.

Operational excellence tends to find the best balance between the various stakeholders.

It consists of focusing on customer needs, process optimization, cost management, and the ability of teams to generate solutions.

This requires constant monitoring and frequent reassessment of the company's activities.

Methods known as six sigma or Lean Management are the tools needed to achieve operational excellence.

What is operational excellence?

Operational excellence is more of a state of mind than a method.

We could talk more about a new corporate culture aimed at constant improvement and giving meaning to the actions carried out by the teams.

As a result, operational excellence should be distinguished from a managerial approach that is too pyramidal.

Employees are invited to understand, participate and experiment, so that everyone contributes to increasing performance and efficiency.

Although company management is required to promote operational excellence in order to put the internal organization at the service of customers, this method is also intended to be a global and structured approach, based on carefully selected tools to optimize the actions of employees.

It seeks to replace traditional business management with a strategy that promotes the autonomy of employees.

Individual efforts in the context of operational excellence are part of a continuous improvement perspective.

Operational excellence and continuous improvement techniques

Operational excellence can be considered as an objective sought by companies wishing to continuously improve their performance by implementing continuous improvement processes.

This continuous improvement project makes it possible to achieve strategic objectives while reducing operational risks.

It is important to note that the concept of operational excellence is made possible thanks to improvement techniques, such as the EFQM model, Lean management, six sigma, PDCA, Kaizen, or Kanban.

It should be emphasized that these methods have one thing in common, that of promoting operational excellence in order to implement change management and improve operational performance.

Operational improvements to maximize performance

Operational excellence is a systematic and methodical approach carried out in a company that is based on operational improvements aimed at optimizing the performance of teams in the company.

It is a philosophy that promotes process optimization and problem solving.

Each operational player is mobilized to provide best practices and optimization processes in order to continuously improve performance.

Certain theories, action plans, and continuous improvement projects are used to fulfill operational improvement goals.

There are 3 fundamental levers for implementing a continuous improvement program.

Standardizing work to achieve excellence

Labor standards are essential to the smooth running of the business.

They explain how operators should manage their tasks to avoid waste, delays, or non-compliance issues.

Managers and consultants, who strive for operational excellence, need to manage their work standards and update them often to remain effective.

By measuring the use, compliance and opportunities for improving production processes, the digitization of documents allows the company to ensure better management.

Operational excellence is closely linked to the digitalization of processes.

Therefore, it is crucial to use continuous improvement tools as part of your digital transformation in order to ensure operational excellence.

Lean Management includes the management of work standards. The aim of this strategy is to eliminate waste along the value chain.

In addition, it makes it possible to improve performance indicators as part of continuous improvement.

The combination of operational excellence and the Agile method makes it possible to improve the business process in the context of project management.

How to achieve operational excellence?

The most useful tips for achieving operational excellence include the following. First of all, it is necessary to know how to listen and propose ideas.

The purpose of this first step is to analyze and understand the causes of dysfunctions in the current organization.

The various stakeholders discuss current processes and offer ideas for improving things.

For this stage to be a success, it is important to listen to each employee.

Employees are encouraged to participate in the resolution of problems in their department through this listening. Everyone can offer solutions adapted to their field, problems and needs.

Then, you have to do a comparative analysis. This is an important driver of operational excellence.

The results of the analysis lead to the application of the best solutions for the organization.

It is possible to compare various indicators with players in the same sector in order to improve company productivity.

As a result, the company can then decide on the appropriate practices to put in place.

To draw up a list of risks, challenges and opportunities applicable to its organization, the company must compare itself to players in another sector.

Following this comparative study, it is important to validate the suggestions with the teams involved.

Assessing and quantifying benefits and changes

Assessing and quantifying the benefits and risks of any change is one step in lean. It's about quantifying the cost, effort, and time required to make any changes to the organization.

The company can prioritize each transformation through this quantitative assessment.

Standardize and simplify processes

The main levers for improving business performance are the simplification and standardization of processes.

To succeed in this stage, the company must be aware of the cultural and geographical differences of its teams.

This makes it possible to eliminate all superfluous operations.

This simplification and standardization benefits all employees and customers. For the company, it saves time, money and increased productivity.

Automate production systems and processes

Automating production systems and processes is one of the keys to operational success.

It is essential to understand how the various departments in a business interact and work together.

The work of the teams is improved by allowing a better flow of information. As a result, problems are more easily identified and resolved more quickly.

This simplification is also beneficial for business automation. In particular to reduce the number of tasks and this makes it possible to increase company productivity while reducing waste and errors.

Involve employees

Human action is at the center of Six Sigma methodology. This means that each employee has a role to play in the company and plays an important role.

He must feel involved in the various changes initiated by the company.

To do this, it is necessary to share the latest process information with employees, and to ensure that the messages are well understood. The rationale for the changes must be explained in order for them to be accepted.

To explore the levers of strategic performance in business, do not hesitate to consult this detailed article.

Achieving operational excellence through coaching

Operational excellence requires a certain amount of knowledge and the implementation of a strategy, whereimpact of professional coaching on business performance can be an essential lever to support this transformation.

To facilitate this process, coaching managers is an appropriate solution.

It is also interesting to Asking questions about the place of the manager in the company and its role in a constantly changing world of work.

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