CHAPTER 26

Managing Continual Improvement Project

Mr. Fidel Castro, Cuba’s long-term serving leader, is said to have advised Mr. Hugo Charvez, the President of Venezuela, ‘You are the President of Venezuela, Not the mayor of Carcas’

– The Hindu, 26 August 2005

Background

Managing continual improvement consists of reflecting the commitment of top management to organise and practice continual improvement as a key result area in the organisation. This is accomplished by focusing the attention on hardware as well as software aspects of continual improvement.

Hardware implies organisational structure to channelise the effort and enthusiasm for continual improvement through planning, coordination and monitoring of all activities related to continual improvement.

Software refers to the value system to promote continual improvement based on conviction and commitment besides developing and maintaining a sharp, focused and alert mindset on improvement.

Tools and techniques are needed to practice software as well as hardware of continual improvement. The relationship between hardware and software is profound and cannot be ignored as could be seen in Table 26.1.

TABLE 26.1 Effect of Relationship Between Hardware and Software on Outcome of Continual Improvement

Status of hardware	Status of software
	Strong	Weak
Strong	Strong–Strong Self-sustaining; results certain; results sustain	Strong–Weak Ordinary or poor results; slave driven; focus on software
Weak	Weak–Strong Ordinary or poor results; plan to strengthen hardware	Weak–Weak Dying, heading to be dead wood

All the preceding chapters have dealt with issues related to software as well as hardware. In this chapter, certain uncovered points are dealt.

Management commitment

Management commitment is to be seen in action, facilitation, support and not through exhortions, cheer leading, posters. Hence, management commitment to continual improvement process (CIP) is operationalised as under:

1. To declare CIP as an ongoing key result area.
2. To enforce that CIP is applicable to every section, department, function of the company as well as its supply chain.
3. To extend full support for training of personnel in tools, techniques and practice of CIP at all levels.
4. To ensure that every employee of the company—contract, trainee, temporary, permanent at cutting edge, supervisor, managerial—has to be a participant in at least two CIPs a year, in every year of his service in the company.
5. To make it known that for any decision on advancement in the managerial level, the contribution one makes to the furtherance of CIP movement in the company is a key criteria.
6. To institute schemes in diverse forms to celebrate, honour, recognise performers and teams contributing to the success of CIP projects.
7. To incorporate the task of planning, facilitating, reviewing and intervening when needed, all related to CIP as an integral part of the responsibilities assigned to an HOD.
8. To nominate a suitable person as chief coordinator (CC, CIP) reporting to the MD. The CC (CIP) is at a level equivalent to the chief of other functions. The responsibilities of the CC towards CIP are given in Table 26.2.

Training programmes

Regarding training programmes, the following points are to be specifically noted.

1. Replace the expression “training programmes” by “learning programmes”.
2. Learning programme has to be well balanced among its three distinct components, namely, hardware tools and techniques based on data cum logic; soft-skills to develop positive attitude, good relations and on being an adept team player; and technical knowledge.
3. Learning programmes are a continual exercise. The same employee(s) may have to repeat on an identically titled programme, when its contents are changed.
4. Learning programmes, must also provide for the core set of 10 life skills recognised by WHO.

TABLE 26.2 Responsibilities—Chief Coordinator

Main responsibilities

Plan, organise, coordinate with HODs and monitor and report the progress of CIP to the management Prepare, maintain and update master list of CIPs (as described later in this chapter) Organise training programmes/work shops on diverse aspects of CIP (as explained in different chapters of this book) Organise celebrations to intensify the movement of CIP Undertake yearly assessment of CIP (discussed later in this chapter)

The typical list of diverse learning programmes is in Annexure 26A.

Team building

Continual improvement projects are carried out by teams. Hence, the importance of building a team, working as a team, contributing through the team and achieving through the team need to be emphasised in a formal as well as an informal manner. The characteristics of a team player are listed in Table 17.8. The dictum ‘Together Each one Achieves More’ that stands for ‘TEAM’ needs to be internalised by every individual employee.

Social dimensions outlined here need to be recognised to work as a team.

• Individual tasks promote the habit of disregarding others.
• Competetive tasks promote the habit of working against others.
• Team tasks promote the spirit of cooperation and collaboration with others.

Individuals promoting team approach and strengthening team work need to be recognised. In this context, the CC and HODs have to give utmost attention and care for developing the culture of team work.

One of the best examples of team building is the effort that is underway to build a strong cohesive Indian cricket team through a series of integrated measures as under, according to the understanding of the authors who are watching the exercise with great interest:

1. Strengthening everyone in physical and mental faculties as well as technical skills.
2. Making every member recognise and realise that everyone is equally important in terms of ones role, competence and contribution to the game.
3. Everyone has to make a minimum reasonable contribution to every aspect of the game. Subject to this, one has to be the best performer in one’s chosen area of specialisation like batting, bowling, wicket keeping.
4. Removing debilitating factors such as importance attached to order of batting, derogatory expressions like ‘tail-enders’ that dominated cricket for decades.
5. Recognising potential ability, giving enough opportunities for it to flower without taking into consideration the setbacks. This is a measure of competence in judgement and trust.
6. Cultivating the habit of thinking and working to promote harmony with good performance and not one upmanship.
7. Captain to lead from the front specially at times of crisis.
8. Enforcing strict team discipline irrespective of what ones track record is and how ‘important’ one is socially.
9. Setting up a mechanism to search young talents, encourage talents, grooming talented ones to get into the higher order teams and thus keep the ‘potentials’ in plenty.

The above approach is generic in nature and can be adopted to any field.

Continual improvement projects—classification

There are different types of projects for improvement study. For a comprehensive view on diverse types of projects, it is worth categorising them according to the classification in Table 26.3. This also facilitates the process of project solution.

The continual improvement projects, no matter to which category they belong to, can be located in any of the four areas in Table 26.4—local area, spread over different departments of the organisation, across the supply chain within national borders and the ones beyond national borders.

It is a good starting point to list all the problems in a category location-wise and maintain a master list. Such a list needs to be prepared and constantly kept updated and easily accessible to all concerned. Consensus is the basis of including any problem in the list. Any employee can propose projects/problems to be included in the master list. There can be a documented procedure on the process of including a project/problem in the master list.

TABLE 26.3 Classification of Projects

Category	Issues related to the category
Revenue management	Customer retention Revenue per customer Service speed Service quality Quality cost
Cost management	Yield Cycle time Productivity-man-power Service/product performance
Fixed-asset management	Facilities utilisation Capacity utilisation Safety and environment Technology upgradation
Working capital management	Inventory turnover Accounts receivable days Bad accounts Non-performing assets
Growth management	Market penetration Revenue from new markets Service/product development Revenue from new applications/ new products/services Creation of social assets Intellectual capital

TABLE 26.4 Functioning of CIP Team

Project location	Team composition and team leader	Pattern of functioning
Local area Section/Department [(A)]	‘Shop floor’ personnel choose the project; constitute the team whose number is restricted to 3–5; and choose the team leader	Team leader in consultation with team members specifies the day, time, place, and duration of team meeting in advance. It is preferable to have the frequency of meeting as once per week and if need be, more often. Record the proceedings of the meeting as per format in Annexure 26B. Once the study is over, another one is taken up and the cycle continues. The team and team leader can change for the next project.
Spread over different departments [(B)]	HODs concerned decide the project to be taken up and also notify the team members. Duration of each project is fixed in advance. Team members are entitled to make any changes in the project, if need be with the consent of the HOD.	The team selects the team leader. Team leader in consultation with team members specifies the day, time, place, and duration of team meeting in advance. It is preferable to have the frequency of meeting as once per week and if need be, more often. Record the proceedings of the meeting as per format in Annexure 26B. Once the study is over, the team is abandoned and the next project is taken up.
Across the supply chain within as well as outside national borders [(C)]	Chief Coordinator in consultation with all concerned HODs and others in the supply chain decides the project.	Project team leader, logistics of its working, time-span are decided project-wise. Chief Coordinator facilitates this. Once the study is over, the team is abandoned and the next project is taken up.

Brainstorming is a tool adopted to reach consensus. All persons concerned with a problem are involved in the brainstorming exercise. The CC has the responsibility to establish the master list and keep it updated.

Project team—route map for handling a project

Every continual improvement project has a team with a leader. Once a project is completed, another one is taken up and it need not necessarily have the same team. Route map for handling a project is the subject matter of Chapter 27. Details of functioning of a team are given in Table 26.4.

The HOD is directly responsible for directing, coordinating, reviewing (A) in Table 26.4; likewise the CC is responsible for (B) and (C) of Table 26.4. The CC through HODs also ensures that the place for the meeting and the facilities for conducting the meeting are made available. The HOD is also responsible for identifying resource persons to serve as facilitators to the teams of (A) in Table 26.4 and to help and facilitate each team to progress smoothly by helping and guiding the team when it gets stuck due to any reason.

After the conclusion of the study, each team prepares a report and submits to the HOD/CC. An abridged version of the report is prepared as per the format in Annexure 26C for presentation to a wider audience.

Guidelines to be followed during its deliberations over a project are in Annexure 26D.

Database

During the past few years, we have had the privilege of serving as judges of the continual improvement projects presented in Quality Circle competitions/conventions held at in-plant, intra-plant, state and national levels. This experience has indicated the presence of the following features common to majority of the projects.

1. Problems selected are silent over the measures of their criticality like duration of their existence, impact on the down stream including the ultimate customer.
2. Problems selected for their solution need not have taken the circuitous route of continual improvement. They could have been eliminated had there been a good system in place and/or resorted to process scanning.

The above observations cast no reflection on the excellent spirit of commitment and interest shown by shop floor personnel in achieving improvement. But the observations do point out to the need to improve the very process adopted in an organisation for selecting projects for continual improvement.

Process of selection of projects for continual improvement needs to be rational and purposeful. For providing such a basis for selection, there should be a database on the trend of performance parameters. The performance parameters whose trend is not up to the desired level in spite of their routine review and action, are the candidates fit for in-depth investigation, analysis, action and follow up through CIP route. Problem selected for CIP on the basis of trend has the merit of not being a sporadic spike but a real one that has defied the routine actions and hence demanding special effort for its resolution.

To assess trend of performance parameters, the pre-requisite is to have an elaborate database in every section/department covering all the relevant performance characteristics related to production, downtime, consumption of utilities, WIP, cycle time, etc. Likewise, it is essential to have a database to reflect the trend in respect to each of the issues covered in every category of Table 26.3.

Designing database, setting performance indices, monitoring of the trend as per the desired frequency is an easy and comprehensive task at present with the use of IT. In this context, the authors wish to make reference to the TL 9000 Quality Management System which sets out several meaningful measurements on quality of supplies—hardware, software and services—made by telecommunications industry for its customers. It is worthwhile for non-telecommunications industries also to adopt similar type of measurements starting with sharing of customer-quality standards. It is to be noted that the characteristic feature of the present day knowledge society is the migration of knowledge from one area to a totally different unconnected area and find its use there. IT facilitates the process of generation and migration of knowledge in a fast, flat and non-circuitous manner in all directions. Hence, the ‘world’ has acquired the new metaphormic expression “flat world”. In this flat world there is continuous renewal and upgrading—none should be averse to it. Hence, it is wise to be free from ‘OK for telecom, but not for us’ syndrome and get benefited from the information contained in the system referred above.

Overall assessments: continual improvement projects

The CC has the responsibility to report the following to the management as well as initiate suitable measures.

1. Functional areas where CIP is not taken up or the progress is tardy.
2. CIP projects which have failed to take off or fizzled out midway with reasons for the same.
3. CIP projects which exceeded the time targets with reasons.
4. CIP projects repeated again.

HODs must make a quality assessment of the CIP projects of their area as given in Annexure 26E and submit a report to the CC for necessary action.

The CC needs to prepare a balance sheet on continual improvement projects every year, highlighting the expenditure incurred on CIP, revenue generated by CIP in terms of tangible and intangible factors.

In the overall assessment, provision has to be made to assess the improvement in the quality of human resources in terms of enhancement in the ability to (a) solve problems, (b) work in teams and (c) handle problems confidently. Not much attention is in evidence to measure these aspects of the quality of human resources related to transformation in capability.

Common reasons for setback in CIP

Everyone aware of the following major reasons for setback in CIP; watches for their onset, if any, at the earliest; takes measures to nip them at the very beginning to maintain a lively dynamic environment in the company for CIP.

1. Management not realising the value, importance, and necessity for CIP renders the process as a cosmetic exercise to keep up to the fashion of the day and CIP is like a transitory phase.
2. Expectation of quick results of monetary significance demotivates and gives a wrong focus to all concerned.
3. Inadequate training and preparation prior to launching of CIP.
4. Assigning facilitators who do not belong to the same work area and/or who do not understand the problem being discussed.
5. Supervisors’ non-cooperation, by not knowing their role in CIP.
6. Members not permitted to attend scheduled meetings for various reasons.
7. Skepticism in the minds of middle-level executives.
8. Delay in or non-implementation of the recommendations of CIP.

Key points to comply with for healthy environment

The CC as well as HODs focus on the following key points to maintain a healthy environment in the organisation to keep the revolutionary zeal of CIP sharp and straight:

• Do not deny credit to those who deserve; and more importantly do not accord credit to the undeserving.
• Giving credit to the undeserving is not to be mistaken as encouragement/motivation.
• Focus on results and performance, not on complying with procedures and records.
• Interfere when bureaucracy hurts and halts progress.
• Make it easy for anyone to give ideas and suggestions; giving suggestions and ideas is not the monopoly of upper management.
• Be always customer focused—internal as well as external.

For the Chief Coordinator (CC), it is worthwhile to assimilate and practice the advice of Castro to Charvez mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. It helps to focus on mobilising CIP in the enterprise as an ongoing people’s movement with a mission to enhance the worth and self-esteem of individual employees; sharpen customer focus; eliminate waste in all forms; and step-up the speed of each process by dismantling WIP, time-traps, and non-value-adding activities.

Synergistic impact

The thought of synergistic impact is best understood through the words of Aldous Huxley, "Excellence is not what happens to you: It is with what you do with what happens to you".

It is not enough if a few improvement projects are active at all times or if the company participates in the national / international contests and wins laurels. The whole institution / organisation must have CIP as an unflagging passionate movement at all times, year after year. Such a thing happens when there is a synergistic impact. Hence measurements of synergistic impact need to be devised, measured, monitored to trigger intervention when required. Some of the measurements that can track the trend of synergistic impact are given in Table 26.5. CC, CIP can be responsible for measuring, monitoring and action on synergistic impact.

TABLE 26.5 Synergistic Impact

The above measurements can be made once in a quarter. The quarterly trend over a period of time indicates a synergistic impact when measurements on (1) and (3) decreases and that of (2) increases.

Conclusion

The entire work force can work together to channelise their energy towards achieving improvement on a continual basis only when the entire task of CIP is managed well and proceeds on a pre-determined path. Some of the key points discussed in this chapter need to be adopted to have a proper well-planned and coordinated system for managing CIP as a key result area.

Annexure 26A

Master list of learning programmes

Revision no.:	Date:
Code	Title of programme
A	Induction programme History of the company; its business and customers; track record; value system; quality policy and practices; general discipline
B	Quality discipline B.1 Housekeeping; B.2 Technical discipline—WI; B.3 Defect prevention; B.4 Correction, corrective action and preventive action; B.5 Job safety; B.6 Attendance, punctuality; B.7 First-aid and fire fighting
C	Functional skills (not job skills) C.1 Team building; C.2 Brainstorming; C.3 Bench marking
D	Job skills Specially designed programmes to enhance operation skills for cutting-edge in every functional area such as manufacturing, maintenance, transport, canteen and security
E	Methodologies programme for continual improvement E.1 Quality circles; E.2 Cross functional teams; E.3 Waste reduction; E.4 Housekeeping (5S); E.5 Safety; E.6 Environment; E.7 Mistake proofing; E.8 Preventive maintenance; E.9 Data Orientation, tools for pattern discovery through data
F	Methodologies for logical thinking and analysis like cause–effect diagram; checklist; force field analysis; FMEA, attribute listing
G	Techniques G.1 SPC; G.2 Value engineering; G.3 Activity-based costing; G.4 Simple tools for problem analysis—quantitatively; G.5 Production planning; G.6 Statistical test of significance; G.7 Design of experiments
H	Specialised skills H.1 CAD/CAM; H.2 Computer application; H.3 ERP; H.4 Leadership
I	Life support programmes I.1 Handling stress; I.2 Handling mid-life crisis: death, divorce, separation, indiscretion; I.3 Planning for retirement
J	‘Mould’ breaking programmes J.1 Visioning and goal setting; J.2 Creativity; J.3 Networking; J.4 Leadership of future
K	Life-skills recognised by WHO, for happy life K.1 Problem solving; K.2 Decision making; K.3 Critical thinking; K.4 Creative thinking; K.5 Effective thinking; K.6 Interpersonal relationship; K.7 Self-awareness; K.8 Empathy; K.9 Coping with emotions; K.10 Coping with stress

Annexure 26B

CIP meeting—minutes book

CIP title and code:

CIP team name and members:

Team leader:

Day, time, place of meeting:

Annexure 26C

CIP story format

Annexure 26D

Guidelines to be followed by the team while deliberating on a project

The guidelines are

1. Questions are raised. Right answer to a wrong question can spell disaster. The question is related to problem formulation and it has to be correctly formulated.
2. The problem, related technology and human problems are focused. Tools and techniques to improve this focus are used.
3. When a decision is taken, 2C 2D rule is followed—no decision unless it is arrived at after having had a set of Conflicting and Creative, Different and Divergent proposals/ alternatives.
4. There should be freedom to differ and a dissent should be respected and tolerated. The dissenter has a new point of view, different perspective on the problem and both these can be at variance with the majority view; dissenter’s view can have merit. So it has to be considered and not ignored. After this, consensus needs to be attempted.
5. Once a decision is taken, individual opinion, views and dissent should cease to exist and the entire team should stand by the decision.
6. Implementation of a decision should not be delayed/postponed.
7. A short pause is given before implementation. During this pause, any issue that may be left out is addressed; otherwise the decision is implemented without delay.

Impact of Problem and Solution

Solution found	Problem formulation
	Correct	Incorrect
Correct	A: Correct–Correct Good impact	B: Correct–Incorrect Very poor; retrieval difficult
Incorrect	C: Incorrect–Correct Poor; retrieval possible	D: Incorrect–Incorrect Disastrous

Annexure 26E

Overall quality of functioning of CIP projects