Continuous improvement in service based organisations
16/01/2012
Continuous improvement in service based organisations
Continuous improvement and the tools and techniques associated with such activity are typically associated with manufacturing, but many of the principles involved, such as ‘lean’ thinking are transferable to transactional environments. These range from sales, marketing, tourism and financial services to HR or local government services such as social services, health, housing and planning.
The key difference in approach within this sector is that the focus is mainly on people and processes, rather than machines, tools or systems.
Continuous improvement in service-based organisations emphasizes employee involvement and teamwork. The focus is on measuring, systemizing and standardising processes, as well as reducing variation, defects and turnaround times. In order to do this well the service effectively becomes the ‘product’ from the customer’s point of view and customer focus has to be the key to effectively mapping processes and managing these.
Measuring the effectiveness of improvement is vital in any environment, but in the service industry it is equally important to ensure that the right things are measured. Inappropriate measures drive inappropriate behaviour. Each office or transactional environment has its own unique challenges, which require careful analysis and solutions. Blindly putting metrics in place to measure close rates, turnaround times or other KPIs, will not achieve effective long-term sustained change. Start measuring from outside looking in – not inside looking out!
What is often neglected is the non-process focus on people issues such as morale, employee motivation and teamwork. Organisations usually need further training in subjects such as team building, leadership and change management to achieve lasting change and sustain performance improvement. Those that are successful at continuous improvement typically take a value orientated, step-by-step approach to streamlining their organisations and will share lessons learnt across functions or departments.
In local government a statutory framework for improvement termed “Best Value” was introduced in England and Wales in 1999. The aim of this bill was to make improvements with regards to economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Benchmarking against other best practices forms a key component of this framework.
Our consultant coaches have helped public sector clients to reduce turnaround times and reduce costs such as hiring agency staff, by creating a continuous flow of value-adding activities that is determined (pulled) by the customer, eliminating those activities that don’t add value and standardising processes.
Coaching for Change delivers IML Level 2 training in Business improvement to provide team leaders with a solid foundation in business improvement techniques and skills within a wide range of service based organisations. We also provide consultancy to companies who want to eliminate non-value adding activities, reduce costs and create a streamlined and effective organisation.