Sustain your gains: 9 things we’ve learnt about making operational improvements stick
Sustain your gains: 9 things we’ve learnt about making operational improvements stick
Why is it so difficult to sustain operational improvements? You may have experienced the feeling of working tirelessly to plan and implement an improvement project, only to see the gains eroded after a few months. And then, when you try to re-invigorate the same improvement again, the resounding feedback you receive is “we’ve tried that before, and it didn’t work”.
What about the operational improvements that do stick? Those flagship projects that people talk about years after they are successfully implemented. What features do those projects have that others don’t? Whilst there isn’t one silver bullet to sustaining your improvement gains, we’ve distilled our learnings to provide you with 9 critical things to give your operational improvements the best chance of sustained success.
Here’s a list of what we’ve learnt...
1. Project sponsorship is critical
The ownership of operational improvements cannot be delegated to the Business Improvement Specialist. The Project Sponsor must be clearly defined early in the project and must hold enough decision making and financial authority in the business to remove roadblocks, champion the change and provide access to resources for the duration of the project.
2. Set challenging targets
Improvement targets should feel challenging and slightly unachievable. The targets should be measurable, visible and promoted to all teams involved in the operation.
3. Clear performance metrics and accountability at all levels
When improving operational performance, accountability at all levels is critical. Each performance metric must have one accountable owner. Performance metrics cannot be shared between two owners.
4. Transparent metrics and data to measure the improvement
Operational improvements must be measurable. And measuring the average performance of a process is not enough. Delve into understanding the variability in operational performance and set targets for tightening variability, as well as the average performance. Help your frontline leaders by giving them crew-by-crew metrics, or day-shift vs night-shift performance comparisons.
5. Establish a sense of urgency within operational teams
Develop escalation processes and clearly define the time limits that apply for escalating any process variations. If possible, implement a 6-hourly planning process. Engage operational teams with playbooks that provide an effective definition of how operational processes should ideally be carried out.
6. In-the-field 24x7
Operational improvements are difficult to sustain because they often rely on people to ‘do the right thing’. When making changes to operational processes, it’s important that each person involved in the operational process clearly understands the change and is given regular feedback on their performance once the change is implemented. Improvement personnel must be present on-the-ground 24x7 to coach, audit and provide support to frontline supervisors and their teams. Their presence must continue beyond the implementation period, until the change has been embedded within the operation. Use these resources to conduct routine performance audits and share this feedback with frontline leaders.
7. An aligned frontline leadership team
Your frontline leadership team must be committed to an operational improvement, and each leader must commit their full support to ensuring that the change is successfully implemented. The frontline leadership team will need to be well equipped to handle any change resistance. It can be a challenging and stressful time for frontline leaders, and they must continue to feel the ongoing support of the Project Sponsor.
8. Plan for sustaining the change
A plan for sustaining the operational improvements must be developed prior to implementation phase and be endorsed by the Project Sponsor. Ensure that there is a plan to systematically update procedures, metrics, training material, role descriptions and any other elements of your management operating system that may be impacted by the change.
9. Technology adoption should be simple and compelling for the operator
When implementing technology solutions, particularly for in-field use, develop a prototype and test it extensively with end users prior to full scale implementation. The case for technology adoption must be compelling for the operator and must not introduce additional barriers or challenges for the end user. For example, in-field tablets won’t help supervisors to spend more time in the field if there is limited internet connectivity in the field.
Avoid change fatigue from spreading further through your teams by executing your improvements with the right structure and discipline from the outset. At Leading Edge Advisory, we bring the skills and ammunition to help you successfully deliver your improvement projects. From pit to port operations and everything in between, turn to us for productivity improvements, high-powered management support and operational readiness planning and execution.
Sustain your gains: 9 things we’ve learnt about making operational improvements stick
Sustain your gains: 9 things we’ve learnt about making operational improvements stick
Why is it so difficult to sustain operational improvements? You may have experienced the feeling of working tirelessly to plan and implement an improvement project, only to see the gains eroded after a few months. And then, when you try to re-invigorate the same improvement again, the resounding feedback you receive is “we’ve tried that before, and it didn’t work”.
What about the operational improvements that do stick? Those flagship projects that people talk about years after they are successfully implemented. What features do those projects have that others don’t? Whilst there isn’t one silver bullet to sustaining your improvement gains, we’ve distilled our learnings to provide you with 9 critical things to give your operational improvements the best chance of sustained success.
Here’s a list of what we’ve learnt...
1. Project sponsorship is critical
The ownership of operational improvements cannot be delegated to the Business Improvement Specialist. The Project Sponsor must be clearly defined early in the project and must hold enough decision making and financial authority in the business to remove roadblocks, champion the change and provide access to resources for the duration of the project.
2. Set challenging targets
Improvement targets should feel challenging and slightly unachievable. The targets should be measurable, visible and promoted to all teams involved in the operation.
3. Clear performance metrics and accountability at all levels
When improving operational performance, accountability at all levels is critical. Each performance metric must have one accountable owner. Performance metrics cannot be shared between two owners.
4. Transparent metrics and data to measure the improvement
Operational improvements must be measurable. And measuring the average performance of a process is not enough. Delve into understanding the variability in operational performance and set targets for tightening variability, as well as the average performance. Help your frontline leaders by giving them crew-by-crew metrics, or day-shift vs night-shift performance comparisons.
5. Establish a sense of urgency within operational teams
Develop escalation processes and clearly define the time limits that apply for escalating any process variations. If possible, implement a 6-hourly planning process. Engage operational teams with playbooks that provide an effective definition of how operational processes should ideally be carried out.
6. In-the-field 24x7
Operational improvements are difficult to sustain because they often rely on people to ‘do the right thing’. When making changes to operational processes, it’s important that each person involved in the operational process clearly understands the change and is given regular feedback on their performance once the change is implemented. Improvement personnel must be present on-the-ground 24x7 to coach, audit and provide support to frontline supervisors and their teams. Their presence must continue beyond the implementation period, until the change has been embedded within the operation. Use these resources to conduct routine performance audits and share this feedback with frontline leaders.
7. An aligned frontline leadership team
Your frontline leadership team must be committed to an operational improvement, and each leader must commit their full support to ensuring that the change is successfully implemented. The frontline leadership team will need to be well equipped to handle any change resistance. It can be a challenging and stressful time for frontline leaders, and they must continue to feel the ongoing support of the Project Sponsor.
8. Plan for sustaining the change
A plan for sustaining the operational improvements must be developed prior to implementation phase and be endorsed by the Project Sponsor. Ensure that there is a plan to systematically update procedures, metrics, training material, role descriptions and any other elements of your management operating system that may be impacted by the change.
9. Technology adoption should be simple and compelling for the operator
When implementing technology solutions, particularly for in-field use, develop a prototype and test it extensively with end users prior to full scale implementation. The case for technology adoption must be compelling for the operator and must not introduce additional barriers or challenges for the end user. For example, in-field tablets won’t help supervisors to spend more time in the field if there is limited internet connectivity in the field.
Avoid change fatigue from spreading further through your teams by executing your improvements with the right structure and discipline from the outset. At Leading Edge Advisory, we bring the skills and ammunition to help you successfully deliver your improvement projects. From pit to port operations and everything in between, turn to us for productivity improvements, high-powered management support and operational readiness planning and execution.
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Sustain your gains
9 things we've learnt about making operational improvements stick.
A sea of options
How we managed a complex supply chain study for a battery minerals processing plant.
5 Factors for a Team Success
What Google taught us about highly effective teams.
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BLOG
The latest from us:
Sustain your gains
9 things we've learnt about making operational improvements stick.
A sea of options
How we managed a complex supply chain study for a battery minerals processing plant.
5 Factors for a Team Success
What Google taught us about highly effective teams.
LET'S TALK
Let us be your trusted partner in delivering