Operational Excellence
Creating Together for Operational Excellence!
Dear Colleagues,
In February, as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we launched a new initiative “Creating Together for Operational Excellence”.
In response to the communication, we received a high level of interest and in April we were delighted to confirm colleagues who would join the eight workstreams. As a reminder, you will find details of the workstreams below. The focus of this initiative is to improve efficiency, reduce waste and increase the quality of our products and services, all great goals!
Key Initiatives in Detail:
- Kaizen and 5S (Continuous Improvement and Workplace Organisation): Process of continuous improvement, where each one of us actively participates in enhancing workflows. 5S helps maintain an organised and safe working environment, leading to improved productivity.
- SIOP (Sales-Inventory-Operations-Planning): Aligns supply and demand, ensuring efficient use of resources, optimum inventory levels and improved customer service.
- One Piece Flow and Line Layout: Reduce waste, increases the speed of production and optimises workstation layout to further enhance productivity.
- Quality Management: Ensures the highest standards of quality while minimising internal defects. This applies to both our products and our internal processes.
- Problem Solving: As issues arise, we apply structured, problem-solving techniques to identify the root cause and implement solutions to prevent future occurrences.
- Shopfloor Management and Visual Management: Ensures all employees are aligned on production goals and performance, allowing us to identify issues quickly.
- Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Factory Design: Helps improve the flow of materials and products through production processes, ensuring more efficient and streamlined operations.
- Health & Safety Management: Ensures a safe working environment by proactively managing risks and ensuring compliance with relevant health and safety regulations.
What are the next steps?
For each workstream we have a minimum of two people with the focus in Q2 on ‘Scope’.
The ‘Scope’ for each workstream was shared in June to align on 2025 focus and beyond. This was a significant step forward for the initiative with all workstream members joining a call to learn about all workstreams. It was a very informative and interesting exchange, and we now have clear plans for the remainder of 2025 which is great.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues who are participating in this initiative. This is an integral part of our long-term strategy, the contribution of colleagues, their engagement and contribution is invaluable.
This is an exciting time for Operational Excellence and, with the collaboration and engagement of colleagues from various fields, we look forward to continuing to share progress and celebrate successes with you!