As Industry 4.0 is today a guarantee of quality and also synonymous with performance, it cannot be implemented without an Operational Excellence approach. This investment is crucial in order to compete in the world of modern industry.
What is Operational Excellence?
Operational excellence consists of seeking the best performance in terms of organising one’s processes and tasks to achieve one’s objectives. These words are therefore synonymous with continuous improvement, effectiveness and efficiency.
This definition addresses a certain notion of progress but omits the idea of working on oneself. This step is necessary for an optimal result.
What is the purpose?
Any industrial company that wants to grow, especially in Industry 4.0, and compete must adopt a strategy of continuous improvement. Small changes at different levels of the company improve its overall performance. It is a competitive lever for companies and reduces operational risks.
Some action plans
There are several techniques that address the notion of operational excellence such as the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model, Lean Management or 6 Sigma.
Management of Work Standards
Work standards are part of the industrial documentation that is essential for the functioning of the company. They describe the way in which operators should control their tasks to avoid or eliminate waste, delays or non-conformity. Work standards must be regularly updated to ensure that they are always effective. Digitalisation of documents can enable the company to ensure better document management and to better implement process improvement opportunities.
Method A3: Problem solving
This method is based on breaking down the problem to find the right solution. There are 6 steps in this process:
- Identifying and clarifying the problem: why is it being dealt with? how did it start? etc.
- Definition of the current situation and the objective to be achieved.
- Research and analysis of the causes of the problem: WWWWWH(what? when? where? who? why?how? ).
- Searching for the 5 best solutions that have a positive impact on solving the problem.
- Defining the action plan: how will the required actions be implemented?
- Monitoring the results
