CONTINUAL
IMPROVEMENTWhy do organisations need to continually improve?
Implementing good Governance, Risk, Compliance and ISO Standards as a once-off activity will no doubt lead to stagnation in this rapid-paced business environment. Clause 10.2, of most ISO Standards, sets continual improvement as a mandatory requirement. Thus providing a framework for deeply-rooted practical, consistent, and sustainable improvement through all levels of your organisation. This culture is supported by various ISO Management System documentation. Once certified to a Standard, Legal or Governance Framework, or similar, the External Auditors will return the following year and ask the key question. How have you as an organisation improved?
This improvement can be linked to your objectives, risk status, integration of new legislations, or being able to embed the system and its controls into the culture of your organisation. These challenges are never-ending and can quickly spiral out of control.
The solution? Continual improvement. WWISE provides a Maintenance Plan for organisations that are ISO certified by enhancing organisational processes with various Industrial Engineering toolsets. These toolsets range from Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Theory of Constraints, work and method studies, team building, productivity studies, and culture and change management. The function of this activity is to improve your processes and workflow. Thereafter objectives are linked using strategic tools – this will assist in improving the organisations’ performance, with a key focus on efficiency and productivity. We utilise a unique blend of social engineering, linked to behaviour and cultural change, associated with the organisations’ mandate to achieve our results. At WWISE we provide the turnkey solution to transform challenges into success stories – with years of experience to back our words.
The issue faced most often after implementation and certification is knowing how to continually improve. Here are a few of the many solutions that WWISE assists with.
Business Process Modelling
What is Business Process Modelling?
Businesses rarely function at optimal efficiency. This is generally due to miscommunication, redundancies, or wasteful processes. To ensure that your company is operating at its peak, optimally functioning work processes must be established. Therefore, business process modelling is the best way to identify inefficiencies and in turn help develop a strategy to maximise your company’s operations.
How does it work?
Our Consultants have worked with clients in all industries, and across the globe, in creating a personalised structure of processes that will ultimately exceed requirements and expectations..
Your current processes will be analysed and assessed to be improved and automated in a structured and documented manner.
Our Business Process Models govern the flow of work and increase efficiency in your organisation to support its core processes.
What are the benefits?
- Our customised Process Flows significantly increase the efficiency of an operational function, which in turn will increase the quality of work.
- Reduced errors will decrease operational costs and expenses.
- Our Consultants work very closely with your organisation to effectively deliver implementation support that is aligned with your business strategy.
- We improve the overall business architecture to optimise workflow and business practices.
Data Analysis
What is Data Analysis and Analytics?
Data analytics is the management of data which consists of data collection and data inspection. Data analytics main focus on the future and can be utilised for demand predictions based on previous data.
Data analysis is a sub-component of data analytics, where data is investigated, transformed, and sorted into specific sets to study and extract useful information.
Why do you need it?
As work environments are becoming increasingly dependent on technology, the necessity of data analysis and analytics will continue to grow exponentially. Data analysis allows organisations to make informed decisions in order to improve business efficiency.
What are the benefits?
- Make faster, more informed decisions for your business based on gathered data.
- Gain a better understanding of customer requirements, which can lead to improved customer relations.
- Greater awareness of business risks.
- Ability to make predictions based on data.
- Removes redundant data.
How can WWISE assist you?
WWISE can analyse your organisationʼs data to transform it into practical and improved business processes. We can also determine production rates based on predicted data, while establishing demand forecasts.
We will assist every step of the way to ensure your organisational needs are met.
LEAN
What is LEAN?
LEAN is a frequently used term for businesses across the globe. This concept is summarised as “delivering better quality goods or services while requiring less resources.”
Why do you need it?
To stay competitive, organisations must deliver quality products at reduced prices. To ensure customer satisfaction, your business must focus on quality. Therefore, it is an organisation’s duty to find a perfect balance between good quality and low prices.
By implementing LEAN, your organisation will require less resources to produce products, which will in turn decrease product prices. This is achieved while ensuring product quality is still prioritised to keep your customers satisfied.
How do you implement it?
What are the benefits?
- Improved productivity.
- Lead time reduction.
- Increasing the efficiency of your current business processes.
- Waste reduction.
- Improved process management.
How can WWISE assist you?
WWISE can assist in implementing this 8-step process to specifically cater to the needs of your organisation. We will be your guide to ensure that your organisation can implement and maintain LEAN to remain competitive within your market.
Facility Planning
What is Facility Planning and Optimisation?
The physical layout of the work environment is one of the most important aspects of any organisation. The layout defines how an organisation’s operations should run. Therefore, it impacts the performance of any process. The purpose of optimising and planning a facility layout will ensure that the facility runs at optimal efficiency.
Why do you need it?
By taking the facility plan into account, you can ensure that your organisation operates at optimal efficiency. Facility planning and optimisation can assist in eliminating any inefficient or avoidable processes that result in undue delays.
How do you implement it?
What are the benefits?
- Increased flexibility.
- Reduced costs.
- Improved production performance.
- Efficient utilisation of equipment and space.
- Maximised use of resources.
How can WWISE assist you?
WWISE can optimise your facility’s layout to the exact specifications and requirements set out by your organisation. Following the step-by-step process will allow us to take all factors into consideration to ensure that the optimised facility layout serves your needs.
WWISE will be there every step of the way to ensure that you are constantly updated throughout the process to ensure that all your needs are met.
Six Sigma
What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a continuous improvement methodology based on statistics and data that focus on eliminating defects in products. Six Sigma works hand-in-hand with LEAN manufacturing, as it ensures that waste is eliminated by reducing the quantity of defective products.
Why do you need it?
Six Sigma is a feasible solution for organisations seeking to reduce defective products and enhance overall output quality. This methodology identifies problematic areas in production lines. Once these problem areas are eliminated, it will assist in increasing the overall activity productivity and product quality.
How do you implement it?
What are the benefits?
- Standardisation.
- Improved business processes.
- Product quality improvements.
- Operational costs reduction.
- Improved efficiency.
- Improved customer service.
How can WWISE assist you?
WWISE can assist by assigning project teams and managers within your organisation. We can guide you through the process to design a specialised project plan to implement the DMAIC method. WWISE strives to ensure that your organisation’s needs and requirements are met throughout the entire step-by-step process.
HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT IT?
- To initiate the LEAN process, we identify and eliminate unnecessary waste with a value stream analysis to recognise any wasteful activities.
- Reducing unnecessary inventory that might take up space. The cost of storing excess stock usually outweighs the benefits of having extra stock on hand.
- Shortening production cycles using the technology at your disposal to make production batches smaller.
- Speeding up your response times by making your production cycle more flexible to changes on demand.
- Ensuring quality checks at various checkpoints to detect issues as quickly as possible.
- Providing training for employees to allow them more authority to make decisions.
- Obtaining customer feedback to redesign the system according to their needs and requirements.
- Reaching out to suppliers to adopt the LEAN manufacturing process.
HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT IT?
- The production programme. This programme is necessary to determine the various production requirements such as volumes, lead times, and resources.
- The equipment. This includes the quantity, OEE (Operational Equipment Effectiveness), ROI (Return on Investment), automation, and stationary or Moveable Equipment.
- We analyse the current facility layout and develop a 2D or 3D model. All equipment, storage, technology, and resources should be placed in their accurate location, indicating which resources/machines are stationary and which can be moved.
- We define the production flow, which includes process times, batch sizes, equipment down-time, maintenance, worker routes, forklifts, and AGVs. Processes should indicate variability, determine which processes interact with one another, and display how frequently departments or processes are dependent on one another.
- Layout Optimisation is conducted, dependent on the requirements of the organisation. These requirements include increased OEE, improved flexibility, line balancing, cost reduction, and increased productivity. It is pivotal to determine how departments, processes, and individuals are integrated to optimise the new design for a more efficient layout.
HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT IT?
- Initiating a pilot project to consider employees’ values, responsibilities, and input.
- Appointing a knowledgeable project manager to implement Six Sigma principles.
- Team members are assigned to help with the implementation.
- Designing a project plan for implementing processes. This includes a detailed organisational structure to streamline processes and reduce the number of defects.
- Continuous monitoring and improvements are necessary to maintain this methodology. Necessary changes are made according to the project plan and implemented by the project manager. The team assists with the operation. To improve existing processes, the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) method is used.
- Evaluating the project to assess encountered issues. Once the evaluation is complete, the Six Sigma principles can be implemented.