Embarking on the journey of operational excellence demands a blend of Lean, Six-Sigma, and I recommend project management knowledge. For me, as someone who’s constantly balancing Operations, Quality, and customer satisfaction, it’s about finding the perfect synergy.
Introducing DIOS: The Definitive Innovations Operating System
At the heart of my approach lies DIOS – a business operating system framework that I created to allow me to drive forward initiatives that sometimes are contradictory. This framework categorizes goals and KPIs into ten vital areas, forming the bedrock of my continuous improvement strategy.
- Safety
- People (All stakeholders)
- Quality
- Delivery
- Inventory
- Financials
- Forecasting
- Strategy
- Systems/Software
- Communication
Within these categories, I utilize subcategories when needed, to efficiently organize my Goals, KPI’s, and tasks on my Rapid Action Item List (RAIL), ensuring that every task finds its most appropriate bucket.
Navigating with a Clear Vision
Once your corporate vision, mission, core principles, goals, and KPIs are in place, the journey begins. I start by evaluating existing measurables for each category. You should find that what you are measuring today should align with a specific category and that category should align with your company goals. If this isn’t true you may need to evaluate why you are measuring and monitoring whatever KPI it is. I sometimes find as organizations grow, or leadership changes at the company, what I refer to as “legacy metrics” continue to get collected and monitored for no real purpose. This is a perfect time to clean them up.
Level of Effort Caution
When it comes to measuring, I highly recommend looking at the Level of Effort (LOE) required to capture a new metric. You really want something automated, or something you currently measure, so you can get a report with very little effort. If each employee is taking just a few minutes a day, when you extrapolate that out, the numbers and cost can be quite alarming.
LOE Example
EXAMPLE – A new manual report takes 5 minutes for each employee daily, assuming 200 employees, this is 1000 minutes per day or 16.67 hours per day, or 83.35 hours per week. This doesn’t consider the time enforcing participation or the time to compile that data. That goal would have to be extremely lucrative to offset that kind of investment – essentially two full-time employees devoting their time to capture what was initially thought to be a simple 5-minute report.
“Now, feel free to flip that around and find a way to save each employee 5 minutes a day and you will start winning the continuous improvement game. Assuming 200 employees, you just saved over 83 hours of effort per week!”
Strategy in Motion
Quarterly strategy sessions become pivotal, especially for companies with a revenue exceeding $15M. While not a strict rule, this frequency ensures goals are consistently aligned with daily actionable items, facilitating adaptability to market conditions. I too often see companies whose frequency of strategy sessions is far below this recommendation.
Bridging the Tactical Gap with a RAIL
The true challenge emerges in translating strategic goals into daily actionable tasks. Enter the RAIL – a Rapid Action Item List – designed to break tasks down to the next actionable step. No more generic to-do lists gathering dust; it’s about identifying the next move, assigning ownership, and making tangible progress within 24-48 hours. There are plenty of software options and project management tools available, I tend to fall back to Excel or Google docs, as AI is becoming more useful, I will just recommend use something your people are familiar with. What I typically do is send out my version of a RAIL and tell them it’s not a mandatory format, but I expect at least this information to be collected.
Example of a RAIL – created for this article
DIOS + RAIL: A Formula for Rapid Improvement
By combining the DIOS framework with the RAIL approach, the results will speak for themselves. The systematic organization of goals and the relentless focus on actionable tasks drive significant improvements in a shorter time frame. When deployed I typically see tremendous results in as short as 3 months. Your team will be more focused and should clearly understand what corporate goal any task is aligned to.
As we approach the end of the year, I’m eager to hear about your experiences applying these principles to your business. Share your thoughts, and let’s make strides towards operational excellence together.
If you found this article valuable, a like, comment, or share would mean the world. Your feedback shapes the future content, and I’m excited to continue this journey with you.
#OperationalExcellence #BusinessStrategy #ProjectManagement #DIOSFramework
About the author
Harold E. Meadows Jr.
Fortune 500 Operations, Quality and PMO expert
LinkedIN – https://www.linkedin.com/in/harold-meadows-jr-b0623715/
Author of “The Business Compass: Navigating Success with Ethics, Innovation, and Purpose” https://www.amazon.com/Business-Compass-Navigating-Success-Innovation/dp/B0C7J5HW26
Founder of Definitive Innovations LLC – https://definitive-innovations.com/
Over 20 years management and leadership experience in government regulated industries
Disclaimer: Opinions Expressed are Personal
“All opinions, contents, and material posted is solely my own and does not represent my employer or my role at Tektronix. I am solely responsible for any and all liability associated with such material.”