Three Steps to Excellent Quality and Operational Excellence
- Laura Neary
- Jun 16, 2014
- 2 min read
Manufacturers worldwide strive to accomplish more in less time, while improving product quality at the lowest operational cost. When this happens, manufacturers achieve the ever-elusive mode of “operational excellence.”
According to Mike Roberts in his LNS Research article, Realizing Operational Excellence through EQMS, companies must take these three steps to follow LNS Research’s model of operational excellence:
Identify and align the strategic objective in both finance and operations.
Identify a set of metrics to evaluate the progress of reaching these objectives.
With metrics in place and data being collected, benchmark performance relative to market-leading companies.
When implemented in the right environment, these three practices make it possible for companies to continually improve on shortcomings. In addition, “quality plays a large part in achieving operational excellence,” says Roberts.
After all, it takes a quality-run organization, with effective quality-management practices in place, to produce quality products in a cost-effective, efficient, and consistent manner.
On your quest for quality and operational excellence, it takes the right mix of people, processes, and technologies to be successful, according to Mike Roberts in his Inside Quality Insider article, Top Five Quality Management Mistakes Affecting Operational Excellence.
People bring the expertise required to capture, evaluate and use the financial and operational metrics you gather. You also need executive leadership buy-in to support your teams and ultimately succeed in your quality and operational-excellence initiatives.
Processes need to be refined, streamlined and – wherever possible – automated to reduce the risk of human error, while eliminating redundant data-entry tasks. With more efficient processes in place, tasks become more reliable and repeatable, you poise your company to “do more with less,” and you free your team’s time to focus on more mission-critical Tasks.
Technology is what can tie it all together for your business. With right Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS) in place, operational excellence is within your grasp. You can use your EQMS solution, such as Quality Data Assurance (QDA) from ASI DATAMYTE, to integrate cross-functional teams, while making their formerly disparate processes and data interoperable. Your team members benefit from access the information they require to collectively make informed decisions, report on data, and monitor suppliers. They also get leading-edge hardware and software tools proven to ensure quality compliance.
At the same time, QDA gives you the ability to evaluate your metrics in a more meaningful manner – all in a single click. You gain one-stop visibility into all of your company’s quality management operations. You can even set up the system to alert you when issues arise, so you may address and resolve them without delay.
Your EQMS solution can make it possible for you to more effectively oversee, evaluate, and improve operations across your entire enterprise. By taking this proactive approach, you can achieve both quality and operational excellence in a manner that will benefit your company’s bottom line, as well as your consumers.
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