Is Operational Excellence Dying: 5 Easy Steps to Revitalize Your OPEX Programs

Struggling with your operational excellence program? You seem to put all the required effort, but your continuous improvement program doesn’t seem to please the executive leadership team? Even worse, your fear is that with the market down-turn, your function being a base-cost center will probably be one of the first ones to take a hit on cost cuts.

This seems to be a universal problem with today’s practitioners across different companies and across the globe. The world of operational excellence and continuous improvement seem so passé that you feel that you are still stuck in the 20th century. With all the gizmos and modern-day tech stuff like analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, Blockchain and Robotics flooding the market, your job sounds paleolithic. It seems that Opex is dying and now destined to be retired to the annals of history very soon.

You are doomed!!

Umm, maybe not. 

In fact, you are not only NOT doomed, but you face a problem that can be easily addressed and solved. In fact, when I share the secret, you will be thinking, why didn’t I think of it myself. It is so logical and intuitive. And easy to comprehend. 

Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

So, let me take you through the secret. But before I do that, I want to share some good news. And the good news is that Operational Excellence is not going anywhere, anytime soon. In fact, it will continue to exist as-long-as the early 20th-century management practices continue to exist. Division of labor and the management layer to supervise the workers are your foundation pillars that will ensure that there is always a demand for Operational Excellence.

Now that we have cast aside one of the bigger fears about the relevance of operational excellence, let’s move ahead.

Observations

Here are some observations from many companies that prevail today manifesting the endemic issue and showing symptoms of the problem.

• First of all, many organizations peg the Opex programs too low in the hierarchy to have any material impact. Opex is not an individual contributor or a middle-management quest. It has to be driven right from the top. If the leadership just provides a lip-service then do please stop with this mindless exercise and stop throwing money down the drain. Leaders have to take ownership of the program and walk-the-talk.
• Secondly, Opex is not a flavor-of-the-month recreation. It is a serious endeavor and must be diligently adopted. You can’t cherry-pick which project is an Opex project and which one is not. It is a discipline that needs to be adapted and imbibed as a culture of an organization
• Third, Opex is not a skill that you acquire just by attending a training class. You have to practice it well, repeatedly before it starts wielding impactful results. The more you engage in Opex initiatives, the better you get at it.
• Last but not least, Opex is not a certificate but it is a way of thinking. Unless your brain has adapted to think through an Opex lens, you will not be able to unleash the full benefit.

Now, let’s get back to the secret. With this secret revealed, you will be able to easily make your Operational Excellence program sustainable, exciting and make an explosive impact in your organization. 

Based on some of the best practices in leading companies and frameworks by contemporary management thinkers, here is an easy-to-understand 5-step process to revitalize your Operational Excellence Program.

A word of confession at this stage. As this is a blog and should have a small word-count, I am limited by the number of details that I can share. I have tried my best to share as much of the principle as possible here so that you not only get the essence of the framework but get an understanding by which you can start visualizing and modeling changes that you need to bring to your Opex program. 

Secret Recipe

For any Operational Excellence or a LEAN Six sigma project to get a certain level of recognition and success, it is imperative that it is supported by a proper strategy and a framework that helps a project to achieve its goals successfully. Without this framework, your project will not be able to conjure the right level of support required on its own from stakeholders and you will suffer from it. 

So, why do you need a strategy and a framework? 

Because Operational Excellence is not just a box of tools and templates. It is an organizational “Capability”. 

And now, I’ll tell you an easy 5-step approach that will help you create a definitive, sustainable and most importantly, an effective capability that will create an explosive impact on your organization.

Framework

The framework has 5 steps the need to be followed in sequence and is circular. In other words, once you reach the last step, you will come back to step one from there with new requirements.

Purpose/Strategy: The first step is to define your strategy. What is the purpose that you want to drive with your Opex program? What is the organization level problem you are trying to resolve? Why is it so important to resolve quickly? What will be the impact if no action is taken? What is the impact if incorrect action is taken?

Leadership: Once you have identified the strategy and purpose of your Opex program, the next step is to find the right set of people to lead the effort. As they say, with average leaders you will only get average results. If your Opex program is set to yield big results, then you must get the best names in the game to lead it.  Identify key leader/s who will lead this initiative. This leader is going to work on developing your capability framework further. The second group are the key stakeholders that you will need to mobilize and who will give you the key support for your program

Methodology: As and when you have the right leaders in place, the leaders can then review and determine what industry-recognized method should be adopted for your organization. The fit-for-purpose method that is relevant for your organization. Whether to follow LEAN or Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints or a hybrid method developed exclusively for your company, you need to figure out what is most relevant and what makes the most sense. You may need to get external advisors to give you direction.

Capability development path: Once a methodology has been selected and set out for development, you need to start defining a roadmap to build these new and updated capabilities in your organization. For building any new and higher-skilled capabilities, it usually takes 2–3 years. So, you need to create a roadmap wherein you will develop a complete team of people with these elements:

• Skills
• Expertise
• Experience
• Tools and Templates
• Training and Mentorship
• Framework governance
• This framework will include train-the-trainer, certification, goals and objectives, project allocation and right management support

Project Management Office (PMO) or Governance: In order to support the capability building and compliance to methodology, you will need to create a coordination and governance office. This office will be responsible for project sourcing, qualification, resource allocation, budget and control, monitoring, communication, managing steering committees, certification boards and other functions that will give teeth to the capability development program for your company This is just a high-level summary to go about building an Opex capability in your organization.

From the capability building and PMO, you will get new strategy requirements which will take you back to step one.

Wrap-up

Now that I have shared the secret recipe with you on how to revitalize your Opex programs, you can see that it is not difficult at all. In fact, when you think of the sequence, it seems so logical, isn’t it?  

I think so too. 

So, this was my 5-step secret recipe on how to revitalize your Opex program. I have now empowered you with the knowledge that you can unleash to create that dramatic impact to your Opex programs.

This framework has taken me years to visualize and fine-tune. I went through the same challenges that you are going through today. I experienced the same indifference and indignation. And that’s when I decided that I will address this problem and come up with a framework. And now with this framework, you don’t have to suffer from the challenges anymore. This framework will give you the freedom of thinking logically and ensure that there is a significant positive impact on your company. 

I hope that you have started feeling the energy of the framework already. So, what’s stopping you?  

I wish you all the very best with your undertaking. 

P.S. This is part of a book project that I’m working on which I hope to finish soon. While working on the project I got so excited about the framework that I couldn’t wait till the book was finished. So, I decided not to wait but already share it. I hope that you and your friends can truly benefit from this framework and I firmly, believe that with the right focus, we can actually revitalize our Operational Excellence Programs.

I would like to hear your thoughts and experience regarding the framework. Moreover, if you have any questions or queries, feel free to reach out to me at anirvan@fifthchrome.com. It would be great if you drop me a note when you get started with this framework in your organization. Would love to hear your story!

About the Author

Anirvan Sen led multi-million euro, high-impact, multi-functional and cross-border transformations on business process and organization optimization. Specializations include LEAN management, Agile & Scrum, process-centric M&A integration, back-office optimization, shared services and digital transformation. Focus functions include Finance, IT and HR. Worked with flagship companies like GE, AkzoNobel, Coca Cola and Stryker, as well as several SMEs. I’m a LEAN Six-Sigma Master Blackbelt and globally recognized trainer/mentor. 

Would you Call Yourself a Leader?

“Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.” 

― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last

When you hear a word Leader what are the associations you have? What does leadership mean for you? I am not asking you for correct definitions, theories or google search, simply whatever your mind brings up.

My life’s greatest leaders are my Mother and my Sister. They build me up, support me, take care of me, motivate, inspire, listen, believe in me. They always bring out the best in me. They are my biggest fans, unconditional lovers, everyday empowerers. They make it possible for me to follow my dreams, they shape who I am. They are the best gifts of my life.

I have met so many leaders in my life who were literally life-changing people, each of them led me to the person I am becoming and I am truly grateful for all the words they said, actions they took and ways they influenced my growth. And every day I meet at least one leader. I can endlessly talk what leader and leadership mean for me and how I believe that every single human is, can be a leader if they choose to be, but here I want to share with you, how one random young boy I met on the street of Rome made this month insightful and all about Leadership.

This August I tried out a job in a restaurant, I worked as a hostess. I left my comfort zone and stood outside next to a restaurant - which I like, I was there five times for dinner before I started to work and started this experience - with an agenda to smile, greet and approach every person walking by.

First two days were adaptive, I had to overcome some level of shyness, I had to speak up louder, be mindful and so much more. My main goal always was to make someone smile, so I gifted my smile to everyone, I met lovely people and I enjoyed my experience and every evening I would reflect on:

1. What did I learn today?

2. What are the gifts of today?

3. What can I do tomorrow to get the best out of this experience?

On the third day, I saw a young boy and girl walking to my direction with a message on his bag: ‘SERVE, INSPIRE, CHANGE’. It was from some leadership school and when they got closer I told them:

-    That is exactly what I am doing

They asked:

-     What?

And I repeated:

-     This is exactly what we are doing here, we Serve, Inspire and Change.

They laughed and on that lovely note, they choose to stay, they enjoyed their meal and time. It was one of the brightest moments of the day. And for me, these three words became an everyday inspiration. 

If we apply this approach to our lives, in our everyday activities, is it our work, relationships, friendships, in any interaction; if we just serve others, inspire them and make a positive change - then we are leaders.

We make our job significant, no matter what we are doing. We as living humans have huge power to make an impact. Such little thing as a sincere smile or compliment, honest, joyful interaction can make a day for your employees, colleagues, guests and customers. And if you cannot find meaning in your job, ask yourself:

What is the value of being a human?

What makes you unique?

What is your purpose in life?

Your customer or any person comes to you for an experience.

If your aim to leave them in a better state than before they found you;

If you appreciate your role;

If you value people and yourself;

If you don’t forget to think of purpose when you are setting goals for your profit;

If you are ready to ‘Serve, Inspire, Change’ no matters of your position;

Then here I am recognizing you as a Leader, telling you that you matter, the world needs you and may it be empowerment for you to keep believing in yourself!

Being a Leader is not a position it is a lifestyle.

Leadership is something you bring in your position not something a position brings in you.  Every day there is a moment when we get the chance to make a positive change when we can take action, show initiative.

Simply by gifting a smile, saying a compliment, letting another person know how important they are, do something for someone, helping with a heavy bag, holding a door, taking care of ourselves, making sure someone took care of oneself, preparing a meal for someone else, paying for someones drink or ride, taking the trash from the ground and putting it into a recycling bin and the list goes on.

Serve, Inspire, Change and be a leader you wish to see in a world. 

Now, would you call yourself a leader?

P.S. Take time to reflect on people you could call leaders and feel free to share which actions (yours or of others) do you consider as an act of leadership in everyday life?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maiko Solomnishvili is an International Coach based in Rome, Italy. She provides an individual approach for every client by combining her background in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience and by applying authenticity, empathy & vulnerability. She has a rich experience of working with people from different age groups and nationalities as a non-formal Educator, Facilitator and Inspirational Speaker on topics of Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Emotional Intelligence, and Global Goals.

The original article was published on LinkedIn.