Planning for improvement The Deming Cycle promotes learning and continuous improvement through its four sequential steps: Plan – Do – Check – Act. The model provides a clear, logical process for making continuous improvements, and focuses your thinking on the actual details and on what your purpose and objectives are so that you can better …
Putting quality at the heart of your business Total quality management is an all-encompassing approach to quality throughout an organization. It makes quality the business of everyone in the company and puts it at the heart of every business operation. TQM seeks to raise standards, ensure minimum standards and make continual improvements for the benefit …
Putting customers at the heart of your business processes Process management cuts across departments and functions and seeks to group tasks together to improve the way they work and, importantly, to deliver greater value to customers. Overview Process management measures, monitors, analyses and improves business activities, making processes efficient, responsive and adaptable. Re-engineering, as Michael …
Cost-effective ways to tailor your products Mass customization uses mass production methods that are capable of providing customers with tailor-made products. Overview Technological changes have ushered in a new era of delivering custom-made products on a large scale. Customers are able to choose different features so that products can match their own needs. It is …
The six pitfalls of negotiations By learning where the pitfalls lie in negotiations, it is possible to sidestep them and ensure results that last for all the parties involved. Harvard Business School professor James Sebenius argues that six mistakes are responsible for the failure of negotiations. By avoiding them you can negotiate your way to …
Making the most of your organization’s information, expertise and experience Knowledge is a powerful company asset. Capturing, managing realizing and using knowledge in all its forms to create extra value and advantage is the lifeblood of successful organizations. Overview Knowledge in organizations often lies dormant because it is not recognized as having potential. Companies need …
Ensuring continual improvement through gradual change The Kaizen approach involves making small, gradual and continual improvements to business processes. Overview Popularized by Masaaki Imai, Kaizen sees quality improvements as a company-wide process, involving everyone, at every level. In particular, it emphasizes the role of people who use the processes because they are best placed to …
The technique for measuring and improving product quality Sigma is a term that is used to show how much something deviates from the norm (or target). Six Sigma uses statistical analysis and benchmarking to identify these deviations in order to improve quality and efficiency. Originally developed by Motorola to deal with manufacturing issues, it is …
Using information to its full effect A modern competitive company is only as good as its ability to use information. Overview Improving how your organization gathers and uses information will enhance analysis, decision-making, operations and strategic development. This starts with knowing how information flows, what it is used for and how it is applied. This …
Malcolm Gladwell’s insights into the way ideas spread The emergence, spread and decline of products or ideas is a phenomenon that is rarely understood. Gladwell’s insight into social dynamics, however, reveals the trends of human behavior. Malcolm Gladwell likens the rapid growth, decline and coincidence of ideas to epidemics. Ideas are ‘infectious’, fashions represent ‘outbreaks’ …
