14 Points to Becoming a Competitive and Viable Business

Is your business performing below expectations or are material prices putting a squeeze on your bottom line? Then now might be a good time to take a hard look at your business. Take some time and review these 14 points as they apply to your business and you might find a place to start.

A Long Term Plan
Do you have a long term plan to remain competitive in terms of cost and quality? Are all activities in your business aligned with achieving that plan?

Management Team Focus
Is your team focused on achieving the plan? Do they all know and understand their roles and responsibilities? Are they leading the organization to achieve the plan?

Capable Processes
Are your operator instructions detailed with identified sequences? Are crucial quality points identified and tied into the operator instructions? Are the operator instruction times known and used to ensure the operators have enough work time?

Supply Chain Variation
Do you have more than one supplier for any one item? Do you select suppliers based on quality as well as cost? Do you have long term relationships with your suppliers?

Continuous Improvement
Do you understand and are you meeting the quality expectations of your customers? Are you using problem solving techniques to improve quality and process issues? Are these activities hit and miss or constantly applied?

On the Job Training
Are there set training plans in place for all operations? Are records kept indicating who has been trained on each operation? Are rules in place on what level an operator must attain before doing an operation?

Leadership
Are your supervisors managers of people or are they a resource to their people? Are your supervisors leading improvements in operations, machinery and other tools needed to perform work in their areas? Is there a mentoring process in place to teach leadership principles and monitor that they are being used?

Eliminate Fear
Do your employees speak up when there are issues or problems? Do you employees openly share productivity and quality ideas? Are your employees empowered to make decisions and changes when necessary?

Departmental Walls
Do your departments work together as a team? Are there cross functional activities occurring on their own? Are they working with each other towards the achievement of the long term plan?

Slogans and Targets
Are slogans and target reasonable and attainable? Are they focused on areas that operators have control to affect change? Are they kept to a minimum to avoid confusion?

Quotas and Objectives
Are quotas and objectives based upon actual operator workloads? Are quotas and objectives focused on quality as well as numbers? Are quotas and objectives focused on process and quality improvements?

Pride of Ownership
Are employees able to take pride in their workmanship? Is this workmanship being recognized? Are employees taking ownership of their areas?

Education and Self-Improvement
Is education of the workforce a priority? Is self-improvement being encouraged? Are there resources available to support education and self-improvement?

Employee Buy In
Does everyone in the company understand the long term plan? Is everyone in the company working to accomplish the long term plan? Does everyone in the company own the same vision?

This list is meant to be a starting point to help you to identify possible areas of improvement. The list is based upon Dr. Demings 14 points.

References:
The W. Edwards Deming Institute


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