YHBA - Practical advice for business

Practical advice from the independent experts

0333 444 8522
info.yhba@ukba.co.uk
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Members Area

Navigation

  • Home
  • Benefits to Business
  • Downloads
  • Who We Are
    • Local Groups
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • Join Us as a Business Advisor
  • Contact

Continual Improvement

29/08/2011 By Mushroom Internet

As a small business owner wanting to grow your business you will be looking at ways to improve your business to generate more profit and cash, to free-up working capital, and to make more effective use of your own time.

While there may be one-shot improvements you can make, such as outsourcing an overhead function to make a net saving, there will always be those issues where the benefits are obvious but the means of achieving them are not so clear.

Continual Improvement is not just for manufacturing quality

Adopting a systematic, continual improvement approach to those issues could be the answer.

It used to be thought that continual improvement was about manufacturing quality, but these days, quality is seen as something that should be embedded right across a business.

And likewise the continual improvement methodology can be applied to issues, right across a business, in every function, for example:

  • improving the enquiry rate from an existing marketing budget
  • increasing the average sale value by designing and up-selling additional features and products
  • improving cash flow though better credit control and debtors management
  • reducing manufacturing costs with improved delivery times and no loss of quality
  • reducing inventory cost and obsolescence
  • achieving an overhead cost saving by reducing headcount
  • releasing management time by putting in better delegation, coaching and review processes

And lots more…

The PDCA Continual Improvement Cycle

The PDCA or Deming Cycle

First you set down the objective you want to achieve.

Then you embark on the 4-step PDCA cycle  Plan – make a plan for achieving it; Do – carry out the plan; Check -gather and quantify the results; and Act – decide what to do next.

Having decided what to do next, you then make a new plan and repeat the cycle.

Obvious, really – when you sit down to work out how to deal with your issues, your thinking almost certainly follows those steps anyway.

Set a timetable and review progress

But the key to making this work is to get the people designated to resolve the issue – you, a member of your staff, or a small project team you have put together – to set a timetable for each cycle and stick to it.

And if you have the resources to run a number of improvement projects in parallel, you can review them at your management meetings, monthly or quarterly.

The results will come, slowly but surely, and year on year your company’s performance will get better and better!

We can help

Posted by Peter Johnson, Business Advisor with SGBA. If you would like a free initial consultation to discuss your business, including how to embed Continual Improvement in your company’s culture, call Peter on 07714 093406 or email him at peter.johnson@sgba.co.uk.

Filed Under: Business Planning Tagged With: business advisors, business owners, business processes, cash flow, continual improvement, Deming Cycle, PDCA cycle, profitability, SMALL BUSINESS, SME, strategy, time management

>The Devil is in the Detail!

18/10/2010 By

>Sport and business have much in common as each is about teamwork, discipline, hard work and, above all, success!

At a recent seminar, Amy Williams, gold medal winner at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in the skeleton event, described the huge amount of research undertaken to help her gain those precious extra few hundredths of a second.

This included the controversial design of her helmet, down to her body temperature prior to the start of the event. Research had shown that her body performed best at slightly above normal body temperature so Amy wore a thermal wrap (like we see marathon runners wearing after they have completed their run) under her jacket for the period immediately before the start. Research had also shown that muscles recover more effectively if cooled down rapidly after her event. This required Amy to immerse herself in freezing water for a number of minutes after each race. Amy acted on all of the research and guidance provided and the results spoke for themselves!

A few years ago I read a similar story from Adrian Moorhouse, 1988 Olympic gold medal swimmer. After failing at the Los Angeles games he realised he would need to break the world record, which was 2 minutes faster than his current personal best. He worked out that to speed up by that amount he needed to reduce his time by 30 seconds a year and broke that right down to four hundredths of a second for every swim if he did 2 swims a day. That is what he did and he too achieved his gold medal.

The point of these two amazing examples is that little improvements accumulate into big ones, in business as in sport. And the more specific those improvements are the more motivational they are to achieve.

What specific improvements can you make on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to achieve your goals and win your ‘gold medal’?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: goals, motivation, performance management, teamwork, time management

>The Devil is in the Detail!

18/10/2010 By Mushroom Internet

>Sport and business have much in common as each is about teamwork, discipline, hard work and, above all, success!

At a recent seminar, Amy Williams, gold medal winner at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in the skeleton event, described the huge amount of research undertaken to help her gain those precious extra few hundredths of a second.

This included the controversial design of her helmet, down to her body temperature prior to the start of the event. Research had shown that her body performed best at slightly above normal body temperature so Amy wore a thermal wrap (like we see marathon runners wearing after they have completed their run) under her jacket for the period immediately before the start. Research had also shown that muscles recover more effectively if cooled down rapidly after her event. This required Amy to immerse herself in freezing water for a number of minutes after each race. Amy acted on all of the research and guidance provided and the results spoke for themselves!

A few years ago I read a similar story from Adrian Moorhouse, 1988 Olympic gold medal swimmer. After failing at the Los Angeles games he realised he would need to break the world record, which was 2 minutes faster than his current personal best. He worked out that to speed up by that amount he needed to reduce his time by 30 seconds a year and broke that right down to four hundredths of a second for every swim if he did 2 swims a day. That is what he did and he too achieved his gold medal.

The point of these two amazing examples is that little improvements accumulate into big ones, in business as in sport. And the more specific those improvements are the more motivational they are to achieve.

What specific improvements can you make on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to achieve your goals and win your ‘gold medal’?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: goals, motivation, performance management, teamwork, time management

  • Home
  • Benefits to Business
  • Events
  • Downloads
  • Who We Are
  • Contact

Copyright © 2021 · Dynamik-Gen On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.