Continuous Improvement

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Measure and It Gets Done

  What gets measured gets done because you are paying attention to it and gathering information you need to achieve your goal. The information you collect helps you understand the current state of the process, making it easier for you to make decisions to improve it. When you measure, it is important to measure only what is aligned with your business priorities (key metrics) as, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Why Measure? Read More

Share Your Vision and Direction for the Company

  As a business leader, it is your responsibility to develop long-term goals that foster a culture of continuous improvement and growth. Once the goals are in place, articulate to your staff the direction you plan on taking the organization and how you plan on doing that. This journey you plan on embarking and how you plan to do that (Organization’s Vision) has to be easy enough to follow, clear to understand and inspiring enough for all your staff to buy in. Read More

If You Don’t Communicate You Will Fail

 What is Workplace Communication? “It is the transmitting of information between one person or group and another person or group in the organization.” There are two forms of communication in an organization, upward and downward communication. Upward communication is the flow up of information from an employee to a superior whereas downward communication is the flow down of information from a superior to an employee. Workplace Communication is important to organizations because it ensures everyone is on the same page thus increasing clarity and productivity. Read More

Be Creative in Rewarding Your Staff

A great employee reward system can improve engagement and keep staff focused on what matters most. However, the reward system has to be comprehensive enough to incorporate recognition and appreciation (not necessarily financial reward!). To be effective the reward system has to be aligned with the organization’s goals. It is important to recognize, appreciate and reward employees as that results in them feeling valued. Employees who feel valued and appreciated are generally happier, embrace the work on hand and contribute more to the organization. This results in a constantly improving organization. Read More

€2.4m savings achieved from Ornua’s Continuous Improvement Programme recognised by the Leading Edge Group

Leading Edge Group are delighted to announce that Ornua today became the first recipient of the International Continuous Improvement Excellence Award, in recognition of the sustainability and durability of the Ornua transformation programme – “The Ornua Way”. The award was presented to Ornua COO, Anthony Proctor, by Joe Aherne, CEO, Leading Edge Group at Kerrygold Park in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. The ceremony was attended by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, TD.   Read More

Why Do Continuous Improvement Initiatives Fail?

Continuous Improvement (CI) often known as Kaizen is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, processes and way of working. The improvement(s) can either be incremental over time or a one-time breakthrough. Most CI projects launch with enthusiasm and even show great progress. However, they quickly fizzle out. Read More

Continuous Quality Improvement in Public Health

The latest consultation document for Ontario Public Health units of February 2017, highlights the need for an emphasis on Continuous Quality Improvement across all programs. The need for CQI is required in order to ensure Public Health Practice is transparent, responsive to current and emerging evidence and based on continuous quality improvement Read More

Empowering the Front Line through Continuous Improvement

Most organizations depend heavily on the human factor. Hospitals for example employ frontline workers who provide routine and essential services such as food services, administration, housekeeping and outpatient care. Frontline workers constitute 50 percent of the health care workforce, making them a key part of the health care system. It’s not only hospitals who employ frontine workers, manufacturing and service based companies do too. For this reason, frontline workers form an organization’s backbone and are the vehicle to meeting customer needs. Thus, to build a successful organization management and/or owners must empower, encourage, motivate and involve their frontine workers in their continuous improvement programs. After all, frontine workers are the ones doing the work every day thus they know a company’s processes better than anyone. Read More