Tag Archive for: Succession Planning

Operational Excellence and Agile Integration - Quality Business ServicesQuality Business Services

Operational Excellence and Agile Integration: Alison’s COE Journey

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When Alison’s company decided to implement agile principles across the whole organisation, there was uncertainty over how this would work in operational teams. Agile had its origins in software development, where it had been effectively used to rapidly deliver software in quick iterations. How would this work in a continuous operating environment? QBS’s Core Operational Excellence leadership development program gave Alison the frameworks to solve this, paving the way for successful Operational Excellence and Agile Integration.

The Issues

Alison was able to leverage the Core Operational Excellence program to identify some key pain points that she could address with an Operational Excellence and Agile Integration:

  • Large customer deliverables were managed in an inflexible ‘waterfall’ approach
  • Negative customer sentiment towards time and cost to build new system requirements
  • Low visibility of team workload
  • Poor visibility of current work status and process performance
  • Single points of failure exacerbated by gaps in process documentation

Actions Taken

With her team, Alison systematically tackled these pain points with some key actions:

  • Addressed process vulnerabilities in a Confluence knowledge base – a one-stop shop for the team
  • Increased cross-skilling and improved capacity utilisation
  • Chunked down customer deliverables into smaller deliverables measured as agile storyboard points and managed in sprints
  • Increased visibility of workload using a Kanban board
  • Established shared workload management meetings with a joint Jira board
  • Created dashboards to give visibility on status and performance

The Results

The results that Alison achieved within seven months are impressive and demonstrate the tangible benefits of Operational Excellence and Agile Integration:

  • Annual OPEX saving of $429k with a different approach to workload management
  • Further 1 FTE saving while managing a 30% increase in workload
  • Double the number of new requirements delivered to customers in the same amount of time (100% productivity gain)
  • More consistent customer experience – approximately 75% reduction in customer issues
  • Greater collaboration between teams and different areas of the business
  • 100% of key roles have succession plans

Her team are now working smarter, not harder, but the journey does not end here for Alison and the team. They now have a different way of looking at their operation and the mindset to improve!

Operational Excellence and Agile Integration in Your Organisation

If you and your leaders would like to sustainably solve your own operational challenges, start here to learn more about Core Operational Excellence and QBS’s other development programs.

Raising Business Maturity: Alex’s COE Journey - Quality Business ServicesQuality Business Services

Raising Business Maturity: Alex’s COE Journey

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Alex’s background is typical of many COE graduates as she had worked her way up from being ‘on the tools’. She had excellent instincts for operational excellence but lacked formal leadership training. Embarking on the Core Operational Excellence leadership development program taught Alex the science behind her instincts and the confidence to further develop with the 70/20/10 learning approach. When she was promoted into a large leadership role following an acquisition, she sensed many gaps in the two business areas that had come together. Over the following six months during her COE training, she progressively identified and addressed these gaps, raising business maturity and helping her team step up.

THE ISSUES

The many challenges Alex found were consistent with a low maturity business:

  • Misaligned teams 
  • Some operational processes had nil process documentation and key person risk
  • Several teams had limited or no process data
  • Limited engagement with stakeholders (siloed)
  • No business plan or monthly reviews
  • Perception of insufficient staff – in reality, too much time spent on waste activity
  • Few employees had active development plans and succession gaps existed 

ACTIONS TAKEN

This had to be a team effort so Alex engaged her leaders from the outset to gradually lift the business maturity with numerous actions:

  • Aligned roles, objectives and operating rhythms 
  • Developed a business plan with a monthly review mechanism
  • Team meetings run with agendas, minutes and follow-up actions
  • Closed gaps in process documentation
  • Implemented individual development plans to address key skill gaps and reduce succession gaps
  • Commenced manual data tracking on priority areas
  • Established regular stakeholder communications
  • Focused improvements on several inefficient processes

RESULTS

The results that Alex achieved within SIX MONTHS are incredible:

  • Cycle time on two core processes reduced 70%
  • Increased employee engagement
  • Continuous improvement driven by customer feedback and structured risk assessments
  • 100% succession coverage with no key person risks
  • Process improvements reduced waste equivalent to 1 FTE
  • Culture change with leaders working as a team, delivering on their plans
  • Interest reduction of $40k pa from reduced refund events 
  • Team are increasingly using data to separate fact from fiction

To this day, Alex still keeps her ½ day per week for working on the business – there is no going back!

RAISING BUSINESS MATURITY IN YOUR ORGANISATION

If you need your leaders to step up, raising business maturity and overall performance while reducing risks, click here to learn more about Core Operational Excellence and QBS’s other development programs.