/process

Avoiding the Knowledge Gap

When it comes to business and process improvement, the Why and What are increasingly clear; for many businesses, in both manufacturing and service sectors, Six Sigma and Lean can deliver radically increased productivity, reduced errors and lower costs. However, as too many companies continue to find out to their cost, the ‘How’ still often proves to be a major stumbling block. The fact is that Six Sigma and Lean are business methodologies that encompass a whole raft of concepts and tools, and so do not present a single solution. They need to be understood from the top down, if a company is to determine exactly what its needs are and then creatively adapt the methodologies to their situation. This is where poor consultancy and good training differ. Too often companies bring in Six Sigma or Lean consultants to solve particular problems, using standard ‘packages’, but this tends to leave much of the business none the wiser as to what has been done – and more importantly how the skills, knowledge and improvements can be built on and replicated in other areas. For example, a few years ago a major food producer realised that while it had its teams of improvement experts, there was often only a limited knowledge base that was actually retained within its plants at the higher factory management levels, once these teams moved on. To overcome this ‘Knowledge Gap’ it needed a specialised training programme for the company’s UK factory and line managers. Good training starts with establishing executive support and understanding of the problems and issues. It then provides tailored solutions that will enable a company to develop great internal teams and experts who in turn can deliver the long-term business results that are being sought. Meeting these needs requires a training organisation that can not only provide training in the structured methodologies of Six Sigma and Lean, but also the essential culture change and management issues associated with the successful introduction of these approaches. In addition, to ensure training delivers real change and benefits – not just learning – incorporating ‘training projects’ that tackle real identified problem can rapidly deliver measurable benefits – often seeing a return on training investment within the first year.

Dr Gary Vanstone, Chairman and Managing Director of Smallpeice Enterprises