“Without standards there can be no improvement”
Taiichi Ohno
One of the first things when trying to build a culture of continuous improvement, or Kaizen, should be about standards. A standard (reflected in Standard Work) is a way to specify for your teams and organization on what good looks like.
It should be the first step, not the second or third or whatever.
Mr Ohno is right, if you ask your teams to optimize a process, enhance your customer experience or drive more growth from your innovation, this is where you start. Don’t ask teams to start an A3 Problem Solving process if you don’t have a clear view on what the target is.
Standards and KPI’s
One of the ways to articulate your standards and make them really come to life is to set good KPI’s. Key Performance Indicators are a measurable way of making explicit what good looks like. If you want to delight your customers, you will strive for an On-Time-Delivery (OTD) of 100% or a Forecast Accuracy Deviation of 0%.
Only when it is clear what good looks like, when the KPI’s are clear, understood and cascaded properly, we can drive improvement. This is where Daily Management and consequently A3 Problem Solving come in.
So, be honest: does everyone in your team have the same idea on what good looks like?