Operational excellence is a concept that attempts to ensure the entire organization is striving to meet the needs of their customers with every interaction. The customers could be traditional point of sale customers, or other departments within the organization. At its core, operational excellence is a strategy for organizational leadership and intelligence, though it will certainly impact people at every level of the organization.
Consistency and reliability
One of the core aspects of operational excellence is being able to outperform the competition in terms of consistency and reliability for the customers. Every single time a customer interacts with the company, they should walk away with a positive experience. This is important because while it can take a long time to earn the loyalty of customers, a single negative experience can end the relationship forever.
Even within the organization, if another department is not satisfied with the way another department did their task, they aren’t likely to work as well with them in the future. This can make it much more difficult going forward to complete projects properly.
Shingo Prize
Another important part of operational excellence is known as the Shingo Prize. Any organization that has incorporated ten key principles into their culture successfully. Those key principles are:
- Respect Every Individual
- Lead with Humility
- Seek Perfection
- Assure Quality at the Source
- Flow and Pull Value
- Embrace Scientific Thinking
- Focus on the Process
- Think Systematically
- Create Constancy of Purpose
- Create Value for the Customer
A company that has reached this level is going to naturally create a great overall experience for their customers, both internal and external. Of course, each of these key points has a system behind it that outlines how to measure its success and what it is going to accomplish. In the end, creating a great work environment will benefit the employees, management, customers, and of course, the bottom line.
