CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE
Building a culture of continuous improvement
Culture of excellence: key to continued success
Making strategy a reality hinges on people’s behavior. Tools and processes are important, but people make the real difference. Companies with a culture of excellence demonstrate this every day.
Instead of always putting out fires, you will only get ahead for real if you know how to focus on continuously improving processes and operations. This is the only way to structurally build an ever-improving company.
Why a culture of excellence?
- Being able to respond quickly to changes
- Effective decision-making, efficient processes
- Strong cohesion between departments
- Motivated and competent employees
- Continuous improvement as a competency
Creating a culture of excellence with Gwynt
An entrenched culture of excellence does not emerge overnight. It has to grow. How do we ensure this?
This is our approach:
- We combine “hard” (KPIs, results, project management) with “soft” (culture, behavior, change management).
- In addition to focusing on processes and tools, we focus on strengthening middle management.
- To build a culture of excellence, we use 6 guiding principles developed from the lean philosophy. The emphasis here is on changing people’s mindsets and behaviors.
- Although many methods have operational origins, our approach is broadly applicable. We focus on commercial and administrative processes in addition to production and supply chain.
6 principles, 1 goal: a culture of excellence
Principle 1 - Focus on value-adding activities
"Customers pay for value, not for ingrained habits and waste"
- Customer value central
- Eliminating waste
- Learning to see
Principle 2 - Know where you stand
"If you don't know where you stand, you only act reactively."
- Vision and goals known
- KPIs: realization versus plan
- Looking ahead and acting
Principle 3 - Standards as the Foundation for Improvements
"If there is no standard, how can you improve?"
Standard operating procedures
- Visualizing
- Active use
Principle 4 - Skilled and Motivated People
"Giving and taking responsibility go hand in hand"
- Right person in the right place
- Developing/training talent
- Leadership and exemplary behavior
Principle 5 - Tight teamwork
"Breaking habits, creating routines"
- Consult effectively
- Ownership
- Collaboration, across departments
Principle 6 - Continuous Improvement
"There is always room for improvement, every day."
- Plan Do Check Act
- Striving for perfection
- From objective facts and analysis, improve