• By Kammil Mahajan
• Dec 15, 2022

How Operational Excellence Can Make Your Company More Competitive

There is a growing awareness that organizations need to adopt an operating model that will lead to faster growth, greater customer satisfaction, and enhanced employee engagement. A business operating at the highest level of excellence will be able to deliver customer value consistently across all operations. The best organizations are able to produce high-level outputs with low error rates. They have built processes centred around core competencies and have streamlined those processes through continuous improvement. Operational excellence is the pinnacle of organizational performance and is the optimal operating model for businesses today. Let’s explore what operational excellence entails and how you can implement it in your company.

What is Operational Excellence?

Operational excellence is the optimal level of performance within an organization’s operational processes. This can be defined as the best possible combination of efficiency, performance, and effectiveness. To be operationally excellent, an organization must deliver consistent, high-quality products and services. The key to operational excellence is achieving an optimal balance between the three core dimensions of an operation. The optimized operational model will deliver the optimal combination of efficiency, performance, and effectiveness.

Why is Operational Excellence Important?

Achieving operational excellence is important for several reasons. First, it is critical for the long-term success of any enterprise. Organizations that discover ways to become more efficient, and then improve their performance, will have the opportunity to deliver more value. Second, operational excellence enables organizations to deliver differentiated value propositions to customers. A more efficient operation allows more volume at less cost. To compete more effectively, however, companies need to improve the quality of their products and/or services.

Key traits of a great operational team

Strong leadership - Without strong leadership, it is unlikely that an organization will be able to achieve operational excellence. Leadership is critical for creating a culture that values continuous improvement and strives to achieve the highest levels of performance. Top-notch employees - Employees who truly want to achieve excellence will work hard to improve processes and become leaders within the organization. The right employees will also help lead the organization in an operational direction. Great suppliers - The right suppliers are critical to the success of an operational team. They must have the capacity to meet demand and be able to adapt quickly to changes in demand and/or supply. Effective coordination - All the various processes within a company must work together and be synchronized to deliver high-quality products and/or services. This requires effective coordination between operations and supply.

How to achieve Operational Excellence?

There are several different ways that businesses can implement operational excellence. It is important to note that all of these strategies have one thing in common: they all involve the continuous improvement of processes.

My favourite tool is The PDCA tool “Plan, Do, Check, Act” is a virtuous cycle that must be repeated in order to remain in the continuous improvement process.

Companies that invest heavily in process improvement will reap significant benefits in the long term. - Creating a new operating model - A key way to become more efficient is to identify and eliminate inefficiencies that are currently costing your organization money. To do this, it is helpful to develop a new, optimized operating model. A new model will require a great deal of investment and consequently, it is crucial to have a clear goal in mind. The new model should reflect the strategic direction of the company, its customer needs, and/or the industry in which it operates. - Continuously improving processes - The most important thing that the operational team can do is to continually improve the processes that they are responsible for. This will require the team to identify areas for improvement, then identify the best way to achieve those improvements, and then pilot a change before making it permanent. The best way to build an operational team is to build one from scratch. - Automating and/or standardizing processes - Many companies are able to be highly efficient because they have automated and/or standardized processes. If your company is at an operational level of excellence, however, it will be able to significantly increase its efficiency by automating and/or standardizing processes. - Investing in emerging technologies - The best way to improve your company’s efficiency is to invest in emerging technologies. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics are just a few technologies that are likely to transform business operations in the coming years. It is important to invest in these technologies early. - Ensuring a clear strategic direction - The best way to improve your company’s processes is to ensure that they are aligned with the strategic direction of the company. This will enable the team to create a roadmap that will allow the company to achieve its strategic objectives.

Conclusion

Operational excellence is the pinnacle of organizational performance. The best organizations are able to produce high-level outputs with low error rates. They have built processes centred around core competencies and have streamlined those processes through continuous improvement. When it comes to business success, operational excellence is the only game in town. Operational excellence is the most important aspect of any business. It allows companies to produce consistently and efficiently. Without it, no company can operate at their full potential and reach its true potential.