3 Core Beliefs Essential for Successful Continuous Improvement
3. Make sure your corporate mission, goals, and values are clear.
Defining your company’s mission and values tells your employees and your customers who you are and what they can expect from you. It can empower employees who can be given more decision-making freedom with the caveat that they make decisions consistent with the corporate values.
Western Graphics clearly articulates its responsibilities to its customers:
1) Help them reduce their print spend
2) Lower their time spent on managing print
3) Improve their print effectiveness
These goals have focused Western’s improvement efforts. The application of Lean management practices has helped the company drive wasted time and resources out of its processes.
The results? Because of their improvements in the last five years, Western Graphics has completed more than 2,000 employee-initiated projects and demonstrated striking improvements in rework, lost-time accidents, and sales per employee.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2014 Managing for Improvement Award. The deadline is February 7, 2014. Visit the website to learn more about the award and 2013 winner Timothy Keran, CEO and owner, Western Graphics. The winner will be recognized at the 2014 Continuous Improvement Conference, March 30–April 2, in Dallas, TX.
