Rapid Improvement Approach Delivers Rapid Results

Internal and external factors affecting operations, technologies, and company cultures have accelerated in recent years. The pandemic and geopolitical and economic shifts demand fast reaction. Performance Solutions by Milliken (PSbyM), with a history of transforming client operations and delivering substantial returns on investment through continuous improvement — recognizes that the speed with which internal and external factors threaten companies requires a faster way of delivering dramatic results: the PSbyM Rapid Improvement Approach (RIA).

The Purpose Behind Milliken’s Rapid Improvement Approach

“Our focus has always been on system-based continuous improvement engagements, to ensure that improvement is sustainable. That takes time to implement,” says Phil McIntyre, PSbyM Managing Director. “But when the pandemic hit, there was fear and urgency everywhere— no one understood what their markets would do, good or bad, or how long the pandemic would last. But we also saw many manufacturers significantly ramping up during the pandemic. Not everything shut down. These companies had to go fast — not from 0 to 60, but from 60 to 120 so quickly that they didn’t have the luxury of being able to focus longer-term. They needed continuous improvement methodologies and mindsets for the future, but they also had to meet the immediate demand on their books.” “We created the Rapid Improvement Approach to bridge that gap,” says McIntyre. “We help them in the near-term with targeted aspects of continuous improvement deployed for short-term benefit — a quicker, more blitz-oriented approach.”

How Process Improvement is Accelerated with RIA

The new Rapid Improvement Approach (RIA) still focuses on building blocks necessary for long-term success, but also quickly fixes performance gaps and capitalizes on new opportunities. In short, RIA brings the same PSbyM continuous improvement rigor but within a concentrated timeline — six to nine months vs. 18 to 36 months.

How? By having PSbyM practitioners collaborate with client executives to identify key areas most in need of improvement — and ways to generate more productivity and revenue. Often, however, a Rapid Improvement engagement includes goals defined at the outset by the client: e.g., the company needs a 5 percent efficiency improvement on two plant lines. Practitioners observe operations and the manufacturing process to confirm the target’s size and achievability — and then begin a lightning implementation.

As in a traditional PSbyM engagement, practitioners coach client executives and managers as they directly engage the workforce in implementing improvements now, while building behaviors and culture that drive continuous improvement in the future. But in a rapid improvement engagement RIA, practitioners also assume a far more hands-on role in leading continuous process improvements. 

Why Companies Increasingly Need Continuous Improvement Help

“During the pandemic, everything changed,” says Shawn Smith, PSbyM Director of Client Development. “Companies have fewer resources and less time. And everybody wants things quicker and faster, and they have specific problems that they need fixed. This process allows us to act directly, as additional pairs of hands. For example, some clients may not have production process engineers who can think through line problems and solve them. They literally don’t have anyone who can work on the problems, or who has time to try.”

Why? In part, because many companies simply can’t keep up with surging demand: “They need an increased capacity for new demand, and to catch up on backlog,” says Smith. “Their inability to keep up is driven by downtime, by people shortages on certain shifts.” 

Amid the frenzy of trying to get products out the door, Smith adds, it’s easy for leadership to lose sight of what’s possible to achieve in terms of improvement. “They’re struggling to let go of decision-making and to empower their staffs, but they’re also not developing their associates or training them in problem-solving. They’re dealing with shortages and new people and just trying to do it all.”

During an RIA, practitioners frequently encounter intersecting issues that can trigger a downward spiral in performance. For example, as leaders push for higher production speed, they may implement changes that appear to save time, but instead cause new delays (e.g., ignoring routine maintenance of equipment, overworking frontline associates, limiting training). “In an RIA we act as expert resources — not just someone who can turn a wrench, but an experienced problem-solver who can diagnose and fix productivity issues.” 

This hands-on involvement means that practitioners spend more time at client sites. Instead of monthly visits over a year or more, an RIA typically places one or two or sometimes even three practitioners at plants for three to four days a week, for three consecutive weeks, focused on a specific problem. They work alongside carefully chosen client associates, coaching them to develop goals, action items, and soft skills. At the end of each week, practitioners meet with leaders to discuss current progress of process improvements; on return visits, they evaluate subsequent achievements and set new goals.

Focused on the Future – Setting Up for Continuous Improvement

As clients achieve their goals in the RIA timeframe, they engage with proven methodologies of the PSbyM’s system-based approach (see Milliken Performance System), especially those specific to the RIA engagement and safety. Other methodologies may then be addressed as clients contract for new RIA work that requires understanding and application of different methodologies, or they pursue a full system-based approach involving all methodologies.

Work on methodologies during an RIA incrementally moves a client toward their full potential, giving the company the improvement it needs now while setting the stage for even bigger benefits later. “Our quality management methodology is an intense focus on defect elimination,” explains McIntyre. “Striving to  achieve elimination — to totally eliminate defects — requires a complex series of steps that isn’t possible in the short term, and probably isn’t what the company needs today. In an RIA, we still work on quality management, but with a goal of reducing defects. So, we modify the product quality methodology to suit the client, but we still embed the knowledge and practices that eventually lead to defect elimination.” 

 even higher returns on investment as part of continuous improvement. McIntyre says clients typically extend engagements in three ways:

• To drive similar RIA results with PSbyM practitioners in another division or facility;
• To transfer RIA knowledge to the client so they can pursue analogous improvement on their own; and/or
• To expand the RIA engagement to a traditional, PSbyM system-based approach. 

“When we go into an organization with an RIA, the results always push clients to want even more rapid improvement,” says McIntyre, “In a systems-based engagement, we’re trainers, coaches, and mentors. In an RIA, we’re the muscle that gets it done. And then, when the immediate risk has been removed or the opportunity is achieved, clients can begin to plan a strategic, system-based continuous improvement approach.”

The Exceptional Results of a Rapid Improvement Engagement

Although short on time, RIAs are big on results. Most RIA engagements deliver a 30 percent increase in productivity, a 50 percent improvement in safety engagement, and an ROI of 3-5 times their investment. Why? In part because RIA practitioners create a daily management system [links to: https://www.milliken.com/en-us/businesses/performance-solutions-by-milliken/blogs/daily-management-system] , with each day’s goals and progress represented visually for the entire plant. “Everyone can review the visuals and respond when there are issues,” says Smith. “They respond with focused improvement projects and a simple problem-solving methodology to fix to root cause. Productivity begins to go up because we’re making things visible and solving problems.”

The focused improvement projects address and improve a range of performances: 

• Operations speed and timeliness (e.g., higher inventory turns, shorter lead times)
• Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) improvements through downtime reduction, increased equipment speed, and reductions in off-quality output
• Capex optimization (e.g., shorter changeovers, higher machine uptime)
• Financial performances (e.g., faster cash cycles, cost savings, return on investments)
• Supply-chain performances (e.g., improved inbound delivery times, improved supplier quality)
• Continuous improvement capabilities (engaged management behaviors and employee engagement, development, and empowerment)

It’s common for clients to ask PSbyM to increase plant utilization, which helps to achieve customer-demand objectives. Practitioners not only achieve these utilization objectives, notes McIntyre, but typically also are improving efficiency at the same time, further increasing output. If, say, the objective is to expand from 80 percent utilization to 100 percent, with 80 percent line efficiency, PSbyM practitioners will likely achieve 100 percent utilization with 85-90 percent line efficiency. 

A multibillion-dollar consumer foods manufacturer with operations in more than a dozen countries offers a good example. The firm engaged PSbyM at four of its U.S. plants to initiate aggressive improvement projects worth $3 million in savings. The target was achieved through:

• 28 percent reduction in overpack waste
• 19 percent reduction in changeover times
• 31 percent reduction in minor machine stops (increase in OEE)
• 17 percent improvement in off-quality

“We’re seeing significant results across the board,” says McIntyre. “That’s because our practitioners come in with the ability to quickly see what’s needed. Clients love the condensed engagement. But one of our differentiators is that even though we achieve rapid improvement, we still maintain a safe and environmentally friendly work environment. Those things aren’t sacrificed in an RIA  — in fact, they’re critical to sustaining improvement.” 

The RIA emphasis on safety is a key success factor. “We create a safety structure where people can be heard and people can be involved,” says Smith. “It’s very powerful.” The structure includes a Rapid Risk Reduction template, with which practitioners engage managers and frontline associates to identify and resolve safety issues — with tools that also apply to improving productivity, quality, etc. “They learn problem-solving through safety, which builds trust, and then they use it for other areas as well.”

Let PSbyM Elevate Your Process Improvement, Quickly

Since inception as the performance-improvement division of Milliken & Company, PSbyM hasn’t looked or acted like a conventional consulting firm. Instead of “consultants,” it relies on “practitioners” — executives with decades of experience in leading Milliken’s world-class facilities around the world. Milliken has earned numerous industry recognitions, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Quality Award, British Quality Award, Canadian Quality Award, Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance TPM Excellence Award, America’s Safest Company, Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, and World’s Most Ethical Companies. 

This emphasis on world-class performance is conveyed through an introductory program that acquaints clients with what’s possible with PSbyM — before the client commits to an engagement. Clients visit Milliken facilities to see the Milliken Performance System and its methodologies in action, and then learn about both the system-based and RIA improvement options. This thorough, disciplined collaboration at the pre-contract stage naturally extends into the engagement itself.

After the engagement begins, practitioners challenge executives with realistic stretch goals that exceed client expectations. Next, they work closely with client teams, either alongside them in RIA engagements, or as mentors and coaches for system-based engagements. Both approaches embed improvement concepts that foster high-performance teams.

With both RIA and system-based continuous improvement engagements, the rapid improvement consulting team at Performance Solutions by Milliken helps companies to develop lean, agile organizations and supply chains that withstand disruptions, deliver operational excellence, and increase revenues and profits across a range of industries — consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, plastics, and rubber. Partner with PSbyM today for rapid improvements and/or longer-term gains.