Roadmap to implement Business Excellence by department

[Lavania]

Hi friends

I would like to know if anybody can give me any direction as to what road map should I follow to implement the business excellence (based on the EFQM model) model in the various departments of the company.(Design, HR, Finance, Sales & Mktg.)

Will help me be a bit pro-active in my work.

I would also like to know if it can be implemented along with the ISO requirements as it forms the compliance level for business excellence and acts as the base.

Regards
Lavania

 

[RoxaneB]

Welcome, Lavania and congrats on making your first post!

The EFQM site appears to have some hints to approaches to take, especially the self-assessment component. If you have the criteria, I'd suggest a gap analysis in each of your areas/processes to determine strengths and gaps, and then develop an action plan to address the gaps (and share the strengths with other areas/processes).

I'm sure it can be rolled with an ISO program, as neither tell you HOW to accomplish the requirements....just WHAT the requirements are.

 

[Lavania]

Thanks for the quick response Roxane.

Yes I knew self assessment is the first step but do we have any effective methods to identify opportunities for improvement. Is it wise to break up sub-criteria wise and analyse or is there a better method?

Moreover, the action plan would be humungous and would not be helpful to encourage people to contribute.
Is there a step by step approach???

 

[RoxaneB]

Yes I knew self assessment is the first step but do we have any effective methods to identify opportunities for improvement. Is it wise to break up sub-criteria wise and analyse or is there a better method?

The results of the self assessment will identify your opportunities for improvement. The real question is, in my opinion, how to conduct the self assessment? Options include:

• Assessing the entire organization | (PRO) + Potentially the fastest approach in this list. (CON) - May generate results that are too generic in nature and unable to be applied at process/department levels
• Assessing one set of the criteria per department/process | (PRO) + Allows you to see the overall maturity (including strengths and opportunities) of your organization's application of one set of criteria. (CON) - Results are silo'd into the criteria results instead of how the departments/processes/organization apply the overall framework.
• Assessing one department/process to all criteria | (PRO) + Allows you to ascertain the overall maturity (including strengths and opportunities) of one area, including the development of a focused action plan. (CON) - You may start the action plan in one area only to discover later in another area an activity that is performing at a higher level and now you're faced with the decision of whether or not to change the action plan.

Moreover, the action plan would be humungous and would not be helpful to encourage people to contribute.
Is there a step by step approach???

If the action plan is too large to be manageable, then it's necessary to prioritize. This can be accomplished by the leadership team or a committee with equitable representation from across the organization and involves analyzing each gap in aspects such as:

• Frequency - How often does this gap/activity occur?
• Impact - How wide-spread are the consequences of this gap/activity?
• Risk/Severity - How adverse are the consquences of this gap/activity?

 

[John Broomfield]

Hi friends

I would like to know if anybody can give me any direction as to what road map should I follow to implement the business excellence (based on the EFQM model) model in the various departments of the company.(Design, HR, Finance, Sales & Mktg.)

Will help me be a bit pro-active in my work.

I would also like to know if it can be implemented along with the ISO requirements as it forms the compliance level for business excellence and acts as the base.

Regards
Lavania

Lavania,

I recommend that you first engage everyone in developing their process-based organizational management system before using and improving that system to deliver business excellence.

Reinforcing a department-based management system may undermine the cross-functional cooperation that is essential for effective processes.

Organizational effectiveness and then excellence is delivered by departmental collaboration on the processes (core and then support) not by individually excellent departments.

This has to be led by top management working as a team to develop, use and improve their mission management system via process owners not by individual heads of department.

John

 

[Reg Morrison]

I would like to know if anybody can give me any direction as to what road map should I follow to implement the business excellence (based on the EFQM model) model in the various departments of the company.(Design, HR, Finance, Sales & Mktg.)

As John said, this should not be done at a departmental level, because it might lead to sub optimization of resources. Business excellence can only be achieved at the enterprise level. As in a chain, the weakest link will determine how weak/strong the unit is.

As for some ISO Guidance on business excellence, click here.

Good luck.

 

[Lavania]

Thanks Roxane, John and Reg

We have created a team with cross-functional members already. We meet every week and have the full support of the senior management team.

I just wanted to know how to kick-start the journey as I do not find the progress to be very impressive.

"process-based organizational management system" if I'm not wrong, does this involve identification of key processes in the respective function and monitoring them? Or is it something totally different.
Guess I need some hand-holding here.

Regards
Lavania

 

[John Broomfield]

Thanks Roxane, John and Reg

We have created a team with cross-functional members already. We meet every week and have the full support of the senior management team.

I just wanted to know how to kick-start the journey as I do not find the progress to be very impressive.

"process-based organizational management system" if I'm not wrong, does this involve identification of key processes in the respective function and monitoring them? Or is it something totally different.
Guess I need some hand-holding here.

Regards
Lavania

Lavania,

Focus first on developing your organizational management system so it fulfills the requirements of ISO 9001.

It should be process-based and the processes are cross-functional. For this you need to search here for "developing * process-based management system". You may not find it if you seek "implementing ISO 9001".

For example: https://needs2cash.wordpress.com/tag/process-based-management-system/

Then use and improve that process-based organizational management system (quality is in everything the organization does) to deliver business excellence as graded by the EFQM criteria.

John

 

[Lavania]

Hey John

We have already progressed towards ISO 9001:2008

My query is how should I make use of it in business excellence?

Lavania

 

[John Broomfield]

Hey John

We have already progressed towards ISO 9001:2008

My query is how should I make use of it in business excellence?

Lavania

Lavania,

Use your process-based management system to set and fulfill objectives and other requirements for your organization (the system and its processes) that are recognized by customers and others in your industry as excellent. From this you may be improving products and services to fulfill these newly understood customer requirements.

Your financial performance should also be in the upper decile (top 10%) for your sector of your industry. Continue to recognize that excellent financial performance comes from excellent process performance and not before.

Avoid chasing the EFQM criteria just as you avoided writing your management system docs around the clauses of ISO 9001.

Strengthen the authority of process owners so department heads recognize their role is to serve processes that serve customers. Look closely at changing budget allocation to processes from departments in doing this.

And your top management should already be working with process owners to increase the rate at which their processes add value (aka lean).

Lastly, identify which of your suppliers you need to help deliver more value to your customers for the same or less; help them also to eliminate causes of waste so they benefit from the journey with you.

Take a snap shot using the EFQM criteria before each management review of system performance so they can choose what to invest in next.

John