JULY 2022CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8CIO InsightsCXO InsightsIn My Viewre you a Plant Manager, Department Manager, or Supervisor "saddled" with responsibility for delivering Company Continuous Improvement objectives? Or are you one of these individuals that use Continuous Improvement to expand your problem-solving capabilities and get things done? Depending on how you answer these questions, you are using Continuous Improvement (CI), or it is using you. I will explain what I mean that CI is using you. If you are going through the motions of "Doing CI" to meet your corporate objectives and not seeing a true benefit, CI is using your time and energy wastefully. If this situation does not change, you are doing a disservice to yourself, your people, and your company.Continuous Improvement has several titles. A few of these are Business Excellence, TPM, and Operational Excellence. These methodologies do require skills that need to be learned. If taught correctly, there will be benefits during the training process. At first, the benefits may come a little slow. You do have to commit resources to gain capability. The trick is moving past the teaching events and the events that just add a checkmark in the done column of a goal. If you cannot accomplish this prerequisite, you will always feel like Continuous Improvement is something you do in addition to your "normal job." In today's environment, we are all too busy to be continually doing something in addition to our functional positions within a company. You cannot allow CI to continue using you. Continuous Improvement must transition to a culture where it is the methodology that makes it easier to get results; otherwise, it will be a burden on you and others for as long as the initiative remains. Would it be better to stop the initiative? Perhaps, it is best to quit if you continue down this path of CI working you; however, there is a better solution.You have to change your mindset. Each individual trained with a CI skill should be viewed as a person who can lighten the load of another individual, often yourself. These trained employees will have varying capabilities. As a leader, it is your job to match their abilities with the task or problem needing to be accomplished. I encourage you to challenge them. It provides more personal satisfaction for the individual or team once completed while benefiting the organization to a greater extent. If you choose your CI event leaders correctly, they will be the subject JAMES STEWART, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS, HUHTAMAKIUSE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OR IT USES YOUAJames Stewart
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