Businesses today are faced with tremendous change and challenges. If they are to survive and prosper in the future they will need to do things differently. The business world has changed so much over the past five years that the "old" methods are no longer effective. There is a major need in all businesses to drive down costs and to deliver more. Companies are constantly looking for tools and methods to assist them in pursuing this goal. How do you increase throughput and at the same time reduce costs? This is what you can achieve with the Results Multiplier® approach.

The single most important criterion for quantum improvement in any organization requires that each individual be focused on the real drivers or issues confronting the organization. This sounds straight forward enough but most managers or leaders simply cannot make this happen. Despite a lot of good will and personal commitment, they lack a process to energize and release the talents of others. We help managers to focus on such a process, one that becomes a part of every employee’s daily responsibilities. A simplified version of the Results Multiplier® is described in the following paragraphs:

The real issues facing an organization can be identified by answering the question — "What is the ultimate result that we want to achieve?" Once agreement is reached, we need to identify those factors inhibiting this goal, and begin a process of ongoing improvement, involving every individual, towards removing the barriers. A typical answer could be "To improve quality" or "To reduce cost per unit" or "Increase our customer base".

Top management must reach agreement on the following question: "What are the ultimate results that we want to achieve?" The answers become their strategic initiatives and are the focus for any improvement process. This focus and strategy should be communicated to everyone in the organization.

Normally the major barriers to the strategic focus are obvious - waste, downtime, poor customer service, missed deadlines, long turnaround times, low employee morale, bottlenecks and rejects. In order to begin the process of continuous improvement, specific concerns are identified from each level by means of focus groups. Criteria must be established with which to measure financial and company progress. This is normally done in the following way:

1. Facilitators are trained and to help various focus groups list and prioritize the issues systematically.
2. Facilitators ensure that they get maximum participation, contribution and buy-in from a cross section of the targeted group.
3. All the facilitators then present their priority issues to management to verify and communicate.
4. Management provides their views and issues then the necessary mandates to start resolving and removing the issues.

These concerns are departmentalized and prioritized with the focus in mind; then responsibilities and deadlines are allocated.

This is a critical phase. If people are not provided with the skills and the opportunities to resolve the concerns, the improvement process will be very short lived. This should not be seen as additional work but it is part of every employee’s daily responsibility to resolve company obstacles and problems.

There are no better techniques available than the common approach and language of recognized problem solving processes in resolving concerns … no matter what their nature or level of complexity. Internal facilitators are also trained to facilitate teams at all levels in the organization in the resolution of concerns.

All concerns are resolved according to their priority rating. Because this rating is done with the strategic focus in mind, management can rest assured that resources will be allocated to those constraints, which really affect the well being and bottom line of the company as a whole.

At the establishment of the strategic initiatives, management would have been asked to relate the existing state of the company in specific measurement components, e.g. reject rate, improved customer service, product quality, warrantee claims, downtime per week, average turn around time.

Using these measurement criteria and the issues listed in Phase 2, progress is regularly evaluated.

Creative and practical ways are established to provide understandable feedback to all levels in the company. Six monthly audits are conducted to ensure that the process remains on track.

In order to ensure that the strategic focus always remains the center of attention for the organization, the lists of strategic initiatives should be reviewed regularly. Procedures are instituted to ensure that a constant flow of improvement suggestions and concerns are obtained from the lowest organizational levels. As concerns are resolved or priorities changed, so the lists are updated to ensure that the correct focus is maintained.

This approach of ongoing improvement is free of bells and whistles, unnecessary structures and procedures. It becomes a way of life for the organization because it forms part of employee’s daily jobs. A sound basis is laid which allows the organization to effectively identify its needs and to make sound decisions as to future developmental actions.

• Reduced machine downtime by 16% in the packaging department. This was done by identifying and prioritizing problems, then removing root causes in order of priority.

• Reduced spoilage from 7,5% to 4,5%.
• Improved housekeeping and safety through the involvement of all levels and introduced new procedures.
• Improved machine performance by reducing downtime by 13%.

• Reduction in chemical raw material usage by 17%.
• Reduction of a specific reject by 50% by improving press tooling.
• Improved efficiencies of processes by reducing set up time and by improving tool utilization.
• Improved machine and operation efficiencies by between 15 — 17%.

• Reduced machine downtime significantly by removing root causes.
• Reduced rejects (21%) due to machine malfunctioning by removing the root cause.