operational excellence
Operational Excellence

Operational Diagnostic

A large multinational had significant production and on time delivery problems for a high tech / low volume customer critical component at a USA plant. We helped them analyse operating procedures, interviewing over 40 supply chain and production people and walking the processes on the factory floor to provide a comprehensive supply chain diagnostic (from product quotation to delivery to invoicing including ERP system configuration) and a detailed improvement plan. Once in place, on-time delivery increased by 38% and overdue backlog was reduced by over 60%.

We help you assess the performance and maturity level of your processes and operations, and put together the best plan to improve them – redefining and clarifying organisational roles, establishing solid operating principles and mechanisms, and executing focused improvement projects.

Operational Excellence Definition and Deployment Support

A European copper processing multinational had set aggressive inventory reduction targets across its 16 plants. We helped them define a vision and a plan for the initiative, organised Lean awareness sessions for executives and middle managers, trained over 200 employees in Lean and Six Sigma tools, helped them put in place a support and governance structure, and coached teams throughout 100+ Kaizen events. Inventories were reduced by 30% within the first year: over €100MM cash was freed-up and financial risk from copper price volatility reduced.

Based on the diagnostic we help you establish an Operational Excellence roadmap, from the definition and roll-out of a companywide Lean Six Sigma initiative to a simple plan of projects and Kaizen events focused on specific problems. We help you lay out the program and project fundamentals, train and coach your teams and guide your projects to ensure a maximum return from you initiative.

Focused Improvement Projects

We led a team of nurses, doctors and support personnel at a leading hospital in a project to improve the children´s surgical service supply chain. Improvements were made through a series of Kaizen events, resulting in a 30% reduction in stocks and space used (allowing for a new operating theatre), savings of 35 min./day and nurse on admin work to be spent on assisting patients, and a significant improvement in on-time surgery starts.

We support you in the execution of the specific improvement projects under different scenarios: “we lead, you support” where we take full responsibility over the project and the results; or “you lead, we support” where our role is mostly one of coaching and providing technical support to your teams. In both cases a strong business sponsorship is critical to provide business expertise, facilitate knowledge transfer to your organisation and ensure execution rhythm.

Solutions in Operational Excellence

Through a series of ‘Energy Treasure Hunt’ events we’ve helped a food packaging multinational save €900K / year in energy costs across 4 sites. ‘Raw Materials Treasure Hunts’ at the same company have yielded a €1MM/year reduction in raw materials waste. Similar events at other customers have resulted in 15% to 30% energy cost reduction, and up to 40% materials waste reduction.

We offer our customers access to our expertise via solutions we have successfully implemented in many companies and business environments. ‘Energy Treasure Hunts’ and ‘Raw Materials Treasure Hunts’ are two such packaged services. They consist of a two week data capture and analysis, followed by a 2 to 3 day Kaizen event to identify, quantify and plan the implementation of energy or material waste reduction actions across a plant or site.

innovation
Innovation

Development of Innovation Capabilities

Any company that wants to develop innovation capabilities and establish an “innovation friendly” environment must first communicate and establish the right behaviours as part of the company culture. Our “BEACONS” model helps companies motivate and adopt innovation behaviours, and create an open and challenging environment that embraces change and simplification and ensures support and traction for the development and implementation of innovative ideas.

In a world that requires faster and bolder innovation in business models, products and services, processes and channels, Kairos Management can help you identify your needs and opportunities, create an innovation oriented environment, develop the right employee behaviours, provide expertise and training in innovation and creativity tools and, in the end, ensure the creation of an innovation system where ideas are created and implemented.

Creativity Facilitation

A global leader in plastic materials was struggling with direct material costs. Materials accounted for 60-65% of total production costs, which hurt the company’s profitability and competitiveness in the marketplace. We helped them through a series of creativity events come up with the optimal formulations for several hundred products with a 30-40% cost savings.

We help you boost creativity by introducing creativity tools and techniques in your organisation, both for individuals and teams, and by facilitating creativity sessions focused on generating ideas or in finding “out of the box” approaches to solving recurring problems: organisational, or process, product or service related.

Product and Process Innovation

We supported the R&D team at a home appliances company in developing an innovative equipment, in defining the processes for the design and validation testing to ensure quality and performance of the new design, and in developing new customer service processes to support the new product once in the market.

We support you in focused innovation projects on your products and processes. Or in establishing an NPI (New Product Introduction) methodology and governance that ensures an effective business leadership of any ‘innovation’ project, be it the engineering, development and commercialisation of a new product or service, the implementation of a new process, or the development of a new IT application or system.

change
Organisational Change

Involvement of management & Coaching

A large multinational company in the energy sector wanted to deploy a group-wide Operational Performance initiative. We worked with top management in each division to:

  • Assess the division’s operational maturity and the organisation’s readiness to change.
  • Organise workshops to share and discuss Operational Performance principles, develop a common language, establish a vision for an operational performance initiative, understand improvement levers, identify critical success factors and define a roadmap.

The most critical factor in any Operational Excellence or Innovation initiative is getting proper understanding, commitment and traction from the business leadership team. We engage with your executive leaders to gain their commitment, train them on the initiative principles and methodologies, and coach them through the initial roll-out and execution to ensure adequate understanding and support.

Organisational Change Planning

We worked with the newly appointed technology director at a medium sized construction materials company to identify the root causes for poor operational performance and lack of an excellence mindset, to define the training needs at management and operator levels, to execute the trainings, and to establish the organisational structure required to support the operational excellence initiative.

Once the leadership team fully understands and supports the initiative, we help you diagnose how suitable your current organisation is for implementation, design the adequate organisational changes required for a successful roll-out, define the training and support needs at all levels and design the process for organisational implementation and initiative roll-out.

Change Acceleration

A leading pharmaceutical company wanted to ensure adequate support at all organisational levels for a new operational excellence initiative. We worked with them in a diagnostic, in defining a common message to send across the organization highlighting the issues and the future vision, and in establishing a communication strategy to engage everybody in the initiative, its progress, results achieved and next steps moving forward.

The success of your operational excellence or innovation initiative will be much more dependent on its acceptance and support within the organisation, than on how good the design and planning is. Through our Change management methodology we can help you with the critical steps of acceptance and acceleration, creating the need for change, defining and communicating the future vision and driving organizational commitment.

Governance

One of our consultants co-led the improvement initiative at a division of a large multinational, jointly with the Business Unit General Manager. In this role they put in place mechanisms to identify specific opportunities, establish KPIs and set objectives. They also managed a portfolio of actions, carrying out project reviews, ensuring adequate application of the methodology and monitoring progress and results.

Our team can help you drive your initiative, provide the support your teams need throughout the roll-out and project execution, create a rhythm, push for results, and ensure the principles and methodology ultimately become part of the company culture and way of working.

training
Training

Training

Kairos Management is an experienced provider of professional training on operational excellence and innovation. We have trained several thousand professionals across the world in a variety of subjects that include, but are not limited to:

  • Executive awareness workshops.
  • Lean Manufacturing and Lean Services.
  • Lean Six Sigma – GB, BB and MBB levels.
  • Design for Lean Six Sigma.
  • Creativity techniques.
  • Change management and facilitation skills.
  • Project management.
  • ‘Train the Trainer’ – learning styles, teaching techniques.
  • Training material development and licensing.

The training delivery is always adapted to the needs of the audience – using examples and exercises relevant to the participants, encouraging them to bring their own projects for discussion, and modulating the coverage of the different principles and tools. We can also develop custom training programs.