Alignment of product improvement initiatives to deliver significant return on investments and address customer requirements is essential. This ensures product improvement initiatives are value-adding activities and is generating sufficient gains for the businesses instead of becoming an overhead. Often businesses with no competitive pressure or good profitability fail to identify and justify improvement programs; leaving them with unexplored opportunities and unrealized benefits.
A few years ago, I developed an analytical model for evaluating and rapidly identifying cost reduction and performance improvement opportunities for products. With a product focus, the model takes a holistic approach to cost evaluation by considering the complete product value chain and a tangible product performance measure. The model combines applicable tools from Lean and Six Sigma, along with principles from Industrial Engineering.
The model can easily be applied to consumer and industrial goods, and expanded to service delivery. Significant cost contributors and performance inhibitors can be baselined against competitor products and industry standards, and improved using Lean, Six Sigma and VAVE approaches. The model is applicable to emerging products and can be used in isolation for proprietary products where top contributors become high priority targets for improvement.
To avoid death by data analysis and keeping the process lean, evaluation can be determined rapidly using data easily available in most businesses. This provides ample time for identifying and addressing improvement opportunities. The developed model, with a product (and service) focus, is great for providing sustained financial advantage and competitive edge to willing businesses.
Original Research Article with example from water industry
Original Research Article with example from container terminal operations
Originally published on LinkedIn on April 7, 2017
Written by
Shivendra Kumar
Shivendra Kumar is a highly regarded leader, known for delivering organizational transformation through innovation and process improvement. With a unique approach and inspirational leadership style that creates a culture of change in businesses, he develops organisational capability needed for both short and long term results. His blogs cover topics related to business improvement, metrics and innovation.