Continuous Improvement and the Administrator
In any of various ways it has been stated, a social agency's operational objective is to provide as many services as needed with the best quality possible. While this primary executive responsibility rests solely on the shoulders of the administrator, the span of management limitations necessitates the delegation of derivative responsibilities. Continuous improvement of social service delivery is one of these derivatives. Any significant reduction of service's cycle time allows more client contact moments and fewer defects, thus ultimately resulting in the best of outcomes. On the other hand, any effort to optimize revenue can only promote continuity of service delivery.
It is common knowledge that continuous improvement exacts opportunity cost in terms of worker time. Benefits that are significant, however, accrue due to it. Accounting of the results always show the agency’s processes to be operationally enhanced, its workers engaged and clients satisfied. Workers themselves fix problems that constantly bother them in the workplace and at the same time provide high-quality service to the satisfaction of their clients.
The vital nature of continuous improvement requires that proposals are reviewed and approved by the administrator. In larger organizations, this responsibility may be assigned to a cross-functional panel of experienced workers. Attaching a continuous improvement project plan further validates the rationalization in the project proposal.
A. The continuous improvement proposal
Rationalization with Agency goals and policies
Statement of the improvement opportunity
Goal statement
Project scope
High-level as-is process map
Team members and their respective role in the workplace
Team project schedule
Archival of all project documents
B. The Project Plan
Training of team members in continuous improvement principles, tools, group decision making and presentation of results
Phases of the project, its expected start date and administrators review and approval to continue after each phase
A phase where client need is translated to a measurable requirement
A phase when sub-requirements are identified, as-is process mapped and respective data collected
A phase when root-cause-analyses are made and improvement opportunities prioritized
A phase when the best improvement opportunity is selected, designed, to-be process mapped, cost-benefit analyzed and piloted
A phase when improvement is implemented, continuously monitored and a procedure to act on situations when results deviate from expectation
Two possible actions when the improved process is “out of track” are: (a) the fix can be made in the workplace and (b) the full continuous improvement project is activated
One important aspect of any continuous improvement initiative is the training of the workers that affect the delivery of the service to the client. Interactive training methods where workers learn to measure process performance and decide the significance of one result versus another is vitally important. So are skill building on group decision making and presentation of results.
Another aspect is transparency. The workers and managers of social service agencies are naturally sensitive to external criticisms of their procedures. Rigorous adherence to established methods tends to reduce any negative impression on the project.
Mgmtlaboratory.com staff are experienced in the continuous improvement methods in private and public organizations and in the use of graphical and data analysis tools. Government entities may inquire at contact@mgmtlaboratory.com about its free online consulting service on continuous improvement.
By MgmtLaboratory.com staff. 2019