Why do organisations apply for a quality award?

With the Quality Awards ceremony just a few weeks away some people have been wanting to better understand what the Quality Awards process is about and why an organisation might enter. Gaining recognition at the Northern Ireland Quality Awards is one of the clearest ways to both demonstrate the current Excellence of an organisation and build for future success.  From the broad range of past winners, as well as  improving their business performance, many have gone on to achieve further awards at UK and European levels, making Northern Ireland one of the most successful regions of Europe. Our ambition is to see more businesses and organisations from across Ireland use this approach to help secure their future success.

Recognise Your Achievements

Munster Simms Engineering and Diageo Baileys receiving their awards from Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster MLA

The Northern Ireland Quality Awards process was established in 1994. Based on the internationally recognised EFQM Excellence Model, the process provides one of the most robust means of assessing how well an organisation is performing. The criteria, whilst comprehensive, are appropriate to all types and sizes of organisation, irrespective of sector. Of the 200 plus organisations that have been involved in the process, the applicants include micro-businesses, Government Agencies, Large Public sector Departments, Councils, Schools and Colleges, Hotels, multi-national private companies and those from the Voluntary sector.

Why Do Organisations Get Involved?

EFQM Excellence Model

The reasons for engagement are varied. Some organisations want to provide a structured means of prioritising and managing Improvement or are looking for a valid vehicle to measure progress over time. Others again view the external validation as a useful source of feedback for Improvement. All Applicants are allocated a team of trained assessors who, after reviewing a submission document which addresses the criteria of the Excellence Model, conduct a site visit. The purpose of the visit is to verify that the organisation has structured approaches in place to managing all aspects of activity ( Planning, People, Partnerships, Financial, Environmental, IT, Processes). Furthermore, there is evaluation of how the organisation measures performance across a range of indicators (Customer, People, Societal, Financial). The team bring together their analysis into an in-depth feedback report drawing out all the key strengths and areas for improvement.

In essence, the Judging Panel are determining how well the “business is run”.

Benefits

Slemish College and St Patrick's College, Maghera receiving their awards from Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster MLA

There is now plentiful research to demonstrate the link between a structured approach to managing Improvement and improved organisational performance. In the short-term, the benefits may relate to improving approaches and activities but over time, because the Model asks that an organisation focuses not on measuring per se, but on what is important to measure, there is a clear link between improved results and “how things are done”. Indeed, many organisations apply on a repeated basis as, over time, they generate the trend information to help demonstrate progress.

To learn more about the Process and the benefits achieved by the many organisations who have been involved, please contact George Wilson at 028 9073 7950 or george.wilson@cforc.org

The Northern Ireland Quality Awards are sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, The Department of Finance and Personnel, Invest Northern Ireland, NIE, and Translink.

Centre for Competitiveness Members visit to Caterpillar assembly facility

On Wednesday the 20th of April Centre for Competitiveness members from a range oforganisations visited Caterpillar Electric Power Division’s final assembly facility in Larne. The event was designed to give members an insight in to the recently installed, state of the art, continuous flow assembly line.

The CAT team shared their experiences with members in an open, informative and welcoming manner. They presented on how an Extended Value Stream approach was used to significantly drive waste out of the entire value chain resulting in:

• A fully developed Logistics Planning Process with the sequenced delivery of parts
• A continuous flow process with parts no more than 2m from point of use.
• Safety and ergonomic issues addressed through an automotive style assembly process.
• Sustainable, differentiated product availability.
• Reduced lead times and reduced dealer inventory.

Those in attendance were impressed with the attention to detail of the CAT team and their rigorous application of lean principles to achieve the end result.

“A blend of theory with practical commonsense that works!”

At the end of the visit members also had the opportunity to visit the Simulated Work Environment (SWE) workshop. This is a unique, specialist facility created to help train employees in Lean principles in order to improve production processes.

This was the first in a series of members network events that will incorporate site visits.  Also planned:

HP – Innovation – 19^th May

Diageo Baileys Global Supply – 2^nd June

Bombardier – New Wing Manufacturing Facility – tbc

Almac – What makes a ‘great place to work’ – tbc

NI Housing Executive – Lean in the public sector – tbc

Would you like to gain an insight into a potentially award winning organisation? Become a Northern Ireland Quality Awards Assessor

Each year, the Northern Ireland Quality Awards Process needs to create teams of high calibre assessors capable of evaluating applicants for the Northern Ireland Quality Award, Mark of Excellence and STEPS and the call is now going out to those who wish to be involved as assessors this year.

Contributing as an assessor represents a significant development opportunity, both from an individual and organisational perspective. Assessing provides an opportunity to witness first hand ideas and management interventions that demonstrate best practice thereby adding to your comprehension of Continuous Improvement in real life functioning organisations. It also provides hands on real time learning as you can avail of a unique and privileged insight into the inner working of the applicant’s organisation.

By becoming a Quality Award Assessor you join a community of like minded individuals across Europe, committed to the pursuit of excellence and will be involved in a training programme – valued on the open market at almost £1000 – for a fraction of that price .

In the video below, hear from other EFQM Assessors across Europe about their experiences and how they have benefitted.

For more information or to become involved to the 2011 process please follow the link below.

http://www.cforc.org/Services/QualityExcellence/assessors2011.asp

CUT WASTE FIRST!

Managing the Public Sector in today’s Economic Climate is an immensely difficult task. The recently announced budget cuts of £128M coming on top of required £370M efficiency savings the NI Departments have already been asked to make, and with the prospect of yet more cuts to follow in the Autumn, well, we could all be forgiven for thinking there is no alternative to cutting jobs and front line services.

When looking at the new Government’s wide range of proposed savings and cuts, one thing stands out – it is clearly targeted at being economically prudent, being careful, reducing unnecessary expenditure, what many people would call “waste”. Yet if you mention or infer that public sector organisations have waste, the natural reaction is one of protest and often denial.

Is our Public Sector really saying to us, “we have no waste”, we have had our efficiency drives and we have no waste left. We know from our work with many organisations and companies from the private, public and voluntary sectors, that ALL organisations have waste. The best or excellent ones are those that recognise it and work aggressively over time to reduce it, becoming leaner and fitter in the process.

It’s a mindset thing – there has to be a humble recognition that waste exists and to set about it in a structured way. There has been a lot of change in the public sector, many improvement projects, many benefit realisation programmes, some successful and others less so. Yet what is missing is the opportunity of Cutting Waste First by finding better ways for the widespread involvement of people – Kaizen[1] the Japanese strategy of Continuous Improvement.

This is not to criticise the good work that has been, and is going on. Rather it is to build upon it. It’s unfair and unreasonable to expect staff to do this without being trained in the skills that are required. For a small investment in new skills such as Team-based Root Cause Problem Solving and Team-based Process Improvement, large numbers of public sector employees can be actively involved in Cutting Waste First; A process of doing it with people, rather than doing it to people.

There are only two ways of improving a company, cut costs and increase sales. In the context of the public sector, this translates as: –

1. Cut Waste First. Here everyone thinks of reducing expenditure, cutting costs, but there is more to this. The productivity triad identifies three elements of waste:

1. 1. Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) – increasing quality reduces the cost of poor quality. Every time a mistake is made, or someone gets it wrong, it costs time and money to repair and rectify. Cutting costs by blanket budget reductions, per centage points or targets usually reduces quality thus increasing the cost of poor quality and always results in unhappy customers and service users. By actually focusing on quality, organisations save money.
   2. Time – it takes time to do everything. Time is a valuable and expensive resource. By reducing the time it takes to do things, it frees up resources, people/equipment, to do more work. This better utilisation of assets improves productivity and efficiency and organisations save money.
   3. Money – the main focus in budget cuts, reduce spending. Whilst the focus is correct, it’s a much wider issue than just cutting costs. The level of budget cuts the NI public sector are being asked to make is almost unprecedented in modern times. Non-value adding expenditure should be the target, identifying where the waste is and cut it first. LEAN principles describe value as being defined by the customer (service user/stakeholder) and anything that is not of value is waste.

1. WOW! The Customer/Service User – using a term from the private sector might at first seem inappropriate, after all, the public sector deliver services to the citizen, in some cases whether he/she likes it or not. However, it is true that unhappy customers and service users cost money to manage, whereas happy and involved customers and service users actually save money – because services are delivered in faster, better and cheaper ways. The challenge for the public sector is to be creative and innovative in how it works with, and delivers to, its customers and service users, the citizens who pay the taxes and ultimately whom the public sector is accountable to.

Having said all of this, some would ask is it easy and why is it not happening. It’s not easy but it can be done. Experience from the private sector that use this Kaizen approach make savings of 5-12% per year for as many as 5 – 7 years. So it works, this is a fact. And it is happening in the public sector, but in the pockets here and there, it needs to be more widely deployed. Here are the key steps in getting large number of employees involved in day-to-day Cut Waste First projects:

1. Every business unit should train 10% of its people in team-based root cause problem solving and process improvement. (Many US organisations train every single employee in these skills on joining).
2. Set up teams to tackle issues of problems and areas of inefficiency. Teams should work part time for no more than 4 weeks (6 weeks max), make the improvement and be disbanded. In a 100 person business unit with 10 trained people you can run 5 teams a month right from the day they’re trained. As they get better at it, the number of teams and their impact will increase.
3. Take risks, capture the gains, recognise good work, celebrate success, learn from failure.

Waste comes in many forms: COPQ, Time, Cost, Re-work, under utilisation of assets, over/under staffing, lack of accountability, poor supervision, poor decision making, sickness and absence, poor procurement and supplier management to name just a few. We need a joint response by employees and customers/service users because we’re all in this paying off the national debt together. To Cut Waste First would rally and motivate the employees and customers/service users to work together to create new and innovative solutions.

This has to be a better approach then the current way – impending demoralised staff, union confrontation and customer/service user fury.

Dr Adrian Gundy

Centre for competitiveness. 27^th May 2010.

Team Based Problem Solving and Team Based Process Improvement 1-day training workshops: –

http://www.cforc.org/flyers/100622CutWasteFirst.html

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen



Group boosts turnover by more than 130 per cent

Northern Ireland’s leading social enterprise has grown its turnover by 133 per cent in the past five years, it revealed to business leaders at a recent Breakfast Seminar.

The Bryson Charitable Group, which employs 600 people in Northern Ireland and delivers services to more than 500,000 people each year, explained at a Centre for Competitiveness (CforC) seminar how it has grown turnover from £8.4 million in 2004 to £19.6m in 2009.  The event at Bryson’s offices on Belfast’s Bedford Street heard how the group has used the Balanced Scorecard to significantly enhance its performance.

Jim Perry of CforC, says that the Balanced Scorecard has provided Bryson with a highly effective means of developing, implementing and assessing its business strategy.

“Bryson has a clear strategy to deliver high quality services to its customers in an efficient way.  They are tangible proof of the benefits of planned strategic management. It has achieved significant financial, process and delivery improvements as a result”, he says.

 “Other organisations and businesses can learn much from Bryson’s achievements in this regard and we are pleased to have been able to offer the chance for a wide range of leaders to hear directly from the group about its experiences,” Mr Perry adds.

Don’t Hurry, Be Happy!

Slow is the name of some new inspiration!

It’s the rhythm of life our ancestors have followed for centuries, and we’ve made it unusual by worshipping at the altar of speed and efficiency.

Fast and Slow do more than just describe a rate of change. They are shorthand for ways of being or philosophies of life.  Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical, stressed, superficial, impatient, active and quantity-over-quality.  Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective and quality-over-quantity.

Slow is about making real and meaningful connections – with people, culture, work, food… everything. The paradox is that Slow does not always mean slow. It is also possible to do things quickly while maintaining a Slow frame of mind.

Slow Food is an international association founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how food choices affect the rest of the world.  It is based on the concept of eco-gastronomy, recognition of the connections between your plate and the planet, and everyone’s responsibility to protect the traditions and cultures that make our enjoyment of food possible. 

Slow Food stresses the importance for agricultural and livestock production to maintain a balance of respect and exchange with the surrounding ecosystem.  Slow Food endorses the notion of food that is good, clean and fair – food that tastes good, is produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, and earns producers fair compensation for their work.  The heart of the movement is the grassroots local branch, called a ‘convivium’ for the enjoyment of food that all should share. A convivium will organise events such as tastings, dinners with a particular theme and visits to places of food and drink interest. With over 80,000 members in 850 convivia in 80 countries worldwide, the Slow Food network stretches from Kenya to Japan to the Dominican Republic.

The slow food movement, which is spreading globally, actually reconfirms the value of local communities.  Since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, criticism of the unsustainability of globalisation has been on the increase.  Economic globalisation may be inevitable, but it is exacerbating the North-South problem and poverty on a global scale.   In reconfirming the importance of our local community, the “slow” concept behind slow food has important implications.

Slow business can be characterised as a community business – one that does not simply pursue profit, but rather emphasises the self-expression and social contribution that derive from slow work.

A life defined by slowness and centred around community might be described as the slow life, which characterises, of course, a slow society. The slow life is challenging our society’s focus on economic growth, which views growth rates as a barometer of happiness.

Can Slow Business offer us the possibility of a new type of society with new values in the 21st century?  Who knows, maybe it can! 

Husniye Simsek

compete@cforc.org

PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS COULD SAVE NI FIRMS MILLIONS, SAYS COMPETITIVENESS CHIEF

Productivity improvements at a Portadown company are being used to highlight how local businesses can make significant cost savings that could help them weather the recession. The Centre for Competitiveness (CforC) is organising for representatives of dozens of businesses to visit Seagoe Technologies this morning (Friday April 3, 2009) when the company will outline how it has saved significant amounts of money through a series of initiatives to improve productivity.

 

In the last three years, Seagoe has reduced assembly line stoppages by 89 per cent. It has also cut the number of units needing reworked on the assembly line by 35 per cent and has reduced steel wastage by 60 per cent. The company has also saved more than £100,000 through energy efficiency programmes.

 

CforC Chief Executive, Bob Barbour, says that all of these improvements have led to significant bottom line benefits.  Mr Barbour says: “Seagoe Technologies has made large productivity advances in the past three years which have positioned the company strongly to continue to succeed in the face of very strong economic headwinds. Its continuing commitment to improvement initiatives will ensure that it continues to minimise costs and maximise sales.”

 

“By adopting a similar approach to continuous improvement, other local businesses can also save large amounts of money that could be the difference between success and failure as the marketplace conditions they face deteriorate,” Mr Barbour adds.

 

Seagoe Technologies General Manager Graeme Scott says:  “Seagoe views being a world class manufacturing company as a priority to ensure that we can protect and grow our position both in current and potential markets. To us this means maximising customer satisfaction, increasing flexibility and minimising costs. We’ve used the concept of Mission Directed Work Teams to ensure that we involve our employees in managing and improving our operations in a structured manner that aligns the priorities in each area with the overall company objectives. These teams have provided a strong foundation for the various lean tools we’ve used.”

In January, Seagoe Technologies was the highest placed private sector organisation in the CforC-organised Northern Ireland Quality Awards. Seagoe Technologies General Manager Graeme Scott also won a Corporate Leadership Award.

 

Celebration of Quality Organisations in Northern Ireland

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson today praised local organisations for their achievements in various Quality Award Schemes.

The ministers were attending a celebration event in Parliament Buildings which was organised by the Centre for Competitiveness and attended by representatives of the 22 organisations who have achieved recognition at various levels and featuring the four European Excellence Award Winners.

These were St Mary’s College, Creggan; Springfarm Architectural Mouldings Ltd; Cedar Foundation and Tobermore Concrete.

The event was also a celebration of the 120 plus organisations that have been recognised over the 12 years the awards scheme has been in operation.

Emphasising the need for an ethos of delivering quality, particularly within current financial constraints and in an uncertain economic climate, Mr McGuinness said: “It doesn’t matter whether we work within the public sector, the voluntary sector or the private sector – high quality services are what customers rightly expect.”

Underlining this theme Mr Donaldson added: “We want to encourage more organisations to adopt quality management principles. Models, such as the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model, are practical tools which help organisations to measure where they are now, where they want to be in the future and provide a structured method of reducing the gap.”

Notes toEditors:

1. The EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence Model was introduced here in 1994 by the Northern Ireland Quality Centre (now the Centre for Competitiveness) and its member organisations.The Excellence Model has been widely accepted as a major tool for identifying areas for improvement across key elements of an organisation.

2. The Centre for Competitiveness is an independent private sector, not for profit, membership organisation endorsed by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment. It is funded through membership fees, sponsorship and the delivery of specialised business improvement services. It is the local Partner of the European Foundation for Quality Management, Brussels.

3. Many of the local award winners have progressed through the ‘Steps to Excellence’ scheme, launched in November 2000 to recognise the improvement activities of public sector organisations through a graduated approach.

4. Funding for the highly successful “Steps to Excellence” scheme, which is sponsored by the Department of Finance and Personnel and the Ulster Bank has just been put in place for a further three years.

Ulster Bank and CforC – Growing Your Business

Ulster Bank and the Centre for Competitiveness (CforC) have teamed up to help boost business growth in Northern Ireland.  A series of specially tailored seminars for small businesses will take place across Northern Ireland as follows:

Portadown:  Seagoe Hotel, Monday 21st April

North West:  Everglades Hotel, Wednesday 21st May

Coleraine:  Royal Court Hotel, Thursday 5th June

Cookstown:  Glenavon Hotel, Wednesday 3rd September

Bangor:  Clandeboye Lodge Hotel, Wednesday 1st October

Belfast:  Hilton Hotel, Wednesday 29th October 

Businesses wanting to find out more information or to attend an event should contact Ann McConkey at Ulster Bank on 028 9027 6845 or relationshipbanking@ulsterbank.com.

New Drive to Boost Small Business Sector

A new drive to support the growth of Northern Ireland’s small business sector is being launched this month (April 2008). Ulster Bank and the Centre for Competitiveness (CforC) have joined forces to roll out a programme of specially designed seminars intended to help businesses with up to 20 employees across Northern Ireland achieve their full growth potential. 

The events, which will take place in Portadown, Londonderry, Coleraine, Cookstown, Bangor and Belfast over the next six months, will include case histories delivered by local companies that have experienced significant growth in recent years. Delegates will also hear from a CforC representative about overcoming barriers to growth and from an Ulster Bank representative about funding growth. 

The first event will take place at Portadown’s Seagoe Hotel on Monday April 21, beginning at 6pm. 

Ulster Bank’s Head of Business Banking in Northern Ireland, Henry Elvin, says: “Enabling and equipping our small business sector to become more innovative in order to achieve sustainable growth is perhaps the greatest challenge and the biggest opportunity facing the local economy. These seminars have been created to address the issues that matter to small firms and to help equip them with the best information and knowledge to become more innovative and achieve real growth.” 

CforC’s Dr Adrian Gundy says: “Firms attending the events will hear about the learning and experience gained through the delivery of an EU funded growth programme with 216 small and micro companies, some of the challenges facing Northern Ireland’s small firms sector, and advice on overcoming barriers in order achieve growth. Firms will also hear from extremely successful Northern Ireland businesses that have grown significantly through innovative management and from Ulster Bank experts on funding growth. The seminars will also provide the opportunity for firms to meet with other ambitious local companies, potentially to discuss mutually relevant issues or to make business contacts.” 

Successful businesses presenting at the seminars are: FPM Chartered Accountants (Portadown); Singularity (Derry); McAtamney’s Butchers (Coleraine); BA Kitchens (Cookstown); Munster Simms (Bangor); Springfarm Architectural Mouldings (Belfast). 

Businesses wanting to find out more information or to attend an event should contact Ann McConkey on 028 9027 6845 or email relationshipbanking@ulsterbank.com.