Many companies spend considerable amounts of money on customer surveys every year. Customer survey results are being used to amend strategies, design new products and services, focus improvement activities and … to celebrate success. Since the impact of customer service results can be quite hefty the data driving important decisions shall be trust-worthy. And, the […]

Your staff members complain about having too much work, the proportion of people on short-term sick-leave is consistently above average and the turnover rate is disturbingly high. However, comparing takt time and processing time does not show to any obvious issue. So, what is the problem?

Strategic workforce planning is the process of matching workforce demand and supply over a foreseeable time period. Organisations conduct workforce planning that builds upon quantitative activities such as headcount planning and workforce analytics, and use these data as part of qualitative decisions to support and implement organisational strategies.

Building a dashboard is a project itself. The ongoing review and adjustment is as important as changing strategy or processes. Reading business indicators is a management task. Using dashboards combined with effective process management and improvement interventions ensures the organisation’s continuous renewal.

Competency Profiling Spending some days in Nanjing, the former capital of China, is enjoyable. People are nice, work is fun, food is outstanding and my hotel is awesome. Nowadays, the service in most hotels in China is world class. Monday morning I make my way to the restaurant, expecting my usual sumptuous breakfast. I am […]

Running improvement projects in a wide variety of service organisations over the last couple of years, I had to relearn what I thought I had a good grasp of already. I had to restudy the basic drivers of productivity and process efficiency. Yes, productivity can certainly be driven by process changes. Yes, IT can help […]

Waiting for the next “great innovative product idea” may never get you one step closer to a  higher level of customer satisfaction, more revenue and consistent business growth. Instilling an innovative mind-set facilitated by some simple creativity tools that are supported by empowerment does. Innovate – every day.

You will know when Six Sigma is finally part of your organisation’s bloodstream because it will no longer be necessary to talk about it. Six Sigma will be part of the culture. When done well, Six Sigma has the ability to create a truly customer focused workforce – and organisation. One that is profitable.

Lean application outside of the manufacturing sector is frequently met with scepticism. Oft cited reasons are that service providers do not ‘manufacture’ anything and that there is no ‘production line’ to speak of physically. All that is seen are desks, chairs, phones and computers.

“Voice of the Customer” – VOC in short – is a key topic in all kind of customer service, TQM or Lean Six Sigma training and related project work. There are two main categories for VOC data, reactive and proactive. Proactive data is collected with methods like focus groups, interviews, observations, surveys or test customers, […]