Many productivity improvement tools and techniques focus on trying to improve the output for individual workers in isolation from the rest of their colleagues. This is a major flaw as larger output gains for the entire company can be made by looking at higher levels of group organization. Here I’ll show you where considering six different ways of organizational processes and machinery can be used for greater output gains.
The starting point for these productivity improvement ideas is looking at how purchasing machinery or new plants can help in the long-term. Obviously there’s the short-term cost and initial setup but these can prove to be very beneficial in the long-term as they reach full capacity production.
In the long-term however you should also be considering how research and development can improve the basic processes within the company. Try to see if there are technologies or changes in your production methods that can be developed in-house in order to use the existing workforce and production lines more effectively.
In the medium term timescale, the leaders of an organization should be identifying how to simplify their product line and feature set. This can help reduce complexity on the production line and improve quality. The starting point is to research customer sentiment toward specific features and products and weed out the weak ones.
One of the key short-term productivity improvement tools is to identify how your day-to-day operational procedures can improve. This can include doing time in motion analysis, waste management methodologies, etc. Use stringent well-defined data to evaluate where the flaws are.
One of the less commonly seen productivity improvement ideas is identifying where your own project management and planning techniques are failing. These can result in staff members being underutilized or becoming bottle-necks. Quite often, feedback from the staff themselves can identify this.
Lastly don’t forget about considering training in technical and soft skills to improve the overall effectiveness of all employees.
