August 8, 2024

Continuous Improvement: Transforming Weakness into Strength

A memorable conversation has stuck with me over time – a skilled golfer was asking for advice from a form pro on how to improve. Keep in mind, the difference between being a great club golfer and making a living at the game is vast. The advice given was profound: focus on your weakest golfing aspect and turn it into your greatest strength. Thus began the golfer’s journey of continuous improvement.

The essence of this advice is targeting the most significant flaw in one’s golf game. What wasn’t explicitly mentioned, or at least not that I overheard, was that once you master that weakness, another aspect of the game inevitably becomes your new weakest; this begins a cycle of ongoing focus on addressing your new weakness.

A similar pattern emerges when we address root causes in warehouse operations. Often, resolving one operational challenge reveals another area needing attention. Throughout our material flows, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) play a crucial role in assessing the impact of these improvements on the entire process.

In the realm of golf:

1. Our KPI says only hit five greens per round. We set a goal of hitting ten greens per round.
2. We get some coaching, maybe even get fit for new equipment. Then, we put in the work, and we hit our goal.
3. Now our putting KPI goes downhill. Those five additional greens we’ve started hitting are now leaving us with some long putts.
4. The cycle starts again. Now we set a putting improvement goal. We get some coaching and maybe add equipment. Then we do the work until we hit our goal. 
5. Each time we go through the cycle, a new part of our golf game becomes a new weakness. The cycle repeats.

Notice how we are getting incrementally better all along as we follow the process.

In warehouse operations:

1. We decided to increase our lines picked per hour by 20%.
2. We bring in a consultant and might add equipment. We put in the work with the team, and we hit our goal.
3. Now our replenishments are not keeping up with picking.
4. The cycle starts again. We set a goal to improve our weakness which is replenishment performance. We may get some outside consulting help, consider equipment changes, and maybe get new equipment. We put in the work and hit our goal.
5. A new gap appears in our material flow – a new weakness. The cycle repeats and we are getting better as we progress.

A Perfect World

The material flow in your building is an interconnected chain. Any variation in one step likely will react to another step. In a perfect world, we will have a completely engineered building and understand the optimal velocity of each operation required to meet our customer service commitments. Each of those areas will be staffed and engineered to execute those targets. We will have published KPI boards letting the team know how we’re doing, and we can make quick adjustments during the day.

Next Best World

Most of us don’t live in that perfect world scenario above. Instead, we must focus our continuous improvement efforts on target projects that drive solutions in the right direction. Depending on the challenges of our warehouse, we will likely have more than one project in flight. What is the best way to proceed?

• Try to limit how many projects are being worked on at once
• Keep your focus on the most customer-critical KPIs
• Service metrics – on-time shipping, fill rate
• Quality metrics – correct quality, correct quantity, correct address, correct documentation

If you set a continuous improvement project based on a pull concept, you can drive improvements back through the process. For example, let’s look at improving picking in your high-velocity area(s). A successful increase in picking speed will force improvements in:

• Slotting – Do you have the correct SKUs and enough stock in the locations to avoid emergency replenishments?
• Replenishment – This might be addressed by slotting. You need to make sure there is staff to keep the locations full.
• Outbound functions – Does the velocity increase drive adjustments in staffing at outbound operations?

Fight the desire to enter a game of whack-a-mole and resist attacking each new process gap all at once. You may need a band-aid solution here and there, but don’t spread your project team too thin by working on multiple improvement efforts all at once. Stick to a plan:

• Analyze the process failure that is the biggest weakness in your operation
• Identify and improve the weakest link within that function
• Focus efforts on enhancing the process
• Repeat the cycle by identifying the next significant weakness

Pressure to fix everything at once often leads to fixing nothing effectively. A focused strategy targeting operational weaknesses yields better results. Improving your operation is not a one-and-done; it’s a change in operational strategy.

This is a great opportunity for leadership to make a cultural shift from a reactionary operation to a continuous improvement culture that works to improve every day and uses KPIs to keep score.