If you want to see big-time performance improvement, stop looking for big ideas. They’re rare, unpredictable, and often costly. The companies that consistently outperform their competitors rely on something simpler and more dependable: the accumulation of hundreds of small improvements made over time by the people who do the work.

Take the case of Omark Industries, a manufacturer of industrial tools. At one of their plants in Minnesota, employees were given a routine process to look at the way their work flowed and begin improving it—step by step, problem by problem.

What followed wasn’t a sweeping transformation plan. It was a steady stream of small improvements suggested and implemented by the people doing the work.

The results were extraordinary.

Inventory of large drill bits was reduced by 92%. Productivity increased by 30%. Scrap and rework dropped 20%. And the time required to produce an order from start to finish was reduced from three weeks to just three days.

None of those gains came from a single brilliant idea. They came from employees improving their work processes a little bit at a time.

That’s the heart of systematic continuous improvement (SCI). When people are given a routine method to look at their work, solve problems, and make things better, the gains compound. Small improvements grow into big results.

The real question isn’t whether people have good ideas. It’s whether the organization has a process that allows those ideas to surface and accumulate.

If you want to give your team the tools to deliver results like that … let’s talk!

Begin your improvement journey today!

Getting better at getting better.