Its simple: less effort equates to more customers. When a service is effortless (intuitive & stress free) your customers are more likely to "stick" with you and recommend you to others ...
Doing more with less is an essential and integral part of being competitive. Rarely do companies have unlimited resource at their disposal. Efficient companies allocate their resources to those activities that add the more value and minimise (or eliminate) those activities that do not (waste).
Sustained improvement is near impossible when services are unstable, unpredicatble and error prone. Ineffective processes "burn up" time and resource "fire" fighting issues like complaints, returns, refunds and allowances.
Over the last 20+ years we have helped manufacturing and service organisations of all shapes and sizes become significantly more operationally efficient, effective and effortless. This coupled with competitive consulting rates and professional certifications in Designing Thinking, Project Management, Lean and Six Sigma.
Below is a sample of some of the improvements and benefits we have worked on, both as consulants and as working full-time. There are many examples to share but this is a few of our favourites ....
Our 20+ years of experience helping organisations of all "shapes and sizes" has taught us that each organisations challenge is different. With that said - we have also seen how time-served best practices like Lean and Six Sigma can help to bring consistency in the approach to problem solving and decision making.
Unlike others - IC2 does not "prescribe" one method over another - instead we embrace them all applying our knowledge and experiences to curate "recipes" for success using "ingrediants" from Lean, Six Sigma and Design Thinking.
Design Thinking is about walking a mile in your customers' shoes. DT is about truly understanding your customers, who they are, what they (really) want including their "hidden" desires and aspirations.
Design Thinking is (in part) about designing simple and intuitive products and services that deliver exceptional and effortless experiences. The reward (for you) will be more customers, more recommendations and referrals i.e. more growth.
It is difficult to have a conversation about Lean without talking about Toyota, who as a company have dominated the automotive industry.
Lean (or Toyotas' Thinking System) is about the continual pursuit of excellence. Excellence in the form of adding value to the customer.
There are many "principals" of Lean, but at the heart of this approach is maximising those efforts that add-value and minimise those that do not (waste).
Lean is about doing much more, with much much much less.
Take a deep breath ....
Six Sigma focuses on eliminating variation from processes. Processes that perform poorly, are instable, unprediactble, unreliable (lots of variation).
Six Sigma (or TQM as it was also known) became popular in manufacturing based on the works of Quality experts like
Dr. Demming and Dr. Juran (who BTW helped Organisations including Toyota after WWII).
Six Sigma processes perform at extremely high levels of quality (fewer than 4 defects per million).
Facilitating workshops and generating lots of "break-though" ideas is only part of the value life-cycle. Ultimately, it comes down to getting things done.
At IC2, we believe in getting things across the finish line and we do that applying our Project Management knowledge including Waterfall, Scrum, Agile, Kanban and Dev Ops.
"Most providers promise but few deliver. The services that Harvey and his team provide links process know how with technology to deliver real business solutions. So what sets Harvey apart from his competitors ? The answer is he delivers integrated solutions, not just systems and he stays with the project through prototyping and implementation. I would recommend Harvey and his team as true partners in your organisations journey towards excellence".
"I wanted to tell you what a pleasure it is to work with you and your company. I have recieved numerous compliments from employees and managers, throughout concerning our web page. Our plant has worked very hard to build a world-class facility, install state-of-the-art equipment, and employ the very best workforce. The IT infrastucture, web page and support programs you have developed perfectly align our vision".
"I have been very impressed with the way you have personally integrated into our plant. My quality team has high regards for your professionalism and considers you a part of the team. With minimum direction, you have turned our thoughts and ideas into reality. Your drive and focus kept us on track to complete this important project. Its gives me great pride when I look at our web page. As far as I am concerned it is a benchmark for our other facilities".