By Saleh Karsou, Hani Reshaidan, and Donnell Cathey

Quality management professionals and operational excellence (OE) assessors (or consultants) tend to take on newly developed OE models and apply them to their fullest capabilities. The cycle time can last the average lifetime of any presented models before we realize the need to either alter or simplify the model for the requirements of a specific organization.

For example, the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model has been effectively used by many organizations around the world. However, it is likely that an OE professional might like to revisit the model and devise a condensed version intended to serve small to mid-size organizations. The goal is to simply the model for a timely and effective use with great regard for critical-to-value (CTV) results.

Let us consider this following scenario: As an OE consultant, you are given a week to assess an oil refinery of 300 employees. This includes preparation work such as setting up the interview schedule, identifying key employees to meet, and assessing the organization’s various processes and overall organization performance. In this case, the assessment team consists of only two or three assessors; it is not a full-fledged team from the safety, reliability, business sustainability, and auditing disciplines. Under such conditions, certain seasoned assessors might feel compelled to reduce the workload and devise their own operating model, hopefully without undermining the final reported results. The CTV model has therefore been developed to serve as a simplified approach to scanning business needs and providing an assessment report in a short period of time.

The CTV model entails key business components such assessment of organization strategy, vision and mission, financial standing, auditing and governance, core functions, and systemic-relevant OE results. Despite the inherent short cycle time in assessing department, the OE consultant still needs to gage the department ability to engage in continuous improvement activities.  This CTV model includes OE commitment as well as auditing/compliance factors.

Through training and experience, the OE consultant will lean toward assessing the OE side of the business, however, to provide a comprehensive assessment the auditing function should also be considered. The audit function will provide guidelines for organizations to adhere to the highest standards of corporate governance including the organization system of internal controls by assuring that related policies and procedures exist and are identified, communicated, understood, and adhered to.

The auditing function can be the backbone for successful OE operating models. It will greatly assist and guide organizations in recognizing and connecting key processes such as organization strategy, financial indices, and the comprehension and deployment of company policies. It will also allow for the sharing of feedback with concerned parties to review and adjust the organization’s policies, internal procedures, and standards.

With this brief and effective approach, the journey of excellence can be captured as illustrated in diagram above, keeping in mind that the last phase of the Deming Cycle (“Check and Adjust”) is designed to collect key data and feed continuous improvement efforts.

About the author

Saleh Karsou and Hani Reshaidan are operation excellence consultants for Saudi Aramco. Donnell Cathey is a former operation excellence consultants for Saudi Aramco.