Do others incorporate process improvement initiatives into their project portfolio?
Tara BachmanDeputy Administrator| Public Service Commission of WisconsinMadison, Wi, United States
I'm curious if organizations that have a strong continuous improvement culture are rolling PI "projects" (or initiatives) into their overall project portfolio. As a project management purist, I believe that process improvement is about continuous improvement, meaning ongoing. Whereas, projects are temporary endeavors with defined start and end dates. How are folks bridging this gap from a portfolio and/or program perspective? Saving Changes...
Continuous improvement is not a project but rather a mindset translating into daily action.
However, process improvement initiatives such as large Kaizens could certainly meet the definition of a project and be managed as such.
In one of my recent clients, they had an OpEx team who would run LSS engagements following the usual DMAIC lifecycle - there was no project manager, but the BB or GB would play that role. Those projects usually fed into a "real" project to implement the significant improvement suggestions (i.e. not quick wins).
Kiron Saving Changes...
Joshua RenderProduct Owner| CognizantHarrisville, Ny, United States
At places, I have worked in the past and currently, continuous improvement efforts would identify the problem and perhaps identify a solution or work to help identify a solution.
This is from a manufacturing perspective (most of my LSS experience is in manufacturing):
Kaizen events were fairly common. Short in duration and the aim was to identify and correct a problem that could impact quality. These typically involved the employees who do the normal ongoing day to day work but were led by a BB/GB, and for a couple of days they pick an area and improve it. 5S/6S work and process and flow improvement were most common.
These events sometimes led to what you could call a project. They may identify an area that could benefit from a major machine alteration or a new machine/tool to help. Then the project could form around that.--In my current office-oriented role, this means I am probably building an RPA or some other fix to the flow of information. A project in other words.
Larger scale urgent quality issues weren't typically handled by our LSS team and not typically called projects. The issues to quality were identified and brought to the people who could help solve the problem. If it was a press error, such as making bad parts, they would get someone who was involved in the processing of the machinery - who would either solve it or escalate it to maintenance. In that way, it worked more like a tech call center. You call up a problem, the person either solves it or escalates the problem up the chain until someone can solve it.
In some cases, those fixes required some work. They weren't always planned or scheduled. They were sometimes of a more urgent nature. It sometimes caused machines to be shut down for hours/days to make it right. But no one sat down and planned or laid out what needed to be done. It was broke, it needed to be fixed - that was most of the pre-planning involved. Saving Changes...
Must of the time, process improvement initiatives and LSS could certainly meet the definition of a project and be managed as such. But the i would say that the most correct approach is when is used or implement as a continue process.
Thanks Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
We have both worlds in my actual workplace. First of all we worked on creating a culture behind improvement and innovation.For example, we have created a knowledge management environment where lessons learned are really that in terms of project/program/portfolio management process. On the other side, we have an special group dedicated to process improvement and innovation and sometimes, if applies, we started an initiative to implement something. Saving Changes...
Agile projects have continuous improvement built in and focuses on three key areas: processes, people and products/services. The Retrospective provides perhaps the best known example a "people" continuous improvement initiative. Saving Changes...
Tara BachmanDeputy Administrator| Public Service Commission of WisconsinMadison, Wi, United States
Thank you all for your responses. I was hoping to understand if folks incorporate PI initiatives into their programs and formal portfolio management planning. Meaning, do PI folks have to come with business cases to have their "projects" added to the portfolio and go through the gating process, just as a formalized project has to?
My experience has been that PI exists inside of projects, but is not a standalone project in-and-of itself. I'm looking for insight into treating PI in the same manner as formal projects from a portfolio perspective. Anyone? Saving Changes...
If an organization has defined what represents a "project" vs. everything else, then it comes down to the materiality of the PI initiative. A small, 1 week Kaizen might not qualify, but larger initiatives involving significant people, process or technology change likely would...
