nexAir (www.nexair.com), a Memphis, Tennessee- based company with revenues over $100 million, is a dominant force in the industrial gas markets in the southeastern region of the US. Its warehouse team, under the leadership of John Climer, helped establish an improved business platform for nex- Air. This came as a direct result of the commitment on the part of the company’s top management to empower employees and establish accountability through key performance indicators (KPIs).
(See full story: “nex- Air’s Path to Operational Excellence: Strategic Goals + Culture + Empowerment = Sustained Results,” CryoGas, December 2011, pp. 38–40.) The warehouse team not only achieved their KPIs, they have continued to improve their performance over the past three years. More importantly, the team has sustained and continues to sustain high performance levels. How do they do it? In this article, we describe some of the methods they used to sustain the gains and to institutionalize continuous improvement. (See related story: “Linking Strategy and Continuous Improvement to Achieve Superior Performance,” CryoGas, June 2011, pp. 40– 42.)
Sustaining improvements long-term as a result of continuous improvement (CI) activities is one of the most significant challenges distributors face. The transition process that nexAir and other client companies go through to institutionalize CI is depicted in Figure 1. As a distributor’s CI process matures, they typically experience seven stages of growth. These stages range from “lopsided,” characterized by the majority of a day spent firefighting, conducting workarounds, and expediting materials, to “mastered,” where only minimal amounts of time are spent in these areas. This stage is characterized by the ongoing submission of ideas for CI, careful planning, and effective actions.
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