Operational Excellence

Increase efficiency and reduce costs with Symbol’s proven Operational Excellence strategies. Our expert team supports your organization in implementing streamlined processes that meet customer expectations: error-free and on-time. Discover how our approach not only improves performance, but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and quality.

Strive for perfection

What is Operational Excellence

The Operational Excellence strategy focuses on an optimal delivery process based on customer expectations, without errors, on time and in a cost-effective manner. Symbol helps companies implement this strategy effectively.
To better determine in which direction an organization should develop, Treacy and Wiersema’s value strategy model is often followed. Three generic value strategies help organizations develop an appropriate strategic and operational plan, namely: Operational Excellence, Customer Intimacy (Customer Partnership) and Product Leadership (Product Leadership). According to Treacy and Wiersema, a company must excel in one of these three value strategies while performing at an acceptable level in the other two strategies.

Symbol specializes in Operational Excellence, looking closely for consistency with the other two value strategies.

Principles of Operational Excellence

Operational Excellence is a philosophy where problem solving, teamwork and leadership result in continuous improvement of the production process. The focus is on continuously improving operational processes by creating a streamlined process and preventing and solving problems. In addition, creating a culture of continuous improvement is important. To this end, Symbol has developed the CIMM growth model, which stands for Continuous Improvement Maturity Model.

Guidelines for Operational Excellence

The basis for Operational Excellence is a well-functioning quality management system (ISO9001, IATF16949, ISO 13485, etc). Quality is important for any organization regardless of size or sector. Lean techniques such as 5S Workplace Organization and Visual Management contribute to a solid foundation. Lean techniques are used to create a stable and predictable process. The focus is on finding and eliminating waste. Symbol helps companies understand, simplify and automate processes. Think about a simple Waste-walk on the shop floor to analytical techniques such as Process Mining and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Problem solving and training

To prevent process disruptions from leading to rejection and downtime, Symbol helps organizations solve problems in a thorough way. We first examine whether problems can be addressed on the shop floor itself, using a Kaizen approach (PDCA). To solve persistent and complex problems we use the Six Sigma approach (DMAIC) and to prevent problems in the R&D process we use Design for Six Sigma (DMADV). Symbol trains and coaches employees in all levels of the organization. The shop floor is trained in Kaizen Problem Solving; engineers, project leaders and experts are trained in Lean Six Sigma (Green and Black Belts) and managers are trained in Lean leadership and Organizational Behavior Management (Champions).

Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence

200,000 euros savings per year at Tata Steel

Tata Steel has achieved Operational Excellence with Six Sigma data analytics, in partnership with Symbol. This approach has resulted in substantial savings and efficiencies, such as saving more than €200,000 annually on iron transportation and speeding up the steel coil feeding process.

Results:
✅ Cost savings of over 200k on iron transportation.
✅ Savings of tens of thousands of dollars through faster steel coil entry.
✅ Development of Data Lake in cloud.

people certified in Lean Six Sigma

elevated organizations to a higher level

years of lasting impact

Increase efficiency and quality

Realize sustainable improvements with Operational Excellence through a structured approach and proven techniques. This method enables your organization to independently implement both large and small improvements. The result is successful achievement of financial and operational goals, leading to higher satisfaction of both customers and employees.

Join forces with us

Do you have questions or want to learn more about how we can support your organization in achieving Operational Excellence? Then please fill in the contact form. One of our experts will contact you shortly. We look forward to hearing your questions and discussing how we can work together to achieve sustainable improvements in your organization.