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Latest IPC Blog Post


Partner Retires

Our esteemed partner Pat Savage retired on the 31st December 2018 at the end of a long and illustrious career. We wish him well in his retirement and look foward to hearing of his success at national coursing events, fly fishing and on the golf course....
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Process / Lean Management

Improving Performance and Cost Competitiveness through Process / Lean Management

Process Management (PM) is concerned about the organisation of work within a business. PM has developed from many different business improvement approaches. Originally referred to as Quality Management, it was expanded to include additional concepts including Lean, Six Sigma, ISO 9000, Performance and Change Management over the last few decades and it has now become an overarching concept within the workplace environment.

IPC Consulting has developed a practical performance improvement programme by means of Process Management for the SME sector. This starts with a briefing session for a client explaining in easy to understand terms process improvement methodologies with a particular focus on Lean Management. Other areas covered include Quality Management, ISO 9000, S&OP, Performance Management, EFQM, Strategy and the Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma, as well as the importance of Change and Project Management. This then gives the client a perspective on the approach and its position and utility within the range of these different process improvement concepts and where and how different aspects of the various concepts can be combined within an assignment to maximum effect.

Process Improvement / Lean assignments

The initial step in a typical assignment is for an experienced IPC consultant to carry out a review of 1 to 3 days using a Process Management toolkit to identify suitable cost reduction / PM initiatives. The focus here is to demonstrate how Process / Lean Management can be used to achieve tangible benefits / cost reductions for the company. A plan will be developed to describe the nature of the work to be carried out, the timescale and effort involved (client and consultant support) and the level of value added / benefits / cost reductions to be achieved. As well as the achievement of benefits, a key objective of the work will be to encourage clients to adopt process / lean business principles in their organisation, thus leading to ongoing business performance, productivity and competitiveness (bottom line improvement).

This approach is focused on companies who require expert assistance in business process improvement methodologies, including that of Change management. Such companies are provided with “push start” assistance by IPC so as to identify improvement opportunities, in setting goals and objectives for process improvement initiatives and, most importantly, in their realisation.

IPC has a team dedicated to process improvement / lean assignments, is very experienced and brings a wide range of competencies to such projects including lean six sigma at black belt level, as well as expertise in change and performance management, systems development / project management, quality improvement, customer service, organisation structure, planning, management development and job design. We have implemented process improvements in many areas, including design, manufacturing and operations, administrative and office functions, sales order and customer service and have implanted the lean / process improvement approach in the respective organisations for their managers to apply.