Continuous Improvement

This week I went to Melbourne for a couple of days, to do a 1-day course on Continuous Improvement at work. 

In some ways, it was a little lame. Lame because I was in a room with people from completely different industries to me. So much so, I almost left, fearing that I was going to waste my day. But the interesting aspect of this was that as much as all these people were very different, I could relate to many of the issues and needs they had - regardless of their industry. So in many way, the diversity in the room was actually a positive thing to build on, not a negative one to dilute focus and meaning. It's an interesting observation and one I will do well to remember.

CI, in its own right, is pretty cool. I love the idea of constantly looking for that next 1%'er (hey even the next 10%'er frankly). It's also a good mindset to have for one's team, where we are always looking for ways to optimise what we do. I feel that at work we have become a bit too set in our ways in some respects. It's that age-old thing, where we always looked for price and volume for improvements, whereas I am always looking for reduced costs or increased efficiency for improvements. That's where the long-term and more meaningful change is to be found. 

So we now have our KPI reporting system up and running. I need Ash to start doing some real analysis of the outputs, and some benchmarking, so we can see what sites do well, and where others may see opportunities for improvement. In a role where I have constantly questioned myself about what value I add, seeing as I am not a quarry processing expert, it is the structural, reporting and analytical tools that have given me the most satisfaction - and the best way to be impactful. These are the kinds of things that make me happy in my work, not in dealing with political BS, government BS, or frankly, any other kind of BS!