Are you actually improving your operations, or are you just changing them at random?

As Taiichi Ohno famously said, “without standard work there can be no improvement”.

If you try to innovate without establishing a solid baseline first, it is like trying to build a skyscraper on shifting sand.

Many leaders and teams resist standard work because they fear it acts as a restrictive cage. However, having no standard is the real cage, because chaos prevents any real, systematic growth and traps you where you are.

If you want to transform your continuous improvement efforts, you need to shift your mindset:

Embrace the 85/15 Rule: You should spend 85% of your time executing the documented, best-known standard procedure. Dedicate the remaining 15% of your time to calculated experimentation, acting as an internal R&D budget for your processes.

Treat PDCA as a Decision Tree: Do not just implement a list of changes and move on. Test one variable at a time using the scientific method.

If an experiment fails, do not try to force a bad idea into a good process -immediately revert to your baseline to protect your 85%. If it succeeds, make the new way the only way and lock in your gains.

Standard work is not a ceiling that holds you back; it is a solid floor that you can systematically raise over time.

Stop guessing. Start adjusting.

Check out this article to dive deeper into why establishing a baseline is the ultimate prerequisite for operational excellence: https://impruver.com/why-every-continuous-improvement-effort-should-start-with-standard-work/

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Why Every Continuous Improvement Effort Should Start with Standard Work - Impruver.com

Taiichi Ohno, the visionary behind the Toyota Production System, famously declared that “without standard work there can be no improvement”. For many business leaders and […]