Core Competencies

Enterprise Wide KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement
EG International's approach encompasses every touch point (time line) from the moment the customer gives you an order to the point when you collect the cash and you are reducing that time line by removing non-value- added activities/waste and process that are error free. The following are areas that EG International has extensive hands-on experience working directly with those that touch the process, engaging the intellectual brain trust of the organization, the heart of KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement. These are the essential pillars of a comprehensive enterprise wide KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement process and must work in concert and are not stand alone silver bullets.

Pillars

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) - KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement Learning Cycle
EG International's enterprise wide approach is anchored in the PDSA cycle (must be mastered at every level) that transforms the organization into a learning organization and culture that is driven by relentless perfection and KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement.

Seven Deadly Waste - The Heart of KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement
EG International immediately introduces organizations to the endless pursuit of waste elimination (zero tolerance for) as the essence of KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement. Learning to identify the types of waste (must be mastered at every level) and its elimination is essential to increasing productivity, quality and profitability.

6S (5S+Safety) - The foundation of KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement
The six pillars work together to support improvement efforts at your company. EG International assures that 6S does not become a housekeeping activity, as is the case in many organizations, but focuses on the real purpose, increasing productivity, reducing defects, making accidents less likely, reducing costs and fostering a culture of continual improvement and employee engagement that is essential for successful implementation of KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement.

Process Mapping - The Heart of Performance Improvement
Process maps are fundamental to KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement, but none more than assuring an organization understands it is a business of interdependent and interrelated processes. This is one of the pillars of EG International's visual approach to KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement.

Standard Work - Ergonomic, Quality, Productivity, Costs
EG International's focus on standardized work is central to the management of continuous improvement. Once a work standard is established, any performance deviation is immediately recognized as either an improvement in performance or a challenge to be overcome. In either case, the outcome will be an improved standard. No standards, no improvement.

Problem Solving Tools - A3 Root Cause Analysis
EG International works hand-in-hand with the organization to assure all problem solving tools can be easily understood and applied to solve problems faced daily as most problems do not require complex statistical analysis.

Value Stream Analysis
EG International's Value Stream Analysis is an intense, cross-functional team, learn-by-doing process. It's a hands-on, learn-as-you-go approach where the organization establishes the business case defining what value is provided by the value stream through the eyes of the customer. EG International's unique key measure is the Value-Added Ratio, a measure that is easily understood across the entire business enterprise.

Rapid Improvement
Highly focused rapid improvement events, are another "building block" of KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement. EG International conducts this hands-on, learn-as-you go process with cross-functional teams. The focus is on eliminating waste, improving productivity, and achieving sustained continual improvement in targeted areas.

Strategic Planning with Policy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri)
The approach to KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement, eliminating waste and improving efficiency must be a business strategy, aligned with and directly linked with company objectives. Without this, KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement cannot be sustained.

Policy Deployment is a comprehensive, closed-loop, disciplined, and structured step-by-step planning, implementation, and review process for managed change. Specifically, it is a systems approach to management of change in critical business processes. A system, in this sense, is a set of coordinated and interdependent processes that accomplish the core objectives of the business.

EG International's approach to Policy Deployment involves a large portion of an organization's population in a "bottom-up and top-down" exercise that ensures employee ownership and corporate alignment, assuring the organization has a strong grasp of key performance metrics .

KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement Accounting
As companies implement KAIZEN/ Continuous Improvement, KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement practitioners and CPAs over the past 10 years have begun to realize many standard cost accounting practices, including Activity Based Accounting, no longer make sense and actually work against KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement efforts. A growing number of businesses are implementing KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement accounting concepts to better capture the performance of their operations.

To sustain KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement, EG International assist organizations that are ready and willing to transform their company's routine accounting practices to a new system that not only waste free but also supports KAIZEN/Continuous Improvement practices.

Supplier Partnering - Critical component of the Value Stream
EG International's supplier development process provides a mutually beneficial foundation to help improve its suppliers' capabilities. More specifically, it may be interpreted as a firm's attempt to transfer (or replicate) some aspects of its in-house organizational capability across firm boundaries.