PVA'S APPROACH
The PVA Assessment Process is designed to identify opportunities for improvement through a detailed analysis utilizing the three key elements of our performance improvement methodology. 90% of our time during an assessment is involved in conducting observations in the workplace with your managers, supervisors and workforce. PVA’s analysis process is designed to discover how an organization’s work takes place and how the work “flows” from the beginning to the end of the process.
Business Process Improvement
PVA uses a systematic approach to help organizations optimize their underlying processes to achieve more efficient results. Our experience with hundreds of different types of operations allows us to identify the operations or employee skills that need to be corrected, modified or removed to encourage smoother procedures, more efficient workflow and overall business growth.
Process Review and Refinement
Through our Assessment Process activities designed to identify opportunities for improvement, PVA will conduct a collaborative review of your business processes, identifying hidden opportunities for improvement.
PVA believes that all work processes, no matter what type, require analysis and have significant opportunities for improvement.
In order to identify opportunities for business process improvement, and to generate buy-in throughout the organization, PVA utilizes a visual approach to process analysis through value stream mapping.
Each work process is charted using live documents, starting with the steps and sub-steps in order to document and identify how the work takes place in the current environment.
Through detailed reviews with Management and Employees, opportunities are identified at each step of the process including:
Assessing each opportunity through:
Cost
In order to maximize profitability and increase shareholder value.
Quality
To ensure organizations are always conforming to customer requirements.
Schedule
So that service levels are always achieved and deliverables are on time.
Performance
To become a more effective and productive organization.
Safety
To reduce injuries at work and minimize the corporate risk.
COVID-19: Navigating the Great Reset
We’ve all witnessed the devastating human toll that Covid-19 has imparted on the world. It remains a humanitarian crisis and businesses have to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of this “new normal”.
Our shared new reality may be complex and at times uncertain, but the dedicated team at PVA Consulting Group promises to deliver ongoing support to its Partners in order to remain resilient. PVA drives maximum agility to our Clients in order to sustain meaningful change, and we continue to help our Clients steer through this new environment by upholding the highest safety standards. Our remote coaching, training and installations have been carefully developed to successfully provide maximum Covid-19 protection for our Clients and for our employees. PVA will be there every step of the way as we reimagine this Great Reset together.
Value Stream Mapping
The data and information for each step of the mapping process is gathered and the map is built with Managers and Supervisors input from their respective areas of responsibility. Work times, cycle times and processing times are identified for each activity and are validated through actual observations by Management in the workplace. These observations are critical to identifying operating problems and opportunities for improvement within the work activities and processes.
This collaborative approach between PVA, our client’s Management team and their employees provides the information that allows us to determine whether the issues and problems identified are process related, behavioral in nature, or the result of ineffective Management Operating Systems.
Behavioral Change
PVA has developed and implemented custom tailored training, coaching and mentoring programs for more than 12,000 Executives, Managers and Supervisors in order to improve their overall effectiveness towards managing all of their resources at the point of execution.
PVA’s hands-on approach and direct one-on-one interaction with the staff is the key to their success.”
- Dave Pickles, Senior Director Power Production, Nova Scotia Power
Managers and Supervisors need to spend more time actively managing
Through our training, coaching one-on-one and mentoring process, Managers and Supervisors will increase their time spent actively managing from a low of 5% to as much as 40 to 60%.
Historically, over the course of more than 200 clients, we have seen that Managers and Supervisors spend less than 5% of their day actively managing.
PVA’s training, coaching one-on-one and mentoring methodology focuses on improving levels of active management in the day-to-day operations with specific goals centered around:
- Assigning work with a specific expectation with regard to safety, quality, service, schedule attainment and performance
- Following up on a regular basis with regard to those expectations
- Identifying operating variances and improvements by actively participating in the Problem Resolution Process with their employees
- Providing positive and constructive feedback to their employees in a timely fashion
A comparison of management activities: before & after
PVA’s goal is to shift the Supervisors and Managers active behaviors of supervising and training to where it provides added value to the work and the activities being performed. Ideally, through our training process, coaching one-on-one and mentoring processes, Supervisors and Managers will increase their time spent managing from 5% to somewhere in the range of 40 – 60%.
PRE-PROJECT
5%
2%
1%
42%
8%
42%
POST-PROJECT
50%
10%
10%
20%
0
10%
- Active Supervision
- Training
- Continuous Improvement
- Administration
- Manual Work
- Available
Roles & Responsibilities
PVA’s experience has shown that most Managers and Supervisors are promoted from within an organization. This often means that the most technical and proficient employee is moved into a position of managing, without having the appropriate training, coaching and mentoring to be able to successfully manage their resources at the point of execution.
This process is one of the major causes of operational issues within organizations, and is why PVA includes management behavior as a critical key component in our performance improvement methodology.
Most organizations have a Human Resources department that develops job descriptions for Managers and Supervisors, however that description typically falls short in that it does not adequately describe their actual roles and responsibilities. Roles and responsibilities do not replace job descriptions, but rather define what is expected of the people that are in management positions, and that are expected to provide support to their direct reports and the work processes.
Roles and responsibilities for Managers and Supervisors cover a number of areas including but not limited to:
- Setting clear expectations for their direct reports for the work to be accomplished
- Ensuring consistency between different individuals at the same levels of management
- Preventing inefficiencies within and between departments
- Providing employees with consistent follow-up and feedback mechanisms
- Ensuring that there is active management involvement in the Problem Resolution Process
The implementation of the PVA process in our organization has increased communication at all levels and has produced positive results for our customers and the business.”
- Kelvin A. Shepherd, President, MTS/Allstream
Training, Coaching one-on-one & Mentoring
As part of the training component of our methodology, and as part of the process improvement efforts, a key part of our approach in the workplace with Managers is the observation process.
By conducting properly structured observations Management is able to determine the correct work content for activities and work processes, as well as identifying potential training requirements for employees in their respective areas of responsibility.
The overall goal of the training, coaching one-on-one and mentoring process is to create and implement tailored behavioral models to ensure that each Manager’s and Supervisor’s time is effectively applied at the point of execution.
Management Operating Systems
PVA has designed and installed customized Management Operating Systems (MOS) on more than 500 projects across all business types in the private and public sectors, providing organizations with the proper tools to help them more effectively manage their processes and resources and improve operational performance.
This set of tools and the associated management behaviors implemented through our proven approach and methodology allows our Clients to more effectively manage their people and their processes to deliver substantial and sustainable results.
Management Operating Systems: Analysis & Review
All organizations have planning, scheduling and reporting systems that they use during the course of their business activities, but we often find they are missing key elements that are needed to more effectively manage their processes and all of their resources in order to drive accountability at all levels.
PVA will complete an in-depth analysis of the current Management Operating Systems in collaboration with our client’s Management team to assess if the required planning and reporting elements are in place that will ensure the proper execution and measurement of the organization’s business performance plans.
Through the MOS we now have a detailed and coordinated KPI report tracking 42 key items that are reported and discussed across the enterprise every week.”
- James W. Peacock, Vice President, Manufacturing and Logistics, WhiteWave Foods Company
Management Operating System Elements
In order to support the process improvement efforts and the behavioral changes required within an organization, PVA custom designs and implements Management Operating Systems that will incorporate the following elements:
These system elements when integrated into a structured Management Operating System are key to controlling an organization’s processes, and ensuring that the work activities are managed to the planned performance requirements.