Although ubiquity may not be the most exciting concept, it is the goal. It means that your product is reliable, high quality, and valuable – which keeps your clients coming back. You want your brand to be the go-to of the product you make. Being commonplace doesn’t sound great, but it’s right where you want to be. So how do we achieve ubiquity?

In the course of my five-year doctoral research project to develop a leadership model for Operational Excellence, a pivotal insight emerged – ‘Every Interaction is an Opportunity.’ While the significance in the research of common leadership behaviors and traits such as communication, respect, humility, and authenticity were expected and well represented, exploiting ‘interaction as opportunity’ was new. In this context, I delve into the advantages of embracing this opportunity and how its application has empowered me to drive business success.

For far too long, particularly in industry, soft skills have been seen as the responsibility of HR while the operations department, maintenance, logistics, finance, etc. concentrate on the hard skills that generate value. As somewhat of a disruptor I take a contrary view. Firstly, why spend any time at all on soft skills if they do not contribute to the bottom line? Secondly, if they do contribute to the bottom line then all leadership should become expert in these soft skills and not abdicate the responsibility to HR.  

Today I present the last two steps in the 8-step process to enable you on your journey to Operational Excellence. Commitment to your people and your tools is essential for success.

This is the 3rd installment of an 8-step process to enable you on your journey to Operational Excellence. Monitoring progress is essential to the continuous improvement process to ensure the implemented changes deliver.

This is the 2nd installment of an 8-step process to enable you on your journey to Operational Excellence. Once you have identified areas for improvement you must develop and implement your improvement plan.

Operational Excellence is the practice of continuously maximizing the potential of your people, optimizing your business processes and as a result achieving best in class performance. This best-in-class performance is repeatable if you consistently follow these 8-steps:

Critical thinking is essential for effective maintenance management. As a maintenance manager, you are responsible for overseeing the maintenance, repair, and replacement of equipment, machinery, and other assets. To be an effective maintenance manager, you must also be able to analyze problems, identify root causes, and develop solutions that address the underlying issues. This involves a range of critical thinking skills, such as deductive reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.