Bridging the Gap: Lean and Continuous Improvement in the Service Industry and Public Service in Cameroon

Posted: 24 Oct 2016

See all articles by Professor Alain Ndedi

Professor Alain Ndedi

International Council for Family Business; YENEPAD; Saint Monica University; University of Johannesburg; University of Pretoria; Charisma University

Moutila Luc

University of Douala;Cameroon Ecology (CamEco); LT Edéa

Tsoungui Solange

MTN Cameroon

Date Written: October 22, 2016

Abstract

The real essence of lean is in harnessing the passion and knowledge of front-line staff and equipping them to focus on ensuring as many activities as possible within an end-to-end process support the delivery of value to the customer. In the other hand, the objectives of continuous improvement methods are to boost organizational performance; because simply meeting customer expectations is not anymore enough; customers who aren’t completely satisfied are likely to switch to another service provider. Of course, not all lost customers are the result of a service defect, but this measure serves as a good proxy for defects. Building a culture of continuous improvement through the adoption of lean principles ensures the identification of the end-to-end process from the customer’s perspective and the design and management of those processes to ensure the smooth flow of information and material as efficiently as possible.

Customer satisfaction drives loyalty and long term profitability. When the organization can articulate and measure how the customers define value and build their internal processes around delivering that value; the result is often greater customer loyalty and longer-term company profitability. In addition to counting how many customers the company loses, managers should also measure where their service fails to meet or exceed customer expectations. Once they have identified and measured specific service short falls, the one question they must keep asking over and over is ‘Why is that?’ This question embodies the search for the underlying reasons for customer dissatisfaction and/or defection. Typically, there isn’t one single reason; in fact, there are many root causes that can contribute to the service dissatisfaction. Once these reasons are identified, then the organization can build procedures that better serve their customers.

This paper designs the five principles of lean and continuous improvement within organizations in Cameroon.

The first part of the paper addresses the specification of the value from an organization perspective. During this section, the value must be defined by the customer. Who is the customer, what do they value, what are their critical requirements and what would they be prepared to pay for? The section concludes that managers need to step outside their traditional comfort zones in identifying who the customer is.

The second section of the paper discusses the mapping of the value stream. The walk process, by understanding the sequence of steps; value-adding and non-value adding which currently undertake to make a whole product or deliver a complete service. The organization must understand which are the steps that add value to the customer and which steps don’t? Subsequent improvement activity focuses on maximising the value-adding steps and eliminating the non-value adding, whilst recognising that some activities are necessary (regulation, health and safety etc.) even if they doesn’t add value to the customer and the customer wouldn’t pay for them explicitly.

The third section focuses on establishing the flow of actions that will be undertaken by the organization. In simple terms, the section explains how the company ensures that the products and services move fluently and without interruption through the value stream in a way which is synchronised with the rate of customer demand. In addition, where workflows, such as those required to deliver better public services and cut across agency boundaries, it is crucial to engage staff across all agencies involved.

The fourth part highlights the implementation pull. It is how the Cameroonian organizations Like the Mobile Telecommunication Networks (MTN) can make or process only what the customer needs when they need it, by reacting to a trigger.

The fifth part deals with perfection and continuous improvement. The section explains how organizations can constantly seek out new ways of improving and perfecting the process; this being the difference between a one-off project and continuous improvement. In fact, organizations, like MTN and the Government High Schools need to constantly review their processes with the view to identifying improved ways of delivering them and ensuring that as much of the process as possible is value-adding to the customer.

Keywords: Total Quality Management, Cameroon, Profitability, Organisations

JEL Classification: L84, M11

Suggested Citation

Ndedi, Alain Aime and Ndedi, Alain Aime and Luc, Moutila and Solange, Tsoungui, Bridging the Gap: Lean and Continuous Improvement in the Service Industry and Public Service in Cameroon (October 22, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2857639

Alain Aime Ndedi (Contact Author)

International Council for Family Business ( email )

San Diego
United States

YENEPAD ( email )

PO Box 30069
Suunyside
Pretoria, Pretoria 0135
South Africa
+27 84 992 9499 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://yenepad.virtualactivism.net

Saint Monica University ( email )

P.O. BOX 132
Buea, South West
Cameroon
237698727474 (Phone)
23767992-0777 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.stmonicauniversity.com

University of Johannesburg ( email )

UJ ADMINISTRATION. University of Johannesburg
PO Box 524. Auckland Park 2006.
Johannesburg, Gauteng
South Africa

HOME PAGE: http://www.uj.ac.za

University of Pretoria ( email )

University of Pretoria,
Private Bag X20, Hatfield,
Pretoria, Gauteng
South Africa

HOME PAGE: http://www.up.ac.za

Charisma University ( email )

30 Sandcastle Rd
Neptune CT, Grace Bay
Providenciales
Turks and Caicos Islands

Moutila Luc

University of Douala;Cameroon Ecology (CamEco); LT Edéa ( email )

PO Box 3132 Douala
PO Box 081 EDEA
Douala - Ndogbong, CA Littoral
Cameroon
+237 655822967/ 675380418 (Phone)

Tsoungui Solange

MTN Cameroon ( email )

Douala
Cameroon

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