Mid Green occupationBusiness and administration
Improvement leader
Developing improvement strategies and providing leadership in improvement for a business.
Summary
Improvement Leaders are responsible for developing improvement strategy, providing leadership in improvement for the business and for coaching and supporting Improvement Specialists in advanced analysis. The Improvement Leader typically reports to Board members or Heads of Department and manages (directly and/or matrix) a team of Improvement Specialists, who deploy the strategy, and lead improvement projects. They work closely with all functions of the business to support the setting and achievement of business goals, often accountable for Improvement activities within the largest-scale and highest priority programmes of work. For example, they may develop top-level Value Stream Maps to identify improvement opportunities that are then scoped into projects to be delivered by Improvement Specialists or they may design new products/processes/services. The role is typically office-based but involves working wherever their improvement activities are focussed for example they could be working on the shop floor or at customer/supplier premises.
Typical job titles include
- Change / Transformation Leader | Environmental Health and Safety Leader | Lean Master | Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Logistics / Supply Chain Manager | Senior Consultant | Senior improvment consultation | Senior Lean Leader | Senior Navigator | Senior sustinability improvement consultant | Logistics / Supply chain manage and change / transformation improvement leader | Senior improvement consultation | Senior sustainability improvement consultant
Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)
K1:
Strategy development: Policy deployment principles and Hoshin Kanri Porter’s 5 forces, Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT)/Political Economic Social Technological Legal Economic (PESTLE), Ansoff’s growth matrix, Boston Consulting Group growth share matrix, GE-McKinsey matrix
K2:
Business benefits: Net present value, activity based costing
K3:
Team formation & leadership: Team types and constraints, dysfunctional teams, emotional intelligence, Neuro-linguistic programming techniques, reinforcement strategies
K4:
Self-development: Latest thinking in Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence
K5:
Presentation and reporting: Single page reporting – A3 thinking
K6:
Project selection and scoping: Business performance metrics
K7:
Measurement systems: Audit Measurement System
K8:
Data analysis – statistical methods: Regression (multiple & binary logistic), forecasting and queuing theory
K9:
Experimentation and optimisation: Monte Carlo and Discrete Event simulation. Balanced and unbalanced designs, General Linear Model
Technical Educational Products
- ST0556: Improvement leader (Level 6) Approved for delivery
- Reference:
- OCC0556
- Status:
Approved occupation
- Average (median) salary:
- £52,799 per year
- SOC 2020 code:
- 2440 Business and financial project management professionals
- SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 2440/01 Business change managers
- 2431/01 Business analysts and consultants
- 2431/02 Management advisers and consultants
- 2431/99 Management consultants and business analysts n.e.c.
S1:
Strategic deployment of continuous improvement: Contribute to the business planning cycle and lead the development of improvement strategy. Analyse current state and identify opportunities. Develop deployment plans considering key enablers. Contribute to the development of an improvement culture. Maintain engagement through effective communication
S2:
Business benefits: Identify, quantify and communicate financial and non-financial benefits
S3:
Team formation and leadership: Use appropriate tools and techniques to identify, diagnose and resolve sources of under-performance and conflict within teams
S4:
Capability Development: Design, source and evaluate learning interventions. Facilitate multi-functional workshops. Advise on selection of individuals for different levels of training
S5:
Project management: Plan and manage an improvement programme with appropriate levels of governance. Apply processes for managing a portfolio of improvement projects including reporting, escalation, audit and risk management/mitigation
S6:
Reviewing projects and coaching others: Provide guidance for structured project reviews. Conduct group coaching reviews. Identify, diagnose and resolve project performance issues
S7:
Presentation and reporting: Critique own and others’ improvement reports/presentations
S8:
Change management: Assess the effectiveness of change and identify opportunities to improve outcomes, guiding and supporting others to deliver results
S9:
Principles and methods: Clearly communicate the importance of appropriate method-selection to others, and enable the organisation to make appropriate decisions through learning and tools
S10:
Project selection and scoping: Establish guidelines for project identification and prioritisation. Assess effectiveness of identification and prioritisation processes and implement counter-measures to enhance outcomes. Engage leadership team to identify improvement opportunities
S11:
Problem definition: Promote importance of evidence-driven problem definition in everyday work
S12:
Voice of Customer(VOC): Coach others on the importance of understanding VOC. Identify ways that an organisation can improve customer insight through feedback loops to enable improvement activities to be focused appropriately
S13:
Process mapping and analysis: Apply process thinking to identify opportunities to improve business and process performance and maintain ongoing process control
S14:
Lean concepts and tools: Easily translate and communicate fundamental Lean concepts for application to a wide range of business functions. Assess the effectiveness of a Lean strategy and make recommendations for improving outcomes
S15:
Data acquisition for analysis: Assess data acquisition conducted by others in terms of tool selection and application, conclusions and recommendations
S16:
Statistics and graphical analysis: Assess and guide graphical and statistical analysis conducted by others in terms of tool selection and application, conclusions and recommendations. Communicate opportunities for robust application of basic data analysis methods and engage others to extend/embed the application of data-driven approaches. Investigate and evaluate measurement and analysis approaches which extend the capabilities of the organisation. Establish strategies for gathering and analysing life-cycle data
S17:
Process capability and performance: Make recommendations on how an organisation can drive improvement through the selection of tools and metrics for process capability analysis
S18:
Root cause analysis: Guide and coach others in planning to ensure efficiency of approach
S19:
Experimentation, optimisation and simulation: Support the building of mathematical models and exploitation of these
S20:
Identification & prioritisation: Develop a Creative Thinking strategy to support improvements
S21:
Failure Mode Avoidance: Communicate the business case, aims, methods & key tools. Identify opportunities for application within product and project life cycles including Lean Design
S22:
Data analysis – Statistical Process Control: Make recommendation on how an organisation can drive sustained improvement through the application of Statistical Process Control
S23:
Benchmarking: Develop a benchmarking strategy to support an improvement programme
Technical Educational Products
- ST0556: Improvement leader (Level 6) Approved for delivery
- Reference:
- OCC0556
- Status:
- Approved occupation
- Average (median) salary:
- £52,799 per year
- SOC 2020 code:
- 2440 Business and financial project management professionals
- SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 2440/01 Business change managers
- 2431/01 Business analysts and consultants
- 2431/02 Management advisers and consultants
- 2431/99 Management consultants and business analysts n.e.c.
B1:
Drive for results: Be a primary advocate for Improvement and Operational Excellence acting as a role model for others, focused on improving customer experience and delivering benefits
B2:
Team Working: Actively seeks opportunities for improving team performance and coaches others to resolve under-performance issues
B3:
Professionalism: Demonstrates personal resilience. Challenge, influence & engage seniors
B4:
Strategic Thinking: Drives future thinking for themselves and others. Actively seeks out new ideas, opportunities methods and tools. Build a knowledge and best practice sharing network
B5:
Safe Working: Recognises opportunities to improve safe working practices
Technical Educational Products
- ST0556: Improvement leader (Level 6) Approved for delivery
- Reference:
- OCC0556
- Status:
- Approved occupation
- Average (median) salary:
- £52,799 per year
- SOC 2020 code:
- 2440 Business and financial project management professionals
- SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 2440/01 Business change managers
- 2431/01 Business analysts and consultants
- 2431/02 Management advisers and consultants
- 2431/99 Management consultants and business analysts n.e.c.