Please note this article was published before OEE Consulting and gobeyond joined forces to become Gobeyond Partners.

The latest Service Excellence Network event saw OEE Consulting host sixty Network members and guests at our offices in Oxford.

We heard from Alive Communications about the importance of employee engagement in delivering operational outcomes, with their ‘made perfect by you’ campaign at Mini.

We then toured the world famous MINI plant to see first-hand how they manage to deliver a completed car off the production line every 67 seconds, despite having the challenge of one quadrillion combination possibilities for customers to create their personalised car!

Whilst not a service operation itself, there is a huge amount to be learned and applied in service organisations, from a world class facility like this. Here are a few of our thoughts:

• The entire facility and flow of work has been designed and set up to deliver on the proposition of customisation
• The variability has been incorporated at the earliest stage in the design, so true ‘exceptions’ are minimised
• Quality is built in at every point; errors are found within the step – and fixed within the step
• A huge investment in people through the academy. This builds capability and retention – even the tour guides were a hugely impressive example of this
• The operations basics were also all there: team huddles and problem solving, reward and recognition etc

The next members-only Network event will be hosted by RBS on the 27th of September.

Our annual Future of Service conference will be held in London on the 10th of November – and is open to both members and non-members alike. Details will be published shortly.

You can find out more about the Service Excellence Network and find out how to apply here.

*images courtesy of MINI