Industries FM customer testimonial: Structuring to excel in the adoption of a continuous improvement culture
Quebec’s leading distributor of industrial packaging, plastic products and display items, Industries FM benefits from 35 years of expertise and a solid reputation for customer satisfaction. With its own delivery fleet serving over 1,500 customers across Quebec, this dynamic SME offers a range of innovative products specially adapted to the unique requirements of each customer. Guided by deep-rooted family values, its team of 30 employees provides personalized service that helps establish and maintain close, lasting relationships with its customers.
Through the testimonials of Alexandre Nadeau, Vice President and Partner, and Tom Bélanger, Operational Excellence Consultant, discover how Quebec SME Industries FM transformed its organizational approach and strengthened its corporate culture, enabling it to better seize opportunities for progress.
Strategic transformation: paving the way to operational excellence
The story began in 2021, when the company decided to call on an external consultant to structure and initiate a continuous improvement approach within the SME.
At that time, although operational processes were perfectly oiled, activities outside this framework remained virtually non-existent. Efforts to advance and transform the company lacked formalization, leading to a recurrence of the same issues without ever being truly resolved.
In terms of continuous improvement and business transformation, we had no formal structure in place, which meant we were constantly repeating the same topics without any real progress.
In a fast-changing environment, it was imperative to implement a transformation strategy, aimed at providing more structure and dealing seriously with these issues to move towards operational excellence.
In view of the problems encountered, it was timely to introduce organization according to the GTR trilogy. In other words, to establish a clear direction through committed Governance, to improve collaboration by choosing the right Tool, and to give a rhythm to the work by integrating animation and periodic Rituals.
Adopting IDhall: a strategic choice for integrating continuous improvement
One of the major challenges for SMEs is to go beyond the management of routine tasks, which often consume a large proportion of available resources. Once the operational cycle has been completed, the resources – be they financial, material or human – for progress and transformation initiatives often remain insufficient. It was therefore important to integrate continuous improvement into employees’ day-to-day work, using a simple tool that would enable real-time monitoring of progress.
To achieve operational excellence, implementing a continuous improvement process without at the same time establishing an appropriate culture, risks limiting the effectiveness of efforts. These two aspects need to be developed together to guarantee the success of the approach. This means providing employees with clear visibility of the desired direction and initiatives. We chose to work with IDhall because of its efficiency in facilitating this process.
Solution deployment and top-down progress
IDhall was rolled out at the end of 2021, transforming project dynamics by structuring opportunities around major strategic plans: Administration, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Human Resources and Digital Transformation.
Once the Governance had been initiated and the right Tool chosen, the next step was to implement and energize the process. The organization instituted a bi-monthly Ritual dedicated to reviewing and monitoring opportunities, a practice that clarified and enhanced the approach towards continuous improvement and long-term strategic progress. This regularity, coupled with the use of the platform, facilitated the adoption of a continuous improvement culture.
The IDhall integration has enabled us to overcome the critical path operational challenge by adapting improvement methods to our processes. Since we have been using it, we have been able to optimize our strategy to strengthen our capacity for innovation and sustainable progress.
This setting particularly helped those who were already running projects before the introduction of the platform, enabling them to monitor their initiatives more effectively and receive the recognition they deserved for their efforts. At the same time, it has encouraged other employees to take advantage of the collective intelligence generated by their colleagues’ energy and commitment. This new approach has profoundly transformed the company’s culture, providing the momentum required for real performance management. This change has consolidated the foundations for sustained, strategic development, increasing the organization’s overall effectiveness.
This has raised awareness of the vital importance of continuous improvement, even for an SME. The most significant effect has been the acceleration of Time-to-Market for our projects. Historically, initiating improvement projects took time, as there was no formal structure in place. Adopting this approach has not only enabled us to launch projects more quickly, but also to improve performance management.
Emergence of bottom-up initiatives: better synchronization between administration and the manufacturing warehouse
In most companies that combine manufacturing and administrative activities, a lack of synchronization can occur between warehouse teams and those in offices. This limits communication and collaboration, impacting the organization’s overall operational efficiency.
IDhall’s dynamic and collaborative approach now supports bottom-up communication. Adopting this bottom-up strategy not only stimulates innovation within the company, but it also increases employee commitment and belonging.
Enabling bottom-up feedback is essential to stimulating commitment. When employees see that their ideas are not only considered, but also implemented, it motivates them to increase their efforts and participation. This encourages all team members to invest their full energies and surpass normal expectations.
The process implemented by Industries FM has broken down silos within the SME by placing people at the core of continuous improvement processes and activities.
Over the last two and a half years, 115 improvement initiatives have been deployed, representing considerable progress for a company of this size. Thanks to this dynamic, the organization can now innovate and capitalize on every opportunity for progress that arises.
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