Continuous Improvement turning Bronze to Gold

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit” – so said Aristotle. Various organisations, including manufacturing and public sector bodies such as councils, have discovered how the Burge Hughes Walsh ‘Bronze Silver Gold System’ (BSG) creates a culture of workplace continuous improvement, successfully transforming people and organisations, where the alchemists only dreamed of transmuting metal.

The BSG is predicated on two mechanisms – project-based activity and self-assessment against a predefined set of performance-related behaviours, graded as ‘Bronze-Silver-Gold’. ‘Bronze’ is essentially the education and culture change step, following which team members launch into ‘Silver’, which focuses very strongly on problem solving and improving performance continuously.

The aim is to embed Continuous Improvement in the workplace, with the observable outcomes of:

• changed behaviours – a demonstrated culture of Continuous Improvement

• mind set focused on customers and processes

• better operational practices – self-monitored, lean and a benchmark exemplar

• improved performance, i.e

-flexible, self-managing workforce

-increased capacity

- reduced operating costs

-better customer satisfaction