Business improvement system
Our business system is our operational framework
It ensures we deliver our ambitions consistently and sustainably. It’s how we turn ambition into action, strategy into results, and values into everyday behaviours.
Together, these elements form a system that’s more than a framework of how we work: it’s a mindset – a repeatable model that improves businesses and a recipe for success that empowers every one of our people to contribute to our combined success.
Built on four interconnected pillars:
Strategy
We craft clear, compelling strategies that evolve with our market and customer needs.
Our approach is agile and participative, empowering every SBU to own and deliver their priorities. Strategy is reviewed quarterly and refreshed biannually to stay relevant and impactful.
Actions
Strategy only matters if executed well. We translate plans into effective, everyday actions using tools like Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and performance cycles.
Everyone knows their role, and every action is aligned with our goals.
People
We believe in unlocking potential.
Through initiatives like the STAR Academy, we invest in developing our people – giving them the skills, confidence and freedom to make a difference.
Process
Through our Strengthen System, we empower our people and optimise our processes.
To deliver continuous improvement, operational excellence and long-term growth.
Strengthen through Continuous Improvement
We’ve built a culture where improving processes is becoming the Avon way of life, we have much more capable people and the pace of change is accelerating.
Read about our approach to continuous improvement in our Strengthen System e-book.
What is continuous improvement?
The aim of CI is to make every process 100% value-adding. At its simplest a business is all about people and processes, and we want those processes to create as much value as possible. We don’t want our employees taking time on things that don’t add value. We can use continuous improvement to look at our processes through fresh eyes. As our people learn to see in a new way, they find the waste in our processes. By taking that waste out, we can focus more on the things that matter.
What is our approach to continuous improvement?
At Avon Technologies we translate our strategy into actions which are driven through Kaizen as part of our CI methodology.
Every day, at every level of our organisation, people are making small changes that improve our people’s safety, our product quality, our delivery to customers and inventory reduction. All while also improving productivity. We call this our Strengthen System – our structured approach to continuous improvement focused on operational excellence and organic growth.
Since its launch, the Strengthen System has become a powerful engine for operational improvement.
The foundations are to remove waste and level load production.
On top of the foundations there are three pillars: a FIERCE culture, making products just in time and making product with no defects.
In each column, we have methods and tools that will help us achieve our aims.
The pillars support our ambitions across Safety, Quality, Delivery, Inventory and Productivity. We call these our SQDIP metrics.
We’re seeing clear opportunities to further enhance SQDIP metrics across every site.
What is Kaizen?
We’re using Kaizen to transform the business, moving from batch production to flow, and developing our employees to identify and challenge waste. Kaizens help foster a culture of “learn by doing” where experimentation is encouraged.
Kaizen literally means make things better. That’s really what continuous improvement is all about; it is trying to make our processes better. At the start of the Kaizen, you have a hypothesis or a charter of what you’re trying to achieve. Then you go straight into doing and you actually try and put into practice your idea and see whether your idea had the effect you wanted.
