The Kynection Inspirational Sides of ISO Series
In the previous article we discussed the many ways you can increase your operational success by supporting your workers. We revealed the secrets of boosting team engagement, enthusiasm and accountability through a range of examples demonstrated by one of Australia’s most important Non-For Profit organisations: the Cancer Council.
Today, we are going to continue the conversation and show you how every step in the quality process is aimed to take your business operations to a higher level of success, and when it comes to pressing “the UP button of performance and customer delight”, no-one could inspire us more than KONE Elevators.
Let us start by saying that KONE was not the first elevator company in its field, nor do they own the market exclusively for mechanically moving passengers around buildings, or “creating people flow”, as they like to describe their services. KONE shows that with strong application and the right approach there is no reason you cannot elevate your business operations and improve your position within the market.
By the time KONE was established, its two biggest competitors already had the advantage of knowledge, time, branding, and capability. Otis Elevators began their work in 1853 after Elisha Otis invented the elevator safety brake. Schindler was established 21 years after Otis, in 1874, and only 39 years later, in 1910, KONE was born.
So how can you explain why KONE is now a global market leader and ranks high above its competition? How can you explain that at the start of 2018, KONE’s sales moved up by 10.6%? How can you explain that since its establishment, KONE has created multiple R&D and production sites worldwide and continues to innovate and lead technological advancements?
Without taking you deep into quality terminology and analytical concepts, we believe that KONE exemplified a “Customer Service Focus”, or in KONE’s own terms “Winning with Customers”
It might sound simple, yet it is so accurate. How can any business win without customers?
There is a little twist to this story – KONE did not stop on its external customers. Just like their elevators, they continued conquering one floor at a time – seeking new heights, researching, creating more and more innovative solutions and concepts that improved and continue to improve the flow of life for their customers, employees, communities, and our global environment.
KONE did not focus it’s business operations on new production only. In fact, new equipment business takes slightly over half of its operational time, with the other portions spent on modernisation, advancing, planning, consulting, service, and maintenance. This allows KONE to continuously improve and learn the changing needs of their customers. This close work with their customers, allows KONE to see gaps in available solutions, and develop such products as the KONE JumpLift™ and UltraRope®, which in turn, helped them win their project share in the development of the tallest and most famous buildings in the world, such as the China Zun (Beijing’s tallest building), Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower, Toronto’s tallest building, the New Zealand Sky Tower and more.
And with such high targets in mind, it is not surprising at all, that while we were glued to the TV screen last month hoping to hear a breakthrough in the COVID-19 research, KONE pledged to have carbon neutral operations by 2030! That’s right! But what is their secret?
“It’s elementary, Watson…”
What allows KONE to do so well, is that their entire operation if fully dedicated and committed to a few Key Principles:
- Fast and smart execution
- True Service Mindset
- Collaborative innovation and new competencies
- Customer-centric solutions and services
And above all (in our modest opinion), a true passion and a deep desire to improve the lifestyle of people and the efficiency of organisations by creating automatic, responsive, sustainable, and environmentally friendly systems that allow people to move easily and freely in urban settings.
Clause 8 of the ISO Standards 14001:2015, 9001:2015 and 45001:2018, discusses operations. It covers operational planning and execution control elements, such as:
- Product and service requirements (including design, reviews, or changes)
- Customer communication
- Supplier management
- Production and service provision
- Identification and traceability (for calibration and maintenance)
- Customer property
- Release and post-release products
- Preservation
- Documentation
- Control of non-conformities.
This clause is holding a business accountable for its operations, because it demands the ability to demonstrate a wide range of end-to-end inputs and outputs, and therefore it calls for an innovative and efficient holistic approach that gathers, handles and accommodates for all the data your business operations will ever need.
This is how it is for KONE, coming up with many forward thinking concepts like arrival prediction, automation of temperature, light and ventilation controls and of course UltraRope®, amongst many more unique but critical innovation components that drives customer centric outcomes.
KONE prides itself for being a modern business. It embraces the changes, challenges and growing expectations innovation brings. KONE knows that today’s ’new’ becomes tomorrow’s ‘forgotten’ very quickly, and so it strives to always be a few steps ahead.
It was a pleasure writing about KONE! And you know what? We would really like to write about you too! We invite you to contact us and let us know how our articles may have inspired you to make a difference in your organisation!
Kynection is all about innovation and we believe using our ONE SYSTEM approach to digital transformation we can be the one stop shop for all your operational and HSEQ Compliance and governance needs. Find out how our systems can help your team improve their quality practices.
Please also stay with us for the next two articles, completing the inspirational elements of our ISO series.
© 2020 Autolync Pty Ltd, trading as Kynection