Operational Excellence is a state of readiness that is attained as the efforts throughout the organization reach a state of alignment for achieving its strategies; and where the corporate culture is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance AND the circumstances of those who work there – to pursue ‘Operational Excellence by Design‘, and not by coincidence.
Joseph F Paris Jr; Founder
Why Lean Fails
Global competition is at such a dynamic level that any day lost without operations improvement imperils the company’s economic livelihood. To out pace the aggressive environment, companies must create a competitive advantage that establishes greater stakeholder value through radical improvements in product and process. One of the most prominent methods currently being utilized by many companies to…
The Need for Effective Reactive Improvement
In order to achieve Operations Excellence, organisations need to be good at both Reactive and Pro-active Improvement. Unfortunately, many organisations are so focused on Pro-active Improvement through their Lean, Six Sigma and TPM initiatives that they lose sight of the importance of effective Reactive Improvement. I often refer to Reactive Improvement as ‘below the line’…
DFSS: A Complex but Worthwhile Deployment
Not ready for the planned product launch Time-To-Market? Too many warranty recalls? Have you missed the most important detail for your customers? Are any of these your questions? Are these the reasons you are interested in Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)? If your answer is a definite YES! Then you’d better read further. However, be…
Eulogy of a Continuous Improvement Program
When you were born, everyone could see the twinkle in your eyes for the fire and passion you held. As you grew, you became inspired by the reported accomplishments of others; and consumed with great enthusiasm and dedication every bit of knowledge that was at your disposal. You had the good fortune of being influenced…
Moving to Flow
Background What is lean? The majority of people when asked this question reply “waste elimination”. This is true. However, Taiichi Ohno’s original definition of lean was “the complete and thorough elimination of waste to reduce the timeline from receipt of customer order to delivery”. To achieve this more complete definition necessitates the creation of product…
Know what? So what…
There was a recent post in the Operational Excellence Group that I own on LinkedIn. The post was about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Lean Six Sigma program and the benefits that were realized. The person who created the post was rather excited that the program had saved NASA $1.3 million. Reading this…