These approaches can also be applied to Continuous Improvement, Lean, or Six Sigma Programs. I started my first business, XONITEK, in August of 1985.   I still own its latest incarnation located in Jackson Wyoming.  Having owned my own businesses for the last 37 years makes me uniquely unemployable.  Perhaps that could change given the right...

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I write often about Operational Excellence.  How we live in a world of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA).  How time is the enemy of the 21st century company and that the organization that knows and trusts its capabilities (and also where they are lacking) is better prepared to synthesize decisions from imperfect data –...

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BTOES Insights presents this case study on the Johnson Controls Manufacturing System – just one of the very best Award-Winning Examples of Successful Operational Excellence from the Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Awards, 2017. This well-rounded piece details the four foundations of the system – customer focus, stable production environment, zero tolerance for waste, and organize around pull –...

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My name is Paul. I grew up in the northeast part of the United States, and have spent most of my life here. I went to college in New York and landed my first job right out of school as a process engineer in the Boston area. That was 17 years ago. Today I’m a...

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In 50 Words or Less: A European investment bank wanted to improve its cash payment process to reduce errors and delays, and ultimately improve customer service. The bank used lean Six Sigma to uncover rework, as well as unnecessary and duplicative actions, to realign activities from its front offices to operations and back offices. BACKGROUND:...

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Strategy is the single most important responsibility of senior executives. Unfortunately, many companies fail or struggle to develop effective models in an increasingly complex environment. As a result, contemporary strategic-planning processes don’t help enterprises cope with some of the biggest problems they face. These strategy issues are inherently, tough and persistent, in fact, they are...

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Over the past 3 decades, the U.S. auto industry has faced multiple existential crises, illustrating both the cost of lost opportunities and the power of innovation as the archetypical industrial enterprise adapts to a post-industrial knowledge economy. In the light of this, a more holistic understanding of the industry is called for, for reasons that...

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EY research report coined “Global Generations 3.0” has revealed that less than half of full-time workers fully trust their employer, boss or colleagues. The online survey of over 9,800 full-time workers, age 19-68, at companies of varying sizes in various countries, explored a wide variety of areas relevant to (the lack of) trust in the...

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APRIL 09, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War – just a month after the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln. Needless to say, Lincoln became one of America’s most revered presidents and his best-known speech is, of course, the Gettysburg Address. This speech is often studied for means of rhetorically claiming its...

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CONTENT PARTNER CONTRIBUTIONAs seen in the Jun-2015 edition of theLean Management Journal In the manufacturing sector, and for that matter, in many large organisations across a variety of industries, kaizen is a well-respected approach to improvement. The methodology, whose moniker literally means good change in Japanese, has its origins after World War II. However, based...

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Introduction GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a global healthcare group headquartered in London, UK, engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical products and health-related consumer products. (http:\\www.gsk.com) Outline This article will share how we started, scaled up and began to embed the ADP (Accelerating Delivery and Performance) way of working in GSK between 2009 and...

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We often hear about “one version of the truth”—the one source for operating data that everyone in a company agrees is the real, trusted number with which to plan and measure performance. Without this definitive information, people spend a lot of time arguing about the validity of numbers, the impact of a challenge or opportunity, and...

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Introduction: The authors were faced with a mounting problem:  Sales forecasts were continuing to deteriorate and Corporate was mandating a traditional application of Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP).   This application relied on forecasts and static data.  Static data is sufficient where forecasts and run-rates are consistent, though that is simply not the case in the...

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Background: From 1987 until 2009 I was CEO of Interbake Foods, a food processing company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. We competed in four business segments: Girl Scout cookies, contract manufacturing for branded companies, private label cookies sold to retailers, and baked ingredients for ice cream processors (primarily ice cream sandwich cookies and cones). Interbake had...

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A housing association working in the UK reported that a turnover of nearly £115m provides approximately 16,000 homes for more than 30,000 people. It works in partnership with local authorities, organizations and residents to create safe, sustainable communities.  It provides: Rented family housing Homes for shared ownership Care and supported homes for older and vulnerable people Assisted...

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Alpha Corporation is an influential, complex regulatory organization where technical leads have been turned into effective project managers using a simple data-driven dashboard.  The corporation now consistently and quickly delivers value-added, low-risk software in support of its business mission. On a daily basis, the senior Vice President (VP) of Technology meets with key project managers (PMs)...

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