Archive for Continuous Improvement
Answers to Sustainability
Posted by: | CommentsI was participating in a discussion on LinkedIn and came across an article, How to Sustain Front Line Process Improvement Activities from the Harvard Business Review and like most of us, if it says sustainability we take a look. It has to be the most difficult part of any continuous improvement process. 
I found the author of the article, Brad Power handling the comments masterfully and engaging in a great dialogue with the commenters. He is actually researching sustaining attention to process management and is currently conducting research with the Lean Enterprise Institute.
Our podcast centered on Brad’s research of sustainability and his findings so far may not be unique but the structure he puts to his information is. Also, I think you will find out as much about researching and the questions you ask as you will sustainability. At times I wondered who was being interviewed.
Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Sustainability or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.
Brad Power is a consultant and researcher in process innovation. In his latest consulting engagement, for over a year he’s been helping a healthcare insurance company reengineer its interactions with providers and members to reduce cycle times. And for the last three years he’s been researching why few companies sustain their attention to process management — how they can make improvement and adaptation a habit (even fun?). He’s been collaborating with the Lean Enterprise Institute on his research. You can see some of his research insights in his blog posts at The Harvard Business Review at bradfordpower.tumblr.com. He’s interested in hearing stories of companies which embarked on a process improvement program and either kept going, or didn’t, and why.
Related Information:
Learn more about the Xerox Design for Lean Six Sigma
Design for Lean Six Sigma, The Xerox Way
Sustaining Lean in Manufacturing
Does Lean Marketing deliver what the customer wants?
Can there be a marriage between ISO and Lean?
Posted by: | CommentsOn the Business901 podcast, Lindsay Jackson Nichols discussed the business benefits of ISO Certification and how it can be used in conjunction with continuous improvement. Lindsay is the CEO of MOCG, a management consulting firm specializing in implementing process improvement and ISO based management systems. 
When you first think about, you may think that Quality Management and a continuous improvement methodology like Lean are one in the same. You may also think that they are willing partners. Many disagree with that thought. My thoughts are that I find the ISO standards as a way to involve people from all departments to ask them how you do things. As a result, procedures and documentation are created to evaluate the current method of doing things (the first step in standard work) against the requirements of a standard (ISO). As a result, you develop performance gaps for continuous improvement. Others believe that this would hinder the development and flexibility of standard work documents and prefer that they are divorced from each other.
I probed this question with Lindsay and on a Lean Blog Post on Standard Work. The answer I believe to be correct is that ISO 9001 should not be the continuous improvement strategy just that it should be one metric by which continuous improvement is measured. However, I still believe using ISO as a standard to start the process of developing standard work is not a bad place to start.
About LJ Nichols: Lindsay’s career has been entirely devoted to management consulting, working with Grant Thornton LLP ‐ the fifth largest accounting and management consulting firm in the nation, assisting them develop a ‘center of excellence’ for their quality, environment and regulatory practice, and P‐E International plc/P‐E Handley Walker the largest management consulting firm in Europe, where she was integral in establishing their ISO presence in the US.
Related Information:
MOCGISO You Tube Videos
Agreeing on Standards in a Lean Enterprise
Is Standard Work needed in Sales and Marketing?
Where is the path in Continuous Improvement for Sales and Marketing?
Why does sales and marketing operate to a different quality standard?
Is there anything new in Continuous Improvement?
Posted by: | CommentsI question if is just the latest fad or the latest take on an improvement method that gets us motivated. It is good that we continuously strive to improve whether it be Lean, Six Sigma or any Continuous Improvement effort.
I made this quick chart out that describes just a few of the disciplines that I am familiar with and afterwards I wondered if I have made the mistake of learning about so many or if I would have been better off just mastering one?
After reviewing the chart ask yourself, is there a significant difference in each? I know many of them have their own unique set of tools but if we would just follow a good line of common sense and questioning would we not get the same results? Would we not make things a little more simple? I always go back to the basic structure of scientific problem solving and Socratic questioning.
Enjoy the video!
Related Posts:
Using the Six Sigma Tollgate in your Marketing Funnel
What kind of questions would you ask at a tollgate?
Six Sigma Marketing
