Process Focus is the Key

Kaizen 

The word Kaizen means "continuous improvement" and focuses on always reducing waste, improving productivity, safety, and effectiveness.  Kaizens include employees involved with the process—from upper management to the building maintenance personnel—all of whom are encouraged to develop improvement suggestions on a regular basis. More intensive or focused Kaizens can be 3-5 days long.  It is a continuous effort and Japanese companies like Toyota, Canon, and others implement 60 to 70 suggestions per employee per year.  Usually, these are not ideas for dramatic change, but smaller changes made on a regular basis.  Kaizen includes use of Quality circles, process automation, just-in-time delivery, visual aids, 5S** and of course the all-important suggestion system.  Ultimately, Kaizen requires setting standards and then continually improving those standards. To support the higher standards Kaizen also involves providing training, materials and supervision that are needed for success.  

**5S = Sort, Shine, Set in Order, Standardize, Sustain 

Process WorkOut

Taking work out of the process!  Developed by General Electric in the late 1980's, the 5-day WorkOut has been used with dramatic results at organizations of all types worldwide.  The focus is on rapid implementation of measurable improvements with clear lines of accountability.  Consistent use will help your organization become more lean, efficient, and responsive to changing business and market dynamics.  WorkOut brings a cross-functional group of people who know the work together to review the process from end to end and identify actionable recommendations to challenges identified by leadership for improvement.  Traditionally, the recommendations are tied to action plans that will be completed within 90 days.  Typically, improvement actions are identified that can be addressed immediately, while others can be completed with a moderate amount of post WorkOut effort.  In addition, more dramatic improvement opportunities are usually identified that can be considered for other types of in depth process improvement.  The WorkOut process builds cooperation between functional silos and different organizational levels, and increases morale by instilling values of excellence, involvement, and ensuring that employees at all levels understand how their particular work affects overall enterprise success.

7-Step Problem Solving Process 

Although this technique is not as involved or require as much technical training as a Six Sigma project, it follows the same principles in a more basic format.  This technique is ideal for organizations wishing to take the guesswork out of the improvement projects they implement.  It is also a sound way to introduce a more disciplined approach to process management and decision making in general.  The 7-Steps are:

1. Finding the right problem to solve

2. Defining the problem

3. Analyzing the problem

4. Developing possibilities

5. Selecting the best solution

6. Implementing the solution

7. Evaluating and learning

Lean Six Sigma

This is a method providing organizations the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. In other words, it allows businesses to improve how well a given process actually meets its customers’ needs. This goal is to decrease in-process variation that results defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and overall quality of products or services. Six Sigma quality is a term generally used to indicate a process is well controlled and capable in terms of customer specifications.   Six Sigma as a business initiative typically requires a thorough analysis of the business environment and development of an appropriate program specific to the culture of the business.  Long experience has taught that contrary to what many practitioners believe and to the chagrin of some organizations, one size Six Sigma program does not fit all.  Flexibility in scope and scale when laying out the right program is the most critical predictor of the organization’s long term Six Sigma success.

Process Focused Management

For organizations desiring to eliminate what is often the tyranny of the  compartmentalized, siloed, or functional based management, Process Focused Management is ideal.  This innovative method of business management simply applies the principles of process identification, ownership, measurement, and management to the business as a whole.  PFM is a much more responsive management environment both horizontally and vertically that improves the linkage between tactical process activities with strategic enterprise goal and objectives via critical process metrics.  The entire business is more responsive and capable of meeting rapidly changing market needs without having to rely upon micromanagement.  In fact, PFM provides management at all levels with the information they need to make independent local decisions that better respond to cross-functional and enterprise needs.