Ameliorate Before You Automate
Business process improvement, coupled with automation, makes for a good one-two punch to P&L maladies. The order in which the two are applied, however, can have profound implications in terms of an organization’s overall benefit from applying the two. Process improvement makes processes more efficient and reduces redundancy and variation, while automation simply increases process […]
Voice of the Customer
Nearly every business process improvement methodology, including Lean Six Sigma, places huge emphasis on a concept known as voice of the customer (VOC). Many years of working within the business process improvement arena, however, have taught me that very few people have a clear understanding of exactly what this term means, how to obtain it, […]
Don’t Be Your Own Root Cause
In classical process improvement vernacular, root cause is the primary factor that may have sparked a chain of events resulting in the manifestation of a defect or problem. Lean Six Sigma and numerous other process improvement methodologies focus on identifying and correcting root cause. The thinking is that by addressing secondary and tertiary causes, a […]
Lean Six Sigma…Not Just for Manufacturing Anymore
More and more organizations within non-manufacturing industries are becoming increasingly aware that the correct application of the Lean Six Sigma methodology can benefit them as much as (if not more than) it has proven to benefit organizations within the manufacturing industry. In fact, one does not have to look far to find case studies that […]