Should You Train Everyone in Your Company?

While helping an Executive develop her deployment plan we were asked “Are you sure we shouldn’t just go ahead and train everyone in the company?” After a few questions, we were able to determine the source of the question. While the Executive was researching companies to assist in the deployment a majority of the companies…

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The Operational Excellence Deployment Marketplace

So you want to engage an operational excellence deployment that will transform your company. Ok! seems reasonable and achievable right? Any google search or visit to the local bookstore will provide you with countless options for guidance and expertise, each professing that their approach will work for you. With this many options, success seems almost unavoidable. All you…

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The Six Key Components of a Successful Operational Excellence Deployment

A successful operational excellence deployment does not occur naturally. Instead, Executives who succeed understand that OpEx deployments must be designed with principle and managed with purpose. Even in the face of these facts, Executives often respond by saying “I understand what has worked for others in the past, but our company and industry are unique. The…

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10 Reasons Operational Excellence Deployments Fail

What most people don’t realize is that a majority of operational excellence deployments are destined to fail before they even start. In fact, in our experience, we have determined that there are 10 reasons operational excellence deployments fail. Occasionally, deployments die quickly (being canceled 12 to 18 months after starting), however, most programs languish for…

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Ready to Deploy Operational Excellence?

In the weeks before starting a recent deployment an executive asked, “Do you think our company is ready to deploy operational excellence?” In our experience, this is a fairly common question from executives in non-traditional Lean Six Sigma industries (Government, Healthcare, Retail, Non-profits, etc.). 95% of the time executives ask this question in the week…

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Why Deploy an Operational Excellence Program

So you want to implement an operational excellence program.  Before you take any action step back and ask yourself “Why?” In our years of practice, we have seen Operational Excellence (OpEx) deployments implemented for a variety of reasons. In working with executives at various Fortune 500 companies we have found that the most commonly quoted…

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Focus Brings Business Success

In the fast-paced business world, companies find themselves always looking to get ahead of the pack. This desire to outperform competitors can lead to disorganization among priorities and resources. Business success in a market has less to do with the ability to outperform the competition, and more to do with being extremely focused on your…

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Project Prioritization within Your Organization

When businesses create their three to five-year strategic vision, it is imperitive to perform project prioritization. More often than not, a list of projects is created to achieve the planned goals. This list of projects then needs to be prioritized in order for project teams to have a plan of action. As the organization begins…

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Goal Setting: Key to Project Success

The real purpose of project work is to effectively implement a change that improves an organization. To manage a project to success, the project should have a specific goal to reach. It almost seems elementary to discuss goal setting, but in reality, too many projects fail before they even get started because the goal is…

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The Importance of Process Definition

Process definition and understanding the operational procedures of your business are imperative to success. While many executives see process definition as an exercise in futility, those who work in or on the process on a daily basis see firsthand how a poorly defined, inconsistent, and inefficient process can wreak havoc on productivity and quality. Moreover,…

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