Developing business metrics that lead to the right decisions and governance is important for organizations to excel in this competitive world environment. The 9-step Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management system provides the system for accomplishing this organizational need.
Developing Business Metrics that Lead to the Right Decisions and Governance Read More »
Organizations need a meaningful process capability analysis report methodology. Traditional process capability indices reports, including Cp, Cpk, Pp, and Ppk, can be confusing and deceiving.
How to Create a Meaningful Process Capability Analysis Report Read More »
The disadvantages out weigh advantages when assessing balanced scorecard pros and cons! Having a balance in organizational scorecards is important but a natural balance, not forced balance, is much more beneficial. In addition, scorecards should give focus on the alignment of its performance scorecard measures to what is done when producing its product and services.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Balanced Scorecard: Its Pros and Cons Read More »
In Lean Six Sigma, much training effort is spent on conveying the importance of having a measurement system so that consistent and correct decisions are made relative to part quality and other assessments. Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA) and Gage R&R study (Repeatability and Reproducibility) are an integral part of the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt training. It should be the goal of every organization to achieve the three Rs of business; i.e., everyone doing the Right things, and doing them Right, at the Right time. One tool that provides direction for achievement of the three Rs goal is process performance metrics; i.e., a process’ performance report-out should lead to the most appropriate action or non-action. This objective is not unlike an inspection gage MSA, which is to determine if inspectors can adequately determine whether a manufactured component should be accepted or rejected. Because of this performance-reporting need, it would seem that management and practitioners would be assessing how well current scorecard and metric reporting systems are doing from a MSA conceptual point of view. However, this does not seem to be occurring. The question is why do we not examine business metrics and process capability indices reporting from a MSA point of view with the same level of intensity that we do for product quality metrics? This one-hour Webinar will explain more on the magnitude of the issue: we’ll give focus to how Cp, Cpk, Pp, and Ppk process capability indices’ reporting is sensitive to how a given process is sampled; i.e., an MSA issue. A predictive metric reporting system will then be described for overcoming not only the issues of process capability indices but general business-performance scorecards.
Cp Cpk Pp Ppk Calculation and Understanding: A Webinar that Provides Important Details Read More »
Lean, Lean Six Sigma, total quality management (TQM), and other techniques have helped companies improve processes through the execution of projects. However, much of these efforts have resulted in siloed process improvements that don’t benefit the enterprise as a whole. Lean Six Sigma and other process improvement programs have striven to improve their project selection process; however, often the gains from those projects have been minimal. It seems that what needs to be done to resolve this issue is for process improvement efforts to become more integrated within the overall business system (e.g., scorecard creation/management and strategy development/execution.) This article describes is a system for accomplishing this orchestration, where lean and Six Sigma tools enhance the overall business system so that the organization moves toward achieving the three Rs of business: everyone doing the right things, the right way, at the right time.
Enhanced Lean Implementation Roadmap Read More »
There is often much contention between Six Sigma and lean communities. Lean disciples often believe that their methodologies should come first or be above Six Sigma, relative to organizational application, while others with a strong Six Sigma background propose just the opposite.Many process improvement programs now refer to their deployments as lean Six Sigma; however, these programs still tend to consider the tools in isolation without a true tool-integration road map. To address this integration issue, an examination of the measurement that is to be improved can provide insight into which tool or tools would be most applicable for any given situation.
Enhanced Process Improvement Methodologies for Business and Projects Read More »
In lean Six Sigma and lean kaizen event programs, improvement projects are often selected from a list of potential opportunities that were determined from a brainstorming session. This effort might provide some initial gains when starting a deployment; however, it typically stalls out and the process improvement teams are laid off when times get tough. The reason for this downsizing is that often process improvement efforts are not expended in areas where the overall enterprise benefits the most; e.g., focusing on sales and marketing when excess production capacity is available. This article walks through some of the frequent short-comings of Theory of Constraints and how it can best be applied to the enterprise.
Executing Theory of Constraints Principles in a Business Management System Read More »
Business organizations need a business management system that has predictive scorecards, which encourage behaviors that benefit the enterprise as a whole. Common place red-yellow-green goal-based scorecards can lead to silo improvement efforts that result in much firefighting. In addition, traditional metric reporting that consists of a table of numbers, pie charts, or stacked bar charts are not predictive and provide only a snapshot of the past with no assessment of what is expected in the future. Also, variance to metric goals can lead to playing games with the numbers, which can be destructive to the business as a whole. The balanced scorecard approach for choosing metrics after strategy selection can lead to subjective metrics and measurements that are not long-lasting and are a function of economic and leadership changes. Described is an overall corporate performance management (CPM) system where organizations can analyze their predictive value-chain metrics collectively with other considerations, such as the current business-economic environment and the Theory of Constraints (TOC), to develop strategies.
Enhanced Predictive Analytics Tools for Scorecards and Business Improvement Read More »
Organizations often describe their business performance using a table of numbers, stack bar charts, and/or pie charts. Red-yellow-green scorecards may also be used for an assessment of how well a function is performing relative to established goals. Traditional performance scorecards present historical information for some timeframe with no predictive statement. Business decisions made through the use of these charts are not unlike driving a car by only looking at its rear view mirror. What organizations need is a predictive metric reporting system. This futuristic assessment can then be utilized so that if expected future performance is not desirable, adjustments can be made. This is not unlike making an automobile driving adjustment using a steering wheel or brake/gas pedal, where this mechanical intervention is analogous to incorporating process improvement activities. The described Statistical Business Performance Charting (SBPC) methodology can, for example, reduce firefighting when the performance measurement system replaces organizational red-yellow-green scorecards, which often have no structured plan for making goal-setting improvement objectives. This article describes how organizations can benefit from a SBPC scorecard or dashboard system, which can guide them to the most appropriate performance-measurement system actions or non-actions in both manufacturing and transactional processes.
Enhanced Stoplight Report Template Software Read More »
There is debate whether, in statistical process control (SPC), a data transformation should be considered when constructing an individuals chart. This article shows, using real data, why an appropriate data transformation is very important to determine the best action or non-action to take in both manufacturing and transactional processes at any point in time. Described in this article is also an enhancement to traditional process control charting methodology. The described statistical business performance charting (SBPC) system can, for example, reduce firefighting when the approach replaces organizational goal-setting red-yellow-green scorecards, which often have no structured plan for making improvements. In addition, the methodology provides predictive performance statements. Donald Wheeler and Forrest have a difference of opinion about the need to transform data when a transformation makes physical sense. The reason for writing this article is to provide information on the reasoning for Forrest’s position. Hopefully this supplemental explanation will provide readers with enough insight so that they can make the best logical decision relative to considering data transformations or not.
