ARTICLES (INTERNET)

Have you ever looked at how quality, health, safety and environmental (QHSE) objectives can improve business functions and financials? This article by Forrest dives into the example of Green Initiatives to show the validity and importance of QHSE improvements for organizations including practical applications.

Hoshin kanri, also called hoshin planning or policy deployment, is a technique that can establish a structure for implementing executive-defined strategies. However, the wording of strategic statements can lead to executions that are very team dependent. In addition, these statements can also lead to activities that are not healthy for the organization as a whole. In this article, Forrest Breyfogle will show how creating and executing strategic planning statements also can contribute to a company’s decline.

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.