combination of two time-tested programs for achieving operational excellence in major US companies is helping leaders discover innovation opportunities and promote a company-wide culture with an inclination toward innovation. Called a lean Six Sigma approach or sometimes just Six Sigma, such a program, if focused not just on efficiency but also on growth, can serve as a foundation for innovation throughout an organization. Simply put, such a lean Six Sigma program is not just about doing things better, it is a way of doing better things. Used effectively it can enhance innovations in products, services, markets and even a company's underlying business model, as well as improve operations.Recently consultants from the IBM Operations Strategy Consulting Practice and the IBM Institute for Business Value analyzed the innovation records of several leading companies that have implemented operations strategies based on lean Six Sigma management techniques. Using this approach, the companies have established disciplined working environments focused on customer needs, detailed data analysis and facts, not theories. Over the past five years, some companies have achieved impressive results.For example, at Caterpillar Inc., stagnant revenue growth prompted the company to undertake a massive transformation in January 2001. Note that Caterpillar launched its initiative before the term ''lean Six Sigma'' came into common use and continues to refer to the methodology as ''Six Sigma.'' Guided by this method, the company developed a strategic vision that outlined a roadmap for change based on fact-based analysis. Caterpillar's ongoing initiative also led to product innovations, such as its phenomenally successful low-emissions diesel engine, and to redesigned processes, including a streamlined supply chain. By 2005, revenues had grown by 80 percent.An analysis of Caterpillar and other companies that used lean Six Sigma programs to achieve broad-based innovation and superior financial performance identified several distinguishing characteristics of their approaches that set them apart from those with a traditional operational improvement mindset. Successful innovators had:B An innovation vision based on factual customer and market insights. Leaders crafted a compelling vision based on a keen understanding of market demands and their own capabilities. Their objectives were explicit and few in number to enable focus.B Leadership committed to perpetual innovation. CEOs and business unit leaders played active, enthusiastic roles. They were clearly committed to making an indelible organizational change, not just launching another initiative.B Alignment across the extended enterprise. The strategic innovation vision was used as a unifying force to align efforts in disparate business units and influence supplier and customer relationships.
To ensure the success of a Six Sigma process improvement effort, there are five critical steps to take: The company's top leaders must champion the undertaking. Six Sigma Knowledge and work practices must cascade down the organization. The active support and engagement of all business process owners in Six Sigma project implementation down the line must be enlisted. Black Belts must be selected on the basis of competencies necessary for the job. Black Belt training must address the needs of the individuals as well as the requirements of the job. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This article is an autoethnographic account of my experience of becoming a working-class academic. I have found that, in addition to overcoming structural inequalities, ‘escaping’ a working-class home to seek a new life in a strange world has required the construction of a new identity that is neither entirely ‘academic’ nor entirely ‘working-class’. I discuss my perspective on class privilege and inequality through my experience of being part of a group of people who tend to exist in academia as invisible individuals. I have written this article as a practical exercise that contributes to increasing this visibility because, by becoming a more visible and collective community, it is possible to challenge existing notions of what it means to be working-class, to be an academic or to be both.
Although specific opportunities for improvement in organizations are easily identified through a variety of assessment techniques, the successful development and execution of action plans to address these opportunities is where most organizations falter. This article provides a simplified, yet comprehensive project management or action item framework that can be adapted to any situation or condition in an organization that requires a structured approach to corrective action. Both short‐term and long‐range planning efforts can be supported by the framework. Its primary benefits are the inclusion of measurements for success and the assignment of accountability for each step of the plan. It can of course be supplemented with more formal project management techniques and tools including Gantt, PERT and CPM methodologies.
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