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The world of Hoshin planning, also known as Hoshin Kanri or more simply as policy deployment, is often considered one of the world’s foremost frameworks for tying together the short-term actions of an organization and its long-term goals. If this sounds pretty simple, it’s because it’s all pretty clear how it should work, but making […]

The world of cybersecurity and data management rarely stays still, but that doesn’t stop some organizations from relying on large, sweeping initiatives, usually following an audit. This might see organizations making changes based on a quarterly audit, rolling out tools gradually, and seldom taking the time to practice breach or incident response. That’s fine for […]

It won’t come as any surprise to learn that your organization, like hundreds of thousands of others, has the primary goal of making a profit. Whether it’s your business and your goal, or that of individuals who are several levels above you on the hierarchy ladder, generating profits is what’s going to help a company […]

In today’s fast-paced environment, it doesn’t matter if you are the head of an IT desk or someone who works in customer support. Incidents can and will happen. Whether it’s a system crash that impacts inventory management or an angry customer call over a refund or return, these things can snowball and escalate if they […]

Data is everything for a Six Sigma project. Before you can define a problem, analyze root causes, or confirm that improvements are taking hold, you need actionable data from a measurement system. Reliable numbers aren’t just a nice thing to have, but an expectation if you’re looking to have any effort take off. As such, […]

Even the most well-conceived strategies can fall short without proper execution. Across many industries, leaders spend months or years crafting bold plans, only to see those fade away in the face of daily operations. Why does this happen? There is a persistent execution gap, where organizational strategy fails to connect with the activities that drive […]

Recently, many organizations have started name-dropping Lean, with the notion being that it helps to reduce cycle times, lowers inventory levels, and leads to improved throughput as a matter of course. However, these organizations aren’t sticking to the principles and teaching, and as such, fail to sustain gains or deliver value to customers time and […]

Security operations centers (SOC) are under a great deal of pressure. Threats continue to evolve and change, with attacks growing more sophisticated, and bad actors getting more refined in their deployment of such attacks. Despite the prevalence of cutting-edge tools and skilled, trained analysts, many security operations centers will struggle with dealing with inefficient practices […]

Imagine for a moment that you’re in the middle of a major presentation to stakeholders. The dashboard you’re looking to showcase goes dark. Something your team has spent months tuning up to reduce human error has become the point of failure. Automation, as you’ve intended it, isn’t functioning as it should. A bot is churning […]

When looking at modern markets, speed is relentless. Customer demand means shorter development cycles, faster product launches, and fierce competition. That said, customers expect quality as well, not just speed. In turn, this has led to organizations seeing reliability and performance soar. The tension found between speed and quality isn’t a paradox, but rather a […]

In today’s fast-paced business world, there is no shortcut for effective project management, and to say that it’s crucial for success would be an understatement. It’s for this reason that there are multiple business methodologies on the market that organizations, large and small, are turning to to shore up business practices and increase profits. One […]

For modern manufacturing, efficiency and precision are just part of the equation when it comes to profitability. That said, despite the technologically advanced production environments we see in manufacturing, defects and rework are still a pressing concern. Both can erode profit margins, delay deliveries, and test customer trust. As such, manufacturers are asking themselves what […]

Incremental and continuous improvement is the backbone of methodologies like Lean, Six Sigma, and even standalone Kaizen implementations. These methodologies hone in on minimizing waste, improving quality, and refining processes over time. Such an approach works well, especially if an organization is working with an otherwise mature, effective system. What happens when continuous improvement doesn’t […]

The promise of AI revolutionizing the modern workplace is a rather seductive one. You feed it your data, find patterns that might have been missed, and optimize your decisions based on said findings. You might even find the ability to automate those processes, freeing up valuable man-hours for other work. For the most part, this […]

As the end of the year approaches, it won’t come as any surprise to learn that businesses all over the world are donating lots of time to strategic planning for the next year. These plans are part of critical efforts, especially in a volatile economy, to look at how to break through any ceilings that […]

Have you wondered how some of the best-known startups have scaled up so efficiently? There is a pretty good answer to this question, and it’s generally through Lean Methodology. Companies that have embraced this methodology worldwide have given rise to a whole new way for entrepreneurs to scale their businesses early in their development. Whether […]

Compliance is a central part of any business’s operations, especially given how highly regulated the landscape is today. As a strategic necessity, organizations are facing increasing pressure to show transparency, accuracy, and fit within the regulatory requirements necessary, regardless of whether they’re in finance, healthcare, public services, or any other sector. Adhering to these compliance […]

When calculating the business case for a Six Sigma project, the cost of poor quality (COPQ), which is the cost caused by producing defects, is a commonly used concept. Within the total amount of quality cost, however, COPQ represents only a certain proportion. Costs do not result from only producing and fixing failures; […]

A missed deadline often is a symptom of a bigger problem centered around planning, communication, or execution. Regardless of your organization’s industry, whether you’re in software development or manufacturing, delays erode stakeholder confidence and increase costs. As such, the challenge lies in aligning multiple teams with dynamic requirements under tight delivery windows. Scrum, an Agile […]

It should go without saying that in the grand scheme of corporate life, whether your business is big or small, innovation can be your lifeblood. Whether it’s standing out from the competition or continuing to innovate on a product customers already love, there is so much to be said about consistently coming up […]

Few things will send a customer to the competition faster than waiting. Whether it’s a client on hold with customer support, someone waiting on a delivery, or even a patient sitting in a doctor’s office, waiting represents one thing: inefficiency. The modern era is a fast-paced, high-tempo environment, and expectations are shaped by […]

Few industries require the same sort of precision, efficiency, and need for continuous improvement as automotive manufacturing. Building vehicles at any sort of scale is a massive undertaking involving thousands of parts, a network of suppliers, and assembly lines running around the clock. The global market isn’t exactly forgiving when it comes to […]

One of the most popular tools in corporate arsenals for looking at how everything is working is Value Stream Mapping. Basically, a way to diagram every step that is involved in bringing something to market, it has quickly become fundamental in helping organizations, large and small, identify and eliminate all kinds of waste. […]

No matter what type of business you run and who your customers are, anything you can do to increase overall customer satisfaction is going to work in your favor. Whether it’s delivering faster, offering increased product reliability, or simply providing customer service, all of these can lead to increased loyalty and, in return, […]

Manufacturers are facing uncertain economic conditions, which result in a paradoxical problem: costs are rising across the board, but customers haven’t tempered their expectations when it comes to quality, price, and delivery speed. Manufacturers have a fair amount of pressure on them these days, and the usual standbys of cutting corners through the […]

The best news you can scream about if you are in business is when you have a clear vision of where you want the company to go and how you want to get there. The problem is that even the clearest vision might fail if you don’t have the right amount of planning […]

In the rapidly evolving world of cybersecurity, threat detection has become a vital need and a persistent challenge. Companies face a deluge of unrelenting alerts with intrusion detection systems and endpoint monitoring solutions, creating an environment that makes it difficult to distinguish real threats from false positives. False positives act as a drain […]

In the world of Six Sigma, you have a strategy and methodology that have helped countless businesses grow and achieve more success than they ever thought possible. As one of the best-known quality improvement methodologies, Six Sigma is arguably one of the most common terms in the world of process management. Of course, […]

In today’s enterprise environment, IT security isn’t a technical function. Instead, it is a critical business enabler. That said, some organizations struggle with aligning cybersecurity initiatives with long-term goals. Misallocated resources, fragmented teams, and missed opportunities are just a handful of the symptoms that result from this misalignment. Hoshin Kanri, a structured planning […]

DevSecOps is built around the principles of speed, automation, and iteration, resulting in a flexible security environment. You can take the standard operations done under DevSecOps and create a far more powerful and versatile hybridized approach by implementing tools, principles, and concepts from Six Sigma. While the industry is still focused on shifting […]

One of the most important lessons anyone can pick up in the business world is that having an efficient warehouse and inventory management system is a strong sign of success. On the flip side, if your inventory system is running inefficiently, it likely means you are leaving money on the table and have […]

Waiting weeks for a simple approval is just one example of how red tape and unnecessary procedures stifle productivity. That isn’t to say that bureaucracy is the bane of all businesses, but being able to cut through the fat and get the work done is vital for maintaining efficiency. Delays cost time, money, […]

When considering the various business methodologies available today, you have the option to implement Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, and Hoshin Kanri. The latter is quickly becoming one of the most popular, having originated in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s. It’s quickly become a popular choice over […]

If you’re new to the business world, you might see the term Six Sigma bandied about. You’ll see certifications, job postings, and even articles espousing the methodology and ways to make improvements to workflows. That said, if you’re fresh to the concept, it can seem somewhat daunting at first glance. Six Sigma itself […]

Organizational culture is the very foundation of your services, goods, and other outputs. As such, embracing a culture that prides itself on continuous improvement isn’t just a good idea, but a vital one. These are rarely something that springs up naturally as you build a business, but something that has to be encouraged […]

It should go without saying that there are fans of both Lean and Agile in manufacturing, and for all the right reasons. Both of these business processes are well-loved in various circles for reasons that have been shown to work across hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses over the past few decades. The […]

Theory of Constraints vs. Lean: what’s better for optimizing processes and increasing profitability? I’ll admit that these are two wholly distinct and separate methodologies for use in any workplace. That said, you’ll often find some crossover between the two, especially where the notion of process improvement comes into play. Understanding the synergy and more varied […]

At any moment in time in business when you are looking for a business philosophy that can help you figure out how to enact a strategy, Hoshin Kanri has to be at or near the top of any list. When you think about this process, try to imagine back to when you were […]

Modern cybersecurity practices require speed, something that traditional ways of managing departments like Waterfall won’t accommodate. However, by utilizing Agile sprints and other tools from the methodology, you can set a rapid cadence that is focused on security, stability, and minimizing downtime. Further, you can make it so your security team is constantly […]

We often think of Six Sigma as the domain for manufacturing, goods, services, and so forth. In recent years, we’ve seen a shift in this line of thinking, which sees the methodology being used across some rather interesting industries. Education isn’t what comes to most people’s minds when it comes to the reduction […]

When you think of any industry that has one of the most frustrating experiences for customers that is in desperate need of change, airline travel is one of them. The stress of getting to the airport early and waiting in line at security, only to wait in line for food, only to again […]

Making use of Hoshin Kanri is one way that businesses can fully align their workflows with long-term strategic goals. This is vital for any organization, as having targets to reach is always going to benefit any company. That said, little gets said when it comes down to how Hoshin Kanri can benefit cross-functional […]

One of the biggest considerations for any medical facility is not just how to get patients seen with care, but how to get them in and out as fast as possible. The good news is that increasing patient flow isn’t mutually exclusive with patient care; it’s more about helping patients get seen as […]

Whether it’s from faulty implementation, the prevalence of waste, or even just shifting priorities, processes can slip out of spec with ease. When you don’t have the means to incrementally improve things, you aren’t left with many options. Sure, you can try to kitbash an ad-hoc solution and hope for the best, but […]

Just because you’ve got a slew of customer complaints doesn’t mean things are hopeless. Obviously, something needs to change in how you’re conducting daily operations. You can take gradual steps toward operational excellence, however. You might already be sticking to methodologies like Lean and Six Sigma, but you just need the right sort […]

In the world of Six Sigma, you might think it’s become a catch-all that can help just about every industry make organization-wide improvements. For the most part, if you do believe this, you wouldn’t be wrong, but in the case of Six Sigma, nowhere is this more true than in the manufacturing industry, […]

Drifting quality isn’t a reason to panic. It is only natural that things drift out of spec without care and consideration placed toward them. If you’re not engaging in good practices, it will happen. Thankfully, you don’t have to let things drift out of spec too far, as you can apply some handy […]

It’s an unfortunate reality that most businesses must contend with: cybersecurity threats and online attacks are very real. This very reality has shown to be a real risk, as there have been countless hacks of businesses, large and small, that show the very real gaps in cybersecurity that can jeopardize the livelihood of […]

Agile and cybersecurity go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Traditionally, cybersecurity practices are largely reactive, siloed off from the rest of the company. Now, as we’ve seen with recent data breaches and incidents over the last decade, this isn’t the best way of handling things. In reality, the ideal of a cybersecurity […]

Ably handling incident response is what separates great security teams from mediocre ones. We live in a fast-paced world, and digital threats are arising every day. If you stay stagnant, you risk the whole of your organization’s infrastructure. The best security teams are making use of cycles of continuous improvement to prepare for […]