Process Improvement Department Names

Borrowing from Larry the Cable Guy –
The “Git er Dun” Group

I was faced with that a few years ago when I was hired to implement a Lean Six Sigma program at my company.  We chose Performance Improvement, hence I am the Director-Performance Improvement.  I tried to keep it as short as we could.   Hope it helps.

Hi Vinnie,
While I was working with the US Navy on the deployment of their Lean Six Sigma initiative they too struggled with the same question. They too an interesting approach, they selected an action phrase similar to the fancy names they assign to wartime programs. The Navy business was NAVAIR which stands for the Navy Aviation. The deployment team understood that the #1 reason the Lean Six Sigma group was forming was so they could help accelerate the their readiness by having the right number of planes in the right place and ready to defend the country from its enemies. So they picked AirSpeed.
Perhaps you can hold a similar contest with your team – and pick that action word that will truly represent the reason you exist.
While operational excellence works – I’m sure you and your team can come up with something a little more creative and sexy!
Best wishes,
Steven Bonacorsi
Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt

In the spirit of “Truth in Advertisement”….
 
How do you summarize?
 
“We’ll come into your department, disrupt your employees, tell you something you already know but are to busy to do anything about it, charge you an arm and a leg and be gone before any failure blame can occur”
 
Stevo
 
Ps.  I feel it’s going to be a dark day for Stevo.

Vinnie,
My advice would be to NOT start or name a new department. Process Improvement is everyone in the company’s resposibility, not a department. As soon as you make a department it will be become a them vs. us type situation. The “marketing” departments faced the same issue 50 years ago and some still do today.
Don’t misunderstand me. You do need to place PI experts throuout your company, but not a department. A top executive (e.g., VP manufacturing, CMO or CEO) should monitor and control their efforts in making good numbers go up and bad numbers go down, but not a department. And those people should be resposible for choosing the numbers and be responsible for making sure that happens using their PI resources.
Good Luck,
Dr. Scott

If you make it a “department”, “initiative”, or “team”, then call it what it is:  “OVERHEAD”;  because you will be the first thing to go when corporate tells your site to make cuts. 
 

NILFLO
 

Stevo,
There is always a right and wrong way of doing things. Unfortunately for you and others, you seem to have too much experience with the wrong way. Let me know if I can enlighten you about the right way to make good numbers go up and bad numbers go down.
Dr. Scott