Using Lean Sigma to Develop Corporate Strategy

Strategic deployment along with some classical consulting techniques
to define existing issues, future state, vision and next mission (12
month plan) in stepping stone approach to the future state.Adam

The waste of doing the wrong things can be far greater than the
waste of doing the right things poorly. In my view, LSS in the broader
sense is critical to strategy execution.DLW – BPEX

Yes, I understood susan’s question. And actually, it was not
whether LSS could help develop strategy. She asked whether
anyone had any examples. I do not, so I did not respond to her
question.My post was in response to yours. It seemed to me that you were
suggesting that Lean and/or Six Sigma do not come into play until
“game time”, and that strategic planning does not lend itself to
those tools and principles. Strategic planning is a process just like
any other business process. The Six Sigma BOK includes it. And I
doubt many would claim ever to have experienced a waste-free
planning session.”The waste of doing the wrong things can be far greater than the
waste of doing the right things poorly.” By that I meant simply that
if Lean is mainly about reducing waste, what more important place
to apply it than at the top?”In my view, LSS in the broader sense is critical to strategy
execution.” Therefore, the principles of Lean and Six Sigma should
be applied from the beginning, with strategic planning being the
first step in strategy execution. However, many people do not view
LSS as extending beyond their initially narrower areas of Lead Time
reduction, SPC, etc. Taken broadly enough, they overlap a good
deal. That’s why “LSS” has become more commonly used.It is not surprising that susan is finding little information on
applying LSS to strategy development. I doubt that very many
managers and leaders really attempt it at that level. The process is
more like a project, it takes place infrequently, it can be harder to
define elements and metrics, and — unless the group is relying on
an outside facilitator with thick skin — who is going to manage
that process involving top executives in order to “lean it out”?DLW – BPEX

Les,I agree with you about being willing to sacrifice time during the
planning process in favor of solid results. The problem I have seen,
though, is that waste in the planning process can be more serious
than just lost time. Leadership gets hung up on the wording of a
Vision or a Mission Statement or a Value Proposition. They confuse
goals and objectives and tactics. They jump ahead too soon. Then
when it comes time to deploy, they hit dead ends.It seems a little like doing a “5 Why” and accepting a simple fact as
a cause, then trying to build on it. It’s a more insidious form of
waste.Anyway, good discussion.
DLW – BPEX

Looks as if we agree Mario; but watch out, Stan will ream you out for including your website link. It’s his job to make certain the policies of the forum are followed. Must be on a retainer from iSS.

Have you heard about two small companies…GE and Honeywell??  They use six sigma to drive their corporate strategy.
Any organization that has rolled out Six Sigma properly would do likewise.. there  are of course many examples of poorly implemented six sigma implementations sounds like you are familiar with these.

What nonsense. You must not understand corporate strategy.

No wonder our country is in such bad shape, if these are the kind of questions coming out of corporate America………………
Amazing

Hi Susan,
You probably know that Lean is based on approaches at Toyota.
About a year ago, Decisioneering held a conference in Denver, and one of the presentations was on the Strategic Deployment approach used at Toyota.
I have a copy of that presentation, if you’d like to email met [email protected] .
Best regards,Eric Maass, PhDDirector and Lead Master Black Belt, DFSSMotorola

Hello All, I haven’t submitted a post in awhile, but thought I would
take a look at what’s been going on in the world of six sigma. First
of all, I’m now a head manager for logistics at a worldwide
company for all of North America. I received by greenbelt and
blackbelt prior when I worked for Sony for 8 years. I’ve also since
received an MBA from the University of Kansas, the NCAA National
basketball champions and also have a BS in Aerospace engineering
from Purdue University.The question is a good one and interesting one to respond to. The
answer is no business outside of a consulting company starts with
6-Sigma. The responders are correct in that there are traditional
concepts of providing a value add to potential customers and then
tailoring business strategy to traditional strategic items as stated. However, there are companies that once established, look to how
they can integrate 6 sigma into their business as a tool to gain
some competitive advantages over other corporations. This was
the case with Motorola, GE, and Sony in the early days.The challenge is real in that if there is no 6-Sigma model, a great
deal of money and resource is required to set up training,
development, tracking, etc and there are many consultants that are
well off from this approach.The key focus of your company’s strategic approach in these tough
economic times is to drive waste out of your business. If your
company has established products and processes that don’t
require much evolution in the near term (for example, if you
manufacture household cleaning products for example), then you
need to model 6-sigma style projects into your business plan
around taking a process you do everyday and optimizing it to
reduce waste.On the other hand, if you manufacture cell phones or provide
services, or are a marketing based company like a Nike, your
options and fruits your looking to bear with 6 sigma are limited.I recommend that an overall business plan should look at
something unique and all business encompassing. There is some
brilliant work in organizational theory around a holonomic model.
Managers would be good to focus on creating a nimble
organization that can quickly adapt to the market environment and
change. 6-Sigma tools will help you optimize a process, but it is a
lot of wasted effort to optimize a process for producing an object
that won’t exist in the next few years for example. You want to
focus on optimizing your development processes, etc.Reference this website: http://www.emacassessments.com

What? A “deciphel” of Ken… What the heck is that? Did you mean “disciple”?
And “down the path of the hologram”? – does that mean following an illusion? Plenty of done that.
Dude, you needed to take some English classes along with the litany of other courses you listed.
AND, Susan asked about corporate strategy creation – where does any of your answer address that?

Who the hell is Ken MacKenzie/

Eric, thank you for taking the time to write this. I appreciate your kind comments and will make an effort to keep them in mind as I participate here.

That and most don’t understand the difference between strategy and
strategy execution.

true.
“That’s no moon, that’s a space station.   I have a bad feeling about this…”

“Lock S-Foils in attack position, May the force be with you”

Les If I want a reply from you, I’ll ask. If you don’t see the humor in it. Edited by Moderator.

Les-Why do you assume I/We who enjoy such trivial things as Star Wars are still living at home? Maybe we have kids or even Grand Kids, by which we entertain them with. Maybe we find little nuggets of comedy to share from it that keep us from going completely insane while answering such mundane and often just plane stupid questions. Maybe by the end of the week I’ll get back to your level and begin some Dora the Explorer jokes for ya.
 

Swiper, no swiping…
Swiper, no swiping…
Swiper, no swiping!
yeah!

He is trying to impress us. Can’t be promoting, everyone knows the
good six sigma people are not at Motorola.

Ken MacKenzie is a phD who recently retired from the University of
Kansas. He is the author of many publications and has studied the
structures and Organizational models of business for most of his
entire career. His breakthrough research has been published and has
spawned others to validate his findings.