Going Beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard

The intent of the article “Pyramid Power” (June 2009 issue of Quality Progress) is good in that effort is given to link Lean Six Sigma projects to enterprise metrics and Theory of Constraints (TOC) identifying the bottleneck; however, let’s examine this 6TOC model further and assess enhancements to the objective. Continue reading →

Question: How would I know that the Balanced Scorecard Mechanism is working and working fine? How would you a measure the performance of the tool. I am not talking about the measures inside the scorecard that an organization has build and is monitoring now. The second question is specifically seeking an answer on whether it is prudent to just measure results (end deliverables/KPIs) or one should also look into measuring the efforts that are going in to achieve the end goals. Continue reading →

It is important to create scorecards and dashboards that lead to the most appropriate activities so that the business as a whole has long-lasting financial benefits (As Describe in the Article Below). However, created corporate performance measures can lead to unhealthy behaviors that can become very destructive, as we are now experiencing in our economic crisis. Continue reading →

The output from a system is a function of the whole system, not just individual processes. When the system is viewed as a whole, one realizes that the output is a function of the weakest link. This is the constraint. If care is not exercised, we can be focusing on a subsystem that, even though improved, does not impact the overall system output. Continue reading →

Many are finding that their Lean Six Sigma and/or Lean deployments stalling out and Black Belts/Master Black Belts being laid off. Why? Lean Six Sigma is not a business system. Often projects are in silos and the enterprise as a whole is not experiencing the claimed financial benefits of projects. Project selection with traditional Lean Six Sigma and Lean kaizen events is a push for project creation; i.e., let’s brainstorm for projects that we will be undertaking – perhaps someone going through training next week. Continue reading →