Business Management System IEE Book Foreword

This business management system IEE book foreword by Bob Ashenbrenner summarizes the benefits that he sees with the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) methodology described in this book, which will be later launch by Amazon.

9-Step Integrated Enterprise Excellence Business Management System

This book’s planned title is Business Management System: Discovery of Integrated Enterprise Excellence.

This book describes in a novel-book format how companies can benefit from the 9-step IEE business management system.

Business Management System IEE Book Foreword - IEE roadmap

Foreword:  Business Management System: Discovery of Integrated Enterprise Excellence …. Bob Ashenbrenner

A friend who is a finance executive at a semiconductor company told me of a cost-cutting initiative that was handed down from upper management: lessen costs this quarter. His functional area was the fabrication (fab) line, and the building’s air conditioner (AC) was set at 71.3 degrees Fahrenheit (F). The plant was in Texas, so he asked the plant engineers about raising the temperature a couple of degrees to save some money. They immediately called a meeting and showed him yield curves: for every 0.1 degree F change, there would be a drop in yield at the factory. The cost of the yield drop would far outpace the savings in AC cost. It is not unusual for semiconductor fabs to understand their processes that well, with this degree of precision. Well, it turns out that there are tools for your business that can deliver real insights into exactly what your processes can deliver, even if your business seems far from semiconductor fabrication. Healthcare, shampoo production, computers, services companies and virtually any other for-profit and non-profit organization, including school districts and government agencies.

You’ve used tools your whole life, they have enabled you to do things better or have even enabled results that would be otherwise impossible. You’ve used them in your home shop and your professional career. Sometimes tools are physical things, other times they are software-based.

And yet, many executives who have risen to their level based on their skillful use of tools often lead their organizations based on what seems right, what others have done and lots of digging through data and reports to try to figure out what is really happening in their business. When the inevitable frustrations set in, firefighting happens, pressure is added, and results are tentative at best. The core of the problem is the lack of effective tools for executives to understand the underlying capabilities of their processes and the steps that are needed to predictably improve those processes.

Forrest Breyfogle, in his Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system, provides the tools every executive needs. Forrest has spent the better part of his career studying how business processes operate and which various tools and techniques work and the limitations of each. He now offers a structured approach that can be used company-wide to identify and drive actions that get results. In this book, he introduces these concepts in a novel format. The four golfing buddies share insights from their respective industries and the issues they face, with a backdrop of golf to help make these concepts more accessible. This lets Forrest weave in the IEE concepts and show how lesser techniques fail executives. Later in the book, he brings home many of these concepts when one of the characters deals with a medical emergency.

So why not just publish a book that details these IEE techniques? Well, Forrest Breyfogle has written several books on various aspects of the topic. The first book, Implementing Six Sigma was initially published in 1999 has been considered by many as a definitive book on the implementation of Lean Six Sigma concepts and used as a textbook in many universities. Several other later published books provide the details of implementing IEE.

But this book is needed because too many executives don’t understand that they need tools to run their organizations. They think whatever happens to be in place, like red-yellow-green scorecards are fine. They are wrong. To produce the best results, one needs the best tools and the skills to use those tools appropriately and expertly. That brings the challenge of educating many top executives of a company about these tools in an accessible way. A way that talks about challenges in different industries that every executive will identify with, both the frustrations with ineffective tools and with poor results. Forrest then shows the successes that can be had by IEE solutions.

I’ve worked at two companies two decades apart that each set the record for fastest growth into the Fortune 500. Both were primarily engineering and manufacturing focused at the time. Many of the top performers started as engineers before they advanced to upper management. What became a common occurrence would be that these engineers, masters of rigorous technique and expert users of tools, wanted to “wing it” as managers. Many of these managers failed in their new roles – they had been up-and-comers as they advanced through the technical ranks but petered out when they reached management. They were just as smart as before they were promoted but were placed into a role without clear tools to analyze and drive their teams.

This book is that vehicle to help many in your organization understand that they need to use the right tools to improve in their area of responsibility, just like they used the most effective tools when they started their careers.

For the CEO, for the General Managers and Senior VPs and the division leaders in any organization, these tools bring clarity to where things stand and mechanisms to drive the right, most efficient behaviors to improve their core processes.

Once you’ve read this book, you’ll want to share it, in written or audio form, to help them understand and get excited about how IEE techniques can improve their companies while lowering the stresses of firefighting and inadequate results.

Imagine thoroughly understanding what your processes are capable of, and the steps needed to address process improvement. Imagine knowing that if your people are presenting this information to you, it means that they are productively involved with analyzing and improving processes. You’ll have a company that regularly improves, can see those results in real gains, and has operational productivity. And as a leader, you’ll develop a culture based on objective analysis and tangible results.

IEE is the system that you need, the tools that get results. Enjoy this book, and share it.

 

Bob Ashenbrenner

President

Durable Mobility Technologies, LLC

 

Purchasing a Book for $0.99

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