Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Vol. III Improvement Project Execution: A Management and Black Belt Guide for Going Beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard Review

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(More customer reviews)Actually, this is the fourth of a four-volume set of books written by Forrest Breyfogle III, with the first volume (The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System: An Enhanced, Unified Approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning, and Business Improvement) providing an overview on the other three. Briefly, the IEE system is set of management techniques that when effectively implemented improve an organization's measurement and improvement system so that there is an increase in predictable and sustainable bottom-line benefits. The IEE system embeds a set of best practices derived from the strengths of past systems--applying structured metrics and a no nonsense roadmap to initiate process improvement and achieve substantial benefits. IEE takes Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard to the next level in the pursuit of enterprise excellence.

In two earlier works that I read and then reviewed, Implementing Six Sigma, Second Edition: Smarter Solutions Using Statistical Methods (2003) and Managing Six Sigma: A Practical Guide to Understanding, Assessing, and Implementing the Strategy That Yields Bottom-Line Success (2000) co-authored with James Cupello and Becki Meadows, Breyfogle indicates that he is a pragmatic optimist in that he is determined to know what does and does not work (also why and why not) but he also believes that all human initiatives can be improved. He seems driven to share everything he has learned with as many people as possible. In my opinion, that is why his explanations are so specific and so thorough as well as anchored in real-world situations.

This book offers an excellent case in point.Apparently writing primarily for the individual who aspires to develop superior skills and competence in process improvement project management, Breyfogle organizes his material with meticulous care within seven Parts: Integrated Enterprise Management System and E-DMAIC (i.e. Enterprise Process Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control), Improvement Project Roadmap: Define Phase, Improvement Project Roadmap: Measure Phase, Improvement Project Roadmap: Analyze Phase, Improvement Project Roadmap: Improve Phase, Improvement Project Roadmap: Control Phase, and Appendix in which seven are provided (Infrastructure, Six Sigma Metrics Article, Creating Effective Presentations, P-DMAIC Execution Roadmap and Selected Drill Downs, P-DMAIC Execution Toll Gate Check Sheets, Implementation of Six Sigma (Breyfogle 2003) Supplemental Material, and Reference Tables) followed by a Glossary and References.

Breyfogle serves several functions in this as well as in each of the other three volumes in the IEE series. First, as a geographer, he is intimately familiar with the territory that his reader is about to explore. Also, as a cultural anthropologist, he fully understands the nature and extent of probably barriers, challenges, and (yes) perils that await once the process (i.e. "discovery journey") has begun. Moreover, as a cartographer and navigator, he can assist with formulating or revising all manner of "roadmaps" that will enable his reader (i.e. the "traveler") to proceed safely in a timely manner. Finally, as an adviser, he is well-qualified to provide counsel when (inevitably) decisions about adjustments, modifications, and even "detours" must be made.

In an article published last week (April 10, 2009), Breyfogle asserts that, relative to our financial crisis, "there seems to be an elephant in the room that is being avoided. It seems like much discussion about the financial crisis is focusing on greed and use of process improvement activities such tools as Lean and Six Sigma. There is also blog discussion by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) about how the business schools teachings are part of the problem. The real question that should be addressed is what should be done differently?" He acknowledges that there are several "elephant in the room" business management governance policies that nobody seems to openly talk about. For example, red--yellow-green scorecards that permit, indeed enable playing games with the numbers. Also, addition table of numbers, stacked bar charts, and pie charts are not leading to actions that truly fix problems and make long-lasting improvements. "Our business management system is broken and needs re-invention - NOW! What is needed is a business management system that integrates healthy policy creation with scorecards, strategic planning, business improvement efforts and control. A business management governance system that addresses these needs is the 9-step business system of the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE)."

Of course, everything any decision-makers need to know and understand about this system is provided in the four-volume series. Breyfogle also invites his reader to check out the resources available at http://www.smartersolutions.com/blog/forrestbreyfogle/?p=711.Obviously, it remains for others to decide to what extent will guide and inform their own efforts to devise or reinvent their business management system but I do presume to suggest that it is worthy of their careful consideration.

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Product Description:
A Lean Six Sigma deployment Master Black Belt, Black Belt, or Green Belt can benefit immensely from a step-by-step Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (P-DMAIC) project-execution-roadmap, where Lean and Six Sigma tools are truly integrated for effective problem solving.The P-DMAIC roadmap needs to truly integrate both statistical and non-statistical tools, going beyond traditional Lean Six Sigma techniques.

In addition, the P-DMAIC project management roadmap needs to have a 30,000-foot-level process control system that assesses process stability/predictability so that special-cause variability is truly separated from common-cause variability.For predictable processes, a system process capability statement is needed that is expressed in easy-to-understand terms; e.g., the process has been predictable for the last 38 weeks and unless something changes we expect to have a future non-conformance rate of approximately 2.3%.

The 30,000-foot-level project/operation metric improvement needs are to lead the practitioner through the DMAIC project execution roadmap to the most appropriate tools for timely-positive-project success. For example, a detailed P-DMAIC roadmap needs to guide both the novice and expert to appropriate Lean and other tools for lead time and WIP 30,000-foot-level metric improvement needs. Kaizen events and other Lean activities need to have improve-phase DMAIC roadmap whole-enterprise-beneficial prescription. A P-DMAIC roadmap needs to orchestrate Lean activities with statistical analytical and non-statistical tools such as design of experiments (DOE) and plan-do-check-act (PDCA) for process analysis and improvement; i.e., a quality control management and operational system for long-lasting organizational benefits.

This volume describes IEE benefits and its measurement techniques providing a detailed step-by-step Project Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (P-DMAIC) roadmap, which has a true integration of Six Sigma and Lean tools.

The IEE system is a set of management techniques that embeds best practices derived from the strengths of past systems - applying structured metrics and a no nonsense road-map to initiate process improvement and achieve predictable and sustainable bottom-line benefits.

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