process improvement
Every high performing organization is focused on how to operate “better, faster, cheaper”, which in the beginning, usually requires a significant culture change. Pushback often comes from individuals who claim “I’ve been doing it this way for my entire career, why should I change now?” This type of mentality is common and can be difficult to overcome. While it may be easier to remain in your comfort zone, high performing organizations are constantly seeking to push the limits of process excellence to transform work processes to deliver a better result. The end outcome is to deliver the highest quality service not only to the external customer, but to the internal customers that need to work together to make it all come to life. Overcoming cultural resistance and the “flavor of the month” mentality is difficult, especially if failed initiatives are current and often. When organizations are scarred from past initiatives, introducing new organizational initiatives may present many new challenges. These challenges are the result of significant change and usually cause tension. In that sense, organizations can be thought of as large muscle. Working out a muscle creates tension, but with time and persistence, the muscle becomes stronger. Organizations that work together through tough problems that make people think, often experience greater levels of success than those that remain at the status quo. Our expertise in transforming and redesigning processes for maximum efficiency, effectiveness and overall quality has contributed to dramatic reductions in cycle time, quality and cost savings in numerous organizations worldwide. A successful deployment is truly based on a culture driven by excellence and quality.

lean six sigma
Lean and Six Sigma are often integrated to provide a comprehensive toolset for organizations to solve problems and improve process performance. Some key points to think about:

• How do I get my senior leadership on board? Is it possible to create a grass roots effort?
• What do I do in regards to training? Should I become a White, Yellow, Green or Black Belt?
• How do I effectively select and mobilize leaders to sustain a deployment?
• How to I develop a deployment plan rooted in strategy that creates lasting change and achieves dramatic results?
  

voice of the customer
The customer is the most important part of any process. Organizations that live by continuous improvement are focused on flowing the service or product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection. Some key points to think about:

• How do I understand what my customer actually wants? Do they even know what they want?
• What should I do to effectively collect customer feedback data?
• How do I integrate the customer into my process improvement efforts?