On the manufacturing shop floor, the principle of "value comes from the production of parts rather than charts" crucially applies when using practical statistical process control (SPC). The production worker should need to enter only a sample's measurements to get immediately actionable information as to whether corrective action (e.g., as defined by a control plan's reaction plan) is necessary for an out-of-control situation, and should not have to perform any calculations, draw control charts, or use sophisticated statistical software. This book's key benefit for readers consists of spreadsheet-deployable solutions with all the mathematical precision of a vernier along with the simplicity of a stone ax. Traditional SPC relies on the assumption that sufficient data are available with which to estimate the process parameters and set suitable control limits. Many practical applications involve, however, short production runs for which no process history is available. There are nonetheless tested and practical control methods such as PRE-Control and short-run SPC that use the product specifications to set appropriate limits. PRE-Control relies solely on the specification limits while short-run SPC starts with the assumption that the process is capable-that is, at least a 4-sigma process, and works from there to set control limits. Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts also can be used for this purpose. Specialized charts can also track multiple part characteristics, and parts with different specifications, simultaneously. This is often useful, for example, where the same tool is engaged in mixed-model production. Readers will be able to deploy practical and simple control charts for production runs for which no prior history is available and control the processes until enough data accumulate to enable the traditional methods (assuming it ever does). They will be able to track multiple product features with different specifications and also control mixed-model applications in which a tool generates very short runs of parts with different specifications. The methods will not require software beyond readily available spreadsheets, nor will they require specialized tables that are not widely available. Process owners and quality engineers will be able to perform all supporting calculations in Microsoft Excel, and without the need for advanced software.

Digital Twin for Smart Manufacturing: Emerging Approaches and Applications provides detailed descriptions on how to integrate and optimize novel digital technologies for smart manufacturing. The book discusses digital twins, which combine the industrial internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning and software analytics with spatial network graphs to create living digital simulation models that update and change as their physical counterparts change. In addition, they provide an effective way to integrate technologies like cyber-physical systems into a smart manufacturing system, potentially optimizing the entire business process and operating procedure of the manufacturing firm. Drawing on the latest research, the book addresses the topics and technologies key to successful implementation of a smart manufacturing system, including augmented and virtual reality, big data and energy management. Broader subjects such as additive manufacturing and robotics are also covered in this context, covering every aspect of production.

• Provides a comprehensive overview of luxury brand management from a sustainability perspective, using cases and examples to demonstrate how sustainability practices can be embedded into the product and applied to existing luxury brands. • Each chapter includes real life case studies from both well-known international brands and boutique luxury start-ups. • Designed as a core or recommended text for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate Luxury Fashion Management and Luxury Brand Management courses.

The demand and supply chain planning process for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers has evolved over the years. It has gone from a disjointed, unconnected, slow, inaccurate, fairly manual set of processes to an integrated, timely process enabled by the use and coordination of highly trained people, lean, agile processes, and cutting-edge technology. To make this set of processes work effectively, one has to fully understand and appreciate that there is an "art and science" aspect to the process which can take years of education and experience to fully understand. Essentially, this book will offer the reader a chance to fully understand the interconnected set of processes in a "best-practice" application. Furthermore, examples and cases will be used to illustrate its practical application in today's complex global supply chain. In addition, readers will understand and be able to apply and articulate the concepts, tools, and techniques used in the efficient supply of goods and services in today's changing global economy. It will help them to learn how businesses, through their supply chain, work both internally and with their trading partners - both upstream and downstream - to build strong relationships and integrate demand and supply planning activities across the supply chain to deliver customer value efficiently and effectively. They will learn about the tools and technologies enabling integration, and the critical drivers and key metrics of supply chain performance.

* A fully comprehensive guide to the entire supply chain management process as applied specifically to the fashion industry * Each chapter is complemented by an in-depth case study from a relevant global organization, alongside pedagogy to aid student comprehension, including quizzes, end-of-chapter activities, and role play scenarios. Online resources include chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides and a test bank. * Designed as a core textbook for Fashion Supply Chain and Operations Management modules at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Why Study Supervision? This book presents two compelling reasons to study supervision and supervisory leadership: Influential Position: Supervisors exert considerable influence on organizational settings. Supervisors have been schooled, developed, and trained for their responsibilities. They can function more effectively than if they learn through informal, sometimes haphazard means. It thus pays to learn about supervision because supervisors can influence how efficiently and effectively their organization functions. Career Path: Many career paths lead to supervision. Supervisors are everywhere. Supervisors are teachers, doctors, accountants, lawyers, plumbers, and electricians. If you aspire to advance within your occupation, you may find that one career path leads to supervision. Preparing for supervisory responsibilities can prepare you for advancement. You may thus have a personal stake – your own future – in learning about what supervisors do and how they do it. In addition, this book: Provides strategies for building solid relationships with team members. Uses positivity as a foundational practice to lead and encourage other employees. Provides guidelines on how to hold employees accountable and set high expectations. Presents strategies to engage, coach, and develop employees by creating a positive environment to influence attitudes and behaviors. Offers various approaches for managing time and increasing productivity.

Having a team that knows how to adapt and innovate quickly can make all the difference in these challenging and competitive times -- for your organization and you personally as a leader. Leaders as coaches are crucial for a true learning organization, and high-performance teams need and want their leader to coach -- not tell. But not just any kind of coaching! Coaching that is enabling and inspiring because it increases adaptiveness and creativity -- with each individual and the whole team -- so they achieve important goals together. That's what the Coaching Kata helps leaders to learn. Take a fresh look at this five-phase, dual-purpose coaching model, become the leader you always wanted to be, and your team needs you to be. This business novel will transform the way you see and lead your team.

This book presents what you need to know to really implement continuous improvement in companies or other organizations. In addition to all the support needed for this to make sense, the importance of the right direction to guide it is unveiled. The reader will find in this book the origins of continuous improvement and all the framing that justifies and demystifies it in the aspects that characterize the socio-technical nature of organizations. This work also explores the need for effective coexistence between technical aspects and behavioral and cultural aspects, so that continuous improvement and excellence are achieved in organizations. Topics discussed in the book include: The origins of continuous improvement The main operational excellence models The invisible side of organizations The visible side of organizations Decoding continuous improvement The maturity levels of continuous improvement Some models and tips for the implementation of continuous improvement Main tools associated to excellence in organizations This book was written with the aim of helping engineering students in courses related to operations management to develop skills in this area, as well as businessmen with curiosity about this subject, production directors, people responsible for continuous improvement and all professionals working in companies or other organizations with responsibility for their performance and their future.

The purpose of this book is to introduce the concept of Transformational Coaching and to educate professional business coaches or mangers-as-coaches in their organizations on the influential and relevant elements of Transformational Coaching for Effective Leadership designed for coaching individuals, teams, businesses or applying such elements in any levels of Organization Development intervention, either toward individuals, teams, groups, departments, or the organization itself. Given the power and long-lasting influence of transformational coaching, it also could be beneficial to professionals in fields of Human Resources Development (HRD), Workplace Learning and Performance (WLP), Human Performance Enhancement (HPE) and overall, in the domain of Workforce Education and Development (WFED). This book will start by reviewing the background and presence of Transformational Coaching in businesses and organizations, along with the general concepts, perceptions, and understanding of coaching. This book will examine the uses of Transformational Coaching in management and leadership development, human resources development for talent development and retention, and for developing managerial coaching skills and competencies. Additionally, this book will review the presence and use of Transformational Coaching concepts, theories, and practices, including transformational learning for HR and HRD professionals to influence the workforce's attitude, behavior, and productivity. This book: * Builds individuals' self-awareness, self-realization, and self-confidence. * Offers personal and professional development. * Teaches the concept of transformational learning and its use in transformational coaching. * Teaches rituals, skills, and strategies for individuals and teams to increase their productivity. * Offers an approach to building healthy and strong relationships with oneself and others. * Includes change management strategies for redirecting poor job performance. * Helps readers implement effective transformational coaching practices by offering many tools such as forms, checklists, and worksheets.

With the boom of big data and machine learning and the subsequent need for parallel processing technologies, fork-join queues are more relevant now than ever before. In this book, new estimates of the average response time in fork-join queues are proposed, which form the basis for new research opportunities. Analysis of Fork-Join Systems: Network of Queues with Precedence Constraints explores numerical approaches to estimate the average response time of fork-join queueing networks and offers never before published simple expressions for the mean response time as conjectures. Extensive experiments are included to demonstrate the remarkable accuracy of the conjectures and algorithms used in the estimation of the average response time. Graduate students, professors, and researchers in the fields of operations research, management science, industrial engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering will find this book very useful. Students, as well as researchers in both academia and industry, will also find this book of great help when looking for results related to fork-join queues

Product design is becoming increasingly challenging as product complexity increases dramatically with the advent of autonomous control and the need to achieve zero emissions. Companies continue to have poor product launches with significant numbers of recall campaigns and high after-sales warranties. It is important that potential product failures are identified and fixed during the design of a product. Failure modes found late after the design has matured are normally easy to find with some being identified by the customer but are often difficult and expensive to fix since modifying one part will often have a knock-on effect on other parts causing other problems. Discovering failure modes early in the design process is often difficult requiring rigorous and comprehensive analysis but once found such failure modes are usually easy and cheap to fix. This book presents an approach to product design based on Failure Mode Avoidance that utilizes a series of strongly interrelated engineering tools and interpersonal skills that can be used to discover failure modes early in the design process. The tools can be used across engineering disciplines. Despite engineering being largely a team activity, it is often the case that little attention is paid to the team process after the team membership has been identified, with membership normally being based on technical expertise. In addition to technical expertise, an effective engineering team requires individual engineers to work together efficiently. Good leadership is also required with the leader able to both manage change and encourage individual team members to work to the best of their ability. The book interweaves technical skills, team skills, and team leadership in a way that reflects their real-life interrelationship. The book tells the fictional story of a small engineering team and its leader as they implement the skills introduced in the book and follows their experiences reflecting individual difficulties, enthusiasm, humor, and skepticism in applying the methodologies and tools for the first time. In addition, the story tells of team members' interactions with their management and peers within a company that, having been very successful, finds itself in financial difficulties. It promotes constructivist learning through the reader empathizing with the characters in the book. These characters ask questions that are typical of those that learners will ask about the subject matter. Learning reinforcement is also integrated into the storyline as a natural and unobtrusive feature. The book is intended to be read like a novel from cover to cover with a storyline that motivates the reader to read on. While including in-depth technical examples the book is not intended as a seminal text on Failure Mode Avoidance or team skills but is intended to give the reader an understanding such that they are motivated to learn more. Having read the book, it can be treated more typically as a textbook by returning to some of the technical detail or looking to further reading such as that identified in the book.

Unique selling point: * Based on years of personal leadership and mentoring experience Core audience: * Emergency workers and business leaders are the primary market. Place in the market: * Will help people to navigate personal leadership issues in the post-COVID world

Survival and thriving in today's business environment require companies to continuously strive for operational excellence at all levels of the organization. Simply working to maintain existing operations is not an adequate or sustainable business strategy, especially when competing in a global market. To remain relevant, companies must adopt a process control and continuous improvement mentality as an integral part of their daily work activities. These two operational disciplines form the foundation and stepping stones for manufacturing excellence. Processes must be stable, capable, and controlled as a prerequisite for sustainable improvement. Sustainable improvements must be strategic, continuous, and focused on process optimization. Modern-day manufacturing is rapidly changing in the face of technological, geopolitical, social, and environmental developments. These challenges are altering the way we think and act to transform raw materials into finished goods. Meeting these challenges requires particular attention to how we develop and engage people and apply technology for long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. This book takes you on a journey to explore the fundamental elements, management practices, improvement methods, and future direction of shop floor management. Part 1 of this five-part manuscript considers workplace culture, organizational structure, operational discipline, and employee accountability as the foundation for a robust manufacturing system. Part 2 studies the impact of process standardization, data analytics, information sharing, communication, and people on daily shop floor management. Once the management system has been adequately described, Part 3 concentrates on its effective execution, monitoring, and control with a deep look into the people, methods, machines, materials, and environment that make it possible. Like every good manufacturing text, efficiency and productivity are key topics. That's why Part 4 explores various methods, tools, and techniques associated with product and process development, productivity improvement, agile methods, shop floor optimization, and manufacturing excellence. The final section, Part 5, shifts focus to emerging technologies, engaging the reader to contemplate technology's impact on the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.

Product design is becoming increasingly challenging as product complexity increases dramatically with the advent of autonomous control and the need to achieve zero emissions. Companies continue to have poor product launches with significant numbers of recall campaigns and high after-sales warranties. It is important that potential product failures are identified and fixed during the design of a product. Failure modes found late after the design has matured are normally easy to find with some being identified by the customer but are often difficult and expensive to fix since modifying one part will often have a knock-on effect on other parts causing other problems. Discovering failure modes early in the design process is often difficult requiring rigorous and comprehensive analysis but once found such failure modes are usually easy and cheap to fix. This book presents an approach to product design based on Failure Mode Avoidance that utilizes a series of strongly interrelated engineering tools and interpersonal skills that can be used to discover failure modes early in the design process. The tools can be used across engineering disciplines. Despite engineering being largely a team activity, it is often the case that little attention is paid to the team process after the team membership has been identified, with membership normally being based on technical expertise. In addition to technical expertise, an effective engineering team requires individual engineers to work together efficiently. Good leadership is also required with the leader able to both manage change and encourage individual team members to work to the best of their ability. The book interweaves technical skills, team skills, and team leadership in a way that reflects their real-life interrelationship. The book tells the fictional story of a small engineering team and its leader as they implement the skills introduced in the book and follows their experiences reflecting individual difficulties, enthusiasm, humor, and skepticism in applying the methodologies and tools for the first time. In addition, the story tells of team members' interactions with their management and peers within a company that, having been very successful, finds itself in financial difficulties. It promotes constructivist learning through the reader empathizing with the characters in the book. These characters ask questions that are typical of those that learners will ask about the subject matter. Learning reinforcement is also integrated into the storyline as a natural and unobtrusive feature. The book is intended to be read like a novel from cover to cover with a storyline that motivates the reader to read on. While including in-depth technical examples the book is not intended as a seminal text on Failure Mode Avoidance or team skills but is intended to give the reader an understanding such that they are motivated to learn more. Having read the book, it can be treated more typically as a textbook by returning to some of the technical detail or looking to further reading such as that identified in the book.

Currently, businesses are forced to be more innovative than ever before. Organizations must be sensitive to global trends -- such as digitization, globalization, and automation -- and at the same time build resilience and flexibility to combat unexpected changes in customer demand. The coronavirus pandemic is just the most recent and pronounced example of this new-normal business necessity. Amidst the disruption, many businesses are caught not knowing how to proceed. How ought one pursue or achieve innovation for the company? Are there different innovation strategies? Why might a business leader choose one over the other? The Lean Innovation Cycle addresses these concerns by introducing a new multidisciplinary framework for both thinking about and pursing innovation. By taking key concepts from the quality management practices of Lean and Six Sigma, the framework augments these tools and disciplines by incorporating other problem-solving and design techniques, including Human-Centered Design. The result is a view of innovation that many business leaders will find fits nicely into their existing paradigm of strategy and operational discipline. After the introduction of the framework, the book turns to understanding the differences, advantages, and tradeoffs in pursuing Lean Innovation in lieu of traditional, technologically driven innovation approaches. To this end, the book considers issues of sustainability, organizational strategy, and competitive advantage. The result is a thought-provoking dialogue that informs the reader about the key considerations of how best to pursue innovation within their business and the business environment, as well as the circumstances that might make one innovation strategy more congruent to an organization's culture, goals, and objectives than the other.

This impactful volume demonstrates the application and power of psychology and behavioural economics in the pursuit of quality and continuous improvement. It focusses on how the works of stalwarts such as Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and many others can be used to build an organization that is known for quality products and flawless service delivery. The application of psychology and behavioural economics is still new to quality improvement, and in this book, Debashis Sarkar shares 25 lessons, featuring specific examples based on real life, that show how their application can increase the effectiveness of outcomes. Behavioural Science for Quality and Continuous Improvement: 25 Lessons from Psychology and Behavioural Economics is ideal for business improvement professionals of all hierarchies and across different functional areas and industries seeking to understand the potential of psychology and behavioural economics and their applications, as well as in training and executive development programmes and for scholars of operations management, quality management, and engineering.

Technology Innovation discusses the fundamental aspects of processes and structures of technology innovation. It offers a new perspective concerning fundamentals aspects not directly involved in the complex relations existing between technology and the socio-economic system. By considering technology and its innovation from a scientific point of view, the book presents a novel definition of technology as a set of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena, producing an effect exploitable for human purposes. Expanding on the general model of technology innovation by linking the model of technology, based on a structure of technological operations, with the models of the structures for technology innovation, based on organization of fluxes of knowledge and capitals, the book considers various technological processes and the stages of the innovation process. Offers a perspective on the evolution of technology in the frame of an industrial platform network Explains a novel definition of technology as a set of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena producing an effect exploitable for human purposes Discusses technology innovation as result of structures organizing fluxes of knowledge and capitals Provides a technology model simulating the functioning of technology with its optimization Presents a technology innovation model explaining the territorial technology innovation process The book is intended for academics, graduate students, technology developers who are involved in operations management and research, innovation, and technology development.

Currently, the challenge for manufacturing organizations is how to achieve their expected profit by continuously improving productivity or reducing costs. Manufacturing organizations have been using different improvement approaches to achieving cost reduction and productivity improvement for years by eliminating various losses and waste structures, such as excess inventory, excessive workforce, excessive capacity, excessive utility consumption, and so on. But is the problem solved? Unfortunately, no! Often manufacturing companies focus on maximizing the flow and meeting customer needs but forget their real aim - to make a profit for their stakeholders. Too many organizations meet customer expectations by seeking to continuously synchronize the flow to market demand but forget to check that they are doing it profitably enough to ensure business continuity and prosperity. When the financial results show that they are not so profitable, it is already too late. Moreover, the strategic direction of systematic improvements according to the sales trend - depending on the current degree of production capacity utilization and its dynamic effects on cost structures - is deficient in many manufacturing companies. So, would the failure of strategic and profitable systematic improvements be an option? Of course not! If the ultimate goal of the organization is to create target profit for stakeholders, then the behavior and strategic systematic improvements must be directed to those scenarios, strategies, tasks, problems, and "production levers" that are best based on creating the target profit. That's what Strategic Kaizen thinking does - the simultaneous and consistent achievement of systematic operational and financial improvements in a strategic and operational manner. It achieves both synchronous operations at market demand by fulfilling takt time and profitable operations in accordance with profit demand by fulfilling takt profit. In short, the Strategic Kaizen mission is striving for the fulfillment of the ideal state of operations called synchronous profitable operations. In this book, the author, while presenting in detail the seven processes of Strategic Kaizen methodology, exposes the answer to historically incomplete thinking of productivity improvements for target profitability. The uniqueness of the book is reinforced by the detailed presentation of the successful application of the Strategic Kaizen thinking over the years in two multinational manufacturing organizations operating in highly competitive markets, addressing the synchronous profitable operations for both the sales increase scenario and the sales decrease scenario. Moreover, it presents examples of the practical application of the "white-collar" Strategic Kaizen. Essentially, by adopting the Strategic Kaizen methodology presented in detail in this book to consistently achieve the ideal state of a manufacturing organization, organizations will enter a new paradigm of thinking of strategic improvements - Strategic Kaizen thinking - to meet annual and multiannual target profits in a unique and effective way that operates according to its own strategic and operational management system.

A hybrid methodology, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is designed to accommodate global challenges and constraints by capitalizing on Six Sigma and Lean Thinking. LSS incorporates best practices from programs such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Capability Maturity Model, and Total Quality Management.International Lean Six Sigma practitioners must understand the dynamics of LSS, along with its cultural aspects and regulations. Lean Six Sigma: International Standards and Global Guidelines, Second Edition provides this understanding.The book assumes that the overall goal of operational excellence is to ensure that organizational tasks and activities are being performed to the best of their process capabilities. It defines continuous improvement as activities that support and empower environments to make flexible decisions that lead to ongoing improvement and effectiveness. Coverage includes: New global LSS standards International implementation of process improvement programs New international LSS applications International Lean Six Sigma areas of competency The book defines many of the terms popularized by process improvement programs, such as center of excellence and business transformation. It documents these practices and explains how to perform future activities in accordance with the recorded practices. Exploring international approaches to Lean Six Sigma, it details the new ISO Standard for Six Sigma and also addresses the role of project management in LSS. Illustrating the synergies between Lean and Six Sigma and how they partner with other process improvement programs and initiatives, this book is an ideal study guide for those preparing to take the LSS Black Belt certification exam.

Healthcare Kaizen focuses on the principles and methods of daily continuous improvement, or Kaizen, for healthcare professionals and organizations. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means "change for the better," as popularized by Masaaki Imai in his 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success and through the books of Norman Bodek, both of whom contributed introductory material for this book. Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award! In 1989, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, endorsed the principles of Kaizen in the New England Journal of Medicine, describing it as "the continuous search for opportunities for all processes to get better." This book shows how to make this goal a reality. Healthcare Kaizen shares some of the methods used by numerous hospitals around the world, including Franciscan St. Francis Health, where co-author Joe Swartz has led these efforts. Most importantly, the book covers the management mindsets and philosophies required to make Kaizen work effectively in a hospital department or as an organization-wide program. All of the examples in the book were shared by leading healthcare organizations, with over 200 full-color pictures and visual illustrations of Kaizen-based improvements that were initiated by nurses, physicians, housekeepers, senior executives and other staff members at all levels. Healthcare Kaizen will be helpful for organizations that have embraced weeklong improvement events, but now want to follow the lead of ThedaCare, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and others who have moved beyond just doing events into a more complete management system based on Lean or the Toyota Production System. It's often said, without much reflection, that people hate change. The experiences shared

This book comprises a set of stories about being an engineer for many decades and the lessons the author learned from research and practice. These lessons focus on people and organizations, often enabled by technology. The settings range from airplanes, power plants, and communication networks to ecosystems that enable education, healthcare, and transportation. All of these settings are laced with behavioral and social phenomena that need to be understood and influenced. The author's work in these domains has often led to the question: "Well, why does it work like that?" He invariably sought to understand the bigger picture to find the sources of requirements, constraints, norms, and values. He wanted to understand what could be changed, albeit often with much effort to overcome resistance. He found that higher levels of an ecosystem often provide the resources and dictate the constraints imposed on lower levels. These prescriptions are not just commands. They also reflect values and cultural norms. Thus, the answers to the question were not just technical and economic. Often, the answers reflected eons of social and political priorities. The endeavors related in the book frequently involved addressing emerging realities rather than just the status quo. This book is an ongoing discovery of these bigger pictures. The stories and the lessons related in this book provide useful perspectives on change. The understanding of people and organizations that emerges from these lessons can help to enable transformative change. Fundamental change is an intensely human-centric endeavor, not just for the people and organizations aspiring to change, but also for the people helping them. You will meet many of these people in this book as the stories unfold. The genesis of this book originated in a decision made early in the author's career. He had developed a habit of asking at the end of each day, "What did I really accomplish today?" This was sometimes frustrating as he was not sure the day had yielded any significant accomplishments. One day it dawned on him that this was the wrong question - He needed to ask, "What did I learn today?" It is always possible to learn, most recently about public health and climate change. In planning this book, the author first thought in terms of accomplishments such as projects conducted, systems built, and articles and books published. He could not imagine this being interesting to readers. Then, it struck him - It is much more interesting to report on what he learned about people and organizations, including how he helped them accomplish their goals. This is a book of stories about how these lessons emerged. In planning this book, the author first thought in terms of accomplishments such as projects conducted, systems built, and articles and books published. He could not imagine this being interesting to readers. Then, it struck him - It is much more interesting to report on what he learned about people and organizations, including how he helped them accomplish their goals. This is a book of stories about how these lessons emerged.

-- Only book written addressing the role of a Lean CFO. -- Explains how a Lean Management System integrated with a Lean Business Strategy drives financial success. -- In clear concise terms explains how & why Lean makes money for companies. -- Gives readers the logical reasons why a Lean Management System must replace a Management Accounting System. -- Answers the question "why do we need a Lean Management System?"

Although world-class firms like GE and Motorola have relied on Six Sigma to build their performance cultures, these processes are all too often left out of human resources (HR) functions. This lack of Six Sigma principles is even more surprising because preventing errors and improving productivity are so critical to the people management processes of hiring, retention, appraisal, and development.From the history and evolution of the Total Quality movement to initiatives for introducing a Six Sigma continuous process improvement strategy in your HR department, Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma introduces a new way to envision your role within the organization. It explains how this powerful methodology works and supplies a roadmap to help you find and eliminate waste in your HR processes.Describing exactly what HR excellence means, the book outlines dozens of proven approaches as well as a hierarchy of the exact steps required to achieve it. It illustrates the Six Sigma methodology from the creation of a project to its successful completion. At each stage, it describes the specific tools currently available and provides examples of organizations that have used Six Sigma within HR to improve their organizations.The text presents proven approaches that can help you solve and even eliminate people management problems altogether. Filled with real-world examples, it demonstrates how to implement six sigma into the transformational side of your organization. It also includes a listing of additional resources to help you along your Six Sigma journey.Explaining how to build a new business model for your HR organization, the book supplies the new perspective and broad view you will need to discover and recommend game-changing alternatives to traditional HR approaches in your organization.

While innovation can be defined in many ways, the author sees it as a process. It is not the sudden eureka moment in the middle of the night, nor is it a clear and linear path towards a final destination. Instead, it involves a strong sense of creativity and curiosity. An innovative mind has a natural inclination towards out-of-the-box thinking. It involves a willingness to try something new, without fear or judgment, to develop something no one else has ever articulated. While the mindset comes naturally, it requires fuel to keep it running. Innovators are voracious readers and researchers. They feed their mindset all of the fuel it needs to stay informed and relevant in their field. Many of the same things can be said for the Lean mindset. Lean management doesn't happen overnight, and it is very rarely a clear and linear path to true Lean thinking. Some might consider Lean a subset of innovative thinking, while others see it in reverse. Regardless of the relationship's directionality, one thing is certain: You cannot have one without the other. This book follows John Riley, the CEO of a medium-sized valve company just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who will stop at nothing to create an innovative work environment. Through the ups and downs of his journey, he learns a number of Lean and innovative skills, strategies, and mindsets to help him build the business he's always envisioned for himself. Throughout the book, you see examples of both strong and poor innovative leadership skills demonstrated by each of the main characters. The key messages are ones that help leaders build and access a mindset insistent on continuous improvement. Leadership techniques and abilities that bolster creative thought and problem-solving are the most successful throughout this book. To be truly innovative, you can never stop driving the learning process. For this to happen, leaders need to recognize when there is a need for a change or improvement. This is the beauty of the marriage between Lean and innovation: They both require continuous learning and growth. The desire to improve is only one piece of this equation, however. The other is the willingness to act. Without both of these factors, true innovation will always be out of reach.

Written in a novel format, this book addresses the challenge of changing a "sick" culture. Some organizations wake up one day and realize they have become something they never intended. Their employees run scared. There is no innovation, only blind obedience. There are warlords within the ranks of management, and they fight over turf without considering the best interests of customers, their employees, or their organization as a whole. At the Charleston, SC, branch of Copper-Bottom Insurance, the wakeup call comes when an employee files a lawsuit against the company and its leaders. The Charleston division Vice President, Jack Simmons, is put on probation and given an ultimatum: "Change the culture!" Jack understands the "or be fired" implication all too well. He scrambles to find help and runs into an old friend, Don Spears, from Friedman Electronics. With Don's help, Jack begins the journey that will heal his organization. In the course of their first visit, Don and his Director of Continuous Improvement, Tim Stark, help Jack to make an important discovery: Copper-Bottom's executives are not showing their people respect. Don and Tim point to the following observations as proof. Copper-Bottom leaders are Using top-down, "command-and-control" leadership behaviors rather than recognizing their people as Subject Matter Experts and listening to them Issuing instructions to their people rather than observing then improving performance through coaching Keeping employees in the dark as to the impact their work has on the organization's mission Unaware of the obstacles in their people's paths; hence, never using the authority of their positions to remove those obstacles Staying in their offices, aloof to the difficulties their subordinates face As Don and Tim see it, Copper-Bottom's problems stem from the way its leaders lead. After the executive who precipitated the lawsuit is let go, the Friedman team begins the process of teaching Copper-Bottom's executives that a healthy culture begins at the leadership level. Don, Friedman's General Manager, states that cultures change when their leaders change. In short, leaders need to initiate the changes in the culture by first demonstrating the desired behavior. So begins the process of reeducating Copper-Bottom's leaders in the difference between managing and leading. In short order, Tim begins to work with Jack's leadership team while Don takes Jack to Friedman's Oakland facility. There Jack learns To first concentrate on surrounding himself with the right people The importance of top-down metrics to which leaders first hold themselves accountable Cascading their metrics (KPIs) down through their organization and using a dialog about them as a way of developing relationships of respect Although a long way from complete, by the end of Jack's six-month probation, Copper-Bottom has made significant strides and is well on its way to changing its culture. Jack will learn that he is not the only one to appreciate the new developments.