Posts by Scott Payne

While helping an Executive develop her deployment plan we were asked “Are you sure we shouldn’t just go ahead and train everyone in the company?” After a few questions, we were able to determine the source of the question. While the Executive was researching companies to assist in the deployment a majority of the companies…

So you want to engage an operational excellence deployment that will transform your company. Ok! seems reasonable and achievable right? Any google search or visit to the local bookstore will provide you with countless options for guidance and expertise, each professing that their approach will work for you. With this many options, success seems almost unavoidable. All you…

A successful operational excellence deployment does not occur naturally. Instead, Executives who succeed understand that OpEx deployments must be designed with principle and managed with purpose. Even in the face of these facts, Executives often respond by saying “I understand what has worked for others in the past, but our company and industry are unique. The…

What most people don’t realize is that a majority of operational excellence deployments are destined to fail before they even start. In fact, in our experience, we have determined that there are 10 reasons operational excellence deployments fail. Occasionally, deployments die quickly (being canceled 12 to 18 months after starting), however, most programs languish for…

In the weeks before starting a recent deployment an executive asked, “Do you think our company is ready to deploy operational excellence?” In our experience, this is a fairly common question from executives in non-traditional Lean Six Sigma industries (Government, Healthcare, Retail, Non-profits, etc.). 95% of the time executives ask this question in the week…

So you want to implement an operational excellence program.  Before you take any action step back and ask yourself “Why?” In our years of practice, we have seen Operational Excellence (OpEx) deployments implemented for a variety of reasons. In working with executives at various Fortune 500 companies we have found that the most commonly quoted…