Managing Customer Value
Embarq Corporation’s General Manager of Process Excellence, Deron Ertel, was my guest on the Business901 Podcast. We discussed Embarq’s business process improvement initiatives and how they differed from other companies Lean Six Sigma initiatives. Particular attention was paid to the relevancy of Lean, Six Sigma and business process improvement in a down economy. Deron will Read More …
I had Robert Stapp of OP•EX Direct Results Inc. on the Business901 podcast and we had a great discussion on performance improvement in general. We also discussed in detail, Hoshin Kanri aka Policy Development. This podcast is on this particular subject but before you start listening I have included a little background on the term. Read More …
Identifying, gathering and leveraging the right mix of metrics adds value to a project. Metrics provide a more factual and quantitative basis for describing how you are doing and what you can do better. Without at least some basic metric information, all discussions on performance and improvement are based on subjective evidence, perceptions and guesses. Read More …
One of the most often used cause-and-effect diagrams is a Fishbone Diagram. It appears very simple but the results are outstanding. As a result, it is used very often and one that should be mastered. Why would you use it? Allows various categories of causes to be explored. Encourages creativity through a brainstorming process. Provides Read More …
I was reading a past Ten Step Project Management Newsletter about the cost of quality and thought it was a great addition to this week’s posts. Building quality steps in the workplan adds a certain amount of effort and cost to the project. However, these incremental costs will be rewarded with increased benefits and reduced Read More …
As any reader of my blog knows, I believe in a system. But a system does not work unless you have performance indicators along the way. And the real secret is that your system only works as well as your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are constructed. The time spent in making good KPI’s are well Read More …