Operational Excellence: From Fragmented Vocation to Principle-Driven Profession
Jan 12th, 2011 | By steven_spear | Category: Featured Article, High Velocity OrganizationsLean manufacturing, six sigma, business process excellence, re engineering, TQM, etc. have defaulted into vocational status—trades people, practicing a craft, mastering applications of the tools they use. This fragmentation obscures the ‘basic science of systems’ by which excellence is achieved across the span of development, design, and production. As a result, operational excellence is marginalized within organizations, is not taught in business schools, and so is not part of most organizations competitive arsenal.
The solution is building out common themes of specification in design, problem identification in operation, and scientific method in problem solving. These themes can be taught as basic principles, exercised across application and expressed with tools and techniques, used appropriately and not ritualistically.
Please comment on my working paper, Basic Science of Systems. Download by clicking and add comments below.
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