1st Edition

Corporate Sigma Optimizing the Health of Your Company with Systems Thinking

By Anwar El-Homsi, Jeff L. Slutsky Copyright 2010
    288 Pages 103 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    One study after the next shows that most employees are unhappy with their jobs and that less than a third actively engage with their work. That means that two out of every three are merely putting in their time, rather than maximizing productivity and attaining satisfaction. One could argue that such a malaise is the symptom of an unhealthy workforce.

    Corporate Sigma: Optimizing the Health of Your Company with Systems Thinking shows you how to develop extraordinary competence in your employees. Your organization will function as a system capable of learning, adapting, developing, and growing according to the winning vision you set for it. Like Six Sigma, Corporate Sigma is a metric that assesses the quality or the health and wellness of an entire organization. But assessment is only the first step.

    Providing you with distinctive tools that will transform your organization into a customer-driven, profitable, and continuous learning organization, this guide—

    • Defines the roles that employees and managers should play in a healthy organization and the principles and values that will guide them
    • Shows you how to build an inherent sense of purpose, possibility, and commitment in every employee
    • Offers you the tools needed to link an entire organization and assess its effectiveness or wellness

    Organized in self-contained sections, you can focus on what you believe needs direct attention, such as leadership, vision, or tools for lean improvement. However, once you start a healing journey, you are likely to discover the best cures are always holistic.

    Introduction: Taking Charge

    LEADERSHIP SIGMA: THE BRAIN
    Leadership and Management
    Purpose of Leadership
    Importance of Leadership
    Core Competencies for Successful Leadership
    Leadership Core Competencies
    Strong Interpersonal Skills
    Personal Qualities
    Technical Knowledge
    Leadership Tasks
    Assess How the Organization Functions
    Know the Organization’s Objectives Determine How the Organization Can Achieve Its Objectives and Improve Have a Vision for What the Organization Should Become Infuse Leadership Qualities into the Organization
    Improving Leadership
    Developing Leadership
    Leadership and Systems Thinking

    CORPORATE BELIEFS: THE SOUL
    Corporate Culture
    Organizational Mission
    Organizational Core Values
    Organizational Vision
    Shared Vision — The Secret


    THE ROAD TO CORPORATE WELLNESS
    Corporate Balanced Scorecard
    The Four Perspectives

    Financial Perspective
    External Perspective
    Internal Perspective
    Learning and Growth Perspective
    Corporate Critical Success Factors
    Corporate Objectives
    Corporate Performance Measures
    Corporate Targets
    Corporate Improvement Actions
    Strategic Alignment by Cascading the Balanced Scorecard
    Strategy Map
    Case Study: Acme Circuits
    Acme Circuits’ Corporate Balanced Scorecard Acme Circuits’ Strategic Map

    HUMAN CAPITAL: THE HEART
    Employee Satisfaction
    Personal Balanced Scorecards
    Personal Vision
    Personal Mission
    Personal Key Roles
    Personal Critical Success Factors
    Personal Objectives
    Personal Performance Measures
    Personal Targets
    Personal Improvement Actions

    BECOMING LEAN: TRIMMING THE FAT
    Brief History of Lean
    Elimination of Waste
    Lean Principles
    Lean as a Business System
    Other Essential Lean Tools

    Cellular Manufacturing
    Production Smoothing
    Standardized Work
    Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
    Business Philosophy for Lean
    Other Resources


    SIX SIGMA PROTOCOL: THE MEDICINE
    Brief History of Six Sigma
    What Is Six Sigma?
    DMAIC Model

    Define Phase
    Measure Phase
    Analyze Phase
    Improve Phase
    Control Phase
    Process Capability Study
    Six Sigma Metrics
    Process Shift
    Types of Metrics: Defect per Unit (DPU), Rolled DPU, Defect per Million Opportunities (DPMO)
    Counting Opportunities
    Six Sigma Infrastructure
    Role of Executive Management
    Role of Champions
    Role of Finance
    Role of Master Black Belts
    Role of Black Belts
    Role of Green Belts
    Role of Project Team Members
    Lean Six Sigma: A Perfect Marriage
    SYSTEMS THINKING: THE PRESCRIPTION FOR CORPORATE ARRHYTHMIAS
    Systems Thinking: A Better Solution
    Systems Thinking and Statistical Thinking
    Types of Problems Systems Thinking Can Help Solve
    Systems Thinking Tools and Language
    Creating Causal Loop Diagrams

    CLD Elements
    Variables
    Connections
    Signs
    Voice of the System
    Modeling Hierarchy
    Knowledge Networking: The Big Picture
    How to Create a Connection Matrix
    Event Pattern Inference
    Input and Connection Policies
    Simulation
    Policy Status
    Leverage Variables
    Practical Application of CLD Models
    Product Line Profit
    Policy Evaluation (Policy Scores)
    Sick Call-in Reduction
    Things to Consider before Acting

    THE CORPORATE SYSTEM
    Systems Engineering Steps
    Step 1: Identify the Stakeholders and Elicit Their Needs
    Step 2: Translate the Needs into a Set of System Requirements: Serial Systems, Parallel Systems, Mixed Systems
    Step 3: Define the Bounds of the System to Be Developed
    Step 4: Define the Functions That the System Must Perform to Transform the Inputs into Outputs
    Step 5: Determine the “Best” Technology with Which to Implement the Functions Systems Engineering Applied to Human Systems
    Step 1: An Intense Focus on Identifying the Stakeholders and Eliciting Their Needs
    Step 2: Translate the Needs into a Set of Overall Corporate-Level Output Requirements
    Step 3: Define the Bounds of the Corporation
    Step 4: Define the Functions That the
    System Must Perform to Transform the Inputs into Outputs
    Step 5: Determine the “Best” Technology with Which to Implement the Functions Systems Engineering a Healthy Company

    CONCEPTION AND DEVELOPMENT
    Inbound Marketing — The Ears of the Organization

    Identify the Stakeholders
    Elicit the Stakeholder Needs
    Opportunities for Success or Failure of Inbound Marketing
    Technology Development — Cellular Growth Technology Development for Six Sigma
    Opportunities for Success or Failure of Technology Development
    Product Development — The DNA of the Organization
    Design for Six Sigma
    Opportunities for Success or Failure of Product Development
    Innovation: Evolution
    Corporate Functions and Six Sigma

    SENSORY SYSTEMS: THE CRITICAL ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN RESOURCES
    IT Sigma: The Nervous System

    Management Commitment to IT Sigma
    IT Sigma Quality Management and Improvement Methodology
    IT Sigma Business Case
    IT Sigma Project Selection
    Step 1: BPS Process Identification
    Step 2: BPS Process Relationships
    Step 3: IT Sigma Project Selection
    IT Sigma Project Execution
    IT Sigma Playbook
    HR Sigma: The Five Senses
    Strategic Planning
    Operations
    Administrative

    CORPORATE WELLNESS: THE PHYSICAL
    The Corporate CAT Scan

    Series Systems
    Parallel Systems
    Corporate Systems
    Scanning Serial Processes
    Scanning Parallel Systems
    Combination of Series and Parallel Systems
    Corporate Sigma Index
    Objectives of a Corporate Checkup
    Corporate 911: Trauma
    A Holistic Approach: The Value of Discipline

    Biography

    Anwar El-Homsi, Jeff L. Slutsky

    Corporate Sigma is a unique, one of a kind book which describes a state-of-the-art set of best practices on how Lean Six Sigma can embrace Systems Thinking. It is the clearest, simplest and most practical book I have ever read on this subject.
    —Stephen G. Haines, founder and CEO of Haines Centre for Strategic Management, and an authority in the Systems Thinking approach

    Corporate Sigma explains, in easy-to-understand-and-apply style, how corporate wellness can be instituted, maintained, and improved. It is evident that anyone looking for a guide to organizational reformation and path to wellness would be well-served by the guidance of Corporate Sigma.
    —John W. Sheets, Jr., corporate VP and chief technology officer, Bausch & Lomb

    The hard stuff of quality does not ‘stick’ without the soft skills that people bring to the process. Corporate Sigma is a comprehensive approach. Well done!
    —Dennis Alimena, author of The Winning Mindset for Leadership