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Balancing Push and Pull Approaches to Improvement

Harvard Business Review

These mandated-from-above programs include Lean Six Sigma initiatives with experts (" Belts ") in command, big IT implementations, and reengineering of major end-to-end processes. An executive in the company's finance operations adopted a Six Sigma belt-driven approach to reduce costs in the company's global shared service centers.

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Uniting the Religions of Process Improvement

First Friday Book Synopsis

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Brad Power for the Harvard Business Review blog (March 7, 2011). To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and/or sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Review’s Daily Alerts, please click here. * * * When they set out to [.].

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Uniting the Religions of Process Improvement

Harvard Business Review

When they set out to turn around processes that have become woefully inefficient or ineffective, most companies choose one of four process improvement "religions": Lean , Six Sigma , Business Reengineering or Business Process Management (BPM). Many companies adopted Six Sigma in the late 1990s. Consider this example.

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Reflections on the Fabric of the Toyota Production System

Deming Institute

In either case, the extra effort (loss to the do-it-yourselfer ) is both finite and real, just as the use of hammers to assemble parts at the Ford plant were finite and real to Frank Pipp and his assembly team.

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The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company

Harvard Business Review

By comparison, think of the long strides many businesses have made in reengineering their supply chains, boosting product quality, and rolling out lean six sigma. In our experience, it can take several months for a company to hammer out its defini­tion of innovation. These efforts have paid huge dividends.