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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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Reflections on the Fabric of the Toyota Production System

Deming Institute

The content of this blog was prepared as an article for the first edition of the Lean Management Journal, later known as The LMJ. In the late 1960s, Frank Pipp, an assembly plant manager for a Ford Motor Company factory, instructed his staff to purchase competitor’s cars. To Pipp’s amazement, one car purchased was 100% snap fit.

System 74
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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.

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The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company

Harvard Business Review

In a McKinsey poll , 94% of the managers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their company’s innovation performance. 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. And it’s not just your company.