Operational Excellence Breakthrough Strategies for Improving Customer Experience and Productivity

Operational Excellence, Second Edition – Breakthrough Strategies for Improving Customer Experience and Productivity brings together leading-edge tools, methods, and concepts to provide process improvement experts a reference to improve their organization’s quality, productivity, and customer service operations. Its major topics include alignment of strategy to the design of supporting systems to meet customer expectations, manage capacity, and improve performance. It provides a concise and practical reference for operational excellence. Its fourteen chapters lead a reader through the latest tools, methods, and concepts currently used to capture "voice of" customers, partners, and other stakeholders, new strategies for the application of Lean, Six Sigma, as well as product and service design across diverse industries, including manufacturing to financial services. This book operates from three premises: Organizations can increase competitiveness in an era of globalization through the application of "voice-of" applications, Design Thinking, the integration of the Information Technology Ecosystem’s new tools and methods integrated with proven Lean and Six Sigma applications Operational performance correlates to an organization’s financial, operational, and resultant productivity, as well as with shareholder economic value add (EVA) metrics and can be measured and improved using the methods in this book Value-adding activities and disciplines discussed are global and applicable to every organization A PRACTICAL TOOL FOR REAL-WORLD APPLICATION New topics are introduced in the second edition. These include Design Thinking, the "voice-of" Information Technology Ecosystems, Big Data applications, and Robotic Process Automation. Key topics from the first edition remain. These include Design-for-Six-Sigma (DFSS), Lean and Six Sigma methods, productivity analysis, operational assessments, project management, and other supporting topics. Each chapter contains tools and methods that will help readers identify areas for operational improvements. It contains ~300 figures, tables, and checklists to help increase organizational productivity. Practical examples are integrated through the book.

Introduction Chapter 1: Operational Excellence Overview Competive operations Enhancing operational capability Linking strategy to execution Metrics Benchmarking Summary Chapter 2: Organizational Change Overview What is organizational change? Managing change Building teams Deploying Lean Deploying Six Sigma Deploying Design Excellence Deploying Information Technology (IT) Excellence Deploying Customer Excellence Summary Chapter 3: Customer Experience Overview Surveys Marketing translation Kano needs and value Quality Function Deployment Customer Experience Mapping Summary Chapter 4: Design Excellence Overview Design objectives Concurrent Engineering Design for Manufacturing Concept phase Prototype phase Pilot Launch Risk Assessment Design for Six-Sigma Design standards for Mass customization What is Design Thinking? Summary Chapter 5: Process Excellence Overview Modeling processes Scheduling algorithms Working environment Summary Chapter 6: Lean Overview Mapping value Balancing flow Operational efficiency Scheduling Other Lean tools Summary Chapter 7: Productivity Measurement Overview Calculating productivity Identifying projects Summary Chapter 8 Information Technology Ecosystems Overview Robotic Process Automation Agile Project Management Metrics Summary Chapter 9: Six Sigma Overview Deploying Six Sigma Define Phase Measure Phase Analyze Phase Advanced methods Improve Phase 2k Experimental Designs Fractional Factorial Designs Response Surface Designs Control Phase Summary Chapter 10 Big Data Overview Big Data Metadata Information Quality Governance Data Quality Improvement Data Security Summary Chapter 11: Operational Assessments Overview Preparing for an assessment Conducting the assessment Closing the assessment Summary Chapter 12 Virtual Teams Overview Virtual teams Project management Summary Chapter 13: Supply Chain Integration Overview Capacity Forecasting Inventory Inventory models Cycle counting Excess and obsolete inventory Sales and Operations Planning Global supply chain issues Outsourcing and insourcing Summary Chapter 14: Sustaining Strategies Overview Global standards Metric dashboards Summary Conclusion Glossary Index

James William Martin is a Lean Six Sigma consultant and Master Black Belt. For twenty years, Martin has trained and mentored several thousand executives, champions, Black Belts, and Green Belts in process improvement methods including manufacturing, service, and supply chain applications. He has led successful Lean Six Sigma assessments in Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, North America, and Europe. This work included organizations in hardware, software, computer security, retail sales, banking, insurance, financial services, measurement systems, automotive, electronics, aerospace component manufacturing, electronic manufacturing, controls, building products, industrial equipment, and consumer products. He served as an instructor at the Providence College Graduate School of Business for twenty years. He also holds several patents and has written numerous articles on quality and process improvement.