The two core issues which need to be addressed for “Effectively Managing Information Becomes Strategic” are how to effectively educate organizations on the strategic value of information and devising a well-defined career path for information management (IM) professionals.
As I thought about an approach to addressing the two core issues I wanted to look for an existing successful model to emulate.
Then it hit me…Six Sigma!
I looked back at the amazing transformation that has occurred over the last 20+ years around improving business processes and the success and popularity of Six Sigma and now Lean Manufacturing. Six Sigma was pioneered at Motorola over 20 years ago and was brought into mainstream business culture by GE and Honeywell. According to GE, “Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services.”
Key Concepts of Six Sigma
| Critical to Quality: | Attributes most important to the customer |
| Defect: | Failing to deliver what the customer wants |
| Process Capability: | What your process can deliver |
| Variation: | What the customer sees and feels |
| Stable Operations: | Ensuring consistent, predictable processes to improve what the customer sees and feels |
| Design for Six Sigma: |
Designing to meet customer needs and process capability |
Lean Manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) but also from other sources. Its success is based on reduction of the original Toyota ‘seven wastes’ in order to improve overall customer value. Core to the philosophy is the elimination of waste (streamlining processes where possible) and continuous improvement.
One Six Sigma feature that appealed to me in designing a new model for addressing the effective management of information was the establishment of rigorous training for Six Sigma practitioners. The fact that there are defined levels of competence; Green Belt for initial training, Black Belt for more advanced training and certification and then Master Black Belt, is very attractive. Another reason this model appealed to me was the broad recognition of the methodology and the perceived strategic importance of implementing Six Sigma programs and having Six Sigma professionals in the organization.
In my next post I will describe my proposed model.
Russ,
Your conclusion is precisely why we have established an effort at K2 focused on creating a process improvement portal based on concepts that bring together TQM, Portfolio Management, and Six Sigma. We believe that these methodologies are converging and we believe the capabilities provided in k2[blackpearl] enable corporations to collaborate on improvement initiatives. Manage and prioritize the entire process improvement portfolio. Define, measure, analyze, improve and control their processes. Define the full SIPOC lifecycle and correlate to real processes. Define CTQ, key output measurements, key input measurements and correlate these to processes as well. In addition, we are working on creating ways to capture measurement data and analyze to find coorelations between the key output measurements and key input measurements. It is an exciting initiative and we are just scratching the surface of what we can do. Look for more information and future posts. In addition, please feel free to post questions and comments in our special interest group on K2underground at http://k2underground.com/k2/InterestGroupHome.aspx?IntGroupID=10
Thanks,
Rob