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02/21/2012 03:43 PM
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I am wanting to introduce lean six sigma to my company. The main obstacle is the senior staff and board of directors are not typically responsive to major change. It is a cooperative (member owned) and as such, change is implemented through a 13 member board of directors. The majority of the directors must buy into the change officially, however, there has not been a decision that was not uninamous in several years. I have begun putting together a packet that would show the potential increase in profits and was wondering if there were any suggestions or tips on how to "convince" our board members that this change is for the benefit of the company.
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02/23/2012 01:36 PM
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Your presentation should show how the introduction of Lean and Six Sigma supports the board's growth strategies. As an example, here is one scenario on how companies operate and where Lean and Six Sigma can fit in:
1. Companies first perform a yearly SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of their company to analyze their current position.
2. They then slelct specific survival and performance goals to correct problems pointed out by their analysis and to achieve desired company performance.
3. Assuming growth is their main goal, which it is for many companies, they then decide what they must do to grow. This usually covers acquiring new customers, introducing customer requested product changes, new product introductions, and keeping ahead of competition.
4. They then select specific strategies for attaining growth. Typically covers how to satisfy customers' needs, wants, desires, demands, requirements, and expectations and how to beat out competition by improving current products, introducing new products, and improving the efficiencies of company and supply chain processes.
5. They then implement the strategies. Here is where Lean and Six Sigma enters the picture. They represent some powerful tools that can support growth strategies by helping to improve various process efficiencies.
I'm suggesting that you can talk the language of the board of directors by using the argument that Lean and Six Sigma are necessary to assure successful implementation of their growth strategies.
Sam Tomas
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02/24/2012 01:41 PM
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I had the same issue, and my approach was to keep it simple. The key will be to get buy in from your CEO first. H/she is the sole employee of the board, so they will follow the recommendation they make most likely. Sell lean concepts to this person over a few meetings and ask the CEO to be the champion. You may also want to meet individually with some board members and go over the same concepts - with the permission of the CEO of course.
Discuss the value-add principles and how you plan to address change management. Use examples of processes that could benefit and have quantifiable - if possible - data ready to show.
Our CEO approached me about starting a lean culture and I did the things above. And you may also want to have a realistic roll out plan; education at the top, then down through managers, best practice review, etc.
Good luck.
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02/27/2012 08:29 PM
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Thank you very much for your replies. They have been very helpful.
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