Errol Restelli
Aug 03 2012
Where Did The Business Value Go?
As the go-live of a project approaches, I sometimes hear project team members and stakeholders ask “what were the benefits of doing this?”. Or, maybe there is a request from a senior stakeholder to document the business value of the initiative for a roadshow or go-live preparation materials. In all cases, this usually leads to a few blank stares and a closed door meeting with the output being a deck that then justifies all the great new process capabilities that are available with the new solution. But why was there so much stress and strain to answer this question? How did we lose site of the business value that was intrinsic to the success of the project? The answer lies in tracing the business value from the beginning of the project to understand how it is constructed.
Jul 10 2012
The Impact of Continuous Improvement on Innovation
Recently there was a blog on Harvard Business Review that was titled, Time to Rethink Continuous Improvement http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2012/05/its-time-to-rethink-continuous.html?goback=.gde_41982_member_114013156 by Ron Ashkenas. The author believes that Continuous Improvement (CI) ultimately has a negative impact on the health of an organization because a rigid CI structure can stifle innovation and Research & Development (R&D) processes. To explore this statement further, we need to understand the history of Continuous Improvement.
Continuous Improvement Raises up Japan
Tagged: Continuous Improvement, Innovation, Japan, Process Engineering
Jul 10 2012
A Process Engineer’s Secret Sauce
Process engineering at its roots is the discipline used to evaluate processes to identify inefficiencies and define improvement strategies. Each of us does this daily on some scale when you implement a solution to overcome some inefficiency. For example, you avoid known traffic areas to minimize delay, you multi-task while your coffee is brewing, and you park close to the entrance to reduce transportation time. So, it seems easy enough – right? It becomes more difficult to apply this thought process outside of your personal life and into business world. Doing this effectively in business is a Process Engineer's (PE) secret sauce.
Jun 28 2012
Business Trend: The New Roadmap
We have all heard of and seen roadmaps at corporations. Roadmaps are the output of closed door, senior leadership, month long activities that results in an arrowed Gantt chart. Roadmaps are usually done in silos where Business and IT are separated. You have all seen the chart that shows the 10-15 projects over the next 2-5 years. They are usually color coded but probably lack a reference to the color meaning. This is the 'old' roadmap and it has been changing. Roadmaps are no longer closed door activities and they do not solely rest with senior leadership to provide.
Old vs. New Roadmap
Tagged: Process Engineering, Process Power Tools, Roadmap, trends
Jun 24 2012
Applying Lean To Your Computer
Is your desktop full of files? Does this cause you problems finding files? Do you feel frustrated and overburdened when looking at such a cluttered desktop? These are common problems which can be improved with a Lean tool named 5S.
There are a few different English definitions of 5S due to its origination Japan. 5S was initially created to eliminate waste and clutter in manufacturing operations. As with many Lean tools, corporations are seeing benefits by utilizing these traditionally industrial tools in today‘s white collar business processes. In this blog, we will discuss the application of 5S to clean-up your virtual clutter.
Tagged: 5S, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Process Engineering
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