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Operational Excellence Edge Blog Talk Radio Archives

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Interview with Joann Parrinder: 5/12/2011

How 5S can impact your bottom line

In this interview with Joann Parrinder we look at how basic lean thinking methods, such as 5S, can impact us in creative ways. Joann is one of the co-authors of Driving Operational Excellence. You may have never realized that the concept of 5S can be extended creatively to take in improving processes that have absolutely nothing to do with organizing the physical workspace – such as developing new product and service ideas for your business.

Interview with Pam Gladwell: 5/17/2011

Using Value Stream Mapping to really SEE your Process

Looking for ways to find out how to focus your organization on the right things to improve performance? If your processes are complex and seem to defy being well-documented, measured and understood, then you need look no further than the tool of Value Stream Mapping as a major part of the answer.

Here’s one of the co-authors of Driving Operational Excellence, Pam Gladwell, will join us to share some hard-won lessons on how to use this technique in the most challenging work environments to get to facts needed.

Interview with Ira Weissman: 5/19/2011

Operational Excellence in Non-Profits

It seems like just about everybody is involved in non-profit organizations in some fashion – as a contributor, volunteer or even sitting on a board of directors.

The application of OpEx concepts in the non-profit sector is at least as important as it is in the for-profit sector, but there is a HUGE challenge: figuring out who the customer is we are trying to please can be very complex.

Consider these that come to mind:

• Recipients of the benefits of the organizations’ mission.

• Donors and sponsors for the non-profit.

• The volunteers and employees most non-profits rely on to operate.

In this edition of the radio show you’ll get to meet one of the authors from the book, Driving Operational Excellence, Ira Weissman.

If the concept of how to apply OpEx in the non-profit sector is of interest to you – there are many helpful gems of wisdom you can benefit from by listening in.

Interview with Jeff Cole: 5/24/2011

Getting the “People Part” of Operational Excellence Right…

One adage about what it takes to make OpEx sticky is: getting the people part right.

In this interview we get to hear from Jeff Cole, a co-author of Driving Operational Excellence. Jeff authored a much needed chapter on the topic of “Change Management Street Smarts.”

No matter what your role is – a top executive responsible for the bottom line or a ‘worker bee’ who needs to get buy-in for changes – you will find gems of wisdom here you can apply immediately.

Interview with Miles Kierson: 5/31/2011

Alignment of your Management Team – key to a new and prosperous future

It’ Ron Crabtree and it is my pleasure to bring you this edition of the Operational Excellence Edge Radio Show titled: “Alignment of your Management Team – key to a new and prosperous future”

It’s my pleasure to introduce a friend and business associate, Mr. Miles Kierson. He is the founder of Kierson Consulting, LLC and has worked to help some very impressive organizations figure out how to make a better, prosperous future a reality. Some of these include Sears (U.S. and Canada), ConocoPhillips, Allstate, and Ameritech – all well-known players in thier industries.

Miles has written a very cool book entitled The Transformational Power of Executive Alignment.

Miles, can you share a little about yourself for my readers and listeners? What’s your background – and how did you get into the area of executive alignment?

Interview with Steve Cimorelli: 6/2/2011

Interview with Forrest W. Breyfogle III: 6/7/2011

Is Your Management System Broken?

What would you say if someone said that current management systems are broken? Your management system? If you are intrigued and interested in learning more, you are in for a treat.

In this edition of the Operational Excellence Edge ezine series, you get to meet another of the authors of Driving Operational Excellence. Forrest Breyfogle, author of 13 books in the area of process improvement, quality, and Lean Six Sigma, shares some of his unique insights on these topics and more. Forrest will share his views about Toyota’s recent struggles along with other insights you will find very useful.

Interview with Gary Wickett: 6/9/2011

In this interview, we are going to touch on a subject that occurs in every kind of business setting and which is near and dear to our hearts – indentifying and eliminating sources of waste.

We’ll hear from Gary Wickett, one of the co-authors of Driving Operational Excellence. In Chapter 14, Gary takes a refreshing look at practical ways to think about waste – and a very pragmatic and simple approach to smoking out the true root causes of waste.

One thing that is great about Gary’s chapter is that it is specific to the service industry – he uses a fantastic case study on applying these techniques in a law firm. So no matter what you do – production or service provider – you will find something of value for your organization.

Interview with Gregg Young: 6/14/2011

What we can learn from Sherlock Holmes in making LSS more Successful

If you are scratching your head about the idea that Sherlock Holmes can teach us to be more effective in Operational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma, you are in good company. Mr. Gregg Young, President of Young Associates and author of the new book, Reasoning Backwards: Sherlock Holmes’ Guide to Effective Problem Solving will provide valuable insights.

In problem solving on any scale it’s about getting to the ‘needles in the haystack’ in terms of the true root causes and best conclusions. You’ll find useful insights here!

Interview with Dan Walker – 6/16/2011

Getting clear about what customers really want

Every once in a while you run into someone who shares an observation that makes you stop in your tracks and really THINK about something in a new way. Dan Walker is someone who did that for me.

Before that, let me share what he told me first. Dan asked me a critical question: Are manufacturers in the businesses of making things, or are they actually in fact providing services? I won’t spoil Dan’s points here, but just think about this idea.

When we make thing to sell, say a bicycle, when we get paid for that bike, what are we really getting paid for? The bike itself, or for the service we provided to develop, tool-up, make and deliver that bike to the consumer in a cost and time effective way?

Interview with Ed Feeny – 6/21/2011

Sustaining a Lean Six Sigma Implementation

One of the hard and cruel facts is that 8 or 9 organizations of 10 embarking on a major change initiative like Lean Six Sigma (LSS) fail to get the results they should. Going hand-in-hand with that problem is actually making LSS sticky for the long run.

Mr. Ed Feeny will join me here to share some hard-earned gems of wisdom to help you close the gap on these problems.

Interview with James Hardin – 6/28/2011

Operational Excellence’s Role in Fixing Our Education System

One industry that affects everyone at some stage in their lives is educating our children.

If you have ever wondered about the possibilities of leveraging Operational Excellence in Public Education, then this interview will be of extreme interest to you.

In this interview, we will talk with James Hardin – a 40-year veteran of public education and a co-author in the Driving Operational Excellence book. Here you will be exposed to some ideas that you may find quite intriguing and helpful in applying process improvement strategies to that critical element – public education.

Interview with Charles Shillingburg – 6/30/2011

Breaking Through to a Higher Performance Organization

When we got survey results from over 350 business peers to shape the content for the book Driving Operational Excellence, it was clear that getting clarity on how to apply Operational Excellence and LSS to the strategy-side of things was critical.

When we asked what would most interest them in reading the book, the top category response was “providing practical case study examples of how Op Ex and LSS can be applied.” Within that category, the two most-repeated areas of interest were:

1. Need innovative, successful examples

2. Easy to understand pictorials/examples

In this interview, we hear from Charles Shillingburg, one of the co-authors of Driving Operational Excellence. As a point of interest, the very first chapter in the book in the section on strategy is Charles’ chapter: Peeling the Onion for Higher Performance.

In his chapter, Charles delivers on exactly what our survey respondents were seeking. Included are simple analogies to help you think critically about how OE and LSS impact strategy, along with some fantastic graphics and pictures to help us understand the concepts he outlines.

Interview with Dr. Pietro Savo – 7/5/2011

Lean Make Over

Welcome to this edition of my Operational Excellence Edge Radio Show. If you think Lean is just for manufacturing you will find this edition of interest.

Joining me is Dr. Pietro Savo – who will share some incredible insights about lean – that cut across all industries and disciplines.

To you and your team – great success!

Interview with Dave Dubinsky – 7/7/2011

Top Performance Through Daily Management Thinking

If you talk to executives and managers routinely about metrics and goal setting as keys to success in Operational Excellence, then invariably you will end up at some point discussing how to make each and every employee accountable for some key aspects so that we have everyone engaged to help us succeed.

Trouble is, very few organizations do this effectively. We’d like to introduce David Dubinsky, one of the authors of Driving Operational Excellence, to share with us here his ‘secret sauce’ for deploying daily management. It’s taken Dave many years in industries around the world to glean all of the gems of wisdom you will learn here.

Interview with Bill Cooper – 7/12/2011

Leading Beyond Tradition – a Model for Modern Management

In this edition of the Operational Excellence Edge radio show we have joining us author and expert in applying Lean Six Sigma through a carefully crafted philosophy of management, Mr. William Cooper.

You are in for a real treat here, as he has some unique perspectives, seeing he is a retired Chief of Police. Like me, I’ll bet you can wait to see what he has to say.

Best to you and your team in success.

Interview with Doug Von Feldt – 7/14/2011

Measuring the effectiveness and value of your LSS training program

In this edition of the Operational Excellence Edge Radio show Mr. Doug Von Feldt with join us to tackle a very tricky topic – validating the value of training in Lean Six Sigma. One of my personal axes to grind with most ‘training’ programs is they don’t get results, or worse, leave everyone with a really bad taste in their mouth, believing that LSS does not work in their organization.

To you your team – great success!

Interview with Mike Bresko – 7/19/2011

Making Continuous Improve a Routine

In this edition of Operational Excellence Edge Radio Show, we tackle the difficult reality that talkingabout making continuous improvement part of daily life is much easier than actually doing it.

Here, Mr. Mike Bresko, co-author in the book Driving Operational Excellence, will join us to discuss his ‘secret sauce’ for making continuous improvement a sustainable daily routine in your organization.

Interview with Karen Young – 7/29/2011

The Importance of Customer Engagement in Six Sigma

Everybody talks about really knowing what customers want, and ostensibly, we all do that, right? Well, maybe not.

Karen Young, a co-author in the book Driving Operational Excellence, is featured in this edition of the Operational Excellence Edge Radio Show. If you are interested in the latest thinking about truly engaging customers and how the new Baldrige Award criteria for that lines up with Six Sigma thinking, then you are in for a treat.

Interview with Don Anthony – 7/26/2011

“Secrets” to LSS Implementation Success in Healthcare

In this edition of the Operational Excellence Edge radio show we will be taking a hard look at what it takes to succeed in implementing Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare.

Joining me is Mr. Don Anthony – who will share with us what works, and more importantly, what DOES NOT WORK in 8 years of practical experience in applying LSS in Healthcare.

If you are an expert in applying LSS in Healthcare or know nothing at all – you will find some gems of wisdom here.

Interview with Dr. Rocky Pinheiro – 8/2/2011

Breaking the Status Quo Mindset in Healthcare in Implementing Lean Six Sigma

From my personal experience implementing Operational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma in healthcare organizations is difficult at best. As the title of this radio show suggests, “maintaining the status quo” can be a huge impediment to success in making big changes in healthcare.

Here Dr. Rocky Pinheiro will join me to share some hard-won insights to breaking through the status quo barrier in healthcare organizations.

To you and your team – great success!

Ron Crabtree

Interview with Mike Jones – 8/9/2011

LSS implementation challenges in financial services – tips for success

Welcome to this edition of my Operational Excellence Edge radio show. Most of the community of folks interested in Operational Excellence, Lean Six Sigma and Business Process Reengineering are familiar with issues blocking success in manufacturing, but as the financial services industry has been embracing OpEx there have emerged some interesting aspects practitioners need to know about.

Eventually every practitioner will need to do stuff in the financial services side of their business – so there are great lessons to be learned here for everyone – be they novice or expert. Joining me here is Mr. Mike Jones, someone I greatly admire and respect in the area of LSS deployment who will share some gems of wisdom.

To you and your team, great success!
Ron Crabtree

Interview with Rich Holm – 8/17/2011

Engagement and The Key Steps to Successful Lean Manufacturing

Welcome to this edition of my Operational Excellence Edge Radio Show. The sad fact is this: Waaaaayyyy too many manufacturers FAIL to get the benefits they should from Lean implementation efforts.

Here Mr. Rich Holm will be joining us to share his wisdom on success in applying Lean Six Sigma in Manufacturing. I was very intrigued to hear some of his ideas for success – you will too.

To you and your team – great success!
Ron Crabtree