| Several years ago at a major conference on HR and development, Porter presented his views on business strategy (table 1). Therefore, it is necessary to identify the required resources and capabilities needed to respond to the issues and problems facing the organization before embarking on process modeling and initiating a six sigma program. figure 1: complexity of "messy" problems Techniques such as systems dynamics and soft systems have a role to play in developing an understanding of the business context and underpinning concepts represented in rows 1 and 2 of the Zachmann Framework (table 2).... An over-emphasis on six and lean sigma as a basic measurement and cost reduction technique may result in anorexic companies who do not have the requisite resources and capabilities to operate in a dynamic environment and respond to the business drivers. Often it is difficult to identify repeatable transactional process activities. Additionally, this approach with a systems mapping tool such as MOOD allows the business context and identification of the organization's resource requirements needed to support the business capabilities. In his Twelve Organizational Capabilities2 Garrett focuses on the pivotal role of the informal organization in transforming "the espoused direction, leadership and values" of the formal organization into such behaviors. So customer satisfaction was understood by frontline staff the informal organization (later confirmed in attitude surveys) but not by the formal organization (which was focused on cost reduction). Following the lead of Edwards Deming, and statistic process control, the fundamentals of six sigma lie in the systematic study of variation.... The logic is simple: · · · · · observe an outcome define the process identify the process variability.analyze the causes of process variability identify changes which can, favorably, reduce the process variability.
| 