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Gemba Walks – A Foundational Methodology in Enterprise Excellence Deployment

Contributed by:

Rick Hepp, Trainer, Coach & Mentoir for Enterprise Excellence, Consultant and Trainer

As Part of a Business Transformation and Enterprise Excellence strategy, how can the methodologies & tools of Operational Excellence be integrated into Business Strategy?

A foundational Operational Excellence approach was highlighted in a 16MAY18 BPM article around 6 key methodologies … Visual Management, Gemba Walks, 5s, Value Stream Maps, Standard Work, & Kaizen Process Improvement Actions. Visual Management was covered in that article.1Today’s discussion will be around the powerful engagement & empowerment methodology of Gemba Walks.

Tell me more about Gemba Walks

Business Architecture - A New Depiction

Contributed by:

Richard Hillier, Mr, IBM UK (Formerly)

Introduction

This paper discusses a new depiction of Business Architecture within Enterprise Architecture to bring clarity on how Business Architecture relates to other Architecture domains & to Business Planning.

Author: Richard Hillier (retired Enterprise Architect)

Enterprise Architecture Domains

The above diagram represents a variation on the normal depiction of architecture domains. It’s an attempt to reconcile the older pillars with the newer layers orientations. Crucial to this depiction are components which exist in both the vertical pillars and the horizontal Business Architecture layer as follows:

The Future-Proofing Business Architect: Lessons from the Field

Contributed by:

Dean Heltemes, Senior Director, Ameriprise Financial

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see." - Winston Churchill

The Value Creation System

Contributed by:

Simona Lovin, Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Leidos

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”(Peter Drucker)

This article proposes a conceptual framework for describing business organizations as complex systems, much like live organisms, whose parts function in an orchestrated manner for the sole purpose of creating customer value.

The impetus behind it was the growing realization that while most business publications focus on the tactical aspects of running a business (the “how” of the business), few tackle head-on are the foundational principles of strong business models (the “why” of a business).

Choosing the Right Methodologies, Tools and Techniques (as appropriate) in Enterprise Excellence Deployment

Contributed by:

Rick Hepp, Trainer, Coach & Mentoir for Enterprise Excellence, Consultant and Trainer

As Part of a Business Transformation and Enterprise Excellence strategy, how can the tools of Operational Excellence be integrated into Business Strategy?

I thought I'd share a view of Operational Excellence (OpEx) that I've used over the years in engaging Leadership as well as during Training and Development classes.

Too often OpEx is viewed as a set of tools to apply ... That couldn't be further from the truth.

OpEx starts with two simple questions - "What's the problem or opportunity for improvement?" and “How does it link to our Business Strategy?”.

Maximizing the Value of Your Product Backlog (Part Two)

Contributed by:

Jamie Cooke, Managing Director, Both Hemispheres, LLC

Valuating and prioritizing your features

The Product Backlog is the heart of defining any Agile solution. The requirements that are identified in the Product Backlog drive the priorities that the Agile development team works on, they establish the scope of the delivered solution, and they ultimately determine the business value that the organization will receive from their Agile investment. This is the second of two articles that provide you with techniques for maximizing the value of the features in your Product Backlog. The first article, Maximizing the Value of Your Product Backlog (Part One): Gathering the full scope of req

Deploying Metrics in an Operational Excellence Initiative

Contributed by:

Marvin Wurtzel, Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and Principal Consultant, Marvin M. Wurtzel & Associates, Inc.

Implementing operational excellence so that the organization benefits is an important question that needs close examination. An operational excellence initiative requires many elements. The model requires the implementation of:

1. Program—What are you deploying and how will you manage it?

2. Leadership—How will leadership lead the program?

3. Processes—What will you be improving?

4. Measurements—How will you know when you are successful?

5. Projects—How will improvement work be parsed into actionable and manageable units?

6. People—After these steps have been thoroughly planned and evaluated, what you have learned will be the foundation for:

7. Strategy—How will you deploy the initiative?

Going digital or going bananas

Contributed by:

Ian Gotts, Founder & CEO, Elements.cloud

What is clear that every company, no matter what industry needs to “go digital” to reduce costs and improve customer experience. For some industries, it is revolution rather than evolution. “Digital” is more than just driving efficiencies, it is reevaluating business models. As whilst digital can improve efficiencies it is eroding margins at a faster rate.

Nature is a great teacher. Think about the structure of plants and shells and the Fibonacci sequence. Or the strength of the honeycomb structure. These are math and engineering. But a bunch of bananas can teach us about going digital and business change. Seriously?

A bunch of bananas

Building an Enterprise Process Map (part 2 of 2)

Contributed by:

David Hamme, Managing Director, Ephesus Consulting

In the prior article, Enterprise Process Map (Part 1 of 2), I promoted enterprise process maps as a tool to enhance operational clarity and create a shared view of a company’s capabilities. It is this shared perspective that accelerates business planning and improvement activities as the time to get everyone on the same page is vastly reduced. In lieu of such a foundational view, leaders setting strategy are essentially planning a road trip without awareness of the roads to the destination.

Outsourcing: The Benefits of Utilizing Freelancers

Contributed by:

Charles Phan, Writer, Gum Essays

For many, the idea of offloading work onto others, especially people we don’t really know, is a difficult idea. The thought of entrusting a stranger with any part of our business seems like a disaster waiting to happen. But even the biggest and best find ways to delegate their workload, often to employees who may not have the motivation to get the job done well.

Often we are bogged down under deadlines, huge reports, and marketing pushes to really take a look at the bigger picture. We get used to the idea of working under pressure, and it’s common knowledge that stress and poor time management can lead to sometimes costly mistakes. Escaping from this mindset enables us to take a long view at how we delegate our tasks, and that actually, outsourcing is a vital tool to freeing us to concentrate on the core business.

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