The Story Behind Driving Operational Excellence, By Ron Crabtree

For years I had been watching company executives and managers look at Lean, Six Sigma and Operational Excellence with the evil eye, wary about what these strategies meant, how they worked or whether or not their company would benefit from such “complex” initiatives. In looking at the reference material on these subjects, I really couldn’t blame them. Much of the material available on Lean, Six Sigma and Op Ex is written at a level that only Black belts can begin to understand. We’ve written a lot about these strategies, but it’s all been written for the experts, not the lay people expected to adopt and implement it.

As I thought about it, I wondered if I was alone thinking that someone needed to write a book aimed to answer some of the most prominent questions companies have about continuous improvement, change management and process excellence.

So I turned to my colleagues to find out what they thought. It turns out that they were seeing the same problem.
That’s when the fire behind Driving Operational Excellence came into being. I, along with 23 of the best consultants in continuous improvement came together to write a book targeted specifically toward those executives and managers who may not have the level of experience with strategic improvement programs required to make informed decisions about these types of initiatives and how they support, benefit and grow their companies.

In Driving Operational Excellence, we’ve put together a potpourri of Lean, Six Sigma and Operational Excellence topics to give an overview of what can be achieved with these types of strategies. We’ve categorized them under four headings: Strategy, Methodology, General Tools and Specific Tools, with a closing section on the future of business and continuous improvement. We’ve also covered the subject matter in a way that is appealing to both experts and initiates alike. Best of all, we’ve made it interesting to read, provide concrete, real-life working examples, and at times – even made it a bit humorous.

Some of the topics you will see inside our book include:

What is Lean?
Value Realization Methodology
Strategy Development
Continuous Improvement
Daily Management
Change Management
Project Selection
Waste
Value Stream Mapping
Voice of the customer
Lean Accounting