Summary of interview responses from various Heads and Managers of Process Improvement on CXO expectations. This is a presentation at 13th Annual Lean Six Sigma Conference in May 2012.

1. CXO EXPECTATIONS OF
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
PROFESSIONALS
13th
A Presentation by :
Jamilah Haron
Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
jamilah.haron@gmail.com
Annual Asia Lean Six Sigma and Process Improvement Summit
23rd May 2012
Amara Hotel, Singapore

2. HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESENTATION

The What :
What are the top few expectations for Process Improvement (PI)
Professionals

The How :
How are PI professionals expected to do, be, have

Communication : Progress and Promotion

Projects impact on top line growth

3. “NO 1 CEO’S” EXPECTATION
1990 :
…become Six Sigma company in
4 years – cut down defect rate
by 10 000 times, average
reduction of 84% a year

4. WHAT’S THE COMMON EXPECTATION ?

“The senior management expects A LOT”


MNC company, world’s largest plantation holding company
“The CEO expects A LOT from the transformation team“

One of Asia’s largest securities trading organizatio n

5. DEEP DIVE ON “A LOT”

There are so many priorities at a time in the mind of CXOs,

Expectations grow and get overlapped.
Focus and communication are keys for alignment with
business objectives.


7. “NO 1 CEO’S” EXPECTATION
THE FIVE MEASURES OF SIX SIGMA PROGRESS





Customer satisfaction..in DPM survey
responses
Cost of Poor Quality..in percent of total revenue
Supplier Quality ..in DPM units purchased
Internal Process Performance.. Defects in
relation of sum of all opportunities (CTQs) for
defects
Design for manufacturability…in percent of
drawing reviewed for CTQs, percent of CTQs
designed to Six Sigma
Inside-Out, end–to-end

8. TANGIBLE EXPECTATIONS

Strategic
“Identify/implement game changers that
can help the organization become a
leading market place (moving from
domestic to regional marketplace)”
“A PI professional must possess the
ability to relate process improvement to
strategy and its impact on business”
“…take care of customers in a way that
is cost effective and provides the most
value”

9. TANGIBLE EXPECTATIONS

Strategic
“…need to get to the point …able to
identify the vital few things that
have the most benefit for the
company and not work on every
single project that we dream up.”
“…being able to vision the entire
process, end-to-end, outside of own
processes, but also upstream and
downstream into our supplier and
customer worlds”

10. TANGIBLE EXPECTATIONS
•
Get Results – Financial, Value-adding
“Identify cost savings initiatives to improve
bottom line”
“Create “Value proposition” from process”
improvement initiated out of customers
feedback
“Meet result as per expectations”
“Provide the best solution out of process
improvement.
Value for money from the improvement”
“Quality improvement and business
effectiveness”

11. TANGIBLE EXPECTATIONS
•
Drive Efficiency
“Identify opportunity to improve process
efficiency” through waste elimination
“Improve our internal processes/delivery
systems”
“Processes to be simplified”

12. TANGIBLE EXPECTATIONS

Speed of execution
“SPEED. …applications to be processed
fast with lesser rework”.
“To have savings and improvement within
a short period”
“Need to be able to demonstrate value
within the year”.
“..to package improvements effort in such a
way that they produce a lot of value within
shortened time frames”.

13. SUMMARY OF TOP EXPECTATIONS

15. “NO 1 CEO’S” EXPECTATIONS

16. EXPECTATIONS – THE HOW
•
Take Charge !
“Institute
and
institutionalise
best
practices especially in terms of project
management practices”
“Coordinate
events.”
all
improvement
related

17. THE HOW : EXECUTING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
•
Rigor, fact-based
“Credibility must be build on a rigorous
compliance to fact based methodology
that drives results on a sustainable
basis.”
“Applying Lean
and make sure
for example,
statement was
causes.”
Six Sigma principles,
we really understood,
what the problem
and what the root

18. THE HOW : EXECUTING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
•
Adaptability
“An ability to adapt to fast changing situations”
“Adaptable , flexible to changes in assignment”
“Be a fighter, keep improving the initiative”.

19. THE HOW : EXECUTING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
•
Contribute to people growth
to
“Identify ways of motivating people
help company to grow such as
introducing attractive reward and
recognition program”
“Develop people skill by conducting
appropriate training on relevant
improvement methodologies”
“Create better culture, better image,
make people feel the existence”

20. SUMMARY OF BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATIONS

22. EXPECTATIONS ON COMMUNICATION : 2PS
•
Progress
“Report the implementation status and the
actual achievement against the set target”
•
Promotion
“Promote the initiatives well , make it big”
“Make process improvement a
marketing tool..Meet clients and share
how projects will add value to them”.

23. WHAT ARE RELEVANT INFO FOR CXOS

Results
Progress : % improved,
completion, % trained
 Figures : savings
 Customers-related info
 Product/Service performance
Gap to target
Project pipelines
Relative Ranking




%

24. VISIONARY CXOS EMPHASIZES PROMOTION





Intranet
Weekly Communication
Visits
Electronic newsletter
Events

26. FUNDAMENTALS IN DRIVING TOWARDS TOP LINE
Goal
setting &
review
Verification Process
Forecast in the beginning
Validation at closure
Structure
Definitions, Standard Calculations,
Finance engagement and buy-in

27. KEY TAKE AWAYS

Strategic, Speed, Results, Efficiency

Take charge, Results-driven, Adaptability, People
growth

The right projects with end-to-end approach will give
top line impact.

Communicating and promoting initiatives are as
important as getting the results.

28. jamilah.haron@gmail.com

29. REFERENCES
Bossidy, L. and Charan, R. Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Random House (2011)
Slater, R. The GE Way Field Book. McGraw Hill (1999)
Welch, J. and Welch, S. Winning. Harper Business (2005)
http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/
Respondent of e-mail survey