The Most Common Barrier to Process Improvement Efforts in Organizations

The Danger of the Buzzword program in organizations

 Lack of brain activity i.e. thinking

Over the last 25 years, there have been all kinds of buzzwords in this area including TQM, BPR, Lean, AGILE, Six Sigma, ERP, MRPII,  TOC, WCM, Kaizen, CIT, CAPM and quite a number of others.  

Unfortunately, if you implement a buzzword program, like  you would follow a recipe for an entrée, more often than not , the results will be either negative or brief.   Unfortunately as well, the reality is that this is a common scenario.

• • In some cases, it's because the buzzword chosen is due to the flavor of the day or flavor of the boss and does not fit the situation. 
  • More commonly however, it's because implementing a program by recipe without much thought usually creates a slew of  unintended consequences and disconnected activities.

• In either case, it's the same result -
  •  a considerable amount of chaos 
  • Failure to achieve cost, flexibility and/or new growth opportunity goals - often not acknowledged as the players blame an external cause (often something resembling delusional behavior but all too common)
  •   In little time you'll typically find that the costs soon outweigh any benefits and sometimes in a catastrophic way.