Design for Operational Excellence: A Breakthrough Strategy for Business Growth
The ability to implement and maintain improvement initiatives like Lean and Six Sigma
is essential for improving quality, eliminating waste, reducing costs, and increasing
output—but it’s only the first step. Eventually, the improve-sustain-improve-sustain
pattern itself becomes the end product. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Why make operational improvement a perpetual process when you can make business growth a
perpetual process?
In this trailblazing book, Kevin Duggan—author of Creating Mixed Model Value Streams and
founder of the Institute for Operational Excellence and Duggan Associates—takes you
beyond Lean and Six Sigma to achieve true Operational Excellence. By developing a “design
for operational excellence” you can leverage the operations side of the business to
enable continuous growth.
Design for Operational Excellence provides the design criteria and guidelines that enable
you to grow your business organically by refocusing management’s attention from running
the business to growing the business.
Duggan takes you step by step through the new principles of Operational Excellence:
#1: Design Lean Value Streams
#2: Make Lean Value Streams Flow
#3: Make Flow Visual
#4: Create Standard Work for Flow
#5: Make Abnormal Flow Visual
#6: Create Standard Work for Abnormal Flow
#7: Have Employees in the Flow Improve the Flow
#8: Perform Offense Activities
Case studies illustrate how companies that applied Duggan’s methods grew
consistently over time by designing and implementing a lean flow of product to the
customer. The result was a flow that “self healed” when interruptions occurred, which
removed the need to manage flow. These methods work in any business environment, not just
manufacturing. Everything from insurance, financial, and banking organizations to
hospitals, mining companies, universities, and even government can benefit from the
bottom-line and topline business results Duggan’s methodology offers.
Design for Operational Excellence is the next great leap in the evolution of sustained
business growth. Begin designing for growth now and stop reacting to customer needs.
Instead, position your operation to provide customer solutions in changing markets, which
will lead to profit and growth in even the most severe economic and market downturns.
Table of Contents
Foreword Jeffrey K. Liker vii
Acknowledgments x
Introduction: The Return on Your Investment xi
Part I Destination: Creating Operational Excellence 1
Chapter 1 The Engine of the Business 3
Chapter 2 The Myth of Improvement 9
Chapter 3 The Leapfrog 19
Chapter 4 Denning Operational Excellence 27
Chapter 5 Creating the Road Map to Operational Excellence 37
Part II Nine Tough Questions on Continuous Improvement 53
Chapter 6 Preparing People to Jump 55
Chapter 7 The First Question: Why Do We Do Continuous Improvement? 59
Chapter 8 The Second Question: What Is the Best Way to Improve? 63
Chapter 9 The Third Question: How Do We Know Where to Improve? 67
Chapter 10 The Fourth Question: Why Do We Strive to Create Flow? 75
Chapter 11 The Fifth Question: What Causes the Death of Flow? 81
Chapter 12 The Sixth Question: What Would the Shop Floor Look Like if We Did Everything
Right? 91
Chapter 13 The Seventh Question: What Would the Office Look Like if We Did Everything
Right? 97
Chapter 14 The Eighth Question: What Would the Supply Chain Look Like if We Did Everything
Right? 105
Chapter 15 The Final Question: Where Will Our Continuous Improvement Journey Take Us? 111
Part III The Eight Principles of Operational Excellence 119
Chapter 16 The New Operations "Engine Design" for Operational
Excellence 121
Chapter 17 The First Principle: Design Lean Value Streams 125
Chapter 18 The Second Principle: Make Lean Value Streams Flow 165
Chapter 19 The Third Principle: Make Flow Visual 171
Chapter 20 The Fourth Principle: Create Standard Work for Flow 181
Chapter 21 The Fifth Principle: Make Abnormal Flow Visual 189
Chapter 22 The Sixth Principle: Create Standard Work for Abnormal Flow 199
Chapter 23 The Seventh Principle: Have Employees in the Flow Improve the Flow 215
Chapter 24 The Eighth Principle: Perform Offense Activities 227
Part IV Extended Case Studies 239
Introduction to Case Studies 239
Chapter 25 Parker Hannifin Corporation 241
Chapter 26 IDEX Corporation 257
Chapter 27 Hypertherm 273
Conclusion: Our Blueprint for Growth 292
Notes 294
Index 296
304 pages, Hardcover
