{"id":7456,"date":"2025-01-14T01:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T08:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/?p=7456"},"modified":"2025-01-11T10:23:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T17:23:55","slug":"process-management-rises-from-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/process-management-rises-from-the-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Process Management Rises from the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>Harvard Business Review (Jan 2025) argues for a renaissance, a rebirth of process management and quality improvement. Here&#8217;s why:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1043478341?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>You might want to order reprints of these articles and forward them to your leadership. (HBR Reprint S25011)<\/p>\r\n<p>Download my free eBook, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/pdf\/Agile-Process-Innovation.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m Jay Arthur, author of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lean-Six-Sigma-Demystified-Second\/dp\/0071749098\/\">Lean Six Sigma Demystified<\/a>\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/demo\/\">QI Macros [software]<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;In the most recent issue of Harvard Business Review (I think this is January 2025), shockingly enough, what did I discover? <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2025\/01\/how-to-marry-process-management-and-ai\">An article about Process Management!<\/a> Oh my gosh!<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;The closing argument in here from these folks is:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s time for senior management to put process back on their radar screens and begin to sort out how to make it better in their departments.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Oh my gosh! Process management has been around forever. Let&#8217;s rediscover it. Put it back on your radar. I&#8217;m just amazed.<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;There are some pretty simple things in here. I&#8217;ll read them to you because I just&#8230; you know, I&#8217;ll save you [from] looking this thing up.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Process management isn&#8217;t a complicated process or concept. Its goal is to understand how a sequence of tasks fit together to create a specified outcome and then make improvements.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Wow, that&#8217;s what we do!<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Better managed processes mean higher productivity. Error rates, cycle times, and low-value work are all reduced.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;I tell you&#8230;<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Indeed, new ideas about processes, including scientific management, Statistical Quality Control, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Agile Lean methodologies, have a rich history of impact. The fact that new thinking about Process Management keeps emerging is testimony to its importance.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s one that I love:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;The lack of technological support&#8230;&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;(for example, [the lack of] QI Macros)<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;&#8230;particularly in incremental process improvement approaches like Lean and Six Sigma, contributed to the decline in popularity of process thinking.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;So not having software to support you when you&#8217;re trying to do Lean and Six Sigma stops the process. I can&#8217;t tell you how many people are afraid to pony up a few dollars and buy some software to make their life easier. It&#8217;s just ridiculous.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Focus initially on one or two processes that are critical to performance.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t try and fix everything. I&#8217;ve been saying this for a long time: Don&#8217;t fix everything. Fix the things that are broken.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;You can use process automation to improve invoicing, purchasing, order fulfillment and more.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;This is all the backroom functions that need to be fixed in manufacturing and all of the service industries as well.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Find descriptions of interfaces between departments are especially useful, particularly early on. Often these interfaces lie in the white space&#8230;&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the arrows between processes, right? That&#8217;s where the gaps are. In between processes, between functions. That&#8217;s where all the delays and defects and mistakes happen. All right,<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;&#8230;and companies should base targets on what is needed and seems possible.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;(I love this one. I used to work for a phone company.)<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;One telecom firm, for example, determined that it took about 90 days to deliver a particular type of service. Digging deeper, it found that the actual work time was about 10 days, with the remaining 80 days spent waiting between steps.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Oh my gosh, this is true in almost every process I&#8217;ve ever diagrammed, all you need is some post-it notes and you can start to figure this stuff out.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Companies must establish a new normal in which control and continuous improvement prevail.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Oh my god, Harvard Business Review is saying &#8220;Come back, come back to Quality Improvement!&#8221;<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;There&#8217;s a virtuous cycle of better data, easier technological implementation, productivity gains, [and] increased payoffs. So it&#8217;s time for senior managers to put process back on their radar screens and begin to sort out how to make it easier.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Duh!<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;And then there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2025\/01\/the-secret-to-successful-ai-driven-process-redesign\">a whole &#8216;nother article in here that starts off with Taichi Ohno developing the Toyota production system<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p><em>&#8220;Rather than revolutionizing the industry through bold, innovative and risky endeavors, Toyota chose incremental but relentless improvements.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>&#8220;Ha! Harvard Business Review, [January] 2025, is saying what we&#8217;ve been saying for decades: It&#8217;s time to come back to Quality Improvement.<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;So that&#8217;s my Improvement Insight for this week. Let&#8217;s get back to doing process improvements and process management. Let&#8217;s go out and improve something this week.&#8221;<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harvard Business Review (Jan 2025) argues for a renaissance, a rebirth of process management and quality improvement. Here&rsquo;s why: &#65279; You might want to order reprints of these articles and forward them to your leadership. (HBR Reprint S25011) Download my free eBook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results. &nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Jay Arthur, author [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290,1],"tags":[302,598,168],"class_list":["post-7456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improvement-insights","category-jay-arthur-blog","tag-hbr","tag-process-management","tag-qi-macros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7456"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7549,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456\/revisions\/7549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qimacros.com\/lean-six-sigma-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}