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During my career, I am fortunate to have
been involved with numerous process improvement projects and most with very good
success. Some years ago while preparing for a speech, I reflected back on those
projects that were very successful and those which were successful but struggled
and even those that didn’t complete. In speaking with others involved with these
projects and gathering from endless articles and books, I have compiled a list
of key improvement project attributes. My experience has been that in successful
projects, these attributes were strong and in projects that struggled or failed,
these attributes were weak or did not exist.
During this coming APICS year, I will be
contributing to the monthly newsletter by sharing my experiences with each of
these attributes. My purpose is to provide others with ideas and tools to help
make your business improvement projects more successful. Here are my ten key
elements to making business improvements more successful, not in any particular
order. Projects can be more or less successful depending on the strength of any
of these key elements:
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Leadership
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Knowledge
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Discipline
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Resources
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Teamwork
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Project Planning
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Decision Making
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Problem Solving
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Technology
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Measurements
Each key attribute contributes to project
success. Strength in one area can make up for a weakness in another; however,
strength in all areas can deliver projects more quickly and at less cost. Each
one of these critical project elements consist of several sub-attributes. As
business improvement leaders, it is crucial to understand which of these
attributes are available in your company, where your strengths are and which
attributes need to be strengthened. All of them contribute to the level of
success of projects.
An initial assessment and frequent review
of skills and processes in light of these ten key elements can help your
business be more successful at implementing improvements. The CPIM Strategic
Management of Resources course discusses organizational strengths and
weaknesses. Take the opportunity to discuss your organization’s strengths and
weaknesses in these ten key elements. Make plans to strengthen areas where
improvements to these attributes are needed.
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