Ithaki provides consultancy, coaching & training related to Continuous Improvement (CI) & Operational Excellence. This is a very broad domain spanning
- Lean
- Six Sigma
- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Theory of Constraints
- Project Management
- Strategy
- …
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all. No there is not even some are telling there is.
Through working with various multinationals, there are many recurring themes. Yet, the solution is always tailored to the situation.
Let me give some examples
Lean aims for single piece flow – a great philosophy. One of the pre-requisites is immediate feedback from test results. How than can simple piece flow be implemented in a clean room environment where analysis of micro-biological growth takes more than day? (If you happen to offer real-time testing approved by FDA, you are probably already rich)
I have worked for an organisation that had 2 manufacturing sites literally above each other. One was very manual and had self-managing teams (it is something I find amazingly cool). The other was fully automated with employees supervising the machines. Implementing self-managing teams did not work. Same company. Same location. Same Management.
The delight is in the details. Unfortunately, many organisations throw the baby out with the bathwater. Although I personally would not recommend some approaches, I have not seen a bad approach. Only an approach being implemented badly.