ABSTRACT
Operational excellence is a key component of strategy execution, and programs designed to foster operational excellence play a both critical and dubious role in helping companies meet strategic objectives and fulfill missions. Just as Michael Porter’s five forces model helped shape the modern approach to strategy planning, and Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard provided a critical link between organizational strategy and operations, the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies [hereafter referred to simply as Lean Six Sigma (LSS)] have provided structure and scientific rigor to process improvement. Lean traditionally focuses on eliminating process waste. Six Sigma focuses on variation reduction—treating deviations from a process target as a defect and eliminating or minimizing root causes. Since the early 2000s, these two methodologies have merged into a combined LSS process-improvement program.
