TABLE OF CONTENTS We have traveled through a learning discussion of how productivity emerged from the mid-twentieth-century era of mass production and a cost world mentality to the competitive survival environment of today. The torch for just in time and total quality management has developed into separate philosophical camps, each with its staunch supporters, to the following management systems or methodologies:
Lean manufacturing or lean thinking
Theory of Constraints/throughput accounting
Six Sigma
Activity-based costing and management
Balanced scorecard
All of these tools have distinguishing attributes. When leveraged and combined for the best fit for appropriate situations, they could generate a significantly greater impact on bottom-line profitability. They each offer similar areas of focus:
The customer is the number-one priority
Low cost
Highest quality (products and service)
Delivery when and where the customer wants it
These tools can work together or at least enable better results when used appropriately to solve problems and eliminate waste while giving customers what they want and when they want it. After providing insight on combining the productivity tools, I will offer guidance on executing the strategy and monitoring the results using the accounting and scorecard tools. Application of all these tools implies and requires change. These ideas then become more than just other good ideas that did not get implemented.
Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma projects create changes that will produce a significant impact on organizations and how they operate. These programs change the way processes function and flow, how product quality is...
