OVERVIEW

We all have heard stories of the millions, even billions of dollars saved by companies that have successfully implemented Lean, Six Sigma, or Theory of Constraints continual improvement tools. The numbers are staggering and speak loudly to the impact the tools can have on a company and also to the state companies were in prior to transformation. Just think of it the bottom lines of our companies were being hit with billions of dollars of waste before transformation. How in the world did we even survive? It makes you wonder. Without transformation, many of us certainly would not be around today.

The only problem with transformation is that the more you do it, the harder it becomes to sustain. The low-hanging fruit gets picked quickly, and before long, the tree starts to look pretty barren. As change agents, we want to harvest a plentiful amount of savings each and every season. Is there a point where there are no longer any more benefits to obtain? That point would be perfection, and I'll go out on a limb and say that no company has yet achieved perfection. There is always room for improvement.

That reminds me of a story. A man is standing against a wall of a room facing the opposite wall. The objective is for him to begin walking and reach the opposite wall. There is only one rule that guides him as he attempts to walk across the room. He must repeatedly walk half the distance...