Case Study Analysis: Kimberly Watson-Hemphill’s Unlocking Success
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Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.
The article discusses the steps that organizations can take to achieve success by deploying Lean Six Sigma. In that line of thought, the most important factor surrounding the case is the difference between the deployment measures that organizations take considering Lean Six Sigma, leading to the difference in the overall deployment process outcomes. While other organizations achieve success, others fail to realize the anticipated outcomes.
Identify the key issue or issues.
The key issue in the case is the approach taken while implementing Lean Six Sigma. While other firms follow the hard-saving approach, which was found to be the best deployment strategy that had 75% success rate, others choose directions like cost reduction and inventory reduction. The main causes of these issues have a strong relation with managerial factors. For instance, the case study results indicate a lack of information when deciding about the best deployment approach. Given this lack of information, others excel in achieving the anticipated outcomes while others struggle with the deployment process, leading to an overall negative outcome. Based on these discrepancies, there is an urgent need to identify and implement alternative courses of action to ensure a uniform and high rate of firms unlocking success in deploying the Lean Six Sigma within their organizational operations.
Specify alternative courses of action.
To unlock success in the deployment of Six Sigma, companies need to consider these alternative courses of action; development leadership that is committed to the deployment strategy, having a complete understanding of LSS methodologies, and the establishment of an effective execution approach.
Evaluate each course of action.
The first proposed course of action is based on the idea that a leadership that is not committed to the deployment of LSS is most likely to lead to an unexpected outcome. Dedicated leadership assigns specific people based on their talents to lead the deployment project instead of using whoever is available for the same purpose. Also, dedicated leaders are willing and able to dedicate resources, talents, time, and money to ensure the project’s success. The second option is first to understand what defines a successful implementation of a Lean Six Sigma. Lack of such understandings is most likely to see organizations rush to deploy LSS and achieve losses in both the short-run and long run. Employing and supporting Six Sigma deployment experts is a strategic way of overcoming the hurdles of a lack of knowledge on the deployment process. The last proposal is to ensure the proper execution of the whole process. Even with professionals and committed leaders, the deployment process that follows ineffective methodologies can lead to unexpected low gains and productivity.
Recommend the best course of action.
Based on the above analysis and the identified issue from the case, the best course of action is to follow an; effective and appropriate method of execution because, as noted in the previous section an execution of the deployment process that follows ineffective methodologies have high probabilities of leading to unexpected low gains and productivity.