Lean Business Envisioned

I imagine most are familiar with a Center of Excellence (COE) or Portfolio Management Office (PMO). That said, does a company need either organization to succeed?

BACKGROUND

Before I weigh in on my opinion let me set the stage for you. In 2002 I contracted with H-E-B, a regional grocer in San Antonio (bread plant). We were introduced to the plant manager and the H-E-B Master Black Belt and given a tour of the facilities and operations. We were told the gap was to eliminate waste and improve operations - pure 6-Sigma.

We conducted a lot a fact gathering, analysis, hypothesis and testing as part of the regimen. The testing yielded 25 proposed solutions and when briefed the plant manager implemented all 25 recommendations at the end of 6 months. The point of this background leads me to current date.

I interviewed last week with H-E-B for my next role and to my surprise the previous Center of Excellence had been converted into a functional team delivery system.

TO BE LEAN OR NOT TO BE LEAN

I realize an argument can be made for or against a formal organization of portfolio managers, product managers, project managers, analysts, and release management technicians; however, H-E-B had realigned themselves into a lean structure - functional product teams. No apologies, Lean typically yields a reduction of head count or at the minimum a static number of employee head count.

MY OPINION

While I was expecting a mature PMO-type organization I found myself listening to the hiring manager describe a lean functional, product focused environment. Bravo! I can think of no better organizational structure than a lean organization. Footnote here is that I am a proponent of automation so tools such as ADOBE Workfront, eHPPM, Clarity, or Planview are recommended for visibility, trackability and reportability, even in the leanest organizations.

SUMMARY

For those of you old enough to remember the Golden Chalice (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) competition in the 80's, here we are in 2023 with H-E-B demonstrating the best tenants of a lean organization, so it seems to me they did learn something from all that 6-Sigma practice. Best of luck to H-E-B in the future and other companies might take note.

For more information on utilizing 6-Sigma principles please contact Dave Howell, 210-618-6566, [email protected] .

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