one80too! Audie Penn, March 15, 2024April 24, 2024 182 Critical Concepts for Operating Executives Practicing Operational Excellence My operational excellence journey began in 1991 when I participated in a joint project lead by Japanese sensei Nakao-san of Shingijutsu fame. I had no idea then what that simple experience would create. I have practiced and learned with more sensei… Continue Reading
Number 42 – Share Best Practices Audie Penn, July 8, 2025 Share ideas, information, and feedback, and encourage others to do the same. Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic When we solve common problems, the next logical step is to share ideas, information, and feedback. What is it that makes sharing best practices so challenging? Could it be the way we approach… Continue Reading
Number 137 – The Strategy Deployment Chain Audie Penn, July 2, 2025June 16, 2025 Ensure the links in the strategy deployment chain are maintained and correctly structured. Practitioners: integrative and strategic What does it take to ensure the links in the strategy deployment chain are maintained and correctly structured? Building a process that defines the chains and structures them correctly is the first step. … Continue Reading
Number 29 – Participate in the OpEx Journey Audie Penn, June 26, 2025June 16, 2025 Actively support, promote, communicate, or provide resources for employees to participate in the OpEx journey. Practitioners; Tactical, integrative, and strategic The three practitioners show up in our OpEx TopEx again. The tactical practitioner, or project facilitator, can and does support, promote and communicate the importance of participation in the OpEx… Continue Reading
Number 152 – Assess the Long-Term Results Audie Penn, June 24, 2025June 24, 2025 Assess the long-term results of an improvement. Practitioners: integrative, and strategic One of the most frequent complaints associated with any improvement project is the lack of sustainable results. As a tactical practitioner, focusing on improving the method or process is foremost in my purview. Working through the end-to-end process improvement… Continue Reading
Number 117 – Use Process Maps Audie Penn, June 20, 2025June 16, 2025 Use process maps for the extended value stream to assist in conducting projects. Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic Value stream mapping is a great tool to uncover potential improvement opportunities. I would like to expand the scope of our focus to process maps. Process mapping, in general, opens the eyes… Continue Reading
Number 91 – Provide Coaching and Training Audie Penn, June 17, 2025June 16, 2025 Provide coaching and training on the tools and principles of operational excellence. Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic There are three critical participants in any successful operational excellence implementation. The Sponsor, the process owner, and the team member. Each has a special and specific relationship to the tools, techniques, and tactics… Continue Reading
Number 65 – Strategy Deployment Audie Penn, June 12, 2025June 12, 2025 Use tools to create alignment to company vision and corporate mission (strategy deployment). Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic Strategy deployment is an important function for any organization. Whether large or small, formal or informal, creating alignment to vision and strategy is critical. What tools do we have to support and… Continue Reading
Number 143 – Rewards and Recognition Audie Penn, May 28, 2025May 28, 2025 Link rewards and recognition to desired outcomes. Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic One of my favorite articles, to which I was exposed too long ago to recall the exact time, immediately comes to mind here. The article is question is titled – On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping… Continue Reading
Number 55 – Supplier to Customer Audie Penn, May 20, 2025April 23, 2025 Identify opportunities for improvement throughout the extended value stream, from supplier to customer. Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic The first word that strikes me when I read this topic statement is suboptimize. When we limit our boundaries, we can miss key variables that might have a significant impact on our… Continue Reading
Number 165 – Current State and Future State Audie Penn, May 14, 2025April 23, 2025 Identify current state and future state for the value stream. Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic After I learned to map processes, the practice became one of the first tasks I undertook when I inherited a new department, function, of operation. Value stream mapping has many flavors. The depth of detail… Continue Reading