Everyone needs a target— if not, anywhere you go is OK! That’s the benefit of comparing to an enterprise excellence standard that had s been thought out and tested over time.
The Baldrige Award, Shingo Prize, and AME Mfg. Excellence Award are prime examples that highlight your strengths and weaknesses. The main key ingredient is an enlightnened management that sees the need for positive change and views it as the competitive advantage needed! It is a GREAT way to benchmark and learn from an outside looking glass. Too many times the internal view is not as clear or objective. One group I worked with, including many companies, demonstrated that since 80% of the companies thought they were in the top 25%!!!!!
I can help analyze your company’s enterprize competitive position or look at a core process with your process owners. I’ve found that the best similar processes are NOT in your industry… so you should set your benchmark on a world class similar process. After all, you don’t want to set your target “to best the best of the dogs”!
The external comparison can set your improvements plan for the next 1-5 years and motivate your process owners!
Speed To Excellence 
February 29, 2012 at 5:05 PM
[…] Achieving Enterprise Excellence Rapidly « Speed To Excellence […]
March 1, 2012 at 4:47 PM
Everyone talks about improvement—-> rapid, continuous, sustainable, BUT it’s must be an organizational expectation and must be visibliy suported by leaders and supervisors—> without the individual feeling threatened.
In addition, there must be a solid vision i.e. Benchmark that says improvement is Necessary for long term profitablity/survival. With a clear vision and annual goals there is no way to measure and take alternative actions, as improvements tend to flatten out and new situations arise.
Rapid improvement toward excellence is best done by participation by all the process stakeholders seeing the need for change and looking outside the organization for others that have already solved that particular problem — probably in other industries.
Spreading these best practices throughout the organization is a separate challenge and must depend on the leadership support that emphasizes a common “learn, share implement and refine” mentality/culture.