Before starting a Lean Six Sigma deployment, organizational leaders need to develop and understand what the vision of their efforts will include. The vision should embrace the following themes:
- Focus on the customer and keeping the customer first. Systems and strategies should be developed that tie the business to the voice of the customer.
- Data and fact driven management that uses data to make decisions versus opinions and here say.
- Process focus and continuous improvement as an engine for growth and success. All processes are documented, measured, and improved on an ongoing basis.
- Proactive management that anticipates problems, applies facts and data, and constantly questions how we do things.
- Boundaryless collaboration allowing cooperation between internal functions and with customers, suppliers, and supply chain partners.
- A constant drive for perfection that gives employees the freedom to test new approaches and learn from mistakes.