The last few decades have seen companies adopt a host of different approaches to improving the quality and efficiency of their output that include Total Quality Management, business process reengineering, Lean, Six Sigma, business process management (BPM) and business performance improvement.
What all these methodologies have in common is a focus on optimizing processes to improve overall operational efficiency. At its most fundamental level, process excellence is not about a methodology, it is about improving the way that businesses create and deliver value to their customers.
Approaches to process improvement like Lean and Six Sigma give companies proven tools and techniques to solve business problems in a structured and effective way, while BPM looks at how aligning people, process and technology and automating key tasks can take business performance to the next level.
As experienced process professionals know, the goal is not only to change processes, it is about trying to change the way that people within a company work and behave. That is why process excellence is about so much more than process improvement techniques. It is about learning to solve problems and manage change, performance and workplace culture to align with overall business strategies.
Read PEX Guide: What is operational excellence?
At PEX Network we believe that no matter which methodologies you practice, the underlying aim is the same, to improve business performance. That is why we bring you the tools and most up-to-date thinking on a variety of disciplines and approaches.
As Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs once argued, diversity of experience and insight is critical. He said: "Without enough dots to connect, you end up with very linear solutions. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."
We think the same is true about the challenges facing organizations today. The more dots you have to connect, whether they be technological trends or information about different disciplines, the more likely you will be able to come up with an unusual or unexpected solution to a business challenge.
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