The Process Excellence Network is Six today - Here are our top performing content pieces from the last six years!

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Craig Sharp
Craig Sharp
12/03/2014

Six years… It’s an awfully long time in the online world. Things move at breakneck pace, 24/7 365 days a year. In this time we’ve seen a lot of interesting trends and topics, we’ve published over 2500 content pieces, written and produced by over 180 different authors.

To mark the occasion, we had a look back over our records at some of the best performing pieces for each year. It’s interesting to see where things have moved on in that time, and where things have stayed the same (for better or worse).

Presented below is a list of the top three performing pieces of each year, but first, we’ve noticed a few things during this research that we feel it might be valuable to share.

Technology takes center stage

Mobility has also taken a large portion of the spotlight in recent years, as professionals increasingly work flexible hours from a variety of locations, the importance of accessing important documents and databases remotely cannot be underestimated.

Then of course there’s 2013/14’s new big thing – Big Data. Conversation has thankfully been fleshed out a little more on this topic this year, moving from "we need data and it needs to be big" to the more practical "What do we do with this stuff? How do we use it intelligently?"

As a result, you’re more likely to hear a collective groan from a room when talking about "big data" but are likely to see people on the edge of their seats when the conversation moves onto "analytics".

The next stage of this journey could well be another new term for tech teams – low-code. Platforms that allow you to develop customer apps and solutions using visual tools on the fly, test the results and roll out updates at an incredibly quick pace – the perfect solutions for companies who are light on development budget. BPM vendors have already been identified as a good choice for customers looking for a low-code platform; it’ll be interesting to see where this takes us in years to come.

BPM has grown in popularity

Technology plays an increasingly important role within Process Excellence and Operational Excellence. In recent years BPM has gone from a ‘nice to have’ to a staple of maturing process excellence programs.

One reason for this could be that as expectations on PEX departments increase, the pressure is on to deliver results, and realistically, as projects become more ambitious, it becomes increasingly foolhardy to rely on crude solutions like spread sheets.

Six Sigma is not dead

Collectively, we’ve spoken to a lot of people during our time at Process Excellence Network. The website started out life, way back when, as sixsigmaiq.com. Which goes to show just how big of a focus this process excellence discipline was.

As the years progressed we rebranded to begin broadening horizons – both ours and our audiences. And as time has progressed, more and more people have signaled the death knell of perhaps the most popular PEX discipline in history.

During our research though, we noted that despite the recent rhetoric, Six Sigma continues to be one of the most searched terms on the internet. The list you’ll find at the end of this article only features the top three performers of every year, but you can rest assured that in the top 10, every single year Six Sigma is there.

Perhaps it’s simply the first place people look when beginning the journey to process excellence or operational excellence? It makes sense; it is after all the most famed methodology. But then also perhaps, just maybe, Six Sigma is still the most widely adopted of all methodologies, cross-industry?

And below, the top three performing pieces from each of the past six years on PEX Network:

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2008 – 2009

An intro to Six Sigma

Handling change management right

How to secure belt certification

2009 -2010

The Kano model

The fishbone diagram

7 deadly wastes that could cost your company

2010 – 2011

8 wastes of lean manufacturing in a service context

4 common process mapping mistakes and how to avoid

Seven signs your process initiative is failing

2011 – 2012

Trends and success factors in business process excellence

Process failure mode effects analysis

(Podcast) Interview with Rajesh Tyagi, Co-Author of A Complete and Balanced Service Scorecard

2012 – 2013

Future of Process Excellence: 3 Trends Redefining Processes in a Digital Age

Transforming customer feedback into opportunity

Nine Reasons Organizations Need To Change

2013 – 2014

SPECIAL REPORT: Process Innovation and Change in the Age of Transformation

Top 10 most important Business Process Management (BPM) capabilities

Continuous Improvement with Lean Six Sigma for Beginners


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