The Operational Excellence Society is a “think tank” that creates and aggregates content for individuals who wish to be high-performance members of high-performance teams at high-performance organizations.
What is Operational Excellence?
We define Operational Excellence as; “a state of readiness that is attained as the efforts throughout the organization reach a state of alignment for achieving its strategies; and where the corporate culture is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance AND the circumstances of those who work there – and is precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.“
STOP TEACHING TO THE TEST
Why AI Should Finally Finish the Argument the Calculator Started Somewhere in the mid-1970s, a math teacher stood in front of a classroom and banned the calculator. “You will not always have one of these with you,” she said, tapping the little plastic box like it was contraband. She was wrong. Not eventually wrong — immediately, structurally, permanently wrong. Forty years later, everyone in that classroom carries a calculator, a spreadsheet, a search engine, and a research assistant in their pocket at all times. It is called a phone. We didn’t just get the calculator back. We got Wolfram Alpha,…
Founders Desk Archive
featured articles
Considering the Entire Employee Lifecycle
I wrote an article entitled “The Strategic HR Department” where I shared my thoughts on the characteristics of a Human Resources Department that is strategic with a purpose of being…
The Strategic HR Department
I have been in business, running a consultancy (XONITEK) since 1985. Besides it making me uniquely unemployable, I have had the opportunity to observe and interact with the many incarnations…
Build Organizational Capacity and Capability – For Free
I was coaching one of the national oil companies in the Middle East, offering mentorship to the director of their operational excellence program. He was frustrated because he had invested…
You Are Unique, but Not Special
In my article, “Build Organizational Capacity and Capability – For Free”, I listed several root-causes for training and education programs reaching a “stall speed” and a detailed approach for avoiding…
Scaling and Sustaining Your Education and Training Program
I have been helping companies design and deploy their Operational Excellence (“OpEx”) and Continuous Improvement (“CI”) programs for a very long time. Mind you, I was not born with this…
The Importance of a Project Review Board
A key to success in any Operational Excellence or Continuous Improvement program will be found in the way opportunities for improvement are harvested and prioritized; and how well the projects…
Expert Contributors
Biannual Supply Chain Report: Five Trends Shaping the Economic Landscape
From disruption to continual risk. After several years of disruptions, US supply chains are entering a new phase in which they are no longer fixed but expected to be in constant motion. Firms are operating in an environment where trade policy,…
Action items for AI decision makers in 2026
Expect a level-set year and a sharper focus on enterprise value. Artificial intelligence has dominated economic and business attention for the past several years. But the hype cycle is slowing…
The Best Manufacturers Build AI with Workers, Not for Them
Summary. Manufacturers are pushing ahead with AI, but workers often feel unprepared, uncertain, and distrustful. Research shows a clear gap between executive optimism and frontline experience, driven by unclear roles, weak…
Why We Love to Hate HR… and What HR Can Do About It
Five smart moves that will help, by Peter Cappelli Summary. Complaints against Human Resources (HR), which are nothing new, have a cyclical quality. They’re driven largely by the business context. When…
Applying Lean Six Sigma Methods to Litigation Practice
A growing number of law departments and law firms are exploring Lean Six Sigma and similar methodologies to continuously improve the way they deliver legal services. By tailoring these techniques…
Whatever happened to Six Sigma?
GE adopted Six Sigma from Motorola in 1995, and under Jack Welch it became corporate religion. But as GE began a long, slow decline, so did the popularity of Six…
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THOUGHT FOOD
the opex vault
Global Logistics 2023: Supply chains under pressure
Summary: Supply chains worldwide will continue to be caught between politics, economics and ecology in the future. Whether there will be more regionalization or nearshoring remains to be seen. The…
The jumbo jet faces a make or break year at Boeing, Airbus
Reuters reports on the jumbo jet, which for many years have been known as the workhorse of modern air travel, could now be close to ‘running out of runway’. Due…
Tim Berners-Lee: The Year Open Data Went Worldwide
Having RAW data available at your fingertips is a very powerful tool, it can change lives for the better. Tim Berners-Lee explains the endless possibilities and encourages us to get…
A freight market turnaround in 2024?
Tender rejection data in the FreightWaves SONAR data platform shows that the freight market bottomed on May 14. Since then, conditions for carriers have slowly been improving. SONAR’s outbound tender…
