The Catalyst Way

The Catalyst Way for Successful deployment

Many organisations introduce Lean Six Sigma in the hope of improving their customer service, increasing market share, and reducing costs. Lean Six Sigma can deliver these benefits when the right infrastructure is in place, though this is not always covered in the book!

Over the years, Catalyst has found large variations in performance from one organisation to another, and indeed, within the same organisations.

So, how good is your deployment? And how do the returns on your Lean Six Sigma investment compare with industry best practice?

The Catalyst Way provides a practical way to help you maximise the return on your investment.

The Catalyst Way - a proven approach

Our approach is based on the following principles:

• Deployment is a process, so, apply Lean Six Sigma to it


• If you focus on the critical inputs you will get the output you want


• Our experience has helped us identify the three key inputs for successful deployment:

Getting these inputs right will deliver a more successful deployment. What's more, the approach can be applied at any stage of a deployment. It can help rejuvenate an existing programme or ensure the effective launch of a new initiative. And our experience shows that as a result, the return on your Lean Six Sigma investment can be increased by as much as 300%.

How can Catalyst help?

The Catalyst Way provides a vehicle to help you 'Assess', 'Improve', and 'Maintain' performance. The process begins with a Health Check.

The Catalyst Way Deployment Health Check

• A structured audit questionnaire with one of our team
  
• A diagnosis of your performance benchmarked against over 20 other companies
  
• A summary of recommended improvement areas

Our Deployment Master Class can follow the Health Check, or you may wish to proceed directly to our full eight step improvement process which is described overleaf.

The Catalyst Way Deployment Master Class

This three-day workshop will help to upgrade your deployment skills and develop your improvement action plans. A highly interactive mixture of inputs and syndicate work, the content will be tailored to your specific needs based on the findings of the Health Check. However, the following topics are usually covered:

• Building leadership commitment


• Effective championing and sponsorship


• Programme management


• Project sponsorship


• Project selection and strategic alignment


• Identifying Green and Black Belts and agreeing clear roles


• Resourcing the project


• Communications

Deployment Master Classes are available either in-house or on the Catalyst Open Programme.

The Catalyst Way Improvement Process

This eight-step process is used to build on the diagnosis from the Health Check, and the Deployment Master Class activity, where appropriate. Our team will work closely with you to:

• Interpret the diagnosis


• Identify areas of weakness


• Identify root causes


• Develop improvement plans


• Set up ongoing deployment measurement systems


• Design and deliver deployment skills programmes

Catalyst's approach to Lean Six Sigma has evolved through our wide experience in business improvement, which includes assisting GE and others with their improvement programmes across Europe. And we have worked in a diverse range of organisations, including Manufacturing, Service, and the Public Sector.

Our team includes experienced Senior Managers and Master Black Belts from Lean Six Sigma 'blue chip' organisations, such as, DuPont, Dow Chemicals, and General Electric.

So, wherever you are on your Lean Six Sigma deployment, the Catalyst Way can help you maximise the return on investment.