Human-Centered Lean Six SIGMA: Creating a Culture of Integrated Operational Excellence

This book focuses on the human side of organizational culture. The authors approach organizational culture from the perspective of alignment to mission, vision, and values. Using a Lean Six Sigma structure, the sequence of chapters begins with the organization and its structure, then drills through strategic, operational, and tactical levels of process and behavior which establish and grow the overall culture of the organization over time. The book begins with foundational principles of organization, through the necessity of aligning processes and systems to mission and vision, assessment, gap analysis for improvement, prioritization, and chapters on qualitative and quantitative approaches for reducing variation and improving systems and behavior.

Through this book, readers will:

• Learn the foundation and core concepts of the organization
• Discover the ＂right＂ focus of shifting the culture of the organization
• Recognize the building blocks of organizational culture and how to integrate them into a successful, customer-focused system of interconnected processes
• Focus on people as drivers of technology, rather than the reverse
• Explore techniques to address the challenges and concerns of today’s training and deployment for organizational performance excellence
• Use the chapters as short discussions or training workshops for either internal education or public/private technical education.

Grace L. Duffy provides services in organizational and process improvement, leadership, quality, customer service, and teamwork. She designs and implements effective systems for business and management success. She is the author of The Quality Improvement Handbook, 1st and 2nd editions and Mandarin translation, The Executive Guide to Improvement and Change, Executive Focus: Your Life and Career, The Public Health Quality Improvement Handbook, QFD, and Lean Six Sigma for Public Health, Modular kaizen: Dealing with Disruption, Tools, and Applications for Starting and Sustaining Healthy Teams, The Encyclopedia of Quality Tools, The Quality Improvement Pocket Guide, Modular Kaizen: Continuous and Breakthrough Improvement, The Certified Quality Improvement Associate Handbook editions 3 and 4, The ASQ Quality Improvement Pocket Guide, the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt Study Guide 1st and 2nd editions, Validating a Best Practice A Tool for Improvement and Benchmarking and the American National Standards Institute Technical Report on the ASQ U. S. Healthcare Quality Management System.

Ms. Duffy has over 45 years of experience in successful business and process management in corporate, government, education, healthcare, not-for-profit, and small business. She is a recognized specialist in leadership and executive performance. Grace uses her experience as President, CEO, and senior manager to assist organizations and individuals in performance excellence. She is a frequently requested keynote and conference speaker on organizational and professional performance. She is an active coach and mentor to senior leaders in large corporations as well as entrepreneurs, focusing on the strategic alignment of individual skills to organizational outcomes.

Grace holds an MBA from Georgia State University and a Bachelor’s in Archaeology and Anthropology from Brigham Young University. She is an American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, Certified Quality Improvement Associate, and Certified Quality Auditor. Grace is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Manager of Process Improvement. She is a member of the ISO TC 304 WG 5 Hospital Quality Management Systems and Chair of the ASQ Healthcare Quality and Improvement Committee which published the U. S. Healthcare Quality Management System model and subsequent 4 monograph series.

Grace is a member of the Association of Talent Development, the International Society for Performance Improvement, and the American Society for Quality. She is an ASQ Fellow and Past Vice President within the ASQ Office of the President, 2014 recipient of the ASQ Distinguished Service Medal, Quality Magazine’s 2014 Quality Person of the Year, and the Milflora M. Gatchalian Medal for International Women of Quality from the Asia Pacific Quality Organization in 2016.

Dr. Hung Le enjoys solving complex organizational problems with the ultimate goal of improving enterprise efficiency and effectiveness. He joined legacy Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) in 2002 as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, where he helped stand up the Six Sigma Program and provided Master Black Belt support, and deployed Six Sigma at 2 major Divisions. Over the years, Dr. Le has facilitated numerous Affordability/Lean Workshops and Kaizen Events for new captures and programs to create and deliver more value for customers, as well as directing and mentoring Black Belts on process improvement projects, resulting in improved program performance and internal efficiencies for the various functional areas, including Contracts & Sub-Contracts, HR, Business Development, and Business Management. Most recently, Dr. Le served as the Mission Assurance Lead for the Civil & Health Business Unit in the Defense Systems Sector, where he directed and provided mission assurance support to the Business Unit. This includes all quality management-related activities to drive program performance and business acquisition awards. Before his retirement from Northrop Grumman, he ran the Program Management Office and led the Digital Transformation Initiative for the Corporate Functions and other Services Lines within the Enterprise Services Sector.

Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Dr. Le held leadership positions with Deloitte & Touche, GE, KPMG Consulting, Fannie Mae, and IBM, and has consulted for Fortune 100 companies in a wide range of industries, including high-tech, banking, and healthcare.

Hung Le holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland, respectively, a Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics from George Mason University, and a Wharton MBA in Finance and Management. Dr. Le has served as Adjunct Professor in Operations Research and Statistics at George Mason University and has authored and/or presented over 35 technical papers, primarily in the areas of statistical signal processing, modeling and simulation, and quality and change management.

Dr. Richard ＂Scott＂ Bonney is President of American Meridian University (AMU), a small, private University headquartered in Boca Raton and licensed in the state of Florida offering applied bachelor’s through doctoral degrees focused on Quality and business performance improvement. A perennial entrepreneur, independent small business owner, executive consultant, and life-long learner, Scott balances his administrative responsibilities with regular teaching of bachelor’s through doctoral classes in business, humanities, change management, applied statistics, project management, and problem-solving for AMU and its partners. He also engages in regular sabbaticals as a consultant to maintain current real-world experience and examples.

Prior to taking over AMU, Scott served as a Director for Accenture Federal Services, leading Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Strategy and their growing Process Excellence Practice, including 2.5 years as Strategic Master Black Belt for the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (FDA-CDRH). Scott has fifteen years of experience directly supporting federal agencies in improving processes and performance, as well as consulting on strategic initiatives including strategic planning, organizational assessments, workflow architecture development and deployment, workshop facilitation, training, coaching, and professional certification development.

Prior to Accenture, Scott served as a GS15 for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI/LSS) PMO where he founded and served as the first Chair for the Federal Improvement Team (FIT). He was Lead Master Black Belt for the Army’s Office of Business Transformation (OSA OBT), Lead Instructor and Curriculum owner for Army and NAVSEA LSS Green, Black, and Master Black Belt programs, and a loaned executive from OSD to USARCENT(FWD) as CPI Chief with teams in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan (2009-2010). Scott also served as founder and Dean of the Bon-Tech School of Business, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer for JourniTech Corporation, and Director of Innovation and Training for BizFlow Corporation where he earned his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in Health Systems Management, including key work with TriWest Healthcare Alliance’s creation and launch of the Veterans Choice Program in 2014. He cut his teeth in (LSS) as Director of Process Improvement for Johnson Controls North America Just-in-Time Manufacturing for their Ford and Nissan Business Units (1999-2004).

Scott earned a BS from the United States Naval Academy (USNA), an MS from Old Dominion University (ODU), a Post-Graduate Professional License in Education from the State of Virginia, a Doctor of Business Administration in Health Systems Management (DBA-HSM) from American Meridian University (AMU), and served a year-long joint Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Quality Systems through AMU and American University of Science and Technology (AUST). Professional Certifications include Project Management Professional, Scrum Master, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Professional Consultant (SPC5), five Master Black Belt certifications, and five certifications from the American Society for Quality, among others. He is the author of Chapter 34, Applied Statistics for Systems and Industrial Engineers, in the Maynard Industrial Engineering Handbook, 6th Ed. (2022).