Can there be a marriage between ISO and Lean?

On the Business901 podcast, Lindsay Jackson Nichols discussed the business benefits of ISO Certification and how it can be used in conjunction with continuous improvement. Lindsay is the CEO of MOCG, a management consulting firm specializing in implementing process improvement and ISO based management systems. 

When you first think about, you may think that Quality Management and a continuous improvement methodology like Lean are one in the same. You may also think that they are willing partners. Many disagree with that thought. My thoughts are that I find the ISO standards as a way to involve people from all departments to ask them how you do things. As a result, procedures and documentation are created to evaluate the current method of doing things (the first step in standard work) against the requirements of a standard (ISO).  As a result, you develop performance gaps for continuous improvement. Others believe that this would hinder the development and flexibility of standard work documents and prefer that they are divorced from each other. 

I probed this question with Lindsay and on a Lean Blog Post on Standard Work. The answer I believe to be correct is that ISO 9001 should not be the continuous improvement strategy just that it should be one metric by which continuous improvement is measured. However, I still believe using ISO as a standard to start the process of developing standard work is not a bad place to start.

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: ISO and Lean or go to the Business901 iTunes Store

About LJ Nichols: Lindsay’s career has been entirely devoted to management consulting, working with Grant Thornton LLP ‐ the fifth largest accounting and management consulting firm in the nation, assisting them develop a ‘center of excellence’ for their quality, environment and regulatory practice, and P‐E International plc/P‐E Handley Walker the largest management consulting firm in Europe, where she was integral in establishing their ISO presence in the US.

Related Information:
MOCGISO You Tube Videos
Agreeing on Standards in a Lean Enterprise
Is Standard Work needed in Sales and Marketing?
Where is the path in Continuous Improvement for Sales and Marketing?
Why does sales and marketing operate to a different quality standard?

Lean: A tool that creates Customer Relationships

This is a transcription of the podcast, Lean is the tool that Creates the Customer Relationship. The guest was Erik Haberkern, a General Sales Manager of a global Fortune 300 chemical company. We discussed the application of Lean in Sales and Marketing.  Eric first worked as a Facility Manager and soon became a Lean Deployment Manager. He transferred those skills to Sales and Marketing. Eric can be found on LinkedIn.

Lean as a Tool for Customer Relationships

Related Information:
The Subservient Marketing Funnel
Servant Leadership in the Toyota Culture
Can anyone truly understand and empathize with another?
Four Star General on Leadership–Listen, Learn…
Is PDCA a Culture or a Tool in a Lean Enterprise
Lean Sales and Marketing Roles

Marketing with PDCA ebook released on Business901 Website

Released as an eBook, Marketing with PDCA authored by Joseph T. Dager is now available on the Business901 website. Marketing with PDCA is about managing a value stream using PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act). Using the new SALES PDCA Framework throughout the marketing cycle will provide constant feedback from customers, and can only occur if they are part of the process. It is about creating value in your marketing that a customer needs to enable him to make a better decision.

Targeting that value proposition through the SALES PDCA methods described in this book will increase your ability to deliver quicker and more accurately than your competitor. It is a moving target and the principles of Lean and PDCA facilitate the journey to customer value.

This book also introduces the Kanban as a planning tool or, as I like to think about it, as an execution tool. Improving your marketing process does not have to constitute wholesale changes nor increased spending. Getting more customers into your Marketing Kanban may not solve anything at all. Improving what you do and increasing the speed that you do it can result in an increase in sales and a decrease in expenses. 

Table of Contents

1. Lean Marketing House
2. Future of Marketing
3. Marketing Funnels
4. Cycles to Loops
5. Knowledge Management
6. PDCA
7. Sales and Marketing Teams
8. Kanban
9. SALES PDCA
10. Marketing with PDCA Summary
11. Marketing with PDCA Case Study
12. Constancy of Purpose
13. Marketing with Lean Program Series

The book is the fourth part in the series of the Marketing with Lean Program: This series consist of the five individual products.

1. Lean Marketing House
2. Driving Market Share
3. Marketing with PDCA
4. Marketing with A3
5. Marketing your Black Belt (coming soon)

Related Information:
SALES PDCA Framework for Lean Sales and Marketing
Continuous Improvement, The Toyota Way
Drucker and Deming = Lean Marketing
Visit the Marketing with A3Website