The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System: An Enhanced, Unified Approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning, and Business Improvement

Forrest Breyfogle's IEE System is an excellent guide to how to deploy a business process improvement program such as Lean Six Sigma. In 2005, I used Forrest's "Managing Six Sigma" and "Implementing Six Sigma, 2nd Edition" books to start the tops down deployment of Lean Six Sigma in my organization with great success. Forrest's new books are even better. As a Master Black Belt, I have found Forrest's books and training to be very beneficial. Forrest's approach is the most pragmatic, and the most thorough, of any that I have seen.

I think Forrest has hit the nail on the head and has come up with an Integrated system that if followed will help enterprises achieve excellence. I really like the way he wants to get the enterprise aligned and identifies the key measurements at the different levels of the enterprise. When this is done correctly, I believe it will deliver bottom line savings / profits. In my experience I have seen various degrees of success with Lean-Sigma implementation. The companies that do it well are the ones that have the correct strategy, are correctly aligned & Integrated and use the correct Lean-Sigma tools that transcend the entire enterprise value chain. Some enterprises are better than others at doing this inherently, but for those that need help and guidance to Business Process Improvement and strategy then this is an excellent place to start.

Forrest Breyfogle has done it again. Where his earlier book Implementing Six Sigma set the standard by which all other six sigma books were judged; Integrated Enterprise Excellence takes us to the next level. I count over 80 books on my shelves covering various tools of Continuous Improvement, topics include: Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, 5S, change, process improvement, Kaizen, ISO, Malcolm Baldridge, Customer Experience, metrics, and Balanced Scorecards. This is the first book I have read that brings it all together and provides an integrated solution. For those that are just starting on their continuous improvement journey, this will get you going in the right direction. For those who are well on they way, or those who feel their efforts have plateaued - this book is a must read.

Forrest Breyfogle is a recognized leader for business and enterprise improvement. Now, he has provided much of his wisdom in a series of books starting with this one, The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System. If you are interested in how your enterprise can achieve maximum performance, then you will want to read this book. I am a certified Master Black Belt for Lean Six Sigma and I teach operational performance to students in MBA programs. Often, I was frustrated that many people had the perspective that Lean and Six Sigma concepts and practices were simply useful for improving quality, and mostly for manufacturing operations. They failed to understand that these principles and practices apply across the entire spectrum of enterprises and functions, and they serve strategic and tactical needs. Forrest has captured this very well in this book. I highly recommend this to anyone seriously interested in improving the performance of their enterprise. This includes people in all roles and levels of responsibility, but especially those in decision-making roles.

I was fortunate to be among the first people to read the two new books by Forrest Breyfogle "The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System" and "The Basics". I think that these two books are a good complement for his classic book, "Implementing Six Sigma". While "Implementing Six Sigma" essentially teaches how to use statistical analysis to not only implement Six Sigma in an organization but also to select and manage projects, the two new books approach he same subjects but in plain English. "The Basics" is a novel about a group of golf buddies who are going through problems within the companies that they are managing and how they shared experiences on how using Six Sigma Lean has helped them get out of trouble. While not going into to much statistical details, the book also gives clear definitions of the tools used at each phase of a Six Sigma lean project. The allegorical explanation of DOE for instance makes it very simple for anyone to not understand its meaning but also to be able to think about situations where it can be employed. The approach used by Breyfogle in that book reminds me of Goldratt's way of teaching a complex subjects through a story. It is very practical and easy to understand. "The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System" is definitely a complement to "Implementing Six Sigma". There is not any stat involved but it clearly explains the concepts of Integrated Enterprise Excellence, the unified approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning and Business Improvement in English accessible to anyone. Breyfogle has already secured himself a good name within the Six Sigma circles and these two books are a good testimony to his great contribution to the debate around Business Improvement methodologies.