Forrest W. Breyfogle III is a Professional Engineer and ASQ (American Society for Quality) Fellow who founded Smarter Solutions in 1992. As a management thought leader and innovator, he developed the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management system. IEE provides radical management advancements in utilizing and integrating scorecards, strategic planning, and process improvement.

His two-book, two novel-written series describes the IEE system and its benefits. These two books’ titles are Management 2.0: Discovery of Integrated Enterprise Excellence and Leadership System 2.0: Implementing Integrated Enterprise Excellence. His 5-book IEE book set provides the how-to-implement details. IEE Enterprise Performance Reporting System (EPRS) software offers the vehicle for a behind-the-firewall implementation of IEE in an organization.

Breyfogle was named Quality Professional of the Year for 2011 by Quality Magazine and in 2012 was awarded alumni of the year by Missouri University of Science and Technology (more than 10 testimonial statements are included in this linked-to video when Forrest received this award). He also received the prestigious Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality in 2004 for his book, Implementing Six Sigma, and was presented the Leadership Award at the 2013 Lean & Six Sigma World Conference. He served on the Board of Advisors for the University of Texas Center for Performance Excellence from 2003-2012.

He began his career with IBM in development and later transferred to the product test organization. Within these organizations, he became very interested in the benefits derived from the wise use of statistical techniques. From 1980 to 1992, he served IBM in applying Six Sigma methodologies to testing, development, manufacturing, and service organizations.

Breyfogle has conducted numerous Lean Six Sigma workshop sessions and Master Black Belt, Black Belt, Green Belt, Champion, and Executive training sessions worldwide. He has coached various individuals and organizations on the wise application of Lean and Six Sigma techniques. Smarter Solutions, Inc. has had the honor of serving a distinguished group of Fortune 100 clients and many others in a wide variety of industries.

Also, he has authored or co-authored over a dozen books and published over 150 technical articles for many publications. He has been interviewed by television, radio, and publication editors about managing organizations’ dynamics and applying all enterprise improvement methodologies. He has an MSME degree from the University of Texas and a BSME from Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, MO).

Forrest Breyfogle is a Professional Engineer and ASQ Fellow who founded Smarter Solutions in 1992. As a management thought leader and innovator, he developed the Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) business management system. IEE provides radical management advancements in utilizing and integrating scorecards, strategic planning, and process improvement

* * *

Let’s shift our attention to your book Minitab and Lean Six Sigma. For those who have not as yet read it, hopefully your responses to these questions will stimulate their interest and, better yet, encourage them to purchase a copy and read the book ASAP. First, when and why did you decide to write it?

Around the turn of the century, Smarter Solutions, Inc., the company I founded in 1992 and own, decided to use Minitab software in its Lean Six Sigma training. Minitab provided free software to those who selected their software for their Lean Six Sigma training. Recently, Minitab leadership changed its policy to charge instructors for the expensive software used in their Six Sigma training. This policy change did not make sense to Six Sigma instructors (including me) since our work helped Minitab sell its expensive software. Minitab had another policy: if someone wrote a recent book about their software, the author could obtain a free copy of its software. In mid-2022, my initial thought when creating this book was to develop a quickly-compiled book that fulfilled this Minitab policy need so I could obtain a free copy of their software.

Were there any head-snapping revelations while writing this book? Please explain.

Y=f(X) is a critical equation within organizations. The output of organizational processes (Y) is a function of its inputs (Xs). This equation applies to low-level process output responses and operations integration from a high-level perspective. In organizations, if a Y response is stable but undesirable, process improvement to its Xs is required to improve a Y response, i.e., a Y response improvement needs to create a Lean Six Sigma process-improvement project. Even though these statements seem straightforward, traditional Lean Six Sigma does not fulfill this need.

Traditional Lean Six Sigma starts with a problem statement instead of improving a high-level process-output Y response, which is beneficial to the overall business financials and has a Y reporting from a high-level overall process perspective. Another thing is that the focus of a traditional Lean Six Sigma deployment in organizations is to report financial savings from executed projects. This monetary saving often gets into soft-savings versus hard-savings discussions, resulting in playing games with the numbers or not conducting Lean Six Sigma projects that genuinely benefit the whole-business financials. My “head-snapping revelation” was that this book needed to explain better how Lean Six Sigma within the IEE system addresses this organizational need.

To what extent (if any) does the book in its final form differ significantly from what you originally envisioned?

The final form of this book achieves much more than my initial objective of creating a simple Minitab Six Sigma book so that I could receive a free copy of Minitab software.

This book shows how to:

 Create a long-lasting Lean Six Sigma deployment with a structural integration of Lean Six Sigma improvement projects within an organization’s overall business management system.

 Track financial and operational metrics from a high-level process output perspective. This form of metric reporting can provide a futuristic metric-output statement where if this predictive statement is undesirable, there is a need for process improvement, e.g., through the execution and completion of a Lean Six Sigma project. In this Minitab Lean Six Sigma book, operational metrics have an IEE 30,000-foot-level reporting format, while satellite-level (financial) metrics have a similar reporting format.

 Create 30,000-foot-level and satellite-level metrics using a free metric-reporting app.

 Create a business management system that integrates process-output responses with the processes that created them. IEE system software provides automatic updates to 30,000-foot-level and satellite-level metrics.

 Create an Enterprise Improvement Plan (EIP) that shows the alignment of selected Lean Six Sigma improvement projects to improve process-output 30,000-foot-level metric responses that enhance business satellite-level measured responses.

 Improve a process-output Y response (reported at the 30,000-foot-level in a Lean Six Sigma process-improvement project) in the relationship Y=f(X) for more than fifty Lean Six Sigma project situations.

Having read and then reviewed most of your previously published books, I think your latest series seems to converge your most important insights over the years. The interdependence of Minitab and Lean Six Sigma, for example, and the practical wisdom of Albert Einstein’s suggestion to “make everything as simple as possible but no simpler.” Is that a fair assessment?

I agree with Einstein’s statement, which I strived to achieve in my Minitab and Lean Six Sigma book.

Traditional management techniques violate a portion of Einstein's statement, “but no simpler.” Conventional management techniques with a Y-management style are too simplistic, and this form of management is at a level equivalent to the book Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard. It is easy for leadership to set arbitrary goals with a meet-the-numbers or else style and financial incentives tied to achieving these goals at a selected time.

This traditional management approach can lead to an attempt to Y-management with the measurement-goal setting that results in bad, if not destructive, behaviors. An example of what can happen with this commonplace management style is what occurred at Wells Fargo, as described in the CNN account, “Wells Fargo under siege: Drops sales goals tied to bogus account scandal.”

Organizations gain much when they view their organization and its metrics from a system output Y=f(X) perspective, which traditional metric reporting and process improvement efforts do not. In organizations, those involved with scorecard reporting are figuratively in the north wing of the building, while others engaged with process documentation and improvement are in the south wing – and they do not talk to each other. My books describe an IEE value chain that figuratively pulls these two distant Y and X functions together in the Y=f(X) relationship.

My book Minitab and Lean Six Sigma describes a business management system with a Lean Six Sigma component that makes everything as simple as possible but no simpler.

In addition to the wise execution of Lean Six Sigma projects, this book describes a business management system that orchestrates the components of a business.

What are the unique benefits of the Enterprise Improvement Plan (EIP) that you examine in the book?

The IEE EIP methodology addresses the shortcomings of traditional organizational Lean Six Sigma implementations, which include:

 A focus on the amount of savings because of improvement projects. This total amount of business-financial savings from projects looks like a good practice but can lead to gaming with the numbers, among other things, which are not good.

 Lean Six Sigma projects focus on resolving a problem statement, which, among other things, can lead to siloed projects that do not benefit the organization's big-picture financials.

 At the end of commonplace Lean Six Sigma projects, often project benefits have only an anecdotal statement. No high-level metric response report statement showing a positive enhancement change for the better of the process output response because of the improvement project.

 Lean Six Sigma projects control phase within the project execution Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) project-execution model for maintaining project gain is not practical or effective to execute. For example, a control statement may suggest periodic checks to ensure employees follow the new process created by the Lean Six Sigma project’s execution.

What are the most important dos and don’ts to remember when attempting to adequately align a process improvement project with goals and measuring efforts to achieve them?

The IEE system consists of nine steps, as shown in a figure I am about to cite.

Creating an IEE EIP resides in step six of these nine IEE action steps. To create an effective EIP, organizations should complete the primary tasks for each step that precedes step 6.

A summary of these tasks include:

 Step 1: Describe the organization's vision and mission to which all the following steps are aligned.

 Step 2: Describe what an organization does and how it measures what is done from a 30,000-foot-level metric perspective.

 Step 3: Analyze the enterprise to determine where process improvement efforts might focus, considering all functions. This effort should contemplate improvement needs beyond operations (or one part of the organization), e.g., hiring or marketing.

 Step 4: Establish specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-based (SMART) goals, e.g., increasing mean monthly reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in eight months, not an exact EBITDA value at a specific month.

 Step 5: Create targeted strategies, not simple lofty statements that are often the result of an annual executive retreat, e.g., reduce expenses, increase revenue, and improve customer satisfaction.

 Step 6: Determine and state in an EIP the 30,000-foot-level metrics to improve via process improvement projects (e.g., Lean Six Sigma improvement projects), e.g., reducing the mean monthly reported value for a non-conformance rate of a corporate transaction, lead time for a task, or customer satisfaction for a delivered service.

In Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership, James O’Toole suggests that the most significant resistance to change initiatives is usually cultural, resulting from what he aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.” What are your thoughts about that?

For any person, adjusting their behaviors can be challenging, e.g., improving their eating habits to become healthier. Even though changing how a corporation undertakes tasks could benefit the company dramatically, this change in undertaking tasks can be even more arduous than making a personal change because the transition involves changing an organization’s culture.

An organization can overcome resistance to an IEE implementation when the CEO or a Divison President appreciates the benefits to improve the organization’s bottom line via IEE, uses the IEE methodology themself, and requires others to use the techniques. For example, a CEO or President could necessitate 30,000-foot-level metric report-outs instead of previously used a
table of numbers or red-yellow-green scorecard report-outs.

For those unfamiliar with 30,000-foot-level Metric Reporting, what does it involve, and why is that of unique importance?

Organizations benefit when they examine functional performance metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) reports from a Y-output system point of view. If a Y response is undesirable in the organization, the Xs associated with that Y-output process needs improvement.

The way to accomplish this metric-reporting objective is through 30,000-foot-level and satellite-level reporting. Some may say 30,000-foot-level reporting is simply control charting, but this is untrue. 30,000-foot-level reporting does use an individual chart to assess the stability of a process, unlike control charting’s objective of identifying out-of-control issues so there can be a timely resolution to out-of-control signals. With 30,000-foot-level reporting, a stable operation output response is considered predictable, and there is a futuristic statement reporting at the bottom of the chart for the process-output response expectation. If this statement is undesirable, there is a need to improve the metric-related process. 30,000-foot-level reporting replaces wasteful and not beneficial firefighting the up-and-down output-noise response variation (Y) with process-improving Xs of the related process when the Y response is undesirable.

How can a Lean Six Sigma mindset improve the enhancing process?

When ordering food at a restaurant the other day, my wife and some friends did not receive our food after more than an hour. The restaurant’s response to our inquiry about the delay was that our order was lost. The restaurant immediately started working on our order and delivered it promptly. The restaurant did not charge us for our food order and gave us free soup.

The restaurant responded very favorably to overcome our dissatisfaction, but they lost money because of their problem with our order.

It is safe to presume that our order was not the only order ever lost by the restaurant. A Lean Six Sigma mindset views our restaurant situation as a restaurant-order-fulfillment-process breakdown that needs improvement. Within IEE, a Lean Six Sigma process improvement effort starts with determining an appropriate process-output response for creating a suitable baseline
30,000-foot level report. Reporting the percentage of lost orders monthly would be a fit for this situation. The next step within the Lean Six Sigma process structure would be to use the DMAIC roadmap to redesign the process so that there is less chance for future lost orders. Validation that there was a significant improvement in the process because of the team’s process-improvement effort is that there is a staging of the individuals chart in the 30,000-foot-level report to a new
(lesser) percentage of lost orders.

What is the unique value of that mindset to establishing a workplace culture within which innovation is most likely to thrive?

Breyfogle: For the previously described restaurant-order-fulfillment-process breakdown, an innovation might be the transmission process of customer orders to the kitchen with an electric validation step that the order was fulfilled and promptly delivered to the customer using a new technology.

Please complete this sentence: “If those who read this book gain nothing else, I want them to have a much better understanding of how to….”

Track process output responses at the 30,000-foot level and efficiently make measurable process improvements that benefit big-picture financials and customer satisfaction.

Which material you provide in Minitab and Lean Six Sigma will be most valuable to those now preparing for a business career or who have only recently embarked on one? Please explain.

Understand how commonplace metric reporting (e.g., table-of-number and red-yellow-green scorecards) and improvement efforts (e.g., traditional Lean Six Sigma efforts) can lead to unhealthy, if not destructive, behaviors. And the benefits of an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system to resolve these issues.

To the owner/CEOs of small-to-midsize companies? Please explain.

As stated previously, Y=f(X). Determine your crucial business financials and operational Ys. Describe the Xs for these Ys. Report the organization’s Ys in a 30,000-foot-level format (use the free app when starting). Document the Xs (a Word document process explanation is okay instead of a flow chart) for each Y response in a location so that everyone in the organization can access the information 24×7. A team should periodically examine the organization's Ys (reported in a 30,000-foot-level format) to determine where to improve processes to benefit big-picture financials and customers.

To C-level executives in Fortune 500 companies?

In addition to my response to your similar question for small-to-midsize companies, I would add that the company's C-suite should consider using Smarter Solutions, Inc.'s Enterprise Performance Reporting System (EPRS) software, which provides all authorized 24×7 automatic 30,000-foot-level metrics updates, which have alignment with their processes, the organizations
EIP, the status of current Lean Six Sigma process improvement projects, and more.

What question did you hope I would ask but didn’t? What would be your response to that question?

I have three questions.

The first question is, “What video do you recommend viewing that describes your overall IEE system and the execution of process improvements so an organization's big-picture financials and customer satisfaction benefits?”

My response to a recommended video is a recording of a webinar I did for the ASQ Quality Management Division (QMD) titled “Quality Management Division Webinar: Management.”

My second question is, “Your name is Forrest W. Breyfogle III. Are there other Forrests?”

Yes; my son is Forrest IV (goes by Wes), and my grandson Forrest V (goes by Forrest)

My third and final question is, “If someone has a question about applying your book-described concepts to their situation, are you, Forrest, receptive to having a video conference call to discuss this?”

“Yes! I am passionate about freely discussing the application of any of the concepts described in my books!

Those interested in discussing the application of the book-described concepts can schedule a video meeting session with me through this link.

* * *

Forrest cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Smarter Solutions link.

His Amazon link.

His YouTube videos link.

Here is a direct link to Part 1 of this interview.