Improve. Design and Implement. Improvements.

Design and implement integrated improvements and control systems to maximize value.

Redesign, reinvent and optimize the process. Change the organization, the physical layout, the running rules, the process flows, and the control system. The "meat" of the entire process is in this step. Historically, people have done a little Prioritizing and then jumped headfirst into Improve. This step doesn't work well if the first four steps haven't been done correctly.

Key Questions:

• Who are the stakeholders?
  
  
• Are the stakeholders involved?
  
  
• Are we continually transferring knowledge about our process?
  
  
• What resources are required to be successful?
  
  
• What barriers (structural, policies, etc.) will prevent successful implementation?
  
  
• What settings for key variables will optimize performance?
  
  
• How do we know we've improved (measures)?
  
  
• How much waste/variability still remains?
  
  
• Is this a breakthrough solution?
  
  
• Does the solution support organizational transformation?
  
  
• Is the value stream as simple as possible
  
  
• Is the group organized to maximize support for the value-delivery process?
  
  
• What control and management systems will we need to keep it this way?
  
  
• Are the costs and benefits real?
  
  
• How do we avoid sub-optimization?
  
  
• Are countermeasures in place to keep us from going back?
  
  
• Are we continually transferring knowledge about our process?

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