A Six Sigma Approach to Sustainability

Continual Improvement for Social Responsibility

Holly A. Duckworth, Andrea Hoffmeier

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781498720854
• eBook ISBN: 9781498788250
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In an age when most business plans extend only to the next quarterly reporting period, the authors of this book propose an audaciously longer view of future planning. Reaching beyond the modern five or ten-year strategic plan, the authors take a cue from Kongo Gumi, a Japanese construction company launched in 578 AD that managed to thrive as a fami

Chapter 1

Continual Improvement for Social Responsibility

1.1 Introduction

Welcome to continual improvement for social responsibility (CISR®).* Let’s orient ourselves to these, sometimes vague and nebulous, subjects of social responsibility and continual improvement. We take “continual improvement” from the tenets of the quality profession and product and process improvement. This methodology includes tools applied toward the goal of zero defect product quality and process capability, which minimizes waste and inefficiency. Organizational programs such as Six Sigma, Lean Production, Design for Six Sigma, Process Reengineering, and Total Quality Management are the foundations of our approach to continual improvement. The continual aspect addresses the need to never stop improving. Quality is an ideal state. The minute one level of performance is achieved, the customer expects the next level of performance. We can never rest. There is always a little more on which to chip away, hence continual improvement.

This improvement aspect is differentiated from change. It’s easy to change. It’s much harder to improve. Improving assumes that measurable progress to goals can be achieved and proven. Changing, for change sake, is not the goal. Measuring baselines, developing achievable and strategically important goals, identifying causation of performance levels, acting to improve or control input factors, and proving performance upgrades are all included in our definition of improvement. This level of performance improvement requires a technically rigorous methodology.

We take “social responsibility” from the tenets of ISO 26000:2010 (ISO, 2010). This is the International Organization for Standards guideline on social responsibility. As an internationally recognized document on social responsibility, it is applicable to global organizations. When using ISO 26000, there are seven core subjects: organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. Social responsibility is not just environmental or human rights protection. We use these subjects to ensure that comprehensive targets are developed. However, the goal of social responsibility is the sustainment of productive suppliers, employees, customers, and communities (as described in the Preface, for at least 1500 years). And it is our contention that only when all seven of the core subjects are considered for responsibility that holistic sustainability, or social responsibility, is improved. In other words, social responsibility and sustainability isn’t only about ecology or philanthropy. It is about performance in all seven subjects.

1.1.1 Our Purpose

Our purpose is to provide you with practical, actionable, and proven methods, which can be put to immediate use in any organization to improve social responsibility performance. We hope that you apply CISR as a way to provide a rigorous methodology for maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization’s social responsibility performance improvement efforts.

Prior to focusing on social responsibility, our backgrounds were in leading the application of continual improvement tools for performance improvement in product and service quality. We have seen so many overlaps between social responsibility and continual improvement. We have seen many organizations either taking no action to improve their social responsibility performance or, worse, taking a marketing spin approach by broadcasting changes that are either false or are not relevant to their stakeholders. Our purpose is to provide you with a robust methodology to result in social responsibility performance improvement that delights your stakeholders.

We researched many organizations with very limited social responsibility human resources. In most large organizations, there are between two and five full-time professionals devoted to social responsibility or corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Duckworth, 2010). And yet, in these same organizations, there are large staffs devoted to continual improvement or product and service quality. With the addition of just a few tools, and a shift in focus, these existing resources could be deployed to improve social responsibility performance. Our purpose is to show you how to engage the resources that your organization already has in the continual improvement or quality assurance department, toward the application of social responsibility.

After reading this book, you should be able to take immediate action, adopt the tools we show you how to use, and equip the resources you already have. Achieving social responsibility performance improvement does not require the hiring of dozens of staff and it doesn’t require the invention of a whole new tool set. Our purpose is to show you how to delight your stakeholders with the tools and resources already ready in your organization.

1.1.2 Our Audience

As we sat down to write this book, we had two primary audiences in mind. And, to be honest, it is our hope that, someday, these two audiences become one. First, we wrote this book for the quality practitioner. This includes quality managers, Six Sigma Black Belts, Green Belts, and Master Black Belts, and anyone else in the continual improvement field. As we have explained, quality is an ideal state and these professionals can never rest. Second, we wrote this book for the sustainability and social responsibility professional. This includes CSR leaders and executives, corporate affairs directors, sustainability officers, and social responsibility practitioners. Ultimately, we hope that the achievement of sustainability is embedded in the ideal of quality. Someday “quality” will mean excellent fit, form, and function for customers and sustainability for all stakeholders.

The quality practitioners will be very familiar with the tools and techniques presented in this book. They will easily understand the technical aspects of the continual improvement approach. These audience members may, however, struggle with the social responsibility core subjects, the stakeholder approach, and reporting aspects. However, educating this ready army of highly competent, potential social responsibility improvers may be the biggest boon to sustainability the world has ever seen!

The sustainability and social responsibility professionals will understand the need for stakeholder engagement and transparent and accountable reporting. They will easily absorb and navigate the myriad standards and guidelines. They will understand the need to approach all core subjects with equal measure. They may not yet appreciate the rigor of a methodology or the technical thoroughness of measuring and validating improvements. It is our hope that by teaching adapted but proven, continual improvement techniques to this audience of professionals we will significantly improve the integrity and validity of social responsibility initiatives.

But, really, our end goal is that the lines of these two audiences become blurred. We hope that everyone, in every organization, is prepared to lead continual improvement in social responsibility. We will have achieved our vision when it becomes expected, and even mundane, to have a 1500 year view of our decisions, actions, and impacts. When everyone in the organization behaves responsibly, when everyone in the organization strives for improving social responsibility performance, and when everyone in the organization lives sustainability, we will have deeply reached our intended audience.

1.1.3 How to Use This Book

As there are different audiences, there are different ways to use this book. Primarily, we aspire to motivate our readers to action. But it is ability, rather than motivation, that we target. The book is a “how to” guide. Recognizing that it takes both motivation and ability to mold behavior; we think motivation is best received when looking into a son’s, daughter’s, niece’s, or nephew’s eyes and recognizing that social responsibility improvement leaves our young ones in a better place to live. That’s a stronger motivator than any book can deliver. Once the motivation is sparked, this book helps you put motivation to action.

One way to read this book is cover to cover. The first chapter helps to educate those unfamiliar with social responsibility and continual improvement. We start from scratch. We do not assume that our readers are familiar with either of these subjects. We also discuss a brief example of our Six Sigma approach to sustainability. Then, we discuss the stakeholders and subjects, objective, function and focus, analyze, innovate and improve, and report and repeat phases of the SOFAIR method. This is the technical detail of our method of performance improvement. Next, we provide many examples of SOFAIR being used in different settings. We have healthcare, manufacturing, business process, and personal life examples, all using SOFAIR for continual improvement of social responsibility. At the end of the book, we have a glossary, our references, and some additional reading for those readers who want to get even deeper into the subject.

In some organizations, there may...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Continual Improvement for Social Responsibility
• Chapter 2: The Story of Continual Improvement
• Chapter 3: The SOFAIR Method
• Chapter 4: How SOFAIR Is Deployed in an Organization
• Chapter 5: Examples of SOFAIR in Action
• Chapter 6: Taking Action
• Appendix A: Glossary
• Appendix B: Additional References for CISR Practitioners
• Appendix C: References