《Corporate Sigma 9》.pdf

8 The Corporate System Perfection is not when there’s nothing to add, but when there’s nothing to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Author, Wind, Sand, and Stars A corporate system, like the human body, is the whole organism. Ideally, its organs and subsystems function together in harmony and in constant change. Systems engineering (SE) is like holistic health, whose purpose is to create, nurture, and maintain the corporate system for an optimal life. In this chapter, we identify characteristics of excellent companies, lay out the major steps followed when engineering a physical system, deter- mine how to calculate and roll up two important metrics of system per- formance, apply systems engineering to a corporate system, and identify a few of the ways corporate systems can fail. Excellent products and services come from excellent companies. Companies achieve excellence by having • An accurate understanding of and the ability to adapt to the needs of their stakeholders. • An organizational structure optimized to fulfill those needs. • Capable, competent people (human capital) who are compensated fairly and are engaged in activities that fulfill stakeholder needs as well as their own needs. SE can help a company excel in each of these areas. The major goals and steps of systems engineering as applied to physical systems (systems that primarily follow the laws of physics) can be applied to the engineering of corporate systems (systems that consist primarily of people executing activities as part of a complicated organizational structure). 153 154 • Corporate Sigma: Optimizing the Health of Your Company The major goal of SE is the creation