Principle of war #10 – Economy

Economy of force: Do not waste resources

For the Lean Six Sigma people out there this principle should jump out as the “of course” principle. Green Belts and Black Belts are extremely valuable to organizations because we can focus on saving time and money (among other skills). We preserve resources by reducing COPQ events (see principle of Security).

Economy of force also connects back to the principle of maneuver and development of creativity. Recall there is always more than one way to solve a problem and most problems can be solved by throwing money and people at it. We do not think this way.

A common tools used for comparing options (solutions) is a decision matrix. A common decision matrix for comparing potential solutions uses three measures – cost, speed and impact. Meaning how costly is this solution (time and money), how fast can it be implemented, and how impactful will it be on the problem or objective. Using these criteria Kaizen teams can be in consensus when selecting the fastest, lowest cost, and greatest impact solutions.

When leading Kaizen events Green Belts and Black Belts should think like Lewis and Clark, travel light and live of the land. Meaning do not expect to get money or people – now solve the problem.