Principle of War #10 – Economy of force

Economy of force : Do not waste resources

1. Objective
2. Offensive
3. Mass
4. Maneuver
5. Intelligence
6. Concerted action
7. Unity of command
8. Simplicity
9. Security
10. Economy
11. Surprise
12. Exploitation

Principle #10 is for the frugal. Green Belts and Black Belts are extremely valuable to organizations because they can save time and money from being wasted. Companies by default are frugal, otherwise they wouldn’t be in business very long.

We realize most problems can be solved by throwing enough money or people at them, obviously this is not the ideal way forward and certainly not the Lean Six Sigma way. I often tell students to think like Lewis and Clark – meaning travel light and live of the land. Having the mindset that we will not receive money or manpower when problem solving paves the way for creative solutions to be developed and considered. 

One Lean Six Sigma tool we use for comparing solutions is a decision matrix. Common criteria to compare solutions are cost, speed and impact. Meaning, when analyzing potential solutions we ask: How costly is this solution? (time and money). How fast can it be implemented? How much of an impact will it have on the problem? Using these criteria Kaizen teams can select the fastest to implement, lowest cost, with the greatest impact solutions. We like those solutions!

Stay frugal my friends.