Armin Cruz
Operational
Excellence Coach and Leader
Armin Cruz is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt that specializes
in LEAN methodologies in the financial transactional industry. Armin Cruz received his MBB while serving as
a Vice President at Bank of America’s Process Excellence division. Armin currently serves as Director and Head
of Continuous Improvement for a public firm in the financial real estate and
property management industry. Armin Cruz earned his MBA from the University of
Phoenix, and his BA from the University of Texas at Dallas. Armin Cruz lives in north Texas with his
wife, three dogs and is anxiously awaiting his first baby boy in December.
The role of an operational coach can be a complex one, and
is often shrouded in ambiguity. The
operational excellence coach must be sure to drive a few key critical
components with complete candor to the senior executive leadership team. The first is the ability to solve business
problems. Second, the coach needs to
provide a clear definition of metrics to success and create action plans to
close any gaps. Third, and finally, the
coach needs to be able to have a seat on executive steering committees.
Solving business problems must be in the wheelhouse of the
operational excellence coach. If you
cannot describe your process to solving problems, you don’t know what you are
doing is a phrase made famous by W. Edwards Deming. If you are struggling on how to solve
business problems, consider reading my white paper and reviewing my SlideShare
titled “4 Steps to Solving Business Problems.” In short, the operational excellence coach
must
1) Define the environment
2) Define the objective
3) Create at least two avenues of approach
4) Conduct an after action review.
As you review the 4 steps, consider building a detailed plan
around each step. The details and the
documentation is what will aid to keep you on track.
Once you know how to solve the problem, the operational
excellence coach must consider the current reporting strategy. Many organizations experience two dimensions of
fallacies with data interpretation.
First, when organizations are heavily siloed and dependent upon their
own reporting the unit may experience a bias.
The second dimension is in the nested hierarchical, or better a lack thereof. The metrics and reporting system should (but
often does not) have a nesting relationship in that one metric should flow to a
group of metrics. Then the group rolls
up to an indicator, the indicators to a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). This way, when you are at the top of the data
model you know if you pull a lever what actions to expect at the ground level.
Third, the coach must locate and be an active member in
executive steering committees. One cannot understate the value of understanding
change as it occurs. However, just as
importantly as being aware is the ability to enact change as it happens. The operational excellence coach must know
when to act as an amplifier and change agent, and when to take corrective
action to halt potentially disruptive change.
For more information about this topic, please review and
follow me on twitter with @arminjcruz, or search About.Me for Armin Cruz. Additionally, I am on SlideShare; please
search Slide Share for a presentation titled “4 Steps to Solving Business
Problems” by Armin Cruz. You may also reach out to me on my personal website and request more
detailed information.
Point of Contact:
Name: Armin Cruz
Phone: (972) 333 – 9502
Email: armin.j.cruz@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.armincruz.com
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