Quick Wins Before Software: How We Fund Transformations
A well-run kaizen in the first 90 days can bankroll the next 18 months of your roadmap. Here’s the playbook.
How We Fund Transformations
The single biggest reason digital transformation programmes lose political support is that they take too long to pay. A 24-month ROI horizon is a fragile thing in any organisation.
Our answer is counter-intuitive: start with the boring stuff. A well-run kaizen in the first 90 days can bankroll the next 18 months of your roadmap.
Here's the playbook.
Why Quick Wins Matter Politically
Every transformation competes for the same scarce resource: leadership attention. A programme that delivers a measurable result in the first quarter, even a small one, buys the political capital to do the harder, slower work.
Conversely, a programme that promises everything in year three gets cancelled in year one.
The 90-Day Kaizen Playbook
Week 1 to 2: Pick the Right Target
Not every loss is kaizen-able. We pick targets that are:
- Material. Worth at least $100k a year. Anything smaller won't move the needle.
- Diagnosable. Has a clear loss with a clear process owner.
- Achievable. Solvable with existing resources, not new CapEx.
A good LSS diagnostic surfaces 5 to 10 of these. We pick the two highest-leverage.
Week 3 to 8: Run the Kaizen
DMAIC, run tight. Daily standups. The site GM sponsors it. The team owns the data. By week 8, we've validated the fix on a pilot.
Week 9 to 12: Standardise and Measure
Roll out across the line. Update standard work. Lock in the gain with a control plan. Measure the realised savings.
The Compounding Effect
Done well, those two kaizens return enough to fund the next phase, usually the first Industry 4.0 deployment. That deployment, in turn, surfaces new losses to kaizen. The programme becomes self-sustaining.
This is what we mean by "the programme that pays for itself."
A Real Number
A recent F&B client: two 90-day kaizens recovered $1.4M a year of yield loss on a single line. The MES deployment that followed cost $380k. The maths did itself.
The Takeaway
If your roadmap starts with software, reverse it. Start with the leak. Use the savings to buy the software. The transformation will be faster, cheaper, and, critically, still alive in year three.