While my 25-year career in operational excellence has taught me the value of lean, six sigma and the entire operational excellence body, I am hearing a lot of talk, unfounded in my opinion, that continuous improvement efforts can save American manufacturing.

I believe that lean and six sigma can lead to an identity crisis and certain slow death for your company. As advances in information, transportation technology combine with the globalization of markets, companies are being pushed at a faster rate than ever. I find it difficult to believe that lean or six sigma can be the key to your commercial challenges.

Commercial excellence is a whole other body of knowledge which requires associated skill sets that can identify, finance, develop, market and sell great products and services. Operational excellence is the field of putting commercial decisions into action with the least waste. The lowest cost, highest quality product delivered on time is useless if no one wants or needs it any more. The organization that blindly focuses internally on lean and six sigma for its survival suffers from an identity that is based on the products produced and not the value it provides its customers. Companies need to invest in honest objective soul searching in order to avoid having an identity crisis.

Manufacturers need to understand the business they are really in to compete in today's world. This constant talk of unlevel playing fields is not productive. There has never been a level playing field and there will never be one.

But the good news is that if you have a great product or service the world will buy it. How the product is made and where it is made will change as economics change and evolve all over the world.

So the question I pose is what does it mean to be an American manufacturer? Does that mean that you make things in the United States or that you're an American company that makes things somehow some where? Manufacturers, particularly American manufactures, must identify better and closer with the value they provide their markets to grow profitably. This identity crisis that confuses what a company makes with the value the company provides to its customers will lead to missed opportunities and ultimately the decline of the business.

Successful manufacturers must take the following seven critical actions to preserve their future.

Identify the Value You Provide Customers

Your company should not be overly attached to what you make and how you make it but instead focus on the customer and the value you provide them through your products and services. Do you make wire harnesses or do you solve electrical interconnection challenges? Do you make pressure measure instruments or do provide pressure management solutions? More interestingly do you make aircraft engines or do you deliver aircraft uptime?

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