Over ten years of working as an Engineer I have learned a few things that college could never have prepared me for. In these beginning years of my career the biggest achievement has been learning to work with others on a daily basis and knowing where to access information in order to help move the organization into a better and more profitable direction.
One of the hardest things to do in any organization is to invoke change. Some organizations have so many complex processes its hard to even know where to start. It can take upwards of a year just to map out the processes and analyze the data. Six Sigma is a goal for most organizations but they must be prepared for a deep analysis followed by change. Will all the changes work? Not always but if you never try your organization will never know if the changes are improving overall processes.
Change is all around us. As an engineer or manager we have to convince upper management and every employee in the organization that change is a positive thing. IT might be hard at first but in the long run it will increase profits and efficiency. There will always be political, financial and other factors that can effect how things will change but overall most organizations are always looking to become more streamlined.
Change is tough even for people who are open for change. The truth is the global economy is changing so rapidly every year it is critical that organizations at least investigate techniques like Six Sigma and process mapping in order to assess their current operations.