the history of Eckes & Associates, Inc.
Eckes and Associates Inc. (EAI) is a Colorado based consulting group specializing in statistical based continuous improvement, six sigma training and consulting, organizational development and change management consulting.
Its President and Chief Executive Officer, George Eckes, founded EAI in 1984. A Notre Dame graduate with a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology from Eastern Michigan University, George Eckes began his professional career as a clinical psychologist in 1977. After several years as licensed psychologist, George joined Gilbert Commonwealth, a Michigan based consulting firm that specialized in various quality improvement efforts, primarily with the automobile industry in the early 1980's.
In 1984, George joined StorageTek, a Fortune 500 computer manufacturer to create and manage a supplier development department whose goal was to improve quality among StorageTek's 900+ suppliers through the use of statistical improvement techniques. During the 1980's George and his supplier development group began working with Motorola as a supplier, which at the time was implementing the first six sigma initiative.
At the same time he created his own consulting company ultimately known as Eckes and Associates Inc. Both among StorageTek's suppliers and EAI's client base, George and his staff took a broad, comprehensive approach to improvement. Rather than just using quality improvement as a set of tactical tools, EAI's philosophy was to see quality as a competitive weapon, seeing quality as a philosophy toward managing an entire business.
The EAI philosophy toward improvement includes strategic, tactical and cultural components. A major factor in EAI's success is obtaining management's active involvement. The strategic component centers on having management utilize quality principles and approaches toward achievement of the organization's strategic business objectives. This is a clear distinction between other consultant's approaches. The concept of Business Process Management assists management to identify its business objectives, the core processes of the business, how to measure current performance and select projects that will ultimately drive improvement in the strategic business objectives of the organization. Only when the strategic business objectives of the organization improve through quality management will management see the impact that quality can make to an organization.
The second component of Eckes & Associates Inc.'s approach is a strong background in the tactics of Six Sigma. These tactics include what is known as DMAIC, where project teams define, measure, analyze, improve and control processes that have high impact to the organization's business objectives and have current unacceptable sigma performance. In the fall of 2000 John Wiley and Sons published George Eckes' first book on Six Sigma, The Six Sigma Revolution, How General Electric and Others Turned Process into Profits. This book covers both the strategy of Business Process Management and covers in depth the DMAIC process improvement methodology.
The final critical element of Six Sigma Success focuses on the Cultural component. The Cultural component of Six Sigma includes development of six sigma leadership, creating the need for six sigma, mobilizing commitment to six sigma, diagnosing and addressing six sigma resistance and creating a six sigma vision for any organization. Unlike any other consulting group, Eckes & Associates Inc. has developed a unique method to quantify both the technical elements of six sigma and the cultural elements in such a way to assist an organization in developing corrective action to their current six sigma initiative, particularly if the organization has not achieved the type of results that a General Electric or AlliedSignal has. The elements associated with the cultural component of six sigma were the topic of George Eckes' second book on six sigma, Making Six Sigma Last, Managing the Balance between Cultural and Technical Change.
In 1991, EAI was hired by General Electric to consult in a variety of quality activities. In 1995 Jack Welsh, GE's CEO made a formal commitment to a Six Sigma management philosophy. Having done Six Sigma improvement with some Motorola suppliers in the '80's, EAI was chosen by GE Capital as one of their core consulting organizations to both help in course design and delivery. Within three years EAI was the highest rated consulting organization to GE Capital.
In the years since GE tabbed EAI to assist in their six sigma initiative EAI has been the consultant group of choice for organizations like Wells Fargo Financial, Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, Volvo Truck North America, Park Nicollet Health Care and HSBC. In recent years EAI has expanded its associate base to over 50 associates located throughout the world. Their areas of specialty include mastery of the concepts of six sigma, both strategic and tactical, facilitation skills and teaching experience in the strategy, tactics and cultural elements of six sigma.
