Redefining Operational Excellence

CHAPTER 8

CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE: NOT SO MUCH

A FEW YEARS AGO, ORGANIZATIONS began creating centers of excellence that were meant to apply best practices to enhance a specific function of an organization. A center of excellence aims to improve results in that function throughout the organization.

A defining feature of the center of excellence is that it focuses on one function; it does not encompass all functions throughout the entire organization. Centers of excellence were created for functions like project management, procurement, quality management, and technology. Sometimes multiple organizations got together to create a center of excellence that answered to the needs of all the organizations, for such areas as research, safety, and even ...