Here is another article supporting my belief in avoiding piece meal process improvements.  Understanding the full value stream or macro processes is VERY difficult and yet paramount to identifying WHERE BEST to focus on improvement.  http://www.onrec.com/newsstories/19966.asp

I've been following another professional in his belief in the Theory of Constraints. (TOC)  http://www.focusedperformance.com/poogi1.html  It is Frank Patrick's Blog on Focused Performance.  Both of these article/blogs highlight how illogical it is to approach improvement on a process that might not be the most broken and therefore will NOT deliver a magnitude of improvement.