OCC launches new business-improvement center

SYRACUSE - Toward the end of a conversation in his office, the head of a new business-improvement center at Onondaga Community College (OCC) unleashes a statistic that would give pause to most business owners.

"The best-in-class companies in the world, about 10 percent of what they do is truly

value-added. That is to say that the majority of companies then would be closer to the 1-percent range," says Kevin Webb, executive director of OCC's 2-month-old Center for Continuous Improvement Strategies. "If you think about all the things you do in a given day that you pay for and you were to ... look at where your money is really going, the majority of that money is actually going for things you don't want.

"That's pretty scary."

The new Center is designed to expand OCC's efforts in aiding area companies. It grew out of the college's Lean Institute, which began in 2001.

The Institute, which focused mainly on manufacturing, is now a part of the new Center, Webb says.