Given the economic events of the last few months, it is the perfect time for continuous improvement initiatives to step up and show their worth. The focus should now be on managing costs, controlling expenses and improving efficiencies.
Joe Valasquez, senior vice president/quality and productivity executive for Bank of America, offers his views on Six Sigma and business strategy. He discusses aspects of successful programs plus the value of partial deployments and pilot programs.
Among the many companies that have embarked on the Six Sigma journey, some have achieved spectacular success while others have failed. What makes the difference? Here are eight lessons learned from some of those successes and failures.
Organizations can follow eight steps – from creating a burning platform for adopting the approach to recognizing team member contributions – to complete a Lean Six Sigma rollout.
Research done on 75 manufacturers, predominantly European, sheds light on the balance between product/process and people leadership capabilities needed to sustain high levels of performance in manufacturing plants.
This case study, which involves a Six Sigma deployment within the software development organizations of a large insurance company, introduces key drivers for use in various stages of implementation, as well as harmful roadblocks to avoid.
The benefits of Six Sigma can include breakthrough improvements, cost savings, defect reduction and greater customer satisfaction. To reap these benefits, organizations must pay close attention to six key factors that can make or break a deployment.
Measuring and managing Six Sigma critical success factors is required for organizational alignment and optimization. View this checklist to ensure your company is measuring, aligning and closing gaps in management performance and behavior.
Before starting a deployment, organizations should review these 10 lessons learned.
A recent iSixSigma Discussion Forum question asked if there have been any Six Sigma deployments that have failed. This article defines the term failure from a company's viewpoint, and discusses the reasons why Six Sigma deployment failures can occur. Learn to identify failures before they happen to your company.
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