Retail

Albertsons – Nearly 100 Black Belts Trained

Albertsons released their First Quarter 2005 Results today.They continue to publicly announce their progress with their corporate-wide Six Sigma initiative: “The number of Six Sigma black belts rose to nearly 100 during the quarter. Currently, 178 projects are underway, providing…

Albertsons Inc. – Six Sigma

Larry Johnston, a seasoned General Electric executive, took over as CEO of Albertsons in April, 2001.Unlike his colleagues, James McNerney and Bob Nardelli, Johnston did not immediately sing Six Sigma in the key of G & E.He waited.Instead, he quickly…

Albertsons Six Sigma Update

Larry Johnson, CEO of Albertsons, spoke at the Lehman Brothers Retail Seminar on April 26, 2005.He gave a detailed update on the progress they have made with their Six Sigma deployment.The webcast is available from Albertsons Investor Information until May…

Case Study: Fault Reduction in Cable Industry

A cable company uses logistic regression to determine the variables most predictive of a "truck roll" (technician visit to customer's home) within seven days of a new installation.

Circuit City – Six Sigma

Overview Circuit City began their Six Sigma initiative early in 2001 as stated in their 2001 Annual Report: “Given the challenging retail climate, we will even more closely examine our operating practices. Specifically, we are undertaking initiatives to…apply the Six…

Federated Department Stores – Six Sigma

Federated Department Stores announced their plans today to acquire May Department Stores.You can read all about it in the February 28, 2004 Press Release.Both companies are currently involved in Six Sigma initiatives.Although I don’t know much about May’s Six Sigma…

IKON Office Solutions – Six Sigma

IKON Office Solutions is quickly becoming a major voice for Six Sigma in the Business Services industry.Matt Espe came to IKON in August, 2002 and less than a year later his GE roots revealed themselves with a corporate Six Sigma…

May Department Stores – Six Sigma

Overview May Department Stores has not released very much public information about their Six Sigma program.I have found job postings for positions at May and their brand stores that desire Black Belt certification, a “What is Six Sigma” presentation by…

Online Holiday Shopping at 2 Sigma

Holiday season sales will be up 100% to about $10 billion, and customers expect 100% Web site availability, order status and online customer service. This year (2000) the price of admission to the online market is much steeper. Is your business operating at 6 sigma…or 2 sigma? Improve your customer experience by measuring it.

Queuing Theory and Practice: A Source of Competitive Advantage

Six Sigma professionals can use their skills in probability distributions, process mapping and process improvement techniques to help service organizations keep customers satisfied by limiting wait time.

Retail Industry – Six Sigma

Fortune 500 Six Sigma companies in the Retail Industry: AlbertsonsAmazon.comAvnetBest BuyBig LotsCircuit City StoresFederated Department StoresFisher Scientific InternationalHome DepotIKON Office SolutionsIngram MicroLowe’sMay Department StoresOffice DepotRadio ShackSears RoebuckTargetWal-Mart Stores

Service is the Key to Success

Improve your quality and business performance through world-class customer service. Here is an example of customer service that all of our service organizations should strive to achieve. It’s consistent with little variation.

Six Sigma at Amazon.com

It’s holiday time and Amazon is just about as busy as Santa. This year at Amazon.com you’ll see the Holiday Delight-O-Meter, which shows real-time data for the number of items ordered worldwide since November 21st. My calculations estimate about 2,000…

Six Sigma at Target Corporation

Target Corporation began a unique Six Sigma initiative and rightly named it “6SIGMA@Target” toidentify it as their own. Six Sigma is helping Target achieve their mantra “design, innovation, and continuous improvement”a philosophyaimed at delighting guests. In addition to Six Sigma,…

Six Sigma at The Home Depot

What do Bob Nardelli, Larry Johnston, James McNerney, and Matthew Espe all have in common? Aside from all being former GE executives trained and tutored under the hand of Jack Welch, they each speak the Six Sigma dialect of business…

To Save Cost, Set Product Warranties Based on Quality

By reviewing quality assurance concepts – reliability, failure rate and product life history – that can be used during DMAIC and DMADV, practitioners can allow for better business decisions regarding establishing appropriate product warranties.