A Lean Approach to Improving Service Call Center Performance

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With increasing competition, expanding globalization and demanding customers, the playing field in the service Lean call center (SCC) industry has changed rapidly, as phone banks have evolved into multichannel contact centers. Many organizations have realized that the key for survival is efficiency and effectiveness, with a focus on productivity and customer experience. Lean techniques, which focus […]

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What Makes Six Sigma Work?

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Some consultants are earning seven figure salaries, CEOs of large companies are claiming billions of dollars saved, conferences, books, and seminars are popping up everywhere, and yet one can argue that there isn’t much new about Six Sigma that we didn’t have with TQM. Is Six Sigma just the latest management buzzword or is Six […]

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Focusing on Supply Chains

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With a timely theme of ‘Completing the Chain’, the May/June 2009 issue of iSixSigma Magazine mailed last week. The cover story, ‘A Stronger Chain’, focuses on how companies are wielding Six Sigma and Lean to strengthen their supply chains. As companies examine how to get the most out of their efforts, they are reaching outside […]

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Six Sigma on a Roll

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Last year iSixSigma Magazine ran a cover story on PointRoll and the beginnings of their Six Sigma initiative. PointRoll, a leading online ad agency, is a small company by Fortune 500 revenue standards (less than 100 million in revenue) and even smaller Six Sigma company by Six Sigma standards (1 Black Belt and 7 Green […]

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Six Sigma Turns a New Page

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NewPage Corp. is the cover story in the November/December 2008 issue of iSixSigma Magazine. “From its inception three years ago, NewPage planned to make Lean Six Sigma an integral part of how the company was run. The paper producer is using the methodology to connect its amalgam of mills in a common culture and to […]

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Erie County Saves a Cool 1.5 Mil

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Erie County’s Six Sigma initiative is set to save 1.5 million dollars by year end. Almost a half million more than the initial goal. Below is the news reporting the story. Interviews with Al Hammonds, Deputy County Executive and former Six Sigma Director as well as the new Six Sigma Director Bill Carey. http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=61254&provider=gnews Yet […]

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Project Failure: Eight Reasons by Minitab

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Yesterday, I attended a Minitab Webinar showcasing the top 8 reasons Six Sigma projects fail. Presented by Lou Johnson & Cate Twohill. Lou took care of the project failure segment (which was the vast majority) and Cate talked a bit about Minitab’s Quality Companion. First off they did a fantastic job. Lou’s history and experience […]

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Naysayers in Erie County

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Six Sigma in Erie County is seeing setbacks as skeptic county legislators put a cap on the Six Sigma budget. The initial one million dollars planned has been slashed to $120,000. “I’m one of the skeptics, I believe. They didn’t name me Doubting Thomas for nothing,” Legislator Thomas J. Mazur, D-Cheektowaga, said Thursday. “I am […]

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Research: The Hard Truth About Soft Skills

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The January/February issue of iSixSigma Magazine is out. Aside from being a fantastic issue in itself, the research feature is one that I particularly enjoyed researching and writing. Thanks to all those who responded to our survey last year we were able to gather solid data from the soft side of Six Sigma. The research […]

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Net Promoter Score – Call for Speakers

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If your company is like iSixSigma, you’ve probably read about Net Promoter Score (NPS) and thought it was a very cool topic. (For those of you who haven’t, you can read our iSixSigma Magazine cover story “Are Your Customers Promoting You…Or Do You Have to Do It Yourself?” in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue.) Net Promoter […]

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Nardelli Back On Top

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It didn’t take long for Robert (Bob) Nardelli to land on his feet… You’ve all probably heard by now, Bob Nardelli has been picked to run Chrysler. For those of you that may have forgotten or were not aware of all the details: Bob Nardelli came from GE, where he started in 1971. In 1995 […]

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Durable and Great

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The following is theOpen Mike column from the July/August 2007 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Durable and Great.” During the last 50 years, companies around the world have focused on operational excellence – the near-flawless execution of business processes. The pursuit of process excellence has evolved through various structured forms, from TQM to Six Sigma […]

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Research: How Companies Innovate

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The July/August issue of iSixSigma Magazine includes my latest research article that explores different aspects of innovation, including what people think of the relationship between Six Sigma and innovation. A press releasewas issued this morning that includes a few highlights from the data: With a vast majority of companies professing to want “innovation,” those that […]

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ANOVA

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In my on-going journey to master the tools & techniques of Lean Sigma I have been reviewing the materials on ANOVA. How useful this has been, it has really moved me on a level. ANOVA comes across in training as a very useful tool and Tukey’s pairwise comparison really hits the spot. However in our […]

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A Leader to Follow

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The following is theOpen Mike column from the May/June 2007 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Getting Ahead in Business with Six Sigma.” Attending the IQPC Six Sigma Summit in January, I was excited to hear the keynote speaker, and I wondered what Gen. Colin Powell could teach Six Sigma professionals about leadership. He had a […]

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Research: Culture Change and Six Sigma

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The May/June issueof iSixSigma Magazine has hit the shelves (metaphorically speaking of course) as well as cyberspace via the digital edition. If you do not subscribe to the magazine you are really missing out on a wealth of information. I’m not just saying that because I work for the Magazine. I was hooked on iSixSigma […]

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Fourth Annual iSixSigma Global Salary Survey

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As research manager for iSixSigma Magazine, I spend my Decembersanalyzing the data from the iSixSigma Job Shop to figure out who makes what and where they make it. I really enjoy crunching the numbers because I get to spend so much time in Minitab. (My love for Minitab waskindled by my Black Belt instructor, Paul […]

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Six Sigma Project Selection

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I spent the afternoon with the North West Quality Forum (NWQF). Today’s meeting took place on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, just North East of Seattle. It was my first time to Redmond, besides my house-hunting trip to the Seattle area a couple of years ago. The NWQF is a group of Seattle-based deployment […]

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Six Sigma Proliferates CEO to CEO

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So why did Jack implement Six Sigma? Larry Bossidy. Why do thousands of other companies use the methodology? They’ve seen it work and they want to emulate successful companies. Such is the case with Lopez Foods. They are on a quest for growth, and how do they plan to achieve it? They benchmark the best […]

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The Six Sigma eLearning-Training Obfuscation

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Have you taken an eLearning course in the past? Do you offer eLearning training through your consulting company? Have you researched eLearning options in the past? We want to hear from you. iSixSigma is preparing to research eLearning options available within the Six Sigma industry. For this study, we’re defining eLearning as: “Any learning that […]

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Are All Six Sigma Deployment Models Equal?

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Do all Six Sigma deployment models return the same results – proportionally – to the resources and time invested? The topic of deployment models can be a thorny issue among Six Sigma practitioners. Many claim that the best model is to initiate a Six Sigma program from the “top-down” (ala GE’s Jack Welch, who mandated […]

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