Month: May 2005

Phelps Dodge is one of the world’s leading producers of copper. In 2001 they began an initiative called “Quest for Zero” that involves Lean, Six Sigma and other tools. Today, they continue in their Quest for Zero and have seen significant savings. “Quest for Zero – as in zero accidents, zero production variances, zero environmental […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Who says Six Sigma isn’t for small companies?This is the smallest company I know of that uses Six Sigma.At five employees and $3 million projected revenue for 2005, Delta Staffing Precision Hiring Systems is a placement services firm in Clarkston, Michigan, USA that uses Six Sigma to streamline the personnel selection process: “Employing Six Sigma, […]

The heart of DuPont’s continued growth lies in its three strategic pathways: integrated science, knowledge intensity and productivity through Six Sigma.DuPont is yet another clear example of Six Sigma complementing a strategic directive.DuPont has been around for a long time and according to this chart (found in the 2004 Annual Report), plans to stay around […]

American Express began their Six Sigma journey with a pilot initiative late in 1998. A small group of Black Belts across disciplines, functions and business units were trained and completed projects. After the initial pilot the program spread slowly to other business units. In 2001, Six Sigma became part of the Global Reengineering initiative and […]

ITT Industries began their Six Sigma program in 2000. It is named Value Based Six Sigma (VBSS) because it is linked to Value Based Management principles. Their Summer 2000 newsletter (PDF) is loaded with information introducing the new initiative: “Value-Based Six Sigma is a new company-wide continuous improvement effort that — according to ITT Industries […]

Fortune 500 Six Sigma companies in the Industrial Sector. Includes Metals and Industrial & Farm Equipment industries: Alcoa American Standard Black & Decker Caterpillar Cummins Deere Eaton Illinois Tool Works ITT Industries Parker Hannifin Phelps Dodge Timken York International

Fortune 500 Six Sigma companies in the Retail Industry: Albertsons Amazon.com Avnet Best Buy Big Lots Circuit City Stores Federated Department Stores Fisher Scientific International Home Depot IKON Office Solutions Ingram Micro Lowe’s May Department Stores Office Depot Radio Shack Sears Roebuck Target Wal-Mart Stores

Richard Weissman “shamelessly promotes” his article “The Pitfalls of Six Sigma” on the SCM Wire blog.The article appears in the May 2005 edition of The Manufacturer. The title of the article is deceptive and lead me to believe it was written from a negative bias, but the opposite is true.The article discusses some of the […]

Supply Chain Management Review – The Next Stage of Supply Chain Excellence. This article does a fine job speaking to how Lean and Six Sigma are helping shape the future of Supply Chain.Six Sigma Companies included in the article: IBM, Dow, 3M, Textron, Lockheed Martin, GlaxoSmithKline and Delphi. The authors, Gregory L. Schlegel and Richard […]

The remaining three iPod Shuffles were given away to three deserving individuals wearing iSixSigma buttons today. We ordered over 500 buttons, and if I hadn’t grabbed a pack of 20 from the box they all would have been given away. Thanks to Frank and Erin (our editors for the iSixSigma.com and iSixSigma Magazine, respectively) for […]

Dow began their Six Sigma journey as a pilot initiative in 1998.Early success in a few business units convinced management to deploy Six Sigma corporate-wide in 1999.The annual report their first year introduces their customer-centric Six Sigma philosophy: “We’re centering Six Sigma quality and productivity efforts around one concept—what keeps customers coming back to us […]

After following the market for nearly four years, I decided I needed a place to organize my Six Sigma thoughts as they were crowding my head. I decided to jump on the blogwagon and write about something I knew well…Six Sigma. A few months worth of posts to my blog caught the eye of Michael […]

Air Academy Associates graciously shared their booth with iSixSigma Magazine at the ASQ World Quality Conference, May 16-18. A few customers and alliance partners also displayed iSixSigma Magazine reprints. Thank you to everyone! The process for winner selection was pretty simple: wear a button, win an iPod Shuffle (if we see you wearing your button […]

Dominion is now in its fifth year of an enterprise-wide Six Sigma initiative. Their unique approach encourages the entrepreneurial spirit and has led to $300 million in savings since 2001. Dominion is active in the Six Sigma community, speaking at conferences and sharing best practices on deployment issues. A quick stroll through Dominion’s history and […]

The Energy Sector consists of the Energy and the Utilities: Gas & Electric industries of the Fortune 500. Six Sigma companies in the Energy sector: Constellation Energy Dominion Entergy FPL Group Public Service Enterprise Group TXU Notable Fortune 1000 companies using Six Sigma are: Alliant Energy Allegheny Energy Aquila

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

The article, Lehman Wants More Efficiency, appeared today on Forbes.com. The author, Liz Moyer, writes: “Lehman has quietly put together what it calls a “productivity and process improvement” group. Formed in January, it reports to Chief Administrative Officer David Goldfarb.” Mike Cyger, founder of iSixSigma.com, is quoted in regards to productivity improvement: “There are twice […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

It’s clear that Six Sigma pays. This issue’s Benchmarking feature (iSixSigma Magazine, May/June 2005) presents a positive picture of the average annual salaries of Six Sigma professionals around the world. Black Belt and Master Black Belt salaries increased 5.4 and 5.3 percent respectively since last year – climbing to $74,000 and $98,000. In the United […]