Month: February 2006

A couple of MeadWestvaco’s Six Sigma Safety Projects are featured in Compliance Magazine’s 2006 Safety Industry Forecast. James E. Roughton, a Safety Health and Environmental Manager and Six Sigma Black Belt at MeadWestVaco shares several project examples in “Closing the Safety ‘Gap’ Through Six Sigma.” “Six Sigma projects at MeadWestVaco have already provided valuable learning. […]

The thing that sets apart “Great Leaders” from “Good Leaders” is the ability to care about others. Great Leaders do not have the luxury of acting on their fight or flight response mechanism. They must constantly be ready to fight at a moments notice, and how they choose to fight can mean the difference in […]

Six Sigma started in our department slowly.There were many factors that played into this, but mostly staffing issues: 1. I only have a staff of student employees (from 8-16 per year).2. This staff is in a constant state of change.3. Students come with various skills, many with no math or business or technical background.4. Knowledge […]

As a sophomore and junior in college I heard about Six Sigma in my statistical analysis class. I despised the class, but was intrigued by applying its principles to business practice. Outside of class I read a few articles online and even picked up Peter Pande’s “What Is Six Sigma?” I breezed through the easy […]

I was recently reading a book on John Locke (1632-1704), a British philosopher considered by many to be the primary intellectual inspiration of Thomas Jefferson. I thought I’d share what he had to say about new ideas and achieving agreement because the parallels to modern change management are uncanny considering this was written over 300 […]

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

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 21: If a Black Belt likes what he or she does, why rotate them back into the organization? Why not let Black Belt positions be permanent positions instead of just […]

SixSigmaCompanies.com celebrates its first birthday today. I made my first poston this day last year. To celebrate I’d like to pay tribute to the short list of Six Sigma blogs and podcasts out there. There are only a handful of good Six Sigma blogs outside the iSixSigma Blogosphere. My definition of “good” is, written by […]

We’re at it again. Our latest podcast is ready to download. This podcast features an interview with Steve Walter,Global Talent Director for Ingersoll Rand, andmight I dare say the Seinfeld of Six Sigma. He emceed the Six Sigma Excellence Awards in Miami last month and brought some serious laughter to the Six Sigma crowd. I […]

This blog entry is brief. This week I met and communicated with a new Lean Practitioner, Jon Miller, at Gemba.com. He has a great blog site at: http://www.gembapantarei.com/lean_government/ that is tracking Lean government initiatives around the world. This week he tracked activity in Scotland. There is documentation of initiatives in Iowa, US Dept of Commerce […]

Here is a Valentine’s Day Design of Experiments that is sure to make lovely conversation over dinner with your loved one. Written by Ravindra Khare, Three Romeos And A Juliet, is a story about the quest of three young men in search of the meaning behind the wink and the smile of a beautiful woman… […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 20: Why are black belts getting monetary rewards? The rest of us are working just as hard. Why should they be treated “special?” The topic of monetary incentives and rewards […]

The article Six Sigma, the Baxter Way at PharmaManufacturing.com features an interview with Allen Harmon, the director of operations at Baxter’s Biologics facility in Hayward, California. The question/answer session reveals details on how this Baxter facility is using Six Sigma and Lean in their operational excellence program. Noted in the interview, Harmon states that Baxter […]

Lean and Six Sigma applications are different between service industries and manufacturing industries. Is that statement really true? There is no straightforward answer. The answer is ambiguous. It can be: no, there is no difference. But it can be: they are the same to certain extend. The answer can also be: yes, the application is […]

Applying the Principles of Lean and Public Value to Reshape a Government Agency In the fall of 2003, the Maine Department of Labor began a tailored change initiative to fundamentally alter the culture and work of the agency. Combining time-tested “lean” principles from the manufacturing sector with the emerging public sector strategy of “public value,”* […]

Lean Six Sigma’s application to healthcare has been slow at best. One reason for this is that healthcare professionals view manufacturing as an industry that deals with the simple process of making inanimate objects. Healthcare, on the other hand, deals with complex processes that improve and prolong the functionality of the human anatomy. Consequently, healthcare […]

Have you ever been sitting in a meeting listening to a discussion on a topic and wondered if you were in some sort of parallel universe where real issues are always subordinate to the trifling matters of the moment? Or maybe sat through a strategy session which ultimately added no value because of turf struggles […]

  The business of higher education today is just that—a business. It focuses more today on the bottom line and it is important to stay on the competitive edge for all of its customers—from the students and their parents to the faculty, staff, and donors, as well. The business of education also has a greater […]

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

It’s that time of the year again. The time of year when we all do a reality check on the job market — or more specifically — on the salaries ofSix Sigma Black Belts, Master Black Belts, Champions and Deployment Leaders. With now being the time of year when yearly bonus checks are being distributed […]

We just released the second iSixSigma Magazine podcast. This episode reveals a few of our findings from the “Knowing the Customer” research in the January/February issue. Visit http://www.isixsigma-magazine.com/podcast/to download or subscribe to the iTunes feed for automatic updates.

Most healthcare organizations have experienced some type of quality improvement program in the past. Unfortunately, many of these programs are implemented with little thought, planning, or expectations for success. These programs have created cynicism among many organizational leaders, which have caused these leaders to dispute the value of other quality initiatives. However, it is not […]

Philosophy has been my passion since I completed an undergraduate degree in the subject 15 years ago. Thankfully I had other skills so I was able to avoid the “do you want to super-size that value meal” world many humanities majors nervously joke about as graduation approaches, but I didn’t have much of a plan […]