Month: March 2006

In my opinion they should. After going though mindblowing and overwhelming Black Belt training sessions and doing the first Black Belt projects I was at times not sure what to do with respect to DMAIC. During those first training projects I was lucky to be mentored and coached by a great Master Black Belt. My […]

Before beginning any implementation of Lean Six Sigma in health care, it is important to get support and buy-in from management. Health care is a very conservative industry filled with professionals that maintain a traditional school of thought. Even though the health care industry has grown accustomed to change, the uneasiness of implementing a process […]

There is a strong tendency for Six Sigma programs to forge an inextricable link between project management roadmaps, notably DMAIC, and statistical tools. This has never made much sense to me. In my experience, Six Sigma programs can not only exist and survive without the use of typical roadmaps, but prosper and flourish. In the […]

Here’s a gem of a post buried in an old thread I’ve been following that saw some activity today. Thanks for the laughs Linus. Re: Six Sigma Companies by Linus Barrymore Three one-sigma companies board a train in Cleveland traveling southwest at92 mph. At the same time, six two-sigma companies board another train in Cincinnati […]

Our latest podcast is ready to download. This podcast features an interview with Gianna Clark,Managing Director of Six Sigma at Dominion, and our very own iSixSigma Blogger. Gianna has been blogging with iSixSigma since September, 2005. She has developed a continuous theme to her blog… the “nayisms”. In this podcast I talkwith Gianna abouther nayisms […]

The following is The Last Word from the March/April 2006 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Getting Ahead in Business with Six Sigma.” Operational excellence does not come easy, whether in America’s heartland or on the streets of New York City. It takes leaders who are willing to make changes. Despite the breakthrough improvements made by […]

Some recent conversations with BBs and MBBs from other companies has given me pause regarding the leadership issue as it relates to Six Sigma. The frustration I hear from others, which I’ve also experienced, relates to the lack of continuity between word and deed. Not that it’s necessarily intentional, I mean surely executives don’t intend […]

Xerox is working with the Houston Public Library to improve services with Lean Six Sigma. As part of the Xerox Global Services consulting offering, they have deployed a team of Lean Six Sigma experts to search through library operations and find areas for improvement. “Lean Six Sigma is typically used by large enterprises to eliminate […]

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 23: I can’t put a production worker on a team.I need them out in the field working – not attending a meeting. Production quotas and productivity are frequently used as […]

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As a tribute to St. Patrick’s Day here are a few examples of green Six Sigma projects. Now, I’m not talking about projects that have saved a lot of “green” but projects that are good for the environment.

Notes from the Deployment Front There are just three things leaders need to get right. First is to act like leaders. That is to say when you are involved in this be clear about your commitment. Any leader that talks about this and then talks about more important priorities is not a leader. People hear […]

A person trained in 6 Sigma is given a set of tools to solve problems. When you have been practising 6 Sigma for a while as I have (3 years as a Black Belt), the tools become part of your everyday life. In ‘Performance Based Leadership’ terms I have become unconsciously competent on the tools […]

Notes from the Deployment Front Sorry for the long delay in posting here. I’ve been working on taking a failed deployment and turning it around. It’s tedious work with a lot of sleepless nights trying to get a very successful company to understand how to become even better. The good news is that it’s going […]

When Jack and the lads (and ladies I’m sure) started putting together Six Sigma they got together in many rooms over many months and slowly designed an effective and data based project management and process control structure. For many years now it has worked effectively in businesses across the globe from manufacturing to finance and […]

According to an article in the Belvoir Eagle, the U.S. Army received orders this week to advance the implementation of Lean Six Sigma Army-wide. “‘This is the largest deployment of management science since the beginning of the science,’ said Mike Kirby, deputy undersecretary of the Army for business transformation. This position was created to oversee […]

There are 8 wastes associated with a Lean Six Sigma process that are vital to the success of the implementation. The 8 wastes are: over production, excessive processing, non-productive inventory, excessive motion, unnecessary transportation, non-standard work, waiting, and intellectual capital. Eliminating these 8 wastes will add more value to the processes, and increase customer satisfaction. […]

In the 4th century, the Roman emperor Constantine built the Hippodrome in what is now Istanbul, Turkey. The Hippodrome was the Daytona Super Speedway of chariot racing. An amazing example of architectural genius, the Hippodrome had 1/4 mile straight-aways andheld over 100 thousand spectators. Believe it or not, the facility even had luxury boxes and […]

This month, Surface Mount Technology (SMT) published an article written by Evelyn Baldwin, a sales manager for 3M Electronics. 3M has been taking Six Sigma to their customers for years and Evelyn’s knowledge of the subject shines through in this article, which reads like a perfect blog entry. She offers some solid advice for helping […]

Here is a very unique application of Six Sigma from Bank of America. Ray Bednar, BofA’s new sports sponsorship executive, will use the methodology to improve the banks sports sponsorship process: “Now Bednar says his job is to make sure the bank is getting the most out of its sports deals using ’Six Sigma’ techniques […]

Since my staff in my department is entirely composed of students I have many advantages and disadvantages when creating teams and working on projects.The advantages of a student staff include the high turnover rates and those who see their time with us as just another job to kill time and get a paycheck. Some of […]

Sometimes operational people from my organisation approach me with “the” 1000-Euro-question: “Six Sigma guy, can you please help me analyze this set of data.” Asking me to help, they usually have an issue they really can’t resolve themselves. Perceiving Lean Six Sigma too far away from daily operations they turn in despair to the Six […]

In a business process improvement project, a critical factor is documenting the standard work or the “least waste way.” One of the issues I have been dealing with recently is ensuring that documentation is in place and up to date. Unfortunately as the saying goes, “the only constant is change…” and as outside factors change […]

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