Month: February 2007

I have been contemplating organizational transformation over the last few months. Jim Womak at the Lean Institute has started a new research project that is collecting organizational development results from various lean projects in the public sector. He has encouraged all who have thoughts to contact him. The driving question is: “What is the best […]

I was raised to believe thatin Six Sigma,the “Voice of the Customer” is the source of process specifications. While training, we spent quite a bit of time learning Customer Needs Mapping, developing the Critical to Quality characteristics, and filling out the CTQ tree. We defined a customer as the end-user, or beneficiary, of the process […]

My understanding of Lean Six Sigma is mainly based on the projects and the people I work with here at Aviva. Being one of the biggest businesses in the UK, Aviva gives me great opportunity to work on complex problems & processes. But it has its limitations. I work exclusively in the financial services market […]

Recently, I was part of agroup Black Belts who were discussingthe pressure on leaders to improve, not just in one direction, but in as many ways as possible, seemingly all at once. Here’s a possible scenario, from a hypothetical healthcare organization in the beginning stages of deploying Lean Six Sigma. A Vice President is speaking […]

(Or “On Arithmetic Means”, if you prefer.) I hardly need mention in this forum that as a standalone descriptive statistic, the average can be a dangerous piece of information. Averages quoted in the absence of other descriptive statistics are generally insufficient at best, and downright misleading at worst. I’ll skip the lecture on the importance […]

A little off message today, but (eventually) topical. Britain’s ancient roads have carried people and livestock for centuries. But it was the engineering skills of the Romans who transformed our road transportation system. In the first 100 years after their invasion in 43AD they built at least 8000 miles of road so even the most […]

While traveling on an international flight earlier this year, I was asked to fill out forms for customs. After filling out the forms I proceeded to wait in line where fellow travelers in front of me delayed processing time because of a simple data entry error on their customs card. Apparently 1/11/07 is read as […]

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Nayism 41: “Six Sigma” is not for us. We’re past all the buzz words and latest fads. For various and sometimes unknown reasons, people shy away from Six Sigma because of the name. In fact, Six Sigma has become so popular that it could be the hype surrounding the name that turns them off. So […]

Mayor Graham Richard of Fort Wayne Indiana recently published a new book called Performance is the Best Politics: How to create high-performance government using Lean Six Sigma. In conjuncton with the book the Mayor launched a new website, http://www.performanceisthebestpolitics.com,that offers previews of case studies included in the book. In the Mayor’s own words: “This book […]

We must be data driven!We must manage by fact!What happens when we don’t have any data? What happens when we can’t tweak a bit of machinery to improve our primary metric? What happens when one of our critical Xs is a behavioural problem?Or, one of our action items in the Improve stage is something a […]

Nayism 40: The year-end financials are out and Company XYZ who is using Six Sigma didn’t do well. Looks like Six Sigma is looking more like Sick Sigma. It’s that time of year when Six Sigma naysayers turn to company year-end financial performance and try to lay blame on Six Sigma for companies that may […]

Recently, I had an interesting conversationwith the editor of our facility newsletter. She was looking for short articles for the next edition, and I asked if she thought people would be interested in some tips for email organization. Simple stuff, like sorting your inbox by sender so you can take care of your boss’s communication […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2007 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Nayism 39: Our organization is flat and has little turnover. There just aren’t any leadership positions available for Black Belts when they repatriate. Organizations with little movement might find themselves getting a little stale when it comes to repatriating black belts. Is there anything you can say to clear the air? Here’s what I say . […]

If you’ve read some of my previous blog entries, you’ll know I’m no fan of roadmaps. I used to think this was a radical proposition in the Six Sigma community. But more and more, when I talk to practitioners – the people on the ground who do the hands-on work of process improvement – I […]