Month: April 2011

Prestigious Authorization Demonstrates Commitment to High-Quality Lifelong Learning

The executive search firm Avery Point Group has released the results of a study finding that demand for people with Lean and Six Sigma training has nearly doubled since last year’s study.

Throughout my professional career, I have always considered myself to be a life-long learner and educator who has continually strived to improve my own skill set as well as many of my business colleagues. My primarily focus for competency development has related to how organizations can become more effective in problem solving/prevention, innovation and continuous […]

In a recent study of 100 senior manufacturing staff, British magazine Works Management (WM) found that the largest barrier to the adoption of continuous improvement (CI) programs is lack of cooperation from their staff.

Since its founding in 1990, National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has been driving improvement through the development of quality standards and measures in the healthcare field. The NCQA measures are more commonly recognized as Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS). How can organizations incorporate Lean Six Sigma in their NCQA accreditation efforts? Lean […]

Acquires several new customers across wide industry range

To drive improvement through Lean Six Sigma and other continuous improvement projects, it is imperative for practitioners to determine first what is important to the customers who are affected by the process. Customers can take on a variety of different views. Listed below are examples of typical customers identified in a SIPOC diagram (suppliers, inputs, […]

Honda is only the latest of several automobile manufacturers to report production slowdowns in the wake of last month’s Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis – triple catastrophes that have crippled global car production supply chains and reduced overall capacity by as much as 30 per cent, according to the British newspaper The Independent.

I read a lot of our client’s feedback, pages and pages of comments and thoughts. I use this information to align our processes and improve our customer experience. Let me touch on one area. When I read comments from people who think highly of us a single word appears repeatedly – Responsive and its visa-a-versa […]

Epec Engineered Technologies, a provider of circuit boards and other electronic components, has appointed Michael Dolan as its new global supply chain manager.

The first article of this series discussed how a number of Lean initiatives either fail outright or fail to deliver as planned. Furthermore, the first article went on to attribute these shortcomings to four cultural factors: an organization’s purpose, its leadership, how it treats its people and how the organization views continuous improvement. This article […]

The authors of two books on Lean and leadership, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), received Shingo Research and Professional Publication Awards at the 23rd Annual Shingo Prize Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Follow the Learner: The Role of a Leader in Creating a Lean Culture, by Dr. Sami Bahri, and The Lean Manager, […]

I can still hear the words ringing in my ears: ”Congratulations on the promotion.” I was selected for a position with the Senior Executive Service, a corps tasked with leading the continuing transformation of the United States federal government. The job could wield great influence over performance improvement in the Department of Defense (DoD) – […]

iSixSigma’s first Retail Forum for Process Excellence, presented by SSA & Company, wrapped up last week at the Westin Edina Galleria in Minneapolis. Attendees at the four-day event had the opportunity to learn from workshops, keynote addresses, breakout sessions, panel discussions and a site tour. They also had a chance to meet, network and share […]

The curtains were drawn the room was dark. The man tied to the chair could not escape. The kidnapers were out negotiating the ransom. The man spied his iPhone on the table. He shuffled the chair forward inch by inch. Leaning forward he activated his iPhone with his nose. He managed to start e-mail and […]

In my blog about a year ago, “How I became a Black Belt“, I wrote about Lean Six Sigma being “simply a scientific approach to problem solving and learning.” I am sure everyone understands LSS as a problem-solving methodology. But how does Lean Six Sigma help us learn? First, let’s look at some common barriers […]

Jan De Witte, president and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Performance Solutions division, has taken on the additional title of president and CEO of GE’s $1.4 billion Healthcare IT division. He succeeds Vishal Wanchoo, who has moved into the role of senior vice president of growth initiatives for GE India.

The International Six Sigma Institute and Secret Society for Imperious Professionals of Process Improvement (ISSISSIPPI) today announced that it will no longer charge customers for access to its industry-leading Lean Six Sigma training courses.

In a move to reduce waste and warehousing costs under its Six Sigma plan, Pepsi Beverages Co. has installed an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) and warehouse control system at its plant in Tampa, Fla., USA.