Month: June 2011

In his announcement to run for governor of Washington state in 2012, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee cited his plans to enact continuous process improvement (CPI) methodologies in the state government to reduce spending and create more jobs.

Diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. is discussing a possible collaboration with the municipality of Franklin Township, Ind., USA, about improving the town’s financial performance via Lean Six Sigma methods, according to a report by WRTV-6.

When an organization begins a Lean Six Sigma deployment, what is the first step that the leadership team should take? Should they start executing Kaizen events to demonstrate the impact of quick process improvement? Or should they kick-off with Six Sigma projects, using the DMAIC or DFSS roadmap, with a deep dive into sophisticated statistics? […]

In these difficult economic times it is vital now more than ever that organizational leadership understand and implement the best defense against all types of waste. Value added analysis and percentage increases to the overall value added activity must be among the top measurements for all employees. Non-value activities need to be reduced and cultural […]

Let’s start off by defining Lean manufacturing. Lean (as described on multiple on-line resources) is described as a production practice that focuses on the elimination of wasteful elements in all process to increase the value to the customer. Sounds great! What organization wouldn’t want to implement a program to eliminate waste? The problem is that […]

Union Pacific has named D. Lynn Kelley, Ph.D., vice president in charge of continuous improvement, effective July 1. She succeeds Richard R. McClish, who is retiring, and will report to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Young.

Got best practices? If you’ve been attending (or separately purchasing components of) the iSixSigma “Best of the Best” Webinar Series, you are on your way. These hour-long sessions deliver process improvement secrets from some of the world’s most respected companies. The first two sessions in the series featured best practices from MoneyGram International (“MoneyGram’s Transformation […]

iSixSigma’s “Best of the Best” Webinar Series continues on Wednesday, July 14, when two Black Belts from Best Buy, Tonya Bescheinen and Tracy Gardiner, lead an hour-long session titled “Reap the Rewards of Investing in Your Culture”. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern on July 14 and the cost […]

Last July, I took a new role in my company as program & operations leader for a global business development team, after several years as a full-time Lean Six Sigma professional. No more classroom teaching, lean events, statistical tests, coaching other belts, or lean six sigma projects to run. Instead, I was given a broad […]

Sixty-nine organizations have tossed their hats — and their strategies for success — into the ring for the 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest recognition for organizational performance excellence through innovation and improvement. Applicants include two manufacturers, three service companies, two small businesses, eight educational organizations, 40 health care organizations and 14 […]

In the summer of 2010, Iowa Congressman Tom Latham began drafting a serious legislative effort to systematically identify waste at every level of the federal government – both within federal agencies and the programs they oversee. Latham’s goal was to introduce legislation that would force the federal government to follow one tried-and-tested uniform protocol that […]

Hospitals, health systems to benefit from The Quality Group’s Six Sigma and other performance management solutions

During a political and economic event sponsored by the nonprofit group Strong America Now in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, three more Republican presidential candidates pledged to use Lean Six Sigma, if elected, to eliminate federal government waste and reduce the deficit.

In light of our overall desire to standardize processes in order to reduce variation, I’ve seen a fair share of projects in the service or transactional spaces where one of the recommendations is to script key parts of the customer interaction. While this may make sense to help shorten a call or standardize the interaction, […]

If you travel to multiple sites to support projects as I do, you know what it is like to drive on the highway during rush hour. Last week I was driving to another company site, which is normally about 1.5 hours away if there is no traffic. I was cruising at the speed limit until […]

The U.S. Army has recently awarded Choctaw Defense, owned by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a three-year, $20 million performance standard contract to design and manufacture the Camel II potable water trailer system, which provides water for troops in virtually any location.

Renewable energy firm Nordic Windpower has promoted Jeff Brown, a certified Six Sigma Quality Leader and Master Black Belt, from chief operating officer to the title of CEO and director.

The common Six Sigma roadmap can provide value in even the most unstructured environments By Braden Kelley On the surface, the DMAIC roadmap and the concept of innovation appear to be mutually exclusive ideas. At least that’s what many critics have claimed is the Achilles’ heel of the Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma and innovation, […]

iSixSigma’s “Best of the Best” Webinar Series continues on Tuesday, June 21, when Shannon Coursey leads an hour-long session titled “Applying SPC Concepts to Better Understand Systems Delivery Performance”. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern and the cost is $49 (Register Now!)

Continuous improvement (CI) practitioners know that Lean Six Sigma can be applied to almost any business process to achieve positive results. But perhaps no other sector better represents the challenges and potential of Six Sigma than the federal government. In the case of the U.S. military, incremental performance improvements can be a matter of life […]

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a best-selling author and consultant who may be best known as the creator of the Theory of Constraints, died on June 11 at his home in Israel after a brief illness. He was 64.

Jeffrey E. Geary, a 30-year railroad industry veteran and Master Black Belt, has been named vice president of operations for Amtrak, with oversight of the railway’s transportation, engineering and mechanical departments.

Many times in our industry, organizational leaders spout that they desire and believe in continuous improvement. They use the latest buzzwords and seem very serious when they communicate the new direction that they want to take. I don’t know if CI is truly understood by many organizational leaders due to the fact that most of […]