Month: July 2012

While Six Sigma improvement projects have many potential benefits to a company, their financial impact often gets the most attention. Business leaders want to know that they are getting a return on their investment in Black Belts. In our most recent research study, we look at Black Belt project pay-offs, where companies are targeting their […]

To be competitive, organizations need continuous improvement efforts working internally and throughout their supply chains. How can this type of system be created so that it is both immediately beneficial and able to maintain its integrity through inevitable leadership and organizational changes? It is critically important to develop a clear mechanism for selecting improvement projects […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE San Antonio, TX (July 19, 2012) – San Antonio-based blow molder Tejas Plastics Inc. is marking its fifth anniversary with an open house on July 20. The company took over former blow molder Lido Inc. in 2007. The 30,000-square-foot facility has five blow molding lines in operation – two with a 35-pound head and […]

Collecting data – be it voice of the customer or otherwise – requires a plan. Details of the plan should include what data to collect, how to get the information, where the information will come from and so on. Before any of these details are defined, however, the first step is to identify what a […]

Ever heard the phrase “What gets measured gets done?” It gets tossed around when someone is trying to convince you of adding a metric to your project or scorecard. It sounds good, doesn’t it? If we can measure X, then we will achieve the performance we want. It is not that easy. Simply measuring something […]

Implementing the Lean methodology in small teams can have enormous benefit, in one case increasing team effectiveness, as measured by throughput, by 200 percent to 300 percent. Other benefits include better communication (both internally and to the entire organization), improved employee moral, improved work output and increased customer satisfaction. Jim Benson describes how, through the […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 3, 2012 – The world financial crisis continues. Economists say that a completely new economic reality with new rules of play is inevitable. Economic unpredictability is currently beyond any reasonable limits. In these conditions, while new economic relationships are being established, it is essential to be ready for any scenario of further […]

Editor’s note: In a previous article, author Lindquist describes what a gemba walk is. Here he presents three examples of gemba walks. Gemba walks at Fairbanks Morse Engine demonstrate the importance of the sometimes-overlooked basics of process improvement. Case Study One Single Process – Pama Machining Center Observation: The objective of a series of events […]