Month: February 2014

I often think about the losses corporations and government entities take on with initiatives that result in decorative shelfware (the unused products that sit on a buyer’s shelf). There must be millions of great ideas and intelligent business plans just sitting on shelves because of the lack of execution. For all we know the solutions […]

The effectiveness of any process improvement tool depends on the process improvement practitioners’ assessment of the situation, choice of the simplest tool and the creative use of the tool. This article provides an example of how a simple tool, the 5 Whys, was used to unearth an assumption embedded in a business process. Once the […]

We’re so grateful to everyone who participated in the 2014 iSixSigma Reader Survey! Not only did you participate in droves, but you gave detailed, thoughtful replies about what keeps you up at night and how we can meet your Lean Six Sigma content needs. We look forward to providing you with more articles on real-world […]

The life sciences industry, which includes the production of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, faces unique challenges that have made it a late adopter of continuous improvement techniques such as Lean Six Sigma (LSS). Most critical are severe government regulation, product approval phases that can span multiple years, and the imperative responsibility to ensure patient safety […]

When we leave the shop floor and enter the back office, we might think that people’s desks are where they work. We’d be wrong. Their workbench, their tooling, their line … is in their heads. This means that most knowledge work (information technology [IT], legal, management, product design, finance) is invisible. My colleague Tonianne tells […]

Heijunka (pronounced hi-JUNE-kuh) is a Japanese word that means “leveling.” When implemented correctly, heijunka elegantly – and without haste – helps organizations meet demand while reducing while reducing wastes in production and interpersonal processes. According to many Lean experts, heijunka is better achieved as a later-stage implementation in a Lean organization, long after value streams have […]

A 250-bed hospital had implemented total quality management (TQM) to improve customer delight in its diagnostic clinics. After that success, the management team of the hospital was ready to proceed with further process improvement. After completing a brainstorming and prioritization exercise, the team determined to next address the problem: delay in receiving test reports for patients […]