Randy Woods

A process improvement specialist with the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga., has recently completed a voluntary six-month tour in Iraq to help streamline the process of troop withdrawal, which the Army plans to complete by the end of 2011.

Electronics firm All Flex Flexible Circuits, LLC, has recently completed capital equipment and infrastructure improvements, including a Lean redesign, at its production facility in Bloomington, Minn., USA.

Hyderabad-based e-learning firm CommLab India has announced plans to implement an enterprise-wide Six Sigma program to improve customer satisfaction.

State education officials in Indiana are considering the implementation of Six Sigma standards in performance reviews for public school teachers in order to comply with a new law requiring an evaluation of how school districts allocate their state funds.

Laboratory Supply Company (LABSCO), a medical laboratory products supplier, has named Black Belt Thomas Ording vice president of operations and logistics for the Louisville, Ky., USA-based firm.

British medical device Kimal has announced that it will begin implementing Six Sigma process improvements to enhance the quality of its services.

Health insurance provider HealthAmerica has hired certified Black Belt Dawn Milstead as its new vice president of health services. She will work out of the company’s office in Harrisburg, Pa., USA.

A manufacturing plant that makes Merillat kitchen cabinets in Mt. Jackson, Va., USA, has received the 2011 Virginia Governor’s Environmental Excellence Silver Award in recognition for its years of environmental stewardship, including the savings achieved via a recent Six Sigma project.

Lehman Trikes, a manufacturer of three-wheeled motorcycles, has promoted its quality and safety manager, Terree Matson-McCoy, to the position of vice president of operations.

Sixteen manufacturing firms located in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom are poised to receive Six Sigma business management training as part of a European Union initiative to spur competitiveness in the region.

Finch Paper, based in Glen Falls, N.Y., USA, has named Black Belt Ken Chartier as its new director, quality and continuous improvement.

With orders soaring for its workhorse 737 passenger jet, Boeing Commercial Airplanes has announced that it is expanding its Lean production facility in Renton, Wash., and increase its workforce at the plant by 1,200 workers by 2013.

Anthony Gingras, ammunition planner for the Ammunition Management Division at the Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), was recently named the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command’s (ATEC) Employee of the Year for 2010 for a Lean Six Sigma project involving ammunition delivery.

After making a $3 million investment and securing funding from the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County, N.C., roofing firm W.P. Hickman Co. is poised to open its newly expanded Lean facility near Asheville, N.C., USA, on May 26.

Lion Vallen Industries, a maker of protective equipment for military and emergency-services personnel, was named the Progressive Manufacturer of the Year for the small and mid-sized company category at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Palm Beach, Fla., USA.

Following the keel-laying ceremony of the 14th and final ship in the T-AKE dry cargo-ammunition shipbuilding program in San Diego, contractor General Dynamics NASSCO said that Six Sigma-based improvements deployed over the last decade have reduced the labor costs of the $6 billion program by 60 percent.

One of the “holy grails” of continuous process improvement is the reliable collection and analysis of real-time data. At Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the largest utilities in the United States, this fine level of data is being given not only to the process improvement teams, but to their customers, as well, in the […]

Aviation parts supplier LMI Kitting LLC, has been named the Georgia Small Manufacturer of the Year at the Governor’s Awards, held in Atlanta.

UpWind Solutions Inc., a wind-power asset management firm based in Medford, Ore., USA, has promoted Peter Wells from vice president and general manager of parts services to the title of chief operating officer.

Direct marketing firm Harte-Hanks Inc. has named Lean Six Sigma expert Tony Paul as its new group managing director for mail and logistics in its direct marketing business.

Transplace, a transportation management and logistics firm based in Dallas, has promoted its director of operations, Fadra Norton, to vice president of the company’s Lean Six Sigma group.

Writers Steven E. Hoeft, Steven C. Bell and Michael Orzen have all been named winners of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, Research, and Professional Publication, which is bestowed on authors who advance the Lean body of knowledge into new areas and promote a broad understanding of operational excellence.

Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, an information technology (IT) services firm that first began its Six Sigma deployment 14 years ago, has made its second consecutive appearance on iSixSigma’s Best Places to Work list. Computacenter was ranked at No. 10 for this year’s list, the same position it was given in the 2010 list. The […]

For the next two years, many Forutne 1000 companies say they expect to see revenue growth as the economy recovers from the Great Recession, yet a significant fraction of these firms also say they plan to continue cost-reduction efforts, some of which involve Six Sigma, according to a recent Deloitte survey.