Here’s the story about how the hypothesis testing flow chart was developed in Barcelona in 1995, as told by Mike Carnell.
In a previous article, “Kaizen – ADHD Therapy Using Continuous Improvement: Tools to Keep Employees Continuously Occupied,” we discussed what a Kaizen event is, focusing on how to organize and scope the event. This article looks at some common tools and techniques for planning a successful Kaizen event, and identifies some pitfalls to avoid. Data,…
Two common questions for people new to the Lean Six Sigma community are: “What is Kaizen?” and “Why would you run a Kaizen event as part of a Lean Six Sigma project?” This article describes what a Kaizen event is and addresses how to run successful Kaizen events. In “A Plan for a Five-day Kaizen” the…
Mike Carnell of CS International discusses how organizations can internalize and incorporate Six Sigma.
Champions have a much larger role in deploying Six Sigma or any other initiative than just removing roadblocks. Champions must be integrated into the business, select projects accurately, adjust the speed of the deployment as necessary, and take responsibility for implementation.
A recent iSixSigma Discussion Forum thread posed the following question: “Have there been any Six Sigma deployments that have failed?” My answer is ambiguous enough to make me sound like a politician. The question immediately begs definition of the term “failure.” My definition of a failure would be anything that does not deliver the Return…
Breakthrough. It sounds good. It even sounds like something everyone should support. The problem, however, comes when people are asked to define breakthrough. There is almost always a slight pause, or in some cases a long one, that says they are not certain what it means. To understand what breakthrough means and why it is…
The role of a Black Belt is typically described as a Change Agent and the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. Why then, if the change agent role is such an important part of the Black Belt identity, do we spend four to six months training the Black Belt candidates with maybe, just a few hours of…
In the debate about whether Six Sigma is something new, the arguments for and against revolve in part, around the set of tools used to execute a Six Sigma project. Is Six Sigma a new set of tools or a new way to employ existing tools? The answer lies somewhere in the middle. Many of…
Mike Carnell, Six Sigma Program Manager for BHP Billiton Base Metals, offers his views on Six Sigma as the way we work. He discusses the possibilities and problems of completely institutionalizing Six Sigma in an organizations processes.