Category: Blogs

Does an Innovative Product Alone Guarantee Success?
Published:Successful innovation is not only about the creation of a new idea but also about its execution.
Read more »
Lean Product Development: Quality Function Deployment – Part 4 of 4
Published:QFD speeds up the product development process by removing what doesn’t matter to the customer. Just like the Kano analysis, QFD is interested in what the customer says is important. The format of QFD removes the time-consuming activities that don’t add value.
Read more »
Lean Product Development: Kano Analysis – Part 3 of 4
Published:We must understand the needs and values of the customers at a deeper level. To this end we employ Kano analysis.
Read more »
Lean Product Development: The Customer Journey Value Stream – Part 2 of 4
Published:The customer journey value stream (CJVS) is the best starting place for the Lean community to engage in the processes of product development.
Read more »
A Look at Lean Product Development – Part 1 of 4
Published:Why hasn’t Lean revolutionized product development like it has operations? We don’t share product development knowledge.
Read more »
How Do You Eat an Elephant?
Published:By using smaller bites from a large problem, you can quantitatively assess performance and then apply improvement changes.
Read more »
Spreading Success at Colorado Department of Transportation
Published:The Colorado Department of Transportation’s Lean Everyday Idea program has successfully implemented over 345 ideas as of fall 2020. But how does the word spread across an entire state?
Read more »
Tips for a Successful Virtual Gemba Walk
Published:The foremost purpose of the gemba walk is people-engagement. Here are some suggestions for conducting a gemba walk in the virtual space.
Read more »
Just-In-Time: Perpetrator or Victim of COVID-19?
Published:As we consider our business response to COVID-19, take a truly Lean approach. See JIT in the context of Lean and evolve it as necessary, using the change in environment to identify waste and see new problems as opportunities for new improvements.
Read more »
How to Break the Ice – Virtually
Published:Icebreakers can help teams to build community, promote interaction and foster empathy. Some of the go-to icebreakers I have used over the years have translated well into the virtual environment.
Read more »
Acronyms R Us
Published:Why not do something novel and use the tool that is best for the job at hand independent of an acronym?
Read more »
Prioritization in a Crisis
Published:If there’s one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has made glaringly apparent, it’s that we need to do a better job with prioritization and, ultimately, delegation, execution and communication.
Read more »
Why Practice 5S?
Published:Someone asked: “Why do 5S [sort, simplify, shine, standardize, sustain]? It’s just going to get dirty again.”
Read more »
Fuel the Fire of Continuous Improvement
Published:Improvement is like a mighty fire. You must continue to add firewood to keep the fire burning. If you stop, the fire will surely burn out. Lots of repetition builds the fire of improvement capability and culture.
Read more »
Common Misunderstandings About Process Control Tools in Non-Scientific Applications
Published:We read or hear “facts” and accept them without critical thought. This article reviews a sample of the kind of facts we accept in the workplace that sometimes we should not.
Read more »
Lean Six Sigma for Poets
Published:Lean can be of great value in office environments. However, the use of complex jargon and statistics, plus a focus on manufacturing, have hindered the adoption of these tools in other settings where they can be useful.
Read more »
You Can’t Excel if You Avoid People
Published:If your goal is control at all cost, or faster and deeper analysis, automation might be just the strategy for you. But if you need to retain and motivate your people to boost business performance, such a strategy of people avoidance is likely to come to a sticky end.
Read more »
All Models Are Wrong
Published:Depending upon the particular organization, quality may or may not be influential in management decision-making. Ultimately, it depends upon what is understood as quality. There may be more urgent tactical actions than those related to quality if the organization’s product or service quality is acceptable – it may not be perfect, but if it’s acceptable then that’s good enough.
Read more »
The 10 Best Quality Books of All-Time
Published:Looking for good books to read on the topics of quality, Six Sigma, Lean and OpEx? This reading list shares the best quality-topic books of all-time and book recommendations by topic.
Read more »
Introducing SixSigma3.0
Published:It is a time of change. The world is developing faster with each passing day. Continuous process improvement technologies, which could make these changes more significant and effective, trail far behind this trend. Who suffers? Companies that lose competition, people who cannot find a new place in the changed labor market and countries that are […]
Read more »
The History of the Hypothesis Testing Flow Chart
Published:Here’s the story about how the hypothesis testing flow chart was developed in Barcelona in 1995, as told by Mike Carnell.
Read more »
Key Differentiator for Six Sigma: Its Infrastructure
Published:There are seven success factors for why Six Sigma is a proven effective business change initiative.
Read more »
Introducing iSixSigma Version 5 ?
Published:After more than six months of hard work, iSixSigma is celebrating its relaunch today and I’m excited to announce the brand new, redesigned iSixSigma.com.
Read more »
The Fastest Way to Achieve Zero Defects
Published:In the aerospace industry, zero defects has been the driver for customers and competition since Phil Crosby and his team at the Martin Company provided the Army with a zero defect missile in the 1960s. This is not a new concept but the first question that comes to mind is: how much do we need […]
Read more »