Category: Blogs

With the goal to boost employee efficiency and streamline the execution of various activities, the University of Colorado Boulder has launched a new office to focus on improving the way the university does business. The opening of the Office for Performance Improvement (OPI) is meant to not just preserve the quality of education and academic […]

There are many reasons why you should be submitting articles to be published on iSixSigma.com: You receive the notoriety of being published on the premier worldwide Lean Six Sigma website You share their professional experience and expertise You earn 100 iSixSigma reputation points for each published article, increasing your standing in the business community For this month […]

According to Merriam-Webster, ethics is the discipline of dealing with good and bad. If you look beyond the tools and the jargon of the Toyota Production System (TPS), this is exactly what you will find; TPS is a system for defining good and bad, and right and wrong in a production environment. When we understand […]

In Everett, Washington, the director of Boeing 777 manufacturing, Jason Clark, is proud to introduce some of the most recent Lean technologies to automation. Traditionally a team of painters would apply coats of paint on the airplane being built. An entire team would take 4 to 5 hours just to apply the initial coat. Now, […]

Baltimore Aircoil Company (BAC) recently won an environmental solution of the year award from Endeavor for using a holistic approach to sustain and operate its factory – made possible by the company’s reinvigoration using Lean Six Sigma (LSS). Several aspects of its business were improved, including its manufacturing approach, product sourcing and design. BAC makes […]

Working for a large multinational corporation has given me insight into, and sympathy for, the hearts and minds of department and cost center leaders. Each year they are required by company leadership to find millions of dollars using Six Sigma productivity initiatives – a subtle way of saying “savings.” Some people volunteer, but many are […]

Lean 5S (sort, simplify, shine, standardize, sustain) are about organizing work space so we can be more efficient, effective and productive. All Lean concepts are about how work gets done. There are many benefits Lean 5S can provide including improving safety, decreasing down time, raising employee morale, identifying problems more quickly and establishing convenient work […]

Many years ago I worked in industrial security; I spent many nights patrolling an automotive assembly plant. During this time I would occasionally find flyers written by somebody who called themself the “Sleeping Dog.”

If senior management teams were omnipotent then all decisions would be perfect, market share would increase, sales would spike, profitability would skyrocket and employee morale would be unparalleled. Unfortunately, the reality is that even the most sophisticated company rarely knows its financial position until the end of the month. Even then the metrics that determine […]

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector and head of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), has called on members of England’s early learning educational system to make changes to the way inspections are being conducted among nurseries, pre-schools and babysitters. In a recently launched consultation on changes to the […]

The Aiken County public school system recently celebrated the success of a cost-saving strategy that led to a reduction in expenditure by as much as $200,000 in a span of two years. In 2010, the Savannah River Remediation (SRR) encouraged schools at Aiken County to reduce their energy consumption by applying Six Sigma strategies to […]

Delay and inaccuracy are the downfalls of any crime investigation unit. It can take hours, days or weeks before a piece of evidence is processed. With a police unit’s workload growing by the minute, getting things done quickly and correctly can be a challenge. Fortunately, work process principles like Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing are flexible […]

DreamWorks’ latest animated feature “The Croods” hit big with a $44.1 million opening on March 22, 2013. While the theme dates eons back in time, the technology and processes involved in making this film happen is cutting-edge. Normally, it takes years for an animated feature to be completed, involving dozens of specialists and over half […]

It is time for iSixSigma’s 10th annual Global Six Sigma Salary Survey! Every year iSixSigma analyzes information in its Job Shop database to produce a Six Sigma-specific salary report. Please note: All responses will be kept confidential and data only will be used in the aggregate. To participate in the survey all you need to […]

A recent visit to the local Starbucks near Penn Station was a wonderful illustration of Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s theory of constraints – and a great example for how important real process management is. What was intended to be a reward (a medium café latte with an extra shot of espresso – or in Starbucks lingo, […]

Efficiency is in everyone’s interest. However, achieving it is heavily dependent on the quality and timeliness of crucial performance data. Live, real-time information is crucial for any manufacturing business. Waste benefits nobody, whether it is a waste of materials, time or energy. … One of the things that I have learned in manufacturing is that the […]

The following is excerpted from Chapter 2 of I Took Control: Effective Actions for a Diabetes Diagnosis. William Howell shares his experiences after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Using his Six Sigma training, he tackled the disease by approaching it as a DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) project. Click here to read Part […]

I found a new Six Sigma infographic thanks to Google Alerts. It connects nicely to this week’s new article on iSixSigma.com, an updated assessment of the ideal Black Belt Body of Knowledge. Via The Christian Post.

The following is excerpted from Chapter 2 of I Took Control: Effective Actions for a Diabetes Diagnosis. William Howell shares his experiences after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Using his Six Sigma training, he tackled the disease by approaching it as a DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) project. Click here to read Part […]

I’m sure most of you have seen infomercials for get-fit-quick gimmicks. There’s a man on the TV who excitedly tells you of a way to lose weight and get fit in seven days. We fall for these gimmicks time after time with the same result … a new contraption that sits unused, except as a place to […]

I’ve had more than one colleague accuse me of being overly focused on the data when making business decisions. Clearly I’m not the only one. Who else feels like this kid some days?

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 […]

Hello iSixSigma readers! We are working on an article about gage R&R and need your help with data collection for analysis. What we need: Raw data itself (either 5-part or 10-part analyses including operators, parts, trials and measurements) The tolerance spread Is this one- or two-sided tolerance What we would like: Gage family information (e.g., […]

In 2005 iSixSigma published its first original research on Black Belt return on investment. The project explored the return on investment companies achieve through Black Belt improvement projects.   Seven years later, iSixSigma is revisiting this topic and I hope that you will participate today – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FBCWQW7. Help us learn what’s changed and what’s stayed the […]