Overview of Effective Survey Design

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The survey is one of the most important data collection tools in the armament of a Six Sigma practitioner. There is no lack of research literature on the principles and designs of effective surveys. While the surveys conducted by academics and certain research institutes often reflect impeccable design, there are innumerable cases in which the […]

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How Lean and Six Sigma Dramatically Improved InterConnect’s Kit Manufacturing Line

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InterConnect Wiring was constantly needing to be ahead of schedule in assembling its aircraft kits, causing unneeded stress and an unbalanced workload. By utilizing Lean and Six Sigma concepts, the organization was able to make significant improvements to its processes. Despite already being a very successful organization, InterConnect Wiring was able to utilize Lean and […]

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How Lean Six Sigma Tools and an Acceleration Technique Reduced Baggage Connection Delays by 65%

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In 2016, Kenya Airways embarked on a project to increase its baggage handling efficiency. The way that it applied tools from both Lean and Six Sigma methodologies showcases how adaptable these concepts can be and that they are applicable well beyond the industries that they are most commonly associated with. Kenya Airways was able to […]

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How DMAIC Helped San Antonio Increase the On-Time Payment of Street Maintenance Contractors by Nearly 20%

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We all need payment for the work that we do. It is really that simple. If contracted out to do a job by somebody, you need to be able to count on compensation for the work done on that job within a reasonable amount of time. Contractors that worked on street maintenance projects for the […]

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How Six Sigma and the DMAIC Process Made Samsung Into an Industry Leader

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With strategic implementation, Six Sigma can do wonders for an organization. The methodology can drastically improve processes, cut down on waste, and even help provide better results in the design and R&D of new products. Samsung found that it was having issues with all of the above and, in 1999, conducted a complete overhaul of […]

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How the Six Sigma Voice of the Customer and DMAIC Tools Brought the Two Sides of SQL Together

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With the formation of a joint venture between the original healthcare organization laboratory, Sonora Lab, and the larger Quest Diagnostics, a partnership existed in name only. Both labs went about operating in separate locations while continuing with their individual instrumentation and systems. Over time, this led to issues across both teams, and it became clear […]

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How Listening to the Voice of the Customer Led to a Significant Drop in Hospital Wait Times

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In the emergency department of a hospital, the amount of wait time is of huge importance to the patient as well as the staff. Using Six Sigma methodology, the nurse director of Providence Hospital in Michigan was able to dramatically cut down on wait times for patients. Before Providence Hospital in Southfield, MI, embarked on […]

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Voice Of The Process vs. Voice Of The Customer: What’s the Difference?

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What is the Voice Of The Process? Voice Of The Process (VOP) is the manner in which a process communicates its performance capability to meet the expectations, wants, and needs of the customer. The Benefits of the Voice Of The Process Through analysis of your VOP, you gain insight into what moves you need to […]

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Exploring Process Capability Analysis: A Versatile Tool for Quality Assessment

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As the name implies, capability analysis is an analysis of the ability of your process to meet your customer’s expectations and requirements. There are a number of calculated metrics which can be used to help you do your capability analysis. 

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Process Capability Index: The Key to Customer Satisfaction and Business Success

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Can your process meet the expectations and specifications of your customer? The Process Capability Index is a simple way of answering that question. Let’s see how.

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Using Voice of the Process to Identify Critical Processes for Improvement

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Are you hearing voices? If it’s in a business context, then there is nothing to worry about — and it might even be a good thing. Let’s listen in to the voice of the process and hear what it has to say.

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How to Use Voice of the Customer to Improve Customer Experience

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While an organization may hear many voices (Customer, Business, Employee and Process), it is the voice of the customer (VOC) that is the driving voice as to what should be important to the organization and what the organization should focus on. The satisfaction of the VOC needs to be balanced against the Voice of the […]

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Achieving Excellence Through Quality Management

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The strategy of continuously improving your organizational processes by setting your goals, identifying deviations from those goals, and then taking appropriate actions to adjust your processes to close the gaps.

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Meeting Customer Expectations with Kano Analysis

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What do your customers really want? You are taking a risk by blindly fulfilling your customers’ needs without understanding how they classify them. Kano analysis will allow you to properly classify those customer needs and lower your risk.

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Critical To Quality: The Key to Meeting Customer Expectations

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Critical of quality is the path to customer satisfaction. Learn how Critical to Quality impacts the ability to satisfy your customer, the benefits of addressing CTQ related issues, and see an example.

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The Strategic Importance of Critical to Customer Requirements

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Listening to and engaging with your customer gives a powerful and unique insight into what your products and services should deliver to be successful. By developing a number of Critical to Customer requirements, you can build a strong foundation for customer satisfaction and commercial success.

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Exploring Cpk: An Essential Metric for Quality Control

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Cpk is one of the metrics calculated for determining whether a process is capable of meeting customer specifications or requirements. 

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The Journey from Voice of the Customer to Customer Requirements

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This is what I want! This is what I need! This is how I want it to perform! You need to embark upon a process to take your customers’ qualitative wants and needs and translate them into specific customer requirements. 

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How to Avoid The Evils Within Customer Satisfaction Surveys

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When the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for the second time in 1999, companies across many industries began trying to achieve the same level of outstanding customer satisfaction. This was a good thing, of course, as CEOs and executives began incorporating customer satisfaction into their company goals while also communicating […]

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Creating Customer Delight – A Case Study in Diagnostic Clinics: Part 3 of 3

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This three-part case study focuses on improving customer satisfaction at two of the company’s diagnostic clinics – Centers A and B. In Part One, the company worked at Center A to reduce patient turnaround time, a defining component of patient satisfaction. In Part Two, the chain’s improvement story focuses on increasing patient delight at Center […]

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Creating Customer Delight – A Case Study in Diagnostic Clinics: Part 2 of 3

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This three-part case study focuses on two of the company’s diagnostic clinics – Centers A and B. In Part One, the company worked at Center A to reduce patient turnaround time, a defining component of patient satisfaction. Part Two of the chain’s improvement story focuses on increasing patient delight at Center B. Part Three revisits […]

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Creating Customer Delight – A Case Study in Diagnostic Clinics: Part 1 of 3

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The following is Part One of a three-part article. Click here to read Part Two. Click here to read Part Three. A chain of medical diagnostic clinics was developed from the ground up. After two years of hectic expansion marked by acquisitions and setting up greenfield clinics across a number of cities, it became clear […]

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VOC Advances: New Paths to Understanding Customers

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A Series of Articles on VOC Advances This article is one of a series on advances in obtaining and applying voice of the customer (VOC) information. The other articles in the series are VOC Advances: Complementary Innovation for Growth and VOC Advances: Helping Make Better Design Decisions. The series was written by Anthony E. Curtis […]

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VOC: Comparing Reactive Data and Proactive Data

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Collecting data – be it voice of the customer or otherwise – requires a plan. Details of the plan should include what data to collect, how to get the information, where the information will come from and so on. Before any of these details are defined, however, the first step is to identify what a […]

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