isixsigma.com

iSixSigma’s “Best of the Best” Webinar Series continues on Wednesday, July 14, when two Black Belts from Best Buy, Tonya Bescheinen and Tracy Gardiner, lead an hour-long session titled “Reap the Rewards of Investing in Your Culture”. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern on July 14 and the cost […]

Last July, I took a new role in my company as program & operations leader for a global business development team, after several years as a full-time Lean Six Sigma professional. No more classroom teaching, lean events, statistical tests, coaching other belts, or lean six sigma projects to run. Instead, I was given a broad […]

Sixty-nine organizations have tossed their hats — and their strategies for success — into the ring for the 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest recognition for organizational performance excellence through innovation and improvement. Applicants include two manufacturers, three service companies, two small businesses, eight educational organizations, 40 health care organizations and 14 […]

In the summer of 2010, Iowa Congressman Tom Latham began drafting a serious legislative effort to systematically identify waste at every level of the federal government – both within federal agencies and the programs they oversee. Latham’s goal was to introduce legislation that would force the federal government to follow one tried-and-tested uniform protocol that […]

Hospitals, health systems to benefit from The Quality Group’s Six Sigma and other performance management solutions

During a political and economic event sponsored by the nonprofit group Strong America Now in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, three more Republican presidential candidates pledged to use Lean Six Sigma, if elected, to eliminate federal government waste and reduce the deficit.

In light of our overall desire to standardize processes in order to reduce variation, I’ve seen a fair share of projects in the service or transactional spaces where one of the recommendations is to script key parts of the customer interaction. While this may make sense to help shorten a call or standardize the interaction, […]

If you travel to multiple sites to support projects as I do, you know what it is like to drive on the highway during rush hour. Last week I was driving to another company site, which is normally about 1.5 hours away if there is no traffic. I was cruising at the speed limit until […]

The U.S. Army has recently awarded Choctaw Defense, owned by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a three-year, $20 million performance standard contract to design and manufacture the Camel II potable water trailer system, which provides water for troops in virtually any location.

Renewable energy firm Nordic Windpower has promoted Jeff Brown, a certified Six Sigma Quality Leader and Master Black Belt, from chief operating officer to the title of CEO and director.

The common Six Sigma roadmap can provide value in even the most unstructured environments By Braden Kelley On the surface, the DMAIC roadmap and the concept of innovation appear to be mutually exclusive ideas. At least that’s what many critics have claimed is the Achilles’ heel of the Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma and innovation, […]

iSixSigma’s “Best of the Best” Webinar Series continues on Tuesday, June 21, when Shannon Coursey leads an hour-long session titled “Applying SPC Concepts to Better Understand Systems Delivery Performance”. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern and the cost is $49 (Register Now!)

Continuous improvement (CI) practitioners know that Lean Six Sigma can be applied to almost any business process to achieve positive results. But perhaps no other sector better represents the challenges and potential of Six Sigma than the federal government. In the case of the U.S. military, incremental performance improvements can be a matter of life […]

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a best-selling author and consultant who may be best known as the creator of the Theory of Constraints, died on June 11 at his home in Israel after a brief illness. He was 64.

Jeffrey E. Geary, a 30-year railroad industry veteran and Master Black Belt, has been named vice president of operations for Amtrak, with oversight of the railway’s transportation, engineering and mechanical departments.

Many times in our industry, organizational leaders spout that they desire and believe in continuous improvement. They use the latest buzzwords and seem very serious when they communicate the new direction that they want to take. I don’t know if CI is truly understood by many organizational leaders due to the fact that most of […]

If you didn’t have the ability to attend an iSixSigma Live! event in person during the first half of 2011 (and given the content at these world-class conferences, you really should have been there), you still have the chance to take in some of the best presentations from those programs with the iSixSigma “Best of […]

A recent report by the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS), a business advisory group sponsored by the government of Scotland, found that continuous improvement efforts, including Six Sigma, have resulted in more than £21 million worth of productivity benefits across the region over a 12-month period in 2010-11.

Common wisdom about Six Sigma is that top-level executive support is one of the prerequisites for having a successful deployment, regardless of the organization. Almost all Six Sigma training materials (either developed in-house or delivered by external consultants) for Green Belts and Black Belts focuses extensively on how executive support is critical for the success […]

The annual iSixSigma Live! Awards program, which recognizes the individuals, projects and programs that have demonstrated breakthrough results in the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, is open for nominations.

Soon after announcing that he was forming an exploratory committee for a potential bid for the presidency in 2012, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty was heard touting the virtues of Six Sigma process improvement for government reform. In March, according to the Politico.com blog, the Republican Pawlenty had a conference call with many of his […]

Ramblings, grumblings and samplings from the desk of Paul V. Arnold on June 9, 2011: Notes on Newt: iSixSigma publisher Katie Barry forwarded a Politico.com article to me this morning that chronicled Newt Gingrich’s formal signing in New Hampshire of a pledge to adopt Lean Six Sigma principles if elected President of the United States. […]

The concept of applying continuous process improvement to government operations got a large boost today when Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich became the first person to sign a pledge to reduce the national debt over the next five years via Lean Six Sigma cost-cutting principles.

In a speech on economic policy at the University of Chicago today, Former Minnesota governor and Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty promoted Lean Six Sigma as a tool to reduce the costs of government programs by as much as 20 percent.

Chris Collins, the County Executive for Erie County, N.Y., USA, and a longtime proponent of Lean Six Sigma, has released his budget plans for 2012, which include the elimination of about 300 county jobs in order to reduce costs and keep property taxes from rising.

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.

Recent news from Lean Six Sigma use in healthcare includes the release of a new book detailing UCLA Health System’s path to operational excellence and the appointment of a Black Belt to a leadership role within a health insurance organization.

The purpose of a training program is to impart knowledge of a system or process to someone new to that process. Individuals may have worked on something similar previously, so will have an idea, or at least a starting point, on which to build. However, most training programs must start with the basics and a […]

Process data is critical. But taking a step back to look at accountability metrics provides another level of continuous improvement opportunities as shown in this real-world Six Sigma project targeting off-grade production in a carpet yarn manufacturing process.

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.

How often are your DMAIC projects terminated before their completion? While it’s a benefit to make early decisions in the Define or Measure phase to stop unpromising and/or non-priority projects, it can be difficult in the later phases after the organization has invested in significant time and resources. The problem is not unique to continuous […]

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.

Nearly 150 change management professionals representing more than 60 companies in the oil & gas and utilities sectors attended the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Energy Forum for Process Excellence on May 16-19 in Houston. Those attendees came from 19 states and eight countries (United States, plus Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Thailand and the United […]

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.

Polymer chip manufacturing is a multi-step, large-volume process that makes hundreds of millions of pounds of products annually at a typical plant. Unlike fiber extrusion, which requires the use of multiple units of specialized equipment, chip manufacturing involves fewer machines operated in either continuous or batch modes. Chip manufacturing is often driven by operator decisions, […]

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.

Three exceptional workshops opened up the third annual iSixSigma Energy Forum for Process Excellence, being held May 16-19 at the Westin Oaks Hotel in Houston. The workshops, attended May 16 by a host of leaders in the oil & gas and utilities sectors, were as follows: “Change Management: The Cornerstone of a Successful Lean Six […]

With increasing competition, expanding globalization and demanding customers, the playing field in the service Lean call center (SCC) industry has changed rapidly, as phone banks have evolved into multichannel contact centers. Many organizations have realized that the key for survival is efficiency and effectiveness, with a focus on productivity and customer experience. Lean techniques, which focus […]

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.

In my prior post, I introduced the concept of program leadership in the Lean Six Sigma context and articulated the value that I saw as part of the process of certifying Master Black Belts. Based on some of themes that emerged in correspondence, I thought it might be beneficial to articulate a few more thoughts […]