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The Black Belt’s ability to maximize team members’ contributions is critical to the success of the Six Sigma project. Many factors must be addressed. Assuring Basic Team Member Needs During World War II Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed his famous hierarchy of needs study. He showed an individual needs hierarchy ranging from the most basic, to […]

Most processes, particularly those involving life data and reliability, are not normally distributed. Most Six Sigma and process capability tools, however, assume normality. Only through verifying data normality and selecting the appropriate data analysis method will the results be accurate. This article discusses the non-normality issue and helps the reader understand some options for analyzing […]

It was a Japanese manufacturing engineer named Shigeo Shingo who developed the concept that revolutionized the quality profession in Japan. Originally called “fool proofing” and later changed to “mistake proofing” and “fail safing” so employees weren’t offended, poka yoke (pronounced “poh-kah yoh-kay”) translates into English as to avoid (yokeru) inadvertent errors (poka). The result is […]

This is a familiar question that is often addressed by organizations. In fact, it is the wrong question. These concepts are nothing more than tools in your management toolbox. You don’t fix a watch with a hammer, and you get the same results when you deploy Six Sigma, Lean and Kaizen incorrectly. The fact is, […]

Businesses provide an indivisible combination of products and services to their customers. The customers’ view of the value the company provides is based on the quality of the combined package of product and service. So how does the quality professional provide management with a tool to benchmark the operation’s performance and monitor the view the […]

All Six Sigma proponents agree to the fact that the key to Six Sigma improvement success is the building up of an effective infrastucture. An effective infrastructure lays the foundation for the success of the organization in its implementation of Six Sigma. It is a known fact today that the success of Six Sigma lays […]

Most fairly accurate descriptions of equipment and/or process lifetimes assume that failure rates follow a three period I II III “bathtub-curve pattern” where failures/errors: I – Decrease during the debugging or improvement time period. II – Remain relatively constant and at their lowest levels during the normal equipment or process operating period. III – Increase […]

Six Sigma e-learning is now on the radar screen of every major company implementing the Six Sigma Quality initiative. The key will be to design a Six Sigma e-learning system that combines both online and in-person classroom learning to meet the needs of individual employees and the business. Although it’s still in its early stages, […]

I would like to start a series of articles reflecting the University of Kassel’s research in deploying Six Sigma within cross–domain industrial applications. They cover the following topics: Six Sigma trends Advanced strategies Innovative team training I will certainly appreciate if these articles launch a discussion. Getting feedback, I will be able to tailor the […]

Six Sigma certification questions continue to roll into my inbox. While I can’t find time to answer each email with a tremendous amount of detail, I can and do save them for answering in an article such as this. This article revisits a previously published article What is Six Sigma Certification? published last year. Can […]

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” This axiom, while intuitive for most managers and business professionals, is often not applied to the Six Sigma management process itself. For Six Sigma or any other management initiative to yield the advertised results, many factors must be considered, aligned, measured, and acted upon. Having been involved with […]

To maintain control and assure a payoff from LSS, it may help to start on a limited scale. With only a few key team members – including the right Black Belt candidate – a company can create a program that will have an impact enterprise wide.

Good Quality leaders rely on the strengths of employees. Learn how to solve business issues by asking a simple question and empowering employees.

Celebrations and awards not only serve to honor the accomplishments of successful Quality projects and employees, they bolster and endorse the specific actions, behaviors and values that your business is striving to put in place as a Quality culture.

Without employee contributions, we might as well hang a sign in the window and close up shop. We need to make sure that employees are always contributing to their maximum extent — we need to keep them energized on Quality.

Effective brainstorming can be accomplished by following these simple brainstorming DOs and DONTs with your team.

Only by using the appropriate information source can you begin to truly know your customer and understand your customer needs. Read about all the possible information sources that are available that you may already have access to.

One of the most distinct differences between Six Sigma and other quality management systems is the link to business finances. For the greatest business benefit, calculate financial benefit before, during and after.

This work described below was carried out in a large company based in the U.S. and India. The project dealt with converting printed paper from U.S. customers into electronic copies. The material was quite heterogeneous in nature – consisting of assorted magazines and legal papers. It is part of an ongoing operation that services several […]

Among the challenges that face Black Belts and Green Belts today is the ability to frame the project into a clearly understood action plan. One tool that I have enjoyed success with in meeting this challenge is to use the GRPI model for framing the project. The GRPI model is broken down as follows:  G […]

Create Six Sigma project charters that are compelling to business leaders by capturing all quantifiable benefits of eradicating a business problem. This checklist will help you do so.

There are continuing questions about the relationship between Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma techniques. This relationship has been expressed as follows: Stretch the process applying Lean techniques Solve the problems of deviation from the standards Ensure maintenance of the improved status using Six Sigma techniques However, if the system and processes are too poor, stretching […]

Medication reconciliation – the process of comparing a patient’s medication orders with all of the medications he or she has been taking – can be difficult. Lack of patient knowledge regarding medication details, multiple care providers, multiple sources obtaining different medication lists for the same patient and new Joint Commission requirements all contribute to the difficulty. Hospitals […]

With more than 1,000 trained Black Belts, the U.S. Army continues marching forward in its Lean Six Sigma efforts. Trained Black Belts who complete projects and obtain certification are essential to building a robust cadre of practitioners. To this end, the Army formalized the use of Belt course portfolios (BCPs), the collection of projects assigned […]

Lean Six Sigma is part of a broader U.S. Marine Corps and Department of Defense (DoD) continuous process improvement (CPI) effort aimed at enhancing all aspects of support provided to Marine Corps operating forces to maximize combat readiness and war fighting capability. The Marine Corps has emphasized that the CPI program is entirely focused on […]

The U.S. Marine Corps’ continuous process improvement (CPI) effort is aimed at enhancing all aspects of support provided to operating forces to maximize combat readiness and war fighting capability. That means the Marine Corps is emphasizing that the CPI program is for every level and every element of the corps. Here is what is being […]

Free Six Sigma iPhone app now on iTunes

The Quality Group announces several education programs designed to help organizations that are looking to blended learning as a way to face the seemingly insurmountable task of maintaining–or even increasing-their Lean Six Sigma / Continuous Process Improvement training levels.

Caught in an exploding market, with rapidly improving products, the management of a media organization in India realized that improving the quality of printing of its newspaper was imperative to survival and progress. The organization adopted total quality management (TQM) and has completed several improvements in office processes related to turnaround, which is so vital […]

Hertzler Systems Releases Case Study of Six Sigma in Financial Services

Based on the desirability function, using batting average, home runs, runs batted in (RBIs), All Star Game appearances and Gold Glove awards all weighted equally, Ron Santo, a third baseman for the Chicago Cubs from 1960 to 1973, should be a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. An understanding of the desirability function […]

An Unprecedented Quarter for i-nexus: i-nexus Today Announced Record Trading Figures for the Final Quarter of 2007

Rath & Strong is pleased to announce the release of its Lean, Integrated Lean Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma Champions, Six Sigma Team and Six Sigma Pocket Guides on Amazon Kindle™.

Instantis, the leading provider of on-demand project portfolio management software used by business process and IT leaders to improve strategy execution and financial performance, announced today its spring Webinar series line-up.

STAT-A-MATRIX Announces Publication of ItsLatest White Paper: Making Improvement Work: Using Process Management to Transform Your Performance Improvement Initiative

Dr. Joseph M. Juran, ‘Father’ of Quality, Has Passed Away

Increasingly, organizations that use Six Sigma are making an effort to integrate Lean into their existing process-improvement framework. For many, combining Six Sigma’s focus on process quality and Lean’s emphasis on turn-around time results in more high-impact, quick-hit projects. To gain this advantage, however, organizations must face a difficult obstacle: integrating Lean without creating ripples […]

SBTI Announces Release of Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification Testing

For any process improvement program, effective resource planning is key. A measurement system that will determine the benefit of internal projects from an HR perspective might be particularly helpful in implementing project goals for IT departments.

Conversion Services International Sponsors iSixSigma Financial Services Industry Channel

Extensive training and a thorough understanding of complex analytical tools are required to successfully perform traditional Six Sigma projects. Although this careful and methodical evaluation is an invaluable problem solving technique, traditional Six Sigma projects can be time consuming and must be carefully selected. Lean projects, on the other hand, are different. Lean is intuitive, […]

SigmaXL Announces Release of Version 6

The American Council on Education Has Recommended Graduate Level College Credit for SBTI’s Master Black Belt Program

MoreSteam.com® Launches Virtual University Platform for 3-D Distance Learning

Companies interested in retaining customers should complete a two-phase process: first, they must determine what is important to customers and second, they must make sure their organization is capable of filling those needs reliably.

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For Six Sigma to succeed in a financial services organization, the deployment team and the business need to be able to measure the benefit of the projects. This should occur from both a financial and operational effectiveness perspective.

The beginning of any design or development project should include activities aimed at a deep understanding of likely user behavior. Gathering this information should involve open-ended questions and observation, which will highlight user needs.

A Six Sigma initiative can be wildly successful or it can sadly fail. The reasons are found in 10 major points critical to the success of a Six Sigma deployment. The points also are in the list of the 10 ways that a Six Sigma initiative can fail.