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Are you searching for the perfect gift for your favorite Black Belt during this holiday season?

I have always thought the toughest parts of DMAIC are I(mprove) & C(ontrol). One of the reasons for this is that to deliver a sustainable solution means asking people to change. The opportunity to resist change and revert to status-quo being one of the challenges faced. What early indicator can you use to measure if […]

Lately I have been bombarded with well-meaning, intelligent, conscientious, motivated people asking me how they can get Black Belt certified. They’re not in a Six-Sigma environment; they just want to be able to learn how to improve their processes more effectively. So do they need to be a Black Belt? Here’s what I usually tell […]

In preparation for the Sherlock Holmes movie coming out, I decided to first introduce myself to the mystery-solving duo in print. Not very far into “A Scandal in Bohemia,” I ran across some wisdom from Holmes that I thought you might enjoy. Holmes has just finished reading a letter of unknown author to Watson. “This […]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about resistance to change. The RogersAdoption / Innovation curve (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards) is referenced in some form by most people involved in change management. Now, I’m not an innovator myself. My special form of creativity doesn’t manifest itself by coming up with new ideas […]

Last year, we celebrated Bill Smith, widely known as the Father of Six Sigma, as the first inductee into iSixSigmaâ??s Six Sigma Hall of Fame. We are now identifying who should be the next person to join the Hall of Fame as someone who has made significant and lasting contributions in the Lean Six Sigma […]

Dear iSixSigma Blogosphere Readers, Back in January 2005, I started up a little blog about Six Sigma companies. It caught the eye of iSixSigma’s very own Mike Cyger and he invited me to join his growing team of forward thinking Six Sigma zealots dedicated to providing the best information about Six Sigma to the masses. […]

Having recently posted my 100th blog, I thought it would be worthwhile to share my list of 100 reasons why companies should embrace Six Sigma.

There’s a definite honor in being “award-winning.” I experienced this firsthand last year when iSixSigma Magazine received editorial excellence honors. The awards provided an opportunity for us to pause and recognize the work that goes into our editorial efforts and to celebrate the accomplishments. But, as I said in my Editor’s Notes following the announcement, […]

You may have seen the cover of the September/October issue of iSixSigma Magazine, featuring J.D. Sicilia and “The DoD Roundup.” The western theme continued into the DoD Breakthrough Convention, Oct. 14 to 16. Here’’s a sneak peak of the fun: Jeannine Hall, director of events, taking a hand at roping a bull. Yes, this may […]

The scoring is complete and the 2009 Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals is out. Here is the Top 10 List in alphabetical order: I repeat, alphabetical order. Cardinal Health Inc. Computacenter AG & Co. oHG Ecolab Inc. McKesson Corp. Merck & Co., Inc. Pfizer Inc. Piramal Healthcare Ltd. Starwood Hotels, […]

Save time for your customers by enabling efficient transactions and watch your WOW-O-Meter go off scale.

Next month (yes, I’m giving you early notice so you can put this in your calendar)TRIZ expert, Ellen Domb, will once again be on air with Steve Wilson of Quality Conversations, discussing practical applications of TRIZ. Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, 11 AM Pacific. Be there. Ellen is also speaking at the iSixSigma Live Summit & Awards […]

I’m going to go out on a limb and open up a discussion on the “Ultimate Organization” here. In my last two posts, I talked a little bit about integrating the 6S culture in an organization (vs keeping it at a specialist level only) and organizational fear. I figured a logical progression of the overall […]

I had a very nice phone call today, from a colleague who had chatted with me earlier about a current project. She called to say thanks for allowing her to bounce ideas around, which helped her clarify some things about herapproach to the process. Naturally I felt good to receive this feedback, and it made […]

“One of all and all for one!” Or, in the original French, “Tous pour un, un pour tous!” In the story by Alexandre Dumas (1844), the three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, were joined by the musketeer-wannabee D’Artagnan, without whom the first three would have led very boring lives. I was reminded of this the […]

The latest iSixSigma Magazine research is about to be released in the upcoming November/December issue. For this research we surveyed over 800 Six Sigma practitioners and asked them all about the tools they use, the tools they don’t use, and what tools they think are misused… The chart at the leftis the top 10 tools […]

I used to be really annoyed with people who took a wait-and-see approach to change. They’re not resistant, exactly, and they might be classified as “late adopters.” But I could understand active resistance better than passive indifference. Now, however, I have a little different take on things. Because I have realized that if you wait […]

As families struggle to make ends meet, the value provided for the dollar spent is more important than ever. What should we do? Panic? No – we don’t need to stinkin’ panic. . . we got Six Sigma!

Now accepting salaries! Each year iSixSigma analyzes the data from its own iSixSigma Job Shop to create a comprehensive Six Sigma Salary report available in the March/April issue of iSixSigma Magazine. Last year data showed that the average Black Belt in the United States made an average salary of $88,438. Master Black Belts brought home […]

There’s no doubt that fear can prevent an organization to be what it could be, but what can be done about it…how many times have you been in a situation where there were problems to solve, but no one stepped up to the plate to solve them because of fear? Piggy-backing on my previous posting, […]

Tomorrow (Wednesday,Sept 30), Ellen Domb, founder of the TRIZ Journal,will be on Steve Wilson’sshow Quality Conversations, hosted by blogtalkradio. Steve has interviewed a plethoraof quality professionals in the past. Guest appearances include Tom Kubiak, Forrest Breyfogle,Mark Graban,Jessica Harper, as well as yours truly. Ellen and Steve will be talking about Six Sigma Trees. Not the […]

How do you describe a process to a team? There are lots of tools in the toolkit including value stream mapping, functional swim lanes, context diagrams and SIPOC to name a few. But I find they can be “a little cold” for a non-technical or cross-functional team and I want to “bring it to life”. […]

I have been thinking about various topics regarding Six Sigma recently, and I keep coming back to a question that is hard to answer…if we “do Six Sigma” right, is there even a place for Six Sigma as we know it ten or twenty years down the road? Consider this…..ten years from now, do you […]

A quote from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), 1865: “The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. ‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked. ‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ’and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’” I am sure I’m not the […]

  The archive of my Quality Conversation with Steve Wilson this morning. Thanks Steve for having me on your show.

On Monday, Sept 14, I’ll be speaking with Steve Wilson on his show Quality Conversations, hosted by blogtalkradio. Steve has interviewed many quality professionals in the past, including Tom Kubiak, Forrest Breyfogle,Mark Graban and our very own iSixSigma editor-in-chief, Jessica Harper. I am happy to join the ranks of Steve’s guest list. We’re going to […]

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the effect the current economy is having on businesses, it’s the polarization of Six Sigma. Programs have either been seen as the reverent coming of the messiah or the two-bit television evangelist that needs to be turned off and forgotten about. For those companies that feel they are […]

iSixSigma is pleased to announce the opening of award nominations for the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami in February 2010. Here’s what we arelooking for: * iSixSigma’s Six Sigma Hall of Fame: iSixSigma will recognize individuals who have significantly impacted corporate growth and shareholder value through the use of Lean Six Sigma by […]

Nominations are open for iSixSigma’s second annual Best Places to Work List. If you are working for a top notch company using Lean Six Sigma, go ahead and nominateit to be included in ourlist of Best Places to Work. Last year 10 companies made the list. McKesson took home the #1 spot, followed by Vought […]

When I was leading a department, I never thought of myself as a process owner. It wasn’t in my job description, and I never heard anyone used the term. It’s one of those useful concepts that I wish I had known, prior to my Six Sigma and Lean education. Here’s my working definition: The process […]

The deadline to submit a speaking proposal for the second annual iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards has been extended one week. If you were on the fence about submitting an idea, now’s the time to take action. More than 200 of the world’s top business leaders and operational experts will gather, Feb. 1-4, 2010, in […]

Well, maybe I have more than one favorite tool – but there are 2 that arefun to use with a group. One is sticky-note brainstorming. It avoids the perils of the regular “everybody call out their ideas” brainstorming, because (a) you get 100% participation; (b) you can get LOTS of ideas in just a few minutes; […]

While the iSixSigma.com site has been down, the rhetoric about “fixing healthcare” in the US has dramatically heated up. “We need to take the waste out of healthcare!” “We’re paying too much for healthcare!””Everyone should get all the healthcare they need regardless of cost!” Without getting into the political debate, let’s just touch on these […]

It’s really interesting for me to look back and think about how many times quality planning has come up as an afterthought. It is staggering for me to think about what could have happened if quality planning was done the proper way. Here’s an example….one time I was involved with a new product introduction, and […]

On Monday June 1, 2009 Continuous Improvement Practitioners (CI-P), from the State of Maine “Bend the Curve” initiative, led by Walter Lowell, conducted a study mission at Lonza in Rockland Maine. To quote from the Lonza web site, “Lonza is one of the world’s leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Its […]

Ultimately, the result of using Lean Six Sigma is improved efficiency within the company and a higher quality product or service for the customer. But there are some additional ways your company can benefit.

Organisation in chaos? Emergencies erupting? Been blind-sided by the unexpected? Project a few years late and still does not work? Need to get things under control? Make way for the Corporate Fire Fighter. (Phew!) This trusted pair of hands hits the ground running….makes rapid assessment of situation….. takes urgent action …… reports an outstanding success […]

iSixSigma Live! wants to know what you want out of an in-person event.We invite you to participate in a short survey about business process improvement conferences. How many conferences do you attend a year? What do you expect out of a conference? Where would you like to see the next iSixSigma Live! event? These are […]

I enjoy teaching, so if you asked me whether you could do too much training, my first response would be “no, of course not!” But, on second thought, I would have to say, “well, maybe.” It’s been my experience that knowledge alone is usually not enough to create an improvement. A lot of people enjoy […]