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Yesterday I was contacted 4 (FOUR) times by recruiters looking for a Six Sigma Expert. To 3 of them I returned a polite “no thank you, not interested”. With the 4th one I went into a discussion. Their client, a 2 site company is going to implement a new Six Sigma deployment, headed by 2 […]

I am regularly asked what characterizes an ideal Black Belt candidate. Like most people in the field, I have a list of adjectives and descriptive phrases I can trot out at a moment’s notice. Mine comprises about 50 items under the following headings: 1) Aptitude For Change; 2) Education and Experience; 3) Intellectual Curiosity; 4) […]

Today, more than most others, I’m convinced that a large majorityof ourSix Sigma brotherhood/sisterhood just don’t get that continuous improvement is a people thing. Sure, the technical stuff is important but what good is reciting a formula from memory if you can’t get the people in the operation or the executives in the board room […]

Later this month(May 16-19) the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals will host the 7th Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference in warm and sunny Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. I attended the event last year and had a great time. You can read my blog entries from last year here. This year Chad Holliday, Chairman and CEO […]

Healthcare is a very traditional and conservative industry. Never more has this been apparent that after a few seminars I have recently attended on quality in healthcare. After the seminars, two things stood out in my mind: 1. Healthcare is, generally, not willing to take advice from folks “outside” of healthcare; 2. Physicians are the […]

During my black belt training I was introduced to the true scope of the normal distribution. Here was a distribution found extensively throughout nature and industry. It is a principle building block for the six-sigma methodology from which a number of our essential statistical tools are based including all of the t-tests. We discovered that […]

For companies considering a Six Sigma initiative, read what Robert Krakauer, executive VP of strategic operations and CFO of MagnaChip had to say about their new initiative in their Q1 results release: “During the quarter, we initiated a Six Sigma management system that is expected to result in improved product quality, substantial cost savings, and […]

New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) began their Six Sigma initiative in 2003. Today they are ranked 7th in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Honor Roll. Before implementing Six Sigma they were ranked 14th. Ed Craven, Director of Innovation Strategy at NYP said Six Sigma deserves some of the credit for jump in the ranks. […]

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  I’ve been in the healthcare field all of my professional life. Whether this is your situation, or you have joined us lately, perhaps you’ve noticed the same thing I have. We all know what to do to make things better in our hospitals and facilities. It’s true… just ask anyone. Solve ER overcrowding? Reduce […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 25: For the past three years our product has been ranked ‘world-class.’ What can Six Sigma possibly do for us? Sometimes having a world class product or operation makes it […]

Or business of quality? I’ve had the privilege and honor of being able to attend the 7th annual Six Sigma Summit in London this week. It was my first experience with this type of event. Together with 380 other delegates, we have seen presentations and shared learnings from other companies’ deployment experiences. So, are these […]

Dow Chemical is a Six Sigma giant. A recent news item from CCH reported that they have been using Six Sigma to reduce the number of vehicle accidents at the Hydrocarbons and Energy business unit (HC&E). “The study was conducted in 2002 and improvements and a control plan were put into place beginning January 2003. […]

I’m a word person. You know the type, always evaluating the way ideas are conveyed through language. I’m not the obnoxious type of word person in that I don’t see it as my mission to correct the speech of others but I do enjoy learning the lingo of the particular shop or officein which I’m […]

Over the last two days many of the presenters have all touched upon a common theme: The hardest part of a Design for Six Sigma implementation is not the technical aspects of DFSS, but the organizational challengers, the soft side of the equation. Success is more about influencing the people than using the methodology. Today’s […]

How manyhealthcare Black Belts thinkthe biggest Six Sigma challenge is notproject management, or coaching your team, butteaching your Project Sponsor/ Executive Sponsor / Process OwneraboutSix Sigma? This is something I’ve encountered in early Six Sigma Project Waves. The scenario I’m thinking about is the one whereyou’re meeting with leadership about your project.In public meetings, they’ve […]

In an earlier blog entry, I described my feelings on DMAIC and roadmaps in general. To make a long story short, I don’t believe they add much value to the core toolset of Six Sigma. A couple of folks quite rightly expressed their disagreement with my view via comments. I say quite rightly, because I […]

I’m in Chicago attending the IQPC 8th annual Design for Six Sigma conference. Today’s events included presentations from HP, Bank of America, Bechtel Nevada and Motorola. Joe Ficalora, of SBTI, chaired the day. For the DFSS enthusiast today was a feast. To anyone else it probably sounded like an acronym convention. I really enjoyed the […]

I was driving down the 5 in Los Angeles yesterday on my way back to the hotel and, as I’ve discovered is often the case when one’s pace is a blistering 3 M.P.H., my mind began to wander a bit. If you’ve read any of my previous posts you’re probably saying to yourself “great, he’s […]

It is very important to understand how to create a good key performance indicator or KPI for Six Sigma.This is also true when you add Six Sigma to your strategic plan, as I have. The KPIs that you develop must first be a goal(s) of your organization, department, etc.These should be agreed upon.Remember, these will […]

Pictured at right: Liam Atwood (8 months old), iSixSigma Magazine’s youngest reader. Thanks, Jon, for passing along the picture. I can’t tell you what Mia did with her copy… well, perhaps over drinks ;). See you at the ISSSP Leadership Conference in May.

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Thelatest podcast is ready to download.This podcast includes highlights from the Third Annual Global Six Sigma Salary Survey, published in the March/April issue of iSixSigma Magazine. Nearly 2,500 Black Belts, Master Black Belts, Champions and Deployment Leaders worldwide took part inthe survey. The data is broken down by Six Sigma role, geographic location, educational level, […]

“Healthcare Black Belt seeks long-distance relationship with diverse group of process improvers willing to share opinions and experiences about the challenges of getting the right people to do the right things right.” First order of business: Who am I? I ask myself this question frequently. Every time I change jobs, it’s an opportunity to reinvent […]

The technology that had made healthcare so great in this country has also been at the center of many roadblocks to quality. It has long been the notion that as technology advances in healthcare, so should the quality and efficiency of the process. Therefore, it is the tendency to add technology wherever technology can be […]

It’s nearing the end of tax season in the U.S. and chances are you’re probably using Intuit’s Turbo Tax software to figure out how much you owe, or better yet how much your return will be… Intuit is an innovative company that has revolutionized the way we do our taxes and keep our books. From […]

My lovely wife was surfing the web this evening and she stumbled across this loose quotation from Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richards Almanac”: For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a rider was lost, for want of a rider an […]

Hi, Not one of my usual insightful articles on the world of Six Sigma today (!) more of a request for your assitance, guidance and input. I’ve recently taken the job of restructuring the electronic folder structure for our rapidly exanding team and ensuring it is tidy, functional and usable by everyone. As with all […]

In a perfect world, every project would lead directly to financial gain. We’d draft a charter that, when well executed, produced savings or income that translated directly to the bottom line. And this would be good because we all like making money. We can put it in the bank, earn interest on it, add many […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 24: Six Sigma sounds great but we’re swamped with work and I don’t see how we can take on one more thing. Being too swamped with work is often heard […]

Just a brief note of a great conference coming up on May 18 & 19, 2006 in Alexandra, Virginia. Sponsored by The Performance Institute, The Lean Six Sigma for Government Conference will provide first hand case studies about government agencies where Lean Six Sigma tools are being successfully used. You can review the details at: […]

Our company has put a recent focus on ‘away days’ for its senior teams. You know the sort of thing. The whole team ups and goes off into the wilds with threats of being left in the middle of nowhere with a tin of soup, a pencil and an elastic band. Living in Scotland we […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

In my opinion they should. After going though mindblowing and overwhelming Black Belt training sessions and doing the first Black Belt projects I was at times not sure what to do with respect to DMAIC. During those first training projects I was lucky to be mentored and coached by a great Master Black Belt. My […]

Before beginning any implementation of Lean Six Sigma in health care, it is important to get support and buy-in from management. Health care is a very conservative industry filled with professionals that maintain a traditional school of thought. Even though the health care industry has grown accustomed to change, the uneasiness of implementing a process […]

There is a strong tendency for Six Sigma programs to forge an inextricable link between project management roadmaps, notably DMAIC, and statistical tools. This has never made much sense to me. In my experience, Six Sigma programs can not only exist and survive without the use of typical roadmaps, but prosper and flourish. In the […]

Here’s a gem of a post buried in an old thread I’ve been following that saw some activity today. Thanks for the laughs Linus. Re: Six Sigma Companies by Linus Barrymore Three one-sigma companies board a train in Cleveland traveling southwest at92 mph. At the same time, six two-sigma companies board another train in Cincinnati […]

Our latest podcast is ready to download. This podcast features an interview with Gianna Clark,Managing Director of Six Sigma at Dominion, and our very own iSixSigma Blogger. Gianna has been blogging with iSixSigma since September, 2005. She has developed a continuous theme to her blog… the “nayisms”. In this podcast I talkwith Gianna abouther nayisms […]

The following is The Last Word from the March/April 2006 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Getting Ahead in Business with Six Sigma.” Operational excellence does not come easy, whether in America’s heartland or on the streets of New York City. It takes leaders who are willing to make changes. Despite the breakthrough improvements made by […]

Some recent conversations with BBs and MBBs from other companies has given me pause regarding the leadership issue as it relates to Six Sigma. The frustration I hear from others, which I’ve also experienced, relates to the lack of continuity between word and deed. Not that it’s necessarily intentional, I mean surely executives don’t intend […]

Xerox is working with the Houston Public Library to improve services with Lean Six Sigma. As part of the Xerox Global Services consulting offering, they have deployed a team of Lean Six Sigma experts to search through library operations and find areas for improvement. “Lean Six Sigma is typically used by large enterprises to eliminate […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 23: I can’t put a production worker on a team.I need them out in the field working – not attending a meeting. Production quotas and productivity are frequently used as […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

As a tribute to St. Patrick’s Day here are a few examples of green Six Sigma projects. Now, I’m not talking about projects that have saved a lot of “green” but projects that are good for the environment.

Notes from the Deployment Front There are just three things leaders need to get right. First is to act like leaders. That is to say when you are involved in this be clear about your commitment. Any leader that talks about this and then talks about more important priorities is not a leader. People hear […]

A person trained in 6 Sigma is given a set of tools to solve problems. When you have been practising 6 Sigma for a while as I have (3 years as a Black Belt), the tools become part of your everyday life. In ‘Performance Based Leadership’ terms I have become unconsciously competent on the tools […]

Notes from the Deployment Front Sorry for the long delay in posting here. I’ve been working on taking a failed deployment and turning it around. It’s tedious work with a lot of sleepless nights trying to get a very successful company to understand how to become even better. The good news is that it’s going […]

When Jack and the lads (and ladies I’m sure) started putting together Six Sigma they got together in many rooms over many months and slowly designed an effective and data based project management and process control structure. For many years now it has worked effectively in businesses across the globe from manufacturing to finance and […]

According to an article in the Belvoir Eagle, the U.S. Army received orders this week to advance the implementation of Lean Six Sigma Army-wide. “‘This is the largest deployment of management science since the beginning of the science,’ said Mike Kirby, deputy undersecretary of the Army for business transformation. This position was created to oversee […]

There are 8 wastes associated with a Lean Six Sigma process that are vital to the success of the implementation. The 8 wastes are: over production, excessive processing, non-productive inventory, excessive motion, unnecessary transportation, non-standard work, waiting, and intellectual capital. Eliminating these 8 wastes will add more value to the processes, and increase customer satisfaction. […]