In his announcement to run for governor of Washington state in 2012, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee cited his plans to enact continuous process improvement (CPI) methodologies in the state government to reduce spending and create more jobs.
In these difficult economic times it is vital now more than ever that organizational leadership understand and implement the best defense against all types of waste. Value added analysis and percentage increases to the overall value added activity must be among the top measurements for all employees. Non-value activities need to be reduced and cultural…
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.
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.
During both prosperous and difficult times, successful businesses naturally look for new ways to improve performance. However, in recent years, as the world economy suffered through one of the worst recessions in history, many companies turned in droves to Lean and other variations of continuous improvement programs to rescue their sagging businesses. But, did they…
Strong America Now, grassroots political organization based in Austin, Texas, USA, has helped draft legislation in the Texas Legislature with the intention of cutting billions of dollars of spending in the state by the application of Lean Six Sigma methods.
Sleep Innovations, a designer and manufacturer of foam bedding products, has hired Robert West as Chief Operating Officer to implement Lean practices across the enterprise.
Based in Bardon, Leicestershire, U.K., Benson Group is one of the country’s largest carton suppliers, producing packaging for both the food and pharmaceutical industries at its 130,000-square-foot facility. The Bardon plant produces sheets of printed cardboard that is then cut and glued for use in the food industry as containers. With the adoption of Lean…
Consumer electronics firm H.C. Starck Inc. will receive the “Evolution of Manufacturing” Award, an honor bestowed upon manufacturing companies located in Northern Ohio, USA, that have adapted their business plan to better compete in a global economy.
Organizations are under enormous pressure to use existing core business systems more effectively and efficiently. Budgets may shrink, but information technology (IT) departments are still expected – perhaps more than ever – to deliver the increased business value required for growth. Though many organizations are renegotiating pricing and exploring opportunities to send certain services to…
The familiar maxim “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” has particular import for businesses committed to process improvement. For some companies, forging stronger, more collaborative relationships with suppliers and customers has become a natural, even necessary, part of their improvement efforts. “Early on, we knew that to create successful value streams,…
To improve the results of processes and make them leaner, practitioners need to identify which of the traditional seven wastes (or muda) are present in the process and take appropriate action. The seven wastes can be summarized with the acronym: DOTWIMP. D: Defect in the output, as identified in the eyes of the customer. O:…
Harris Waste Management Group Inc, Peachtree City, Ga., the global supplier of balers, shears and shredders to the recycling industry has added Lonnie Leeman as its quality director.
From environmentalleader.com Businesses today generally understand they need to do as much as possible to conserve energy and water, reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize their environmental impact overall. Societal pressures from customers, increasing regulation and economics all make this a fact of life for them. Most are taking steps to address these…
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,…
To survive in today’s competitive software-development market, organizations need to build their capabilities around delivering the best service within customer-stipulated time frames and costs. Increasing productivity – the rate of output per amount of input – is the factor most likely to give an organization an edge over others. Many software-development organizations have realized the…
Until relatively recently, many quality professionals considered the term “Lean” to only be applicable to the manufacturing giants of industry. Lean, first created as a part of the Toyota Production System, is an operational approach and methodology embraced by world-class companies around the globe. With proven results, Lean has made its way into non-manufacturing industries,…
As is true throughout virtually all areas of business across diverse industry sectors, Lean Six Sigma principles and practices applied to research and development (R&D) and product development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have a dramatic effect on reducing cycle times and the cost of developing new technologies, products, and protocols for research and…
Some common messages are beginning to emerge from several software-relevant areas – Six Sigma for software, Agile development and Lean thinking. The links between Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Agile have been explored recently, but now a broader view yet can illustrate the way that Lean thinking, evolved from just-in-time manufacturing, aligns well with…
A strong possibility exists that some organizations using Six Sigma are failing to cash in on the true potential of the methodology. This can happen when proper care is not taken to understand what needs to be integrated with the Six Sigma methodology to make it effective, comprehensive and a focused approach to solve real-life…
Practitioners must think “lean” from the beginning when they are starting an initiative in a certain area. Part of their job is to transfer the Lean philosophy. To do this effectively, they must be role models who live Lean all day, all night, all the time – this will earn them credibility. If not, a…
In a service organization, the most efficient method for cutting waste is to attack anything and everything that is not done right the first time. This concept, known as first time right, involves making sure that all activities are carried out in the right manner the first time and every time. Examples include a customer…
Information technology (IT) organizations increasingly are under pressure to improve their service and process capability. In the quest for improvement methodologies, organizations often adopt a “pick one” strategy – with Six Sigma being the widely favored choice. However, it is possible to integrate Lean and Six Sigma and reap the full benefits that these methodologies can…
Excess and obsolete inventory write-offs are chronic supply chain problems costing businesses billions of dollars each year. Unfortunately, improvement projects that are deployed to eliminate these problems often have a short-term focus. In other words, the current levels of excess and obsolete inventory are usually addressed, but not the root causes of the problem. Often…
With the growing need for reducing waste in all aspects of work done in an organization, people are looking at innovative ways to obtain this objective. One waste area, often found in organizations handling outsourced projects, is excessive – and often redundant – documentation. These organizations may be certified against a variety of standards, which…
Lean, like other process improvement methodologies, is based on the big idea from the 1980s that a business is composed of a series of processes, a value stream, that delivers value to its customers. A process is Lean if it uses only the absolute minimum of resources (material, machines and labor) to add value to…
Lean government. The very idea sounds implausible. Even to the seasoned Lean practitioner, the idea of a Lean government sounds far fetched. Governments are traditionally seen as the epitome of bureaucracy, and the guardians of red tape, incomprehensible forms and endless queues. But there are workable Lean strategies for governments seeking to reduce waste and…
One of the biggest challenges for Six Sigma practitioners in financial services is developing the ability to recognize waste. Imagine an “overnight pack” entering Bank One’s wholesale lockbox process for processing remittance payments. By the time it has been through every step, up and down the elevators, back and forth between departments, it would have…
Randy Woods
Bigelow
Mike Thelen
Indradeep Chatterjee
Sue Reynard
Luca Bencini
Larry Raymond
Dee McGuire
Bopdeb Mondal
Charles Hagood
Narendra Soman
David L. Hallowell
Abhishek Rai
Thomas Grewe
Sharad Sharma
Avijit Paul
James W. Martin
Sai Kumar Jamalpur
Jim Fishbein
Chew Jian Chieh
Bill Kastle