Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 14 December 2011 | 7:35 pm
PQ Systems through it’s Quality eline newsletter brings us another quality quiz by Professor Leary.
For this month’s quiz, and a chance to win a copy of Quality Gamebox, submit your response by December 20 (early because of the Christmas holiday) to be entered in the drawing.
Take the quiz:
Out of the Box, a major customer of Thick ‘N Thin Corrugated Paper Company, where Cliff Clymer is quality manager, has insisted that the company’s deadline is met for producing the 6” cardboard boxes it needs. Knowing that he must produce the needed order, Cliff complains to his boss, Sue Veneer, that some of the equipment required to fill the order is in need of maintenance, and if the service adjustments are not made, the boxes may not meet the customer’s exacting size requirements. Servicing the equipment, however, would mean that the deadline for production of Thick ‘N Thin’s materials cannot be met.
Joe Auchey (Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission)
Susan Brown (Mountain States Health Alliance)
Jonathan Downey (Schivo Precision)
Jane Johnson (Demmer Corp)
Sheila McLauchlan (OSI Foods).
Congratulations!
Filed under: Manufacturing, PQ Systems eLine, Quality Quiz
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Six Sigma Companies News: On Lean and Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 9 December 2011 | 2:36 am
Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News.
First on the news is about the Task Force Resolute command. The command provides a Lean Six Sigma course four times a week at the U.S. Forces Afghanistan conference room on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. More of this here.
Second, a gas plant improves C3 recovery with Lean Six Sigma. Read more…
Third, read about how DST Global Solutions is managing Lean and continuous improvement to maintain that competitive edge. More of this here.
Fourth, find out how Kevin McMullen, the President and CEO, leverages Lean Six Sigma to improve processes at Omnova Solutions. Read more…
Lastly, read about the value of Lean in investments over at Industry Market Trends. Is Lean worth the investment? More of it here.
Filed under: Lean, Lean Six Sigma
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Innovation of the Week: Spotlight on Innovative Companies
Posted by: meikah | 27 October 2011 | 7:31 pm
This week’s edition of innovation update celebrates the companies that have embraced and sustained innovation in their respective organizations.
These companies, among which are International Business Machines Corp., Novartis AG, Intel Corp., Abbott Laboratories, Xerox Corp. and runners-up Hewlett-Packard Co. and Yahoo Inc., are the winners of The Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation Awards this year.
- Does the innovation break with conventional ideas or processes in its field?
- Does it go beyond marginal improvements on something that already exists?
- Will it have a wide impact in its field or on future technology?
Filed under: Innovation, Innovation Update, Novartis, Xerox Corporation
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Improving Payroll Preparation Through TQM
Posted by: meikah | 21 October 2011 | 2:38 am
If there’s a process that is cluttered with data or variables, it is payroll preparation. Data such as days worked, minutes late, salary adjustments, retro pay, overtime premiums, among other things. One mistake in a figure or a zero or even a decimal point would result in erroneous numbers.
- accuracy of data
- lack of standard operating procedures
All of which can compound delays. Read the case study here.
Now, if you are involved in funding payroll, the case study may also help you sort out delays in remittance such as identifying factors of delays:
- clearing time of banks
- time difference
Payroll is an integral part of an organization. It’s like paying your customers on time. So, you do your best, find ways to provide payment for good services rendered. Definitely, it’s not something you do in the nick of time.
Filed under: Finance, Payroll, Processes, Quality, TQM
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Quality Event: Kaizen Problem-Solving 101
Posted by: meikah | 10 October 2011 | 11:52 pm
Kaizen Institute of the Philippines brings you the Kaizen Problem-Solving 101 : How to Use Low-Cost, Common-Sense Solution to Problems on November 3, 2011 at the Makati Shangri-la.
To succeed in business and life, many skills are necessary, including the skill that cuts across every challenge to solve problems without spending “big money.”
- Freeing your imagination for problem-solving
- Turning problems into opportunities
- Asking the right questions
- Creating a “mind-map” that points to low-cost solutions
Resource Speaker: Rey Elbo is the former Country Director of Kaizen Institute of the Philippines who worked closely with Masaaki Imai, a Japanese management guru and an international bestselling author on Kaizen (1986) and GembaKaizen (1997).
Elbo is also known as a long-time and pioneering advice columnist on people management issues for BusinessWorld (since 1993) and The Manila Times (since 2002). He is the author of “Lessons to Learn Before They Kick You Out of Your Job” (2010) and “The Buzzword-Centric Workplace” (2007).
He has more than 30 years of corporate work experience in human resources and total quality management as a fused specialty. He is the Founder and Managing Advisor of Kairos Management Technologies (est. 1997), a consultancy that specializes on “creativity before capital” training technique made applicable to human resources and total quality management.
He pursued his post-graduate degrees in Japanese Studies at De La Salle University-Manila and Strategic Business Economic Program at University of Asia and the Pacific. He is a Fellow in People Management at the People Management Association of the Philippines and is one of about 20 individuals in the private sector with a Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) eligibility.
His work at BusinessWorld received citations from the Catholic Mass Media Awards in 2001, 2002, 2007, and 2010.
Check http://ph.linkedin.com./in/reyelbo for more details or follow Rey Elbo on Facebook or Twitter for his random management thoughts.
Register at deming@i-manila.com.ph or fax to 823-3532 or call 330-5744 or 846-8951 for more details.
Filed under: Kaizen, Quality
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Update on Six Sigma in the Philippines – Part 1
Posted by: meikah | 28 September 2011 | 12:06 am
Last August, I attended the Six Sigma Conference 2011 at Hotel Intercontinental Manila. It has been a while since the last Six Sigma Best Practices that I attended way back in 2009.
True enough, I learned a lot of new things about Six Sigma, process improvement strategies that many Philippine-based companies have been using.
The key speaker of that conference was none other than the premier Six Sigma practitioner in the Philippines: Dan Lachica, President and CEO of First Philec Solar Corporation.
According to Lachica, Six Sigma is three things:
- A statistical measurement
- A business strategy
- A philosophy
And then he went on to offer a simplified definition of DMAIC, a breakthrough strategy:
Define – Define the project GOAL & customer (internal & external) deliverables.
Measure – Establish a deeper understanding of the problem by searching for the potential root causes.
Analyze – Analyze and determine the root causes of the problem.
Improve – Implement the best parameter settings that will solve the problem and lead to improvement.
Control – Implement control system to sustain the improvement.
Dan Lachica also believes that to achieve operational excellence, a company has to create and nurture a Six Sigma culture. And Six Sigma alone cannot do the trick. With the present challenges in the business and economy, one needs a collaboration of all relevant strategies and work them out efficiently together.
Thus, he develops the Lachica Model:
Integrate Lean, Lean Sigma, Six Sigma, BPM/MBNQA/PQA, ISO, and TQM
Filed under: DMAIC, Dan Lachica, First Philec Solar Corporation, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Conferences, Six Sigma Organizations, Six Sigma Professionals, Six Sigma References
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Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 17 August 2011 | 2:04 am
PQ Systems through it’s Quality eline newsletter brings us another quality quiz by Professor Leary.
For this month’s quiz, and a chance to win a copy of Quality Gamebox, submit your response by August 26 to be entered in the drawing.
Here’s the quiz:
Facing the task of securing an assembly for Zero Defects, a critical customer of Xcelent Xtrusion, Nadha Klu is focusing on inspection of the outer dimension (O.D.) of the part as it comes to the end of the line. The O.D., he knows, should be 1.2 millimeters ± .2 millimeters for this part, so he takes a newly acquired micrometer to measure a part as it comes off the assembly line.
Winners of last month’s quiz and a copy of Quality Gamebox:
Kenneth Clemmons (Delnor-Community Hospital)
Brian Cunningham (Warrnambool Cheese & Butter)
Tara Glasgow (Erie St. Clair CCAC)
Adrian Huxley (Singer Instruments Co. Ltd.)
Ken Ulbrich (Bay State Milling)
Congratulations!
Filed under: PQ Systems eLine, Quality, Quality Quiz
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Innovation of the Week: Innovation at Merck
Posted by: meikah | 22 July 2011 | 2:44 am
This week’s edition of innovation update features the renewed focus on innovation at Merck.
A global healtchare leader, Merck wanted to make sure that they are among the successful stories in business. To achieve that goal, Merck knows that innovation is the only way to go.
Here’s what Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier has in mind and what he plans to do to achieve this.
“We must make certain Merck is among the success stories,’’ Frazier said.
Filed under: Healthcare, Innovation, Innovation Update, Merck, Pharmaceuticals
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Saving with TEa and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 19 July 2011 | 3:25 am
At work, I have been trying to measure income against savings for the past months now. I’m having a hard time doing the budget actually, especially when requests for technology upgrade come up all the time.
The challenge is how to invest wisely in the business yet realize some savings. The article goes:
I got an idea from an article on Westgard QC. The article talks about the impact of redesigning quality control based on Six Sigma concept. This was applied to several hospitals in the Netherlands. In hospital laboratories, the challenge is how to perform better with less budget.
The laboratory at one of the Utrecht locations only has a limited functionality for STAT requests. At the other Utrecht location all “basic” tests are performed. The (main) location in Nieuwegein offers a wide range of tests, including special techniques. In 2009 the department of clinical chemistry received 472618 requests representing over 3.000.000 test orders.
My responsibilities at Sint Antonius include the system of IQC, training the staff in Six Sigma, system evaluations and method validations and developing an advanced process control system in accordance with the ISO 15189. The laboratory organisation is accredited since 1998.
Hospital laboratories are urged to perform better with less budget. In general there is always a strong need to keep the expenses as low as possible while maintaining the level of quality of the measurement procedures. We have been able to reduce the costs of failure and at the same time maintain the level of quality by designing our IQC-procedures using TEa and Six Sigma.
Filed under: Healthcare, Quality, Six Sigma
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Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 13 July 2011 | 3:58 am
PQ Systems through it’s Quality eline newsletter brings us another quality quiz by Professor Leary.
For this month’s quiz, and a chance to win a copy of Quality Gamebox, submit your response by July 22 to be entered in the drawing.
Here’s the quiz:
Nadha Klu, manager for Xcelent Xtrusion, continues to dither about pricing for a plastic part used in an assembly item for Zero Defects Company, a major customer. Nadha has met another eager salesman, Wiley K. Yotey, who has convinced him that the part that Wiley sells is exactly the same as the one currently used in the assembly process at Xcelent—but at a slightly lower cost if he buys it from his company, Bit Parts & Pieces. Wiley goes on to identify himself as the son of the president of his company, assuring him that “My dad would never cheat anyone.”
Winners of last month’s quiz who will get a copy of Quality Gamebox:
Congratulations!
