Six Sigma Not the Be-all and End-all at 3M
Posted by: meikah | 19 November 2007 | 12:31 am
A few months back, there was some controversy over innovation and Six Sigma, and that some say never the twain shall meet. Some quarters say, Six Sigma stifle creativity or innovation, others say Six Sigma improves innovation.
Perhaps the company that is most associated with innovation and creativity is 3M. For years, too, we know that 3M has been an advocate of Six Sigma, until a new leadership says otherwise.
In my previoous post, I even hinted that 3M should not abandon Six Sigma at all in favor of innovation. Now, an article on Design News says that 3M will not be using Six Sigma on its R&D efforts, and probably for good measure.
The new chief at 3M, George Buckley is not an anti-Six Sigma guy. In fact, he’s a strong proponent of lean Six Sigma in manufacturing and supply chain. However, for 3M, he believes that Six Sigma will find better use for transactional activities rather than for research and development.
Further, 3M will still be using Six Sigma DOE routinely in basic research and 3M researchers still use elements of DMAIC toolset. In fact, 58,000 projects at 3M have used some element of DMAIC and more than 55,000 3M employees have achieved the minimum level “Green Belt” training since the year 2000.
Source:
Design News, a Six Sigma Zone featured link
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, 3M, R&D, DMAIC, Innovation
2 Comments |
3M Knoxville Preserves the Environment Through Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 15 October 2007 | 12:53 am
3M Knoxville was recognized by National Environmental Performance Track Program for its 3P program, or Pollution Prevention Pays. The recognition is given to companies that go above and beyond government requirements for environmental preservation compliance.
The 30-year-old 3P program aims to help conserve the environment and energy, and has saved more than $1 billion in first-year aggregated savings to the company. At Knoxville, particularly, the 3P has resulted in the prevention of approximately 1,000 tons of air pollution per year and the prevention of 2,500 tons of solid waste per year.
3M Knoxville uses the Six Sigma process to fight deficiencies at the plant. According to its Web site, Six Sigma is a measure of quality that strives near perfection. It is a “disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects in any process.”
In Knoxville, waste has been reduced by throwing out as little as possible. Material that may not be used in a first round of production is recycled for a second. Uses are found for the waste from that round, including the use of it as a fuel.
With the increasing awareness and global focus on environmental preservation, companies should realize soon the use and value of Six Sigma.
Source:
Journal Express, an iSixSigma featured link
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Sustainable Business, 3M
No Comments » |
Six Sigma and Innovation
Posted by: meikah | 15 July 2007 | 8:00 pm
There’s still much controversy about Six Sigma and innovation. Many companies, 3M being the most vocal and probably popular, are saying that Six Sigma and innovation counters each other out.
3M, which has been the most innovative company for years, allegedly stopped innovating when it adopted Six Sigma. I still could not fathom the reason for not being able to mix successfully Six Sigma and innovation.
Perhaps, those companies that have successfully implemented Six Sigma and and pursued innovation should speak up to end this debate once and for all.
The best venue for this kind of forum is IQPC’s Process for Innovation event on August 21-22, 2007 in The Gleacher Center, Chicago. The event will tackle this question and offers a structure for Innovation. This exclusive forum has been designed for leading Six Sigma and Innovation experts to discuss the practicalities of implementing Innovation across an organization alongside Six Sigma.
Check out the event and share with us what you have learned.
Related story:
How Six Sigma Improves Innovation
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Events/Announcements, Innovation Update, 3M, Innovation
No Comments » |
How Six Sigma Improves Innovation
Posted by: meikah | 6 June 2007 | 7:24 pm
A couple of months ago, The Corporate Innovation Blog gave a shoutout for a webinar, titled “Unleashing the Power of Strategic Six Sigma for Innovation and Growth.” The speaker was Bob Carter, a senior consultant at Raytheon USA. The goal of the webinar is to give people an idea on how to combine Six Sigma quality initiatives with the creativity of innovation.
Although the webinar happened last month, May 10, I believe the theme is still relevant today, especially after 3M’s controversial shot at Six Sigma for not driving innovation in their company.
If you missed the webinar, don’t fret. You can still download it from PureInsight.
Filed under: 3M, Innovation, Bob Carter
1 Comment |
Six Sigma Over Innovation
Posted by: meikah | 4 June 2007 | 8:29 pm
BusinessWeek Online has an interesting article about 3M, particularly about Six Sigma’s stifling effect on the company’s creativity or innovative nature.
It is one insightful article as it narrates the time when 3M realized probably its highest potential with James McNerney, the author of Six Sigma at 3M to today when 3M, which used to be the most innovative company fell to number 7.
Among the arguments raised were: the work of creativity cannot be scheduled, noone can come up with the right idea the first time, and creative work involves many missteps, or in Six Sigma parlance, wastes, before a feasible idea surfaces.
So now the new CEO of 3M, George Buckley, is said to be giving more space to creative work and thus loosening Six Sigma processes in this area.
I think this is a classic example of not seeing the forest for the trees. When people are so concerned about procedures or processes, and failing to understand the whole concept of Six Sigma and what it is for, then this is what happens.
My understanding is that companies who get rid of wastes see the light of day and become more innovative and so they continuously improve their processes. Six Sigma eliminates wasteful processes to give way to some breakthrough innovation.
It’s true that innovation is “a numbers game. You have to go through 5,000 to 6,000 raw ideas to find one successful business,” said Art Fry, the inventor of Post-it notes. But I believe that in this case, those 5,000 raw ideas are not waste at all if it will result in a sound business idea.
In any case, this again validates the claim that Six Sigma is not a silver bullet, that cuts through all barriers.
Source: Six Sigma Zone News Links
*Photo from StockXchng
Filed under: Processes, 3M, Innovation
4 Comments |
Six Sigma and Hand Hygiene Practice
Posted by: meikah | 2 May 2007 | 10:38 pm
Perhaps by its very nature, hospitals are places we know that produce a lot of waste each day yet we expect them to be clean, or at least disinfected, at all times. They have to be clean!
Well, HealthEast Care System in St. Paul, Minnesota launched a Six Sigma project to ensure cleanliness. The project is named, “Improving Hand hygiene Practice with Six Sigma.” Below are the details:
Aim: to increase compliance with hand hygiene practice to 80 percent or a statistically significant improvement from baseline.
Measures:
- Number of hand hygiene actions taken per 100 hand hygiene opportunities encountered (%)
- Volume of hand sanitizer used per 1,000 patient days
Lessons:
In partnership with 3M Health Care, we initiated a Six Sigma hand hygiene improvement project in a 20-bed medical-surgical intensive care unit and improved practice compliance from 36 percent to 70 percent (p< .001) with corresponding statistically significant increase in volume of hand sanitizer used. This was accomplished through the implementation of a comprehensive program that focused on changing the unit culture by addressing staff awareness/knowledge, staff decision making, supply convenience/availability, and empowering staff as well as patients and families to remind health care personnel about the hygiene procedures.
Filed under: Healthcare, 3M
No Comments » |
Lean Six Sigma @ 3M
Posted by: meikah | 18 February 2007 | 9:43 pm
3M began its Six Sigma journey in 2001. Since then, the company has been reaping benefits and savings.
Featured on Industry Trends at ARC Advisory Group, Paul Husby, 3M VP Supply Chain Services and Operations, shared the following 3M’s Six Sigma journey through these years:
- company now has a common language and methodology for continuous improvement
- its culture has become cross-functional, and data driven decision-making
- its operating margins improved by 5 percentage points from 18% to 23%, which translates into $1 billion in margin gain
In 2005, 3M incorporated Lean Manufactuing to its Six Sigma initiatives. This is what’s happening now at 3M.
Now, their Six Sigma and Lean programs are fully integrated together. Lean has a broader view by examining the value steam. Six Sigma offers focused problem-solving tools for specific operational issues. Positioning when to use the Six Sigma tools and Lean methods was worked out with the program managers. The use of Value Stream Mapping () has helped identify many new projects that where overlooked when only Six Sigma was in use.
Now, 3M usually starts with VSM. The typical 3M plant has 3 to 8 value streams. If Lean methods solve the issue, then just do it. When the issue needs a lot of statistical analysis, a black belt is assigned. Other-wise, a Green belt engages.
Source:
ARC Advisory Group Industry Trends, “Lean Six Sigmat at 3M” with link provided by Six Sigma Zone.
Related stories:
3M Finding its Way to Six Sigma
3M Brazil
