Mentor Graphics Uses Design For Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 21 July 2008 | 7:53 pm
TradingMarkets reports:
Mentor Graphics, a supplier of electronic design automation systems, has announced that its virtual prototyping tool, SystemVision, will support Design for Six Sigma methodologies to achieve cost-effective design innovation by a model-driven development process.
The development process for a product made up of a complex blend of hardware and software, analog and digital signals, sensors and actuators, and a mix of disciplines, such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic, is difficult to manage efficiently. At the same time, using physical prototyping to optimize the design for manufacturability becomes prohibitively expensive, cumbersome, and time consuming.
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodologies combined with model-driven development can result in order-of-magnitude improvements in both productivity and quality when virtual prototyping, automated data collection, and statistical analyses are used to guide the model-driven development process.
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, DFSS, Six Sigma
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GE: From Six Sigma to Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 20 July 2008 | 9:10 pm
At GE, at the helm of their Six Sigma initiative is their CIO, Gary Reiner. Since GE’s massive Six Sigma initiative in 1996, Mr. Reiner has been at the forefront of GE’s Six Sigma deployment, and oversees the company’s $55 billion of annual sourcing.
The company started with Six Sigma, and it’s interesting to know that GE’s Six Sigma has morphed into Lean Six Sigma. In an interview with Geoff Colvin, senior editor at large for Fortune Magazine, Reiner shares some of his thoughts and plans for the Lean Six Sigma initiative at GE.
Here are some snippets.
What does Jeff Immelt want from you?
Three things. My responsibilities are information technology, Lean Six Sigma, and sourcing.You’ve been in charge of GE’s Six Sigma initiative since it started, in 1996. Are you still getting value out of it?
We’ve been aggressively trying to migrate away from talking about tools and instead to talking about outcomes. Six Sigma is a tool. It is a wonderful tool, but it is a tool. What we’re talking more about as a company is outcomes, and the two outcomes we really want are product reliability and customer responsiveness.So we start with that and work our way back to what tools are needed to make that happen. For product reliability, the Six Sigma tools are sensational. On the responsiveness side, it’s often less about using Six Sigma and more about getting the right people in the room to map out how long it takes for us to do something in front of customers and, using mostly common sense, take out those things that get in the way of meeting our customer needs responsibly.
For example?
In our GE Money business we offer private-label finance to retailers. We are the financing behind jewelry stores and pharmacies and the like. Sad to say, it was taking 63 days from when a retailer contacted us saying it wanted to consider using us as a private-label financier until it could conduct the first transaction with our financing. No one had calculated this before we went on this journey.We did a number of what we call lean workouts, where we get everybody in the room to map out the process, and they got it down from 63 days to one day. The leader of that business was able to go out and have as his marketing campaign, “Enroll today. Transact tomorrow.” When we did that, sales doubled. And there are 30 examples of that throughout the company.
No wonder GE has been successful in their Six Sigma initiatives. They have understood the role of Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma, which is a tool, in their process improvement, and work around that premise. They have a goal, which is product reliability and customer responsiveness, and they have focused their Six Sigma initiative with that end goal in mind.
It’s always about a goal and a focus.
Update:
GE: The Heat on Immelt
Filed under: Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, GE, Technology, Six Sigma
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Involving Finance in Six Sigma - Do It Early and Fully
Posted by: meikah | 16 July 2008 | 10:51 pm
That’s the advice of Tony Jacowski. These are the reasons:
- On Benefits - The teams agree upon the calculation of benefits upon implementation of the project, and when it’s time to transfer the project ownership to the process owner, the teams can review the expected benefits.
- On Reliability - The finance team can give an honest assessment of the expected benefits and will report correctly any finance-related info.
- On Standardization - Results of the computation of benefits are reliable and meaningful.
- On Auditing - Project results and benefits can be subject to internal audits and other reviews of benefits.
- On Budget - Any process improvements, such as KPIs, can be included in the budget.
- On Accountability - The finance department can ensure that the Six Sigma project has accomplished more than the previous year(s).
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Finance, Deployment, Six Sigma
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What are the Qualities of a Six Sigma Black Belt Candidate?
Posted by: meikah | 30 June 2008 | 11:46 pm
If you’re asking the same question, then check out Tony Jacowski’s article on content4reprint.com.
- Appreciates customer promotion - He must know the value of customer in the business equation.
- Has the right personal attributes - He must be the positive influence that motivate others; self-motivated, and I think should also be a self-starter.
- Displays some leadership qualities - He must be the change agent, and thus an initiator.
- Possesses good communication skills - He must be able to convey messages well, and act as an effective mediator between employees and management, a coach and trainor.
- Has the technical aptitude - Though not necessary, he must have some background in engineering, statistics, and computers.
Choosing candidates for Six Sigma Black Belt is crucial in your Six Sigma deployment because from them, a good change agent leader must emerge. It goes without saying that a Six Sigma initiative is nothing without the right people in the team.
Filed under: Training, Deployment, Black Belt, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Jobs
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Six Sigma and Sarbanes-Oxley
Posted by: meikah | 30 June 2008 | 9:20 pm
Six Sigma is about process improvement, while Sarbanes-Oxley or SOX is about compliance. If the two shall meet, then the organization will be doubly benefitted. If you may recall a SOX compliance was brought about after major and accounting scandals like Enron shocked the public.
I believe compliance is part of process improvement, thus all the activities related to compliance will bring about improvement and enhance sustainability of operations.
An article on CIO Today, presents a good discussion on how Six Sigma and Sarbanes-Oxley can complement each other.
There are striking similarities between Six Sigma’s proven process improvement methodology, DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control), and compliance activities such as controls documentation, testing and remediation. Both require definition of objectives, measurement of performance, remediation of weaknesses and continual monitoring. Companies that have already performed documentation and testing activities for compliance are in an excellent position to identify process improvement opportunities.
In the billing process, for instance, a key objective is to accurately invoice customers. By documenting and testing the billing process, companies can identify key performance indicators to measure the health of their billing process. An analysis of billing errors can streamline the process.
Source:
iSixSigma News
