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
No Comments » |
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
No Comments » |
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
No Comments » |
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
Filed under: Deployment, Processes, DMAIC, Six Sigma, Sarbanes-Oxley
No Comments » |
Web Presentation: Reducing Patient Risk From Prescription Instruction Errors – A Six Sigma Approach
Posted by: meikah | 18 June 2008 | 9:48 pm
Where do you think medical malpractice start? I think it starts from the giving of prescription. Here in our local pharmacies, especially Mercury Drugstores, you will sample photos of prescriptions with matching labels and brief explanation in the cashier area or counters.
To me this is a good information campaign. This tells me though that customers have come to them with false or erroneous prescriptions.
Thus, you shouldn’t miss this 2008 Quality Institute for Healthcare Web Presentation! It will tackle erroneous prescription instructions.
The background:
North Mississippi Medical Center discovered an unacceptable level of errors in its new prescription instructions for discharged patients. A Six Sigma project team focused the DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) approach on these errors. They then developed an innovative metric that reflects patient-centered risk, under the coaching of a Creative Healthcare Master Black Belt.
The presentation is delivered by two Six Sigma Black Belts – Michael O’Dell, M.D., and Jonathan Andell. O’Dell is a family practice physician and Chief Quality Officer at North Mississippi Medical Center—2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient. He is also the director of NMMC’s family medicine residency program. Jonathan Andell is the associate partner with Creative Healthcare USA—a recognized leader in healthcare quality and performance improvement. He specializes in the technical, organizational, and interpretative aspects of modern quality management. Prior to joining Creative Healthcare, he spent 15 years at Motorola where he became one of the first certified Six Sigma Black Belts at Motorola University’s Six Sigma Research Institute.
Source:
ASQ Store
*Photo from morgueFile
Filed under: Deployment, Healthcare, DMAIC, Six Sigma, ASQ
No Comments » |
Lean, Six Sigma, and Kaizen for Forest Management
Posted by: meikah | 18 June 2008 | 8:52 pm
We have been experiencing unusual weather patterns lately. Rains during the summer, humid and hot dry climate where there should be wet or cool climate. When it rains, too, it really pours, thus flooding of great magnitude occur.
Many conclude that this altered weather patterns are caused by the degradation of our environment. Despite the efforts and renewed awareness, we continue to suffer from a damaged environment.
Perhaps, this reality must have inspired Forestry companies and the Natural Resources Department in New Brunswick to finally sit down and plan a forest management initiative. Many cities have embarked on the same or similar activities, but what’s interesting about this one is that the team will combine Lean, Six Sigma, and Kaizen and incorporate it into the forest management program.
Calling the program as LeanSigma Kaizen, the team hopes to achieve the following:
- launch the event at a reduced cost
- add value to their departments
- review the existing Frown Lands and Forest Act
- bring the red tape initiative to a new level
- implement an effective forest management event
Related Stories:
Lean Kaizen
Kaizen with Six Sigma
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Deployment, Sustainable Business, Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, Environment
No Comments » |
Putting Lean Six Sigma in the Bureaucracy
Posted by: meikah | 17 June 2008 | 12:28 am
There’s always much to be desired in bureaucracies. Imagine performing 10 steps when something can be done in three steps. Bureaucracies are famous for creating multiple steps or procedures to accomplish something. It’s tiring, expensive, and time-consuming. Often, it’s such a waste of time!
An article on TMCNet discusses a clumsy rental procedure. This is the scenario:
By the government’s own estimate, it can take two and a half weeks to secure a rental permit. Telephone messages are left, calls exchanged, questions answered, a check mailed and, finally, a permit will either be mailed or the renter can come downtown to pick it up.
To which, Erie County’s Six Sigma guru calls as insane. As one of the officials that will help Chris Collins succeed as county executive, Alfred Hammonds Jr. will embark on a Lean Six Sigma deployment to improve the situation.
Hammonds has nine Six Sigma-driven improvements afoot. The solution to a 10th project, to issue a park rental permit in two days rather than 12.5, will be tested starting Monday by letting users reserve a picnic shelter on erie.gov, the county’s Web site.
It reminds me of the show, Name that Tune. A contestant would say, “I can name that tune in 5 notes.” Another contestant would then counter, “I can name that tune in 1 note.”
This should be our goal. If a customer comes to us for a service or product, we’d go, “I can do that for you in 1 minute.” 
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Deployment, Public Sector
No Comments » |
How Do You Define Successful Six Sigma Deployments?
Posted by: meikah | 16 June 2008 | 10:03 pm
Success means differently to different people. But with projects or deployments, I believe there must be some standards to measure success.
Over at BPMInstitute, Marvin Wurtzel of Wurtzel Consulting, Inc. shares some insights into people’s view of success in their Six Sigma deployments. Then he also shares some of the crucial reasons for a deployment to fail.
Most Six Sigma consultants typically define successful deployments in the following way: A successful Six Sigma deployment is one that provides an acceptable return to the business and leaves a stand-alone program, not requiring further consulting resources. I am not aware of a failure by this definition either. But most successful programs may have required some level of assistance once the consulting resources are gone. Most Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts will do what it takes to support the business in this case.
Here are my suggestions for evaluating sucess in your projects:
- Check again your objectives, those you had before you started with your deployment.
- Are the objectives met?
- If not, have you made adjustments to meet them?
- Evaluate the team members who worked on the project.
- Did they accomplish what they were set out to do?
- Did they learn anything?
- Evaluate your processes.
- Do you see an improvement?
- Do your team and management see the improvement?
- Is the improvement sustainable?
What about you, how do you define success in your Six Sigma deployments?
Filed under: Team Dynamics, Deployment, Six Sigma
No Comments » |
Six Sigma at McKesson Corp.
Posted by: meikah | 9 June 2008 | 7:49 pm
McKesson Corp., the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the U.S., is using the latest technology and Six Sigma to be ahead of the pack.
McKesson’s EVP and CIO, Randall N. Spratt shares with WSJ how his company is using technology to make its operations more efficient, to improve health care and to create a better environment for the company’s workers, dispelling the impression that many healtcare companies lag in terms of technology use.
This is how the interview started.
WSJ: McKesson makes 1.5 cents for every dollar it takes in on its distribution business, so efficiency is critical. Not surprisingly, the company relies on technology to make its warehouse operations more efficient. What is the process you go through to determine what technology might help?
Mr. Spratt: We have a large investment in a process-improvement methodology called Six Sigma. We employ somewhere north of 100 Six Sigma professionals, whose job is to take apart business processes. It could be as small as taking something off a truck and putting it on a shelf, or it could be as broad as what happens from the time we take an order to the time we ship an invoice. What they are trained to do is take a given business process, analyze it and take it apart to find where the highest variability is.WSJ: One technology that McKesson developed is a small computer that warehouse workers wear on their wrists and that is attached to a scanner on the worker’s finger. How did you come up with this system and what has it accomplished?
Mr. Spratt: It came from a Six Sigma analysis. Most errors in the warehouse came at the point of picking, which is taking something off a warehouse shelf, associating it with an order, and putting it in the right bin for shipping. The second-highest error rate came from stocking errors. If you stock a drug in the wrong place, the pickers have to search for it and they waste a lot of time. So they sat down and said how can we solve these problems.
Continue reading…
It’s pretty obvious that McKesson is trying to combine modern technology and Six Sigma. If they are able to do this successfully, then they’ll be a force to reckon with in the pharma/healthcare industry.
Source:
SmartBrief News
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Healthcare, Interview, Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Six Sigma
No Comments » |
8+1 Reasons Your Lean/Six Sigma Initiative Could Fail
Posted by: meikah | 2 June 2008 | 10:57 pm
In keeping with the previous post, I’d like to direct you to Ron Pereira’s site where he posted eight reasons your Lean/Six Sigma initiative could fail.
And if I add a #9 - You fail to put a follow-through system, which will determine the sustainability of the initiative.
Check out Ron’s eight reasons…
