Six Sigma and Kanban Can Work Together, too!
Posted by: meikah | 7 July 2008 | 11:51 pm
SmarterSolutions shows us how:
Kanban can be used in the improve phase of the Lean Six Sigma Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) roadmap.
A simple kanban managed transaction system is when the transactional process manager does not let any new work start until a transaction is completed and provided to the customer; i.e., a pull lean system.
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, DMAIC, Six Sigma, Kanban
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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
Filed under: Deployment, Processes, DMAIC, Six Sigma, Sarbanes-Oxley
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Six Sigma, DMAIC and Lean Maintenance
Posted by: meikah | 25 June 2008 | 9:51 pm
The other day, I heard in the news that an emergency took place in a manufacturing plant, and that the bricks that were holding their kettle scattered.
Because of what happened, their production would be delayed a bit. Although the problem has been contained and they’re now ready to run again, they had just experienced a downtime. Downtime translated in terms of cost and time is expensive, especially in a manufacturing company.
I am sure they have regular TPM or total production maintenance, but I think they would do well with Lean or Six Sigma, too.
I found this article on Feed Forward and it has a good view of how Six Sigma, its tool DMAIC can help in doing a lean maintenance.
Define the problem - Unscheduled equipment malfunctions and the resulting rework, scrap parts, downtime and lost production. Why is this a problem? Because now days the machines and computers do all our work.
Monitor & Measure the problem - Monitor your downtime and measure or calculate what it is really costing… then estimate the potential savings and increased profits that should come from addressing this “problem.”
Analyze how to solve or eliminate the problem - Your maintenance engineer, or an experienced consultant or contract engineer should analyze and identify, for each computer, each machine and each control system how to, in the most cost-effective way, protect or harden the equipment form the above stresses.
Install and Implement - Installation instructions from above should be specific enough that your own maintenance personnel can easily and quickly install the needed protective devices, methods, or changes.
Controlling the project - Controlling Lean Maintenance â„¢ in the future should require little to no effort.
Filed under: Manufacturing, DMAIC, Lean Maintenance, Six Sigma
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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
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Applying Six Sigma to Web Development
Posted by: meikah | 4 June 2008 | 10:32 pm
I stumbled upon this old article (published back in 2005) on ClickZ and there’s a portion there that caught my attention, that is the application of Six Sigma to web development.
You see our business is web development, and right now we are actually in the process of improving our processes.
It says:
Take Web site development. Highly customized site developers are likely to achieve benefits from Six Sigma in project administration: client set-up, billing and collection, and perhaps in project status reporting. Mass-customized Web developers can apply Six Sigma to hone their core service. Standardized services have the greatest Six Sigma potential because they use software or Web sites to take clients through the entire process. A human is involved only to answer a question.
Good points. I should ponder on this more.
