The SixSig Roundup
Posted by: meikah | 24 January 2008 | 10:32 pm
The link roundup is back and I’m giving it another name, The SixSig Roundup. Why the new name? I will now be linking to other equally relevant quality news aside from Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma.
So, join me as I go ’round the blogosphere!
In my previous post, I shared the interview of Executive Suite with Textron CEO Lewis Campbell. Michael Marx of SixSigmaCompanies.com also shared the interview in his blog. He put emphasis on doing better or continuous improvement.
Recently, we have been hearing about layoffs left and right. In situations like these, who can we blame? Curious Cat Management reacts to Lean Insider’s question: Do Lean Companies Create Fewer Jobs? Same with John of Curious Cat, I’m on Deming’s side when he says: improve quality, lower costs, gain market share, provide more and more jobs…
Just when we think that a lean company is almost achieving perfection, Boeing’s lean supply chain stumbles. Gemba Research Blog takes a look at the situation in Boeing and recommends not copying Boeing’s 787 supply chain strategy. As the blog talks about supply chain and parts, and inventory, I am reminded by The Goal.
Filed under: Six Sigma References, iSixSigma, Lean, John Hunter, Six Sigma
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4 Tips for Leveraging Lean Six Sigma for Compliance
Posted by: meikah | 17 January 2008 | 7:28 pm
Many companies sell their organizations by boasting about their licenses or accreditation from quality regulatory bodies or compliance systems. In turn, customers tend to believe that accredited companies are better than those that are not.
There are good and bad sides to this. The good side is that companies that aim for accreditation—from SOX or ISO—are more conscious about their getting their processes working well. The bad side is that companies just do it for the sake of getting the accreditation without really going through the real motion.
There is also the danger of being too compliant, which could subject organizations to unnecessary processes. Examples of these are multiple approvals at every level, more measurements and metrics than anyone can reasonably look at (and whose purpose is unclear), report after report produced that no one has time to read, and many more.
Nevertheless, Lean Six Sigma techniques can help companies address compliance issues.
- Evaluate and Understand Gaps - understand where the biggest risks and gaps exist. Then launch several phases of Lean Six Sigma projects, beginning with the highest risk gaps, to streamline the processes with the right controls.
- Apply Basic Process Map Analysis - determine what parts of which process are necessary to accomplish their purpose, and which add cost and time but no value. Or measure and analyze how time is spent in a process, focusing on the time spent on value-added (VA) versus non-value-added (NVA) activities.
- Use Data Tools to Identify Risks - to focus in on the highest areas of compliance risks use the Pareto chart and cause-and-effect diagram.
- Use QFD to Select Appropriate Controls - QFD can help in selecting appropriate controls and process features to accomplish business objectives. and can be used to evaluate the importance of existing controls and to select effective new controls against business objectives.
Source:
iSixSigma, Are You Too Compliant? Reduce Waste with Lean Six Sigma
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Deployment, iSixSigma, Six Sigma
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A Six Sigma in Your Shopping Experience
Posted by: meikah | 26 November 2007 | 8:44 pm
It’s the time of year again of cheer and giving: Christmas. So what do people do? They either rush to the stores and shop or sit in their comfortable chairs, turn on their PC and click-shop away.
With the former, shoppers only need to survive traffic (especially for the last-minute shoppers), crowded shops, and long queues. When management see these, they can always create reroutes or detours to eas up traffic, open more counters. In other words, the action can be immediate.
It’s different though with online shopping experience. Shoppers will have to deal with downtime, erroneous checkouts, or order status is unavailable. The statistics of online shoppers is growing and perhaps it’s good to look at it with Six Sigma eyes.
Over at iSixSigma, I found two interesting articles on how Six Sigma can be applied to your online shopping experience. The first article touches on the growing figures of online shopping and how was it so far. The second article details the metrics and Six Sigma levels for online shopping. Check them out:
Online Holiday Shopping at 2 Sigma
Metrics and Sigma Levels for Online Shopping
Here’s wishing everyone a holiday shopping experience at 6 Sigma! 
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Services, Sales, iSixSigma, Technology, Internet
1 Comment |
Lean Six Sigma Culture and Knowledge Transfer
Posted by: meikah | 15 November 2007 | 1:31 am
I just got off from management meeting, and this line in this iSixSigma Finance article struck me because that’s what we actually need.
The line goes: Like any organizational change, a company must have a plan in place and communicate the plan in order to evolve from a company simply having expert resources using Lean Six Sigma approaches to actually having a Lean Six Sigma-based culture.
We are not yet into Lean or Six Sigma, but the bold words above ring true. I believe that knowledge transfer or communicating the mission or vision of the company to everyone else in the organization is key to any improvement initiative.
What good is your goal if your employees do not understand it or worse don’t know how to go about achieving that goal?
From the same article, you will learn the basic elements to achieve Lean Six Sigma culture. How to transfer that knowledge goes:
- Determine Knowledge to Transfer: The knowledge to transfer is part of the initial deployment design and must take into account previously existing key skills and knowledge elements. Look for specific analysis tools or project management practices and examples to better fit the environment.
- Building the Integrated Toolbox: If a significant need for integration has been identified, rapidly deploy a team of experts to accomplish the integration.
- Transfer Knowledge: Interactive workshops and coaching sessions designed with many hands-on practice sessions, “teach backs” and real project applications are effective adult learning tools and ensure retention.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Team Dynamics, Six Sigma References, iSixSigma, Lean
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DFSS and Brand Strategy
Posted by: meikah | 13 November 2007 | 3:33 am
Over at CustServ, I wrote about striking a balance between brand experience and customer experience. Today, I found another interesting article on iSixSigma. It talks about incorporating Design for Six Sigma to building brand strategy.
The premise is that while companies work hard to make brand strategies more than just empty promises, they often find themselves stuck in the execution phase.
This is where Six Sigma comes in. The methodology is often viewed, and rightly so, as a versatile, effective framework for connecting executive goals (business strategy), marketing communication (brand promise) and management (operational activities). Here’s an example of a bank working on its brand using Six Sigma.
Consider the case of the business bank that wanted to increase its share in a regional market. The bank used the DMADV roadmap of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and adapted it for brand strategy (Table 1). By applying DMADV, the organization realized that to advance from the business strategy to marketplace results, it was necessary to first understand the brand, define the brand promise and identify specific actions required to deliver on it (Define, Measure, Analyze). Finally, the organization needed to make sure that the defined brand promise actually was fulfilled (Design, Verify).
Source:
iSixSigma, Promises of Brand Strategy and Design for Six Sigma
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Tools/Toolkits, Six Sigma Organizations, Finance, iSixSigma, DFSS, Six Sigma, Brand Strategy
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Six Sigma in your Donuts
Posted by: meikah | 11 November 2007 | 8:46 pm
Perhaps, next to hamburger, you often find donuts in people’s daily food fare. Thus, running a donut business is serious business.
Maidstone Bakeries know this too well. They produce more than 60 million donuts per week, and to ensure quality in their products and services, they feel they must go Six Sigma.
Dyadem, a leading provider of Quality Lifecycle Management and Risk Lifecycle Management solutions, will help Maidstone Bakeries, a joint venture between IAWS Group and Tim Hortons, achieve their goals.
According to Brett Kyle, Continuous Improvement training manager at Maidstone and Six Sigma master black belt:
“Six Sigma is a standard, disciplined methodology and Dyadem’s FMEA Pro-7 gave us an easy and painless way to take this approach, helping us solve problems using data rather than gut feel. Since the implementation, we’ve significantly reduced costs and clearly shifted to the next level of quality. FMEA-Pro showed us new ways to solve old problems, by helping us find the roots and develop new procedures to address them. The results were very often surprising.”
Source:
reliableplant.com, an iSixSigma featured link
*Photo from brantfordbrant.com
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, iSixSigma, ProcessModel, Six Sigma, Food, Maidstone Bakeries, Dyadem
2 Comments |
2 Companies Enjoy Robust 3rd Quarter Results and Attribute it to Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 5 November 2007 | 12:54 am
This first week of November saw two companies reporting robust 3rd quarter results because of the continuing deployment of Lean Six Sigma. The two companies experienced both gains and losses, increases and decreases due to several factors, still they continue their Lean and Six Sigma efforts. Persistence and continuous are the keywords here.
First to report was Regal Beloit Corporation, a leading manufacturer of mechanical and electrical motion control and power generation products:
Income from operations was $53.4 million or 11.9% of sales, an increase over the $53.0 million or 12.7% of sales reported for the third quarter of 2006. Operating expenses included a pre-tax charge of $1.8 million resulting from settlement of the Enron legal matter. The acquired businesses contributed $0.9 million to income from operations.
Net income in the third quarter of 2007 was $31.2 million, a 5.0% increase from $29.7 million reported in the third quarter of 2006. Diluted earnings per share increased 3.4% to $0.92 as compared to $0.89 for the third quarter of 2006.
“We continue to believe that our Lean Six Sigma, Digitization, Globalization, Innovation and Customer Centricity initiatives will provide the foundation for continued profitable growth and our ability to continue to provide high levels of returns to shareholders,” said Henry W. Knueppel, Chairman and CEO.Read more…
Source: EarthTimes, an iSixSigma featured link
Next to report was Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., a world leader in iron ore and metallurgical coal mining company:
- Consolidated Revenues Rise 7% to $620 Million, with Net Income of $57 Million, or $1.08 Per Diluted Share
- Company Reaffirms 2007 Iron Ore Sales Outlook at 22 Million Tons in North America and Eight Million Tonnes in Asia-Pacific
- PinnOak Resources Acquisition Provides Cliffs 4.5 Million Ton Metallurgical Coal Position in 2008
Joseph A. Carrabba, Cliffs’ chairman, president and chief executive officer said, “During the third quarter, we continued to control costs in North American Iron Ore extremely well. We are benefiting from our six sigma efforts as well as proactive maintenance programs performed at many of our mines during downtime in the first half of the year.”
Source: BusinessWire, an iSixSigma featured link
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, iSixSigma, Mining
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Six Sigma and Green Initiatives at IBM
Posted by: meikah | 8 October 2007 | 12:26 am
Business Green Blog writes about IBM launching a Green Sigma service soon. From the name alone, the new service will be a combination of Six Sigma, lean, process management principles, and green initiatives.
The focus will be on developing processes to reduce the carbon intensity of products and processes and create a lean green business. Read more…
In manufacturing especially, carbon usage is big. With this new innovation from IBM, I’m pretty sure other companies can learn from this. Other companies may already have their own green initiatives and are about to incorporate lean or Six Sigma, or both.
If you are among the latter, please do share your experiences here.
Source:
iSixSigma News
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Software/Technology, Sustainable Business, iSixSigma, Lean Manufacturing, IBM
1 Comment |
Interviews for a Six Sigma Deployment
Posted by: meikah | 4 October 2007 | 10:55 pm
Many companies want to go Six Sigma but are not sure about how to go about it. It’s that one initial step that can make or break your journey. I’ve learned about this from the Six Sigma and Lean seminars that I attended.
The common question is how do we choose the projects? How do we begin the deployment? Simple questions whose answers are not always the basic or easy solutions.
Bill Kastle and Max Isaac share with iSixSigma Financial Services how interviews can help in a Six Sigma deployment, specifically what questions to ask. The questions would touch the following areas:
- Experiences with change initiatives from the past. Are they still in place? Why or why not? Have they made people enthusiastic or cynical?
- Understanding of corporate strategy and priorities: key competitive selling points of the organization and its products/services; key barriers that may hinder or derail deployment of strategy. A big one might be whether organization leaders think they can afford to dedicate a percentage of the workforce as full-time Black Belts.
- Current attitude towards Lean Six Sigma. Do they see it as a means for accomplishing their goals? As a necessary evil?
- How decisions are made and how conflict is resolved. Styles of decision-making, commitment to a team decision once made, support for divergent views, the level at which decision-making occurs.
- What people consider key to their personal success within the organization. How are strategic planning and individual goals are aligned in performance evaluations?
- How work gets done — collaboration vs. silos.
- The organization’s and key individuals’ understanding of and experience with any element of Lean Six Sigma (processes, data collection, cycle-time reduction, best practice sharing, etc.).
- Training history. What training has the company provided in the past? What skills have been emphasized? How well has it worked?
- Union issues. To what extent will unions be a factor in the Lean Six Sigma implementation?
- How strategies, goals, success measurements, and targets are cascaded throughout the organization. What structures and processes exist that determine improvement priorities? How is progress monitored and who participates in the processes?
- Teamwork/collaboration. Is it there or is it lacking within the organization? Are there turf wars?
- Openness to new approaches. How prevalent is the “not invented here syndrome”?
Like any other endeavor, knowing what is it that you need or need to do is always a good way to start.
Filed under: Deployment, Tips, iSixSigma
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Lean Government Day in Iowa
Posted by: meikah | 27 September 2007 | 8:22 pm
If Fort Wayne City in Indiana is a Six Sigma city, then Iowa State is the Lean State. Iowa began using lean as a business improvement methodology in 2004.
Two years later, the State established the Office of Lean Enterprise within the Iowa Department of Management. The office is to promote and facilitate continuous improvement in Iowa state government through the use of a specific set of proven tools and methodologies collectively known as Lean.
Since then the Iowa has transformed service agencies by achieving double-digit improvements in time savings, quality, costs, and service levels.
According to a recent press release:
Iowa Governor Chester J. Culver has declared October 2nd as “Lean Government Day” to raise public awareness of the benefits of “Lean” productivity improvement techniques for state government agencies and to acknowledge the State of Iowa’s commitment to streamlining public services through the Lean culture. The proclamation will be presented on October 2nd in Des Moines during the Lean Government Exchange, hosted jointly by the State of Iowa and Guidon Performance Solutions, a TBM Consulting Group company.
Other cities and states or governments in general can learn from Fort Wayne and Iowa. It’s time that governments be run systematically and eliminate bureaucratic red tape.
