Lean Six Sigma Saving Money and Environment in Heidelberg
Posted by: meikah | 23 July 2008 | 11:04 pm
ARMY.MIL news reports:
Residents in 10 family housing buildings in Heidelberg have walked through a six-week education process designed to significantly reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste that has to be incinerated.
The pilot project, called “Rumbling Rubbish/Keep It Green” was developed by Heidelberg Recycling Manager Travis Vowinkel, and with the support of the Environmental Division, the pilot program was launched.
The project has been successful because of Lean Six Sigma. Worked on as a Lean Six Sigma project, the families in the pilot project were educated about recycling and reducing wastes. The education campaign did not only involve info campaign materials but the staff members themselves also met with each family and showed them the recycling process that results in the least amount of non-recyclable waste.
Recycling projects are happen all over the world and some are making progress, others are struggling. But what struck me about this environment effort is the use of Lean Six Sigma. 
Anyone of you have used Lean Six Sigma in their environment projects, too?
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Lean Six Sigma, Military, Sustainable Business, Six Sigma, Environment
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NYISO Enhances Website Response Time Through Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 23 July 2008 | 9:48 pm
The response time of New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) website has improved a lot. Users are now able to enter and navigate the site much faster and more easily.
The NYISO’s website is important to a lot of people, especially those involved in and affected by news and policies in the transmission and generation, and other power supply industry. The site contains news and information about the bulk electricity grid and wholesale electricity markets in New York State.
The team of NYISO employees tasked with improving website response time attribute their success to Lean Six Sigma. In doing so, here are what they have accomplished:
- reduced the site’s average page download time from 17.3 to 3.3 seconds
- improved the downloading the site’s home page more than 1200 percent - from 18 to 1.3 seconds
- reduced the number of templates, combining computer script and compressing graphics, so that dozens of nyiso.com portals were accelerated
I can say that NYISO has the good sense to think of their users. Other websites don’t seem to care at all!
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Software/Technology, Internet, NYISO
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The Challenges of the Simple Goals of Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 21 July 2008 | 9:28 pm
According to Jay Arthur, the goals of Lean Six Sigma are simple. Sharing it with Exchange Morning Post, Mr. Arthur lists down the simple goals of Lean Six Sigma.
- Thirty to sixty percent reduction in Turnaround Time
- Twenty to forty percent reduction in floor space requirements
- Twenty to thirty percent improvement in equipment capacity
- Twenty to fifty percent improvement in productivity
- Thirty to sixty percent reduction in inventory
It should have been doable and achievable if only there are no barriers to it. Again, Mr. Arthur listed down the barriers:
- People don’t like being measured.
- Having a “macho man” complex.
- Getting achievers and problem solvers to work together.
Thus, the biggest challenge is really the people. In my previous post, I said that what makes Six Sigma work is the Six Sigma team, then this post validates that the same team is also the most challenging factor to address.
Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Team Dynamics
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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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Lean Six Sigma and Process Analytical Technology (PAT)
Posted by: meikah | 17 July 2008 | 12:38 am
According to the iSixSigma article:
PAT is a scientific program designed to reduce risk and is, essentially, about improving processes for effectiveness and efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry. PAT consists of four basic components:
- Process understanding
- Risk-reduction-based approach
- Regulatory strategy to accommodate innovation
- Real-time release
From the definition alone, it’s quite obvious that it is a perfect fit with Lean Six Sigma. Because like PAT, Lean Six Sigma:
- breaks down processes to make them more manageable
- works toward streamlining processes to reduce waste or risk
- encourages and supports innovation
- improves processes to achieve efficiency
Care to add to the list of reasons?
