Are you Aiming for a Sustained Six Sigma Synergy?

Or are you wondering why your Six Sigma synergy isn’t productive?

We all know that a good teamwork drives synergy. Thus if these are your questions, too, maybe you need to take a look at your Six Sigma team. As I’ve said before, Six Sigma isn’t all about data, metrics, and processes. It should also be run by people, or by a team who is capable and willing to work on it in for the long haul.

Having said that, I just have to share with you Bruce R. Duncil’s thoughts on sustaining Six Sigma synergy. I agree with him in all accounts.

Who hasn’t initiated a Six Sigma program to improve performance and bottom line results? It’s not uncommon to find companies where literally every employee is trained to some belt color and a dozen projects are always underway. Yet just when DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) is viewed as the “silver bullet�, we find rapidly increasing and more strongly worded discontent not only with the programs but with Six Sigma itself. What’s happening in your company? If your program isn’t delivering promised results, take a look at the people, projects and profit. Minor program adjustment may be all that’s required to realize investment return.

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Filed under: Team Dynamics, Deployment, Six Sigma

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Six Sigma Improving Human Performance and Workplace Safety

According to the Practicing Perfection Institute (PPI) survey, Six Sigma can improve human performance and workplace safety, slash errors and eliminate accidents, while showing efficiency improvements of more than 70%.

The results from three clients of PPI are:

• An electrical transmission organization in central Texas reports a 55.2% reduction in the average number of minutes per month of equipment outage caused by human error through integrating PPI’s methods.
• A major electrical transmission/distribution company in the northeastern U.S. reports that PPI’s own techniques for workplace safety resulted in an almost 75% reduction in human error rate — even in the midst of massive capital expansion employing multiple contractors!
• A commercial nuclear power plant was just awarded a Strength award by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) for its incorporation of Six Sigma methods.

Read more…

Source:
Six Sigma Zone News

Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Human Resource, Team Dynamics, Deployment, Six Sigma

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Introducing the TPS-Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma has evolved now into the TPS-Lean Six Sigma. The new initiative boasts of a wholistic approach to an organization’s process improvement. Wholistic means it touches not only on the non-human proceses, but also the human resource, which many companies say is their best asset.

EMQ shares The Evolution of Lean Six Sigma, TPS-Lean Six Sigma, first holistic program to address both business and human needs.

Highlights:

• TPS-Lean Six Sigma is a program that aligns the strategic goals of the company with the life goals of the individual.
• There are four fundamental elements of TPS-Lean Six Sigma Cycle.
• The result of using TPS-Lean Six Sigma is a highly optimized company that is driven by a highly motivated workforce.

Is this the much-awaited answer to the workforce-management saga? What are your thoughts?

Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Team Dynamics

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The Challenges of the Simple Goals of Lean Six Sigma

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.

1. Thirty to sixty percent reduction in Turnaround Time
2. Twenty to forty percent reduction in floor space requirements
3. Twenty to thirty percent improvement in equipment capacity
4. Twenty to fifty percent improvement in productivity
5. 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:

1. People don’t like being measured.
2. Having a “macho man” complex.
3. Getting achievers and problem solvers to work together.

Read the entire post.

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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What Makes Six Sigma Initiative Work?

I stumbled upon an interesting article on ezineseeker that says that Six Sigma is more than just number crunching. It is data-driven alright and analysis laden, but what makes it really work?

The article says it well.

…those who know Six Sigma have learned enough to be wary of excessive “number crunchingâ€� that does not lead to performance improvement. It is not the measurements or the reports that create solutions; it is the Six Sigma team itself. Once a problem’s root causes are determined in the analysis phase of a Six Sigma project, the team works together to find creative new improvement solutions. The data is used and relied upon—it is the measurements of the realities you face! Yet it is smart measurement and smart analysis of the data—and above all the smart creation of new improvement solutions and their implementation—that create real change.

Six Sigma is more than a data-capturing, number-crunching process. It is a philosophy and a methodology; it is a way of looking at business and a way of doing business processes. Six Sigma provides a structured data-driven methodology with tools and techniques by application of which companies can measure the baseline performance of their processes and determine the root causes of variations, as well as improve their processes to meet and exceed the desired performance levels. Six Sigma is a technique to introduce controlled thinking into a continuous change management method. It is a desire to constantly improve a product or service offered.

Read more…

So for the naysayers out there, perhaps you need to reexamine and refocus your quality improvement strategies.

Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Team Dynamics, Six Sigma

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Innovation of the Week: MySQL’s Collaborative Community

As the World Wide Web grows, most of the information that you would want to find or that you need has become available and free.

The concept of collaborative community is the principle behind MySQL, touted as the world’s most popular database. The company has been committed to “open-source” innovation since its founding in 1995.

In a recent interview, MYSQL chief Marten Mickos shares his ideas about why MySQL’s Internet-age version of a barn raising produces superior innovation and what motivates all those developers.

He spoke with Josh Hyatt, contributing editor of MIT Sloan Management Review, for the Business Insight Journal Report.

BUSINESS INSIGHT: What would cause a company like MySQL to make the radical move of open sourcing its product? Does a business just have to be born with that tendency toward transparency?

MR. MICKOS: Interestingly, the whole company was started by the founders writing the product code themselves. They were thinking of a closed-source product. Then one of the founders saw a presentation about open source and convinced the others that this was the way the world was going to go. That was in the first year, 1995.

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Filed under: Software/Technology, Team Dynamics, Innovation Update, Innovation, MySQL

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Do Six Sigma and HR Work Well Together?

Yes, they do, and I also believe so.

I found this article on Articles Bridge via Six Sigma Zone, and it discusses how HR and Six Sigma can work together and achieve the desired results.

This is how:

1. HR can help in forming the Six Sigma team.
2. HR can assist in creating job descriptions for candidates of each team member.
3. HR can ensure that Black Belts and the team get training in teamwork, conflict management and personal communication skills.
4. HR professionals, with their project management education and analytical skills, can help play a major role in strategic, operational and administrative activities of Six Sigma projects.
5. HR professionals can use the Six Sigma methodology in risk areas, where safety and health issues are a priority.

Read more…

In other words, both Six Sigma and HR involve people, teams, and team work. While HR specializes in making people or human resource function well, Six Sigma can provide the tool to enhance it. Thus, I see no reason for the two to not being able to work successfully together.

Related story:
Why HR Should Be Involved in Six Sigma

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

Filed under: Human Resource, Team Dynamics, Six Sigma

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On Six Sigma Training

The Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma training makes or breaks your (Lean) Six Sigma deployment. Based on what I know, it’s not enough that you send someone to training or that you just woke up one day and found Six Sigma appealing.

Thus, you need to prepare for it, and here are my suggestions:

1. Let management initiate the training and the Six Sigma initiative.
2. Decide on the kind of training that your company needs first: Six Sigma Champion? Six Sigma Black Belt, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Six Sigma Green Belt?
3. Determine the objectives you want to achieve after the Six Sigma training.
4. Are your expectations realistic?
5. Identify already the Six Sigma project that will be undertaken.
6. If you are on the team that selects who are sent to training, choose those who have worked in the shop floor. They have a better grasp of how operations go.
7. Evaluate the attitude and capability of the trainees. For one, they must have the inherent desire for change and improvement.
8. Know that a (Master) Black Belt will have a full Six Sigma schedule after the training, thus he shouldn’t be working on other tasks aside from Six Sigma.
9. Build a strong Six Sigma team based on #s 5&6.
10. Prepare for the cost of this quality initiative.

If you are the trainee:

1. Know the operations that you’re handling.
2. Know which training are you taking.
3. Examine your capabilities against that training.
4. Prepare yourself: read, research, consult.
5. Be an instrument of change, innovation.
6. Be open minded.
7. Be trainable.
8. Study.
9. Practice.
10. Be a team player.

Do you want to add to the list?

You may also want to check out:
Developing BBs and MBBs: Three Questions to Answer
Start Small with New Lean Six Sigma Initiatives

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Training, Team Dynamics, Six Sigma

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How Do You Define Successful Six Sigma Deployments?

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.

Continue reading…

Here are my suggestions for evaluating sucess in your projects:

1. Check again your objectives, those you had before you started with your deployment.
2. Are the objectives met?
3. If not, have you made adjustments to meet them?
4. Evaluate the team members who worked on the project.
5. Did they accomplish what they were set out to do?
6. Did they learn anything?
7. Evaluate your processes.
8. Do you see an improvement?
9. Do your team and management see the improvement?
10. Is the improvement sustainable?

What about you, how do you define success in your Six Sigma deployments?

Filed under: Team Dynamics, Deployment, Six Sigma

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What Composes your Six Sigma Team?

This is a very important question. The success of the improvement team will depend in part to its composition.

Many say that a good Six Sigma infrastructure should comprise fully trained business leaders, quality leaders, experts, and individuals supporting specific projects in their areas. Others also claim that a person from the shop floor would be a valuable member of the team as he knows the goings-on from below.

There is however a team that is working on Six Sigma efficiency, in fact more than six sigma because they claim only 1 mistake in every 16,000,000 deliveries. This team is not composed of engineers, quality practitioners, finance men, or management gurus.

I’m talking about the Dabbawalas. They collect home-made food and deliver it to the office workers. At first, you might think this task is just a piece of cake. But the Dabbawalas have increaed and so is their service.

And here’s the interesting part: Eighty-five percent of the Dabbawala team is illiterate and 15% is educated upto 8th grade. How does the Dabba team work?

The entire system depends on TEAMWORK and meticulous timing(in fact so meticulous that, during his visit to India, Prince Charles had to fit in with their schedule so as to not disrupt their schedule). In the course of the dabba’s daily journey, a single dabba would change hands 3 to 4 times. Prior to this, they are sorted out for area-wise distribution from the railway station where it was initially delivered. It is interesting to note that each dabba follows a color coded pattern.

Read more…

What does this imply? Simply that when you have good solid system in place, people understand it and follow it, then you achieve something great. If I remember correctly, I think it was Peter Drucker who said that 80% of the problem lies in the sytem, and 20% in people.

Related story:
Team Dynamics

Source:
BharatEntrepreneurs.com

*Photo from the article

Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Team Dynamics, Deployment, Zero Defects, Six Sigma, Dabbawalas

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