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

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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, Six Sigma, Team Dynamics

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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, Six Sigma, Team Dynamics, Training

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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: Deployment, Six Sigma, Team Dynamics

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

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What Lean Six Sigma Improvement Teams Should Do

Aside from strong harmonious teamwork, Tony Jacowski also suggests that the Lean Six Sigma implementation team should do the following:

1. Identify the common problems and challenges and focus only on those that are critical to the main process – make use of time-tested Six Sigma tools and techniques such as “Process Charts” that highlight each and every event, functionality, and sub-processes of the given process selected for improvement.
2. Seek input from people such as floor managers, supervisors, process managers, and others who might be having workable knowledge about the given business process. If required, middle and top management can also be requested to provide their valuable input and suggestions.
3. Utilize Six Sigma simulation tools.
4. Encourage creativity and innovation because sometimes only these skills can save a project from certain failure. Constant motivation, guidance, and recognition are good ways of promoting creativity and innovation among the Lean Six Sigma implementation team members.
5. (and if I may add)Sustain the improvement initiative by constantly reviewing data and processes.

Source:
Free Business Articles

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

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

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Batelco Continues with Six Sigma

Year 2006 was a banner year for Bahrain Telecommunications Company or Batelco. That was the year when the company invested more than BD50 million ($132.6 million) in the broadband infrastructure, new world class data centers, additional access to the web via a landing station (a first in Bahrain) and investment in Falcon cable systems and additional base stations for improved mobile coverage.

More importantly, that year, too, Batelco went into Six Sigma to improve customer service, product development, billing, and various IT processes aimed at more responsive customer care and a ‘single view’ of the customer.

A couple of years later, Batelco is still at it, and even pursuing vigorously its Six Sigma journey. AME Info reports that Batelco is investing in Six Sigma to achieve business excellence. Specifically, the company will invest in Six Sigma training to achieve its goal. So far, it has completed implemented 17 projects, the result of which has pleased the customers.

In that same article, too, CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos congratulated and rewarded 10 employees who have been certified as Six Sigma Black Belts, following their successful completion of the required professional training, through Juran Institute, USA.

Batelco is definitely on the right track!

Filed under: BATELCO, Deployment, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Team Dynamics, Technology, Telecommunications

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Pricewaterhouse-Coopers Deploys Six Sigma

Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC) is the world’s largest firm of accountants. I’m sure you know the nature of accountants’ work. It handles data, large figures even, and thus needs precision every step of the way.

What complicates things for PwC is that it has offices in different countries all over the world. How to coordinate all the company’s operations, and succesfully? PwC found the answer in Six Sigma.

Kathy Murray, managing director of infrastructure at PwC, saw MES (meeting and event services) as a prime candidate for the Six Sigma project “because it’s very process-oriented.” Meeting management had been centralized for years; however, Murray says, “individual meeting planners were doing their own thing. It was crying out for consistency.”

The Six Sigma project for MES started in April 2005, and as they say, the rest is history. Below are the improvements.
Process improvements:

• A stronger meeting and event policy
• Better cost avoidance
• Better service

Technology improvements:

• Better record-keeping
• Increased automation
• Improved tracking

Organizational improvements:

• More staff
• Division of tasks

Read how PwC leveraged Six Sigma and got benefitted by it.

Related story:
PricewaterhouseCoopers Deploys Six Sigma for Meetings Policy

*Photo from MorgueFile

Filed under: Deployment, Finance, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Six Sigma Organizations, Six Sigma Zone, Team Dynamics, Technology

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Roadblocks on Six Sigma Teams

Teams drive your Six Sigma deployment. Good teams and brilliant teamwork move your Six Sigma initiative more efficiently.

There are however situations and circumstances that teams encounter problems. This happens for several reasons. Are you in that stage where you feel that your team is not going anywhere? And that you’re trying to see what’s stopping your team from moving forward?

You may be encountering the roadblocks below, and may have yet to discover the solution. Check each one out and its corresponding solution.

Pitfall No.1: Starting a team when you have no data (line graph and pareto chart minimum) indicates you have a problem that cannot be solved using Six Sigma. Without data to guide you, you don’t know who should be on the team, so you end up with different people trying to solve different problems.
Solution: Set the team up for success. (1) Work with data you already have; don’t start a team to collect a bunch of new data. (2) Refine your problem before you let a group of people get in a room to analyze root causes.

Pitfall No.2: Question data. To throw a team off its tracks, some member who doesn’t like the implications of the data will state in a congruent voice that the data is clearly wrong. If you let it, this will derail the team into further data analysis. I know from experience that all data is imperfect. It has been systematically distorted to make the key players look good and to manipulate the reward system, but it is the “systematic” distortion that allows you to use the data anyway.
Solution: Recognizing that this member is operating on gut feel, not data.

Pitfall No.3: Whalebone diagrams. When searching for root causes, if your fishbone diagram turns into a “whalebone” diagram that covers several walls, then your original focus was too broad.
Solution: Go back to your pareto chart. Take the biggest bar down a level to get more specific. Write a new problem statement. Then go back to root cause analysis.

Continue reading…

Source:
ExpressComputer, a Six Sigma Zone featured link

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

Filed under: Deployment, Six Sigma, Six Sigma References, Six Sigma Zone, Team Dynamics

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Lean Six Sigma Culture and Knowledge Transfer

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.

Read more…

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

Filed under: Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma References, Team Dynamics, iSixSigma

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