Six Sigma Cuts IT Costs at Cummins
Posted by: meikah | 7 October 2007 | 11:39 pm
I’ve written quite a lot about Cummins, Inc. here, and I can say that the company is a good example of an organization that has taken Six Sigma seriously and is enjoying the benefits of it.
Over at NetworkWorld, its National Correspondent Carolyn Duffy Marsan interviewed Gail Farnsley, Cummins CIO, and touched on how Cummins is able to cut down on IT costs using Six Sigma.
Some of the interesting points are:
- For employees who think they don’t have extra time to a Six Sigma project, encourage them to use Six Sigma in their tasks at hand.
- Six Sigma is about leading projects, doing analysis, and process improvement.
- You can do multiple pieces of IT stuff as Six Sigma projects.
- Six Sigma can be used for requirements gathering or reducing the cost of support or storage.
- Six Sigma should be the language of the whole organization.
Source:
NetworkWorld, a Six Sigma Zone featured link
*Photo from MorgueFile
Filed under: Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Six Sigma References, Tips, Interview, Technology, Cummins
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Innovation of the Week: Robotic Limbs Myomo e100
Posted by: meikah | 13 July 2007 | 12:22 am
We take a lot of things for granted. Perhaps one of those that we take for granted is our ability to move our body or flex our limbs. Some people are deprived of these though either by birth or some other stroke of mishap.
Mary O’Regan is one of them. She suffered a stroke after falling off a dirt bike, recovered from it, but never regained use of her left arm. Well, thanks to the latest in robotics, handicapped now has chances of being able to use their limbs.
New York Times Online - Health Section reports:
The Myomo e100 is designed to help stroke patients regain motion in their arms. The device, worn as an arm brace, works by sensing weak electrical activity in patients’ arm muscles and providing just enough assistance that they can complete simple exercises, like lifting boxes or flipping on light switches. By practicing such tasks, patients may begin to relearn how to extend and flex the arm, rebuilding and strengthening neurological pathways in the process.
Filed under: Innovation Update, R&D, Technology, Innovation
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Integrating ITIL, CMMI, and Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 8 July 2007 | 11:11 pm
You may have noticed that in the past days this blog has been inaccessible. Even up to now, we’re still having server problems. I wonder if server problems such as database error can be prevented by adopting Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma.
In the almost two years that I’ve been managing projects that involve the Internet, technology, programming, or software, I learned that developing and maintaining a website is a dynamic thing. My team and I always have to be on our toes for bugs, spam, and what-have-you’s. I also see many instances where Six Sigma can come into play. I’m getting there.
As I’m doing my research, I stumbled upon iSixSigma’s article on how you can better optimize your organization by combining three powerful methodologies: Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), or the Software Engineering Institute’s capability maturity model integration (CMMI) or Lean Six Sigma. This may or may not be the answer to my issue at hand, but I know it’s helpful for you readers out there.
Business leaders who want to enjoy the benefits of the combined methodologies and frameworks need a clear implementation roadmap - a roadmap that highlights the sequence of key tasks along the path of integration.
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Deployment, Technology
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Enabling SOA through DFSS
Posted by: meikah | 27 June 2007 | 8:23 pm
In any organization, it always is a conglomerate of people and technology. For an organization to be successful, its processes must be a well systematic marriage of human skills and technology.
SOA or service-oreinted architecture promises a transformation of the information technology assets of a business by making it possible to do more with less.
According to an article by Robert Cardone and Russell Danziger for iSixSigma:
By incorporating the Design for Six Sigma methodology with SOA initiatives, the promise of SOA can be achieved by assuring services are optimally designed from the start. This approach also will result in improved success rates, shorter delivery times and significant savings relative to traditional development approaches.
Filed under: Deployment, Processes, iSixSigma, Technology, Data Analysis, DFSS
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Innovation of the Week: BT’s ‘Motion-Sensing’ Laptop
Posted by: meikah | 1 June 2007 | 12:08 am
Technology is in a roll. I think every second, I hear of new technologies and the latest innovations.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Microsoft’s touch-screen computer, voice-powered technology, 3G, etc. And now comes a laptop that can be operated by moving or tilting it.
Early this month, BT announced that their researchers have used Nintendo Wii style technology to develop a device for laptops that removes the need for a keyboard or a mouse. This innovation will benefit those people who are handicapped, or even those who are unable to use their hands because they are in a crowded place or on fieldwork. Sure sounds like overdoing it, but perhaps there are people who still have to use their laptops even when they are in situations where it is difficult to do so.
The ‘motion-sensing’ laptop works this way:
BT Balance, works by enabling the user to manipulate menus and applications simply by moving or tilting their machine. The small, specially designed adaptor containing movement sensors can be plugged into any standard laptop or tablet PC. The adaptor is then able to ‘talk’ to software downloaded to the laptop and then translate the motion and rotation into actions on the user’s computer screen.
The software can be adapted so that users can move a cursor around the screen or even turn the pages of a virtual manual or book just by tilting or moving around their machine.
Filed under: Innovation Update, Technology, BT
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Innovation of the Week: The Office in Your Pocket
Posted by: meikah | 27 April 2007 | 12:30 am
Interesting, isnt’ it? Although wi-fi has made us do business with our laptops anywhere and anytime, this concept of having your office in your pocket is something else.
BT has introduced this innovation called Office Anywhere, a new service that gives users the functions of a Windows PC, but in a smartphone small enough to fit in the pocket.
What’s different about BT’s Office Anywhere smartphone, the HTC’s S620, is that it comes with VoIP. This enables users to make substantial savings on calls including capped calls made from from BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK and Ireland, from home and office networks, or from around the globe wherever users have access to a compatible wireless network. The smartphone has has a QWERTY keyboard to make inputting text easy and a large 2.4-inch screen colour display. It is quad-band with wi-fi and Bluetooth and has a 1.3 megapixel camera for taking photos and video clips.
Filed under: Telecommunications, Innovation Update, Technology, BT
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Improving Call Centers Operations Through Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 18 April 2007 | 11:23 pm
Call center operations hurdle such issues as expected response time and resolution from different clients every day. When crunch time comes when clients are ready to pull out because they are not happy with the service, most companies do two things: layoff the unproductive ones and hire new people, or hire more people to manage the calls.
More often than not, these solutions, albeit commonly practiced, do not really dig into the root cause of the problem. They just work around the variable that clients are unhappy because of response and resoluton time, thus they are quick to conclude that they need to increase their workforce.
There is however a more effective way to improve call-center operations. An iSixSigma article discusses how Lean Six Sigma can do the trick.
Analysis
In the course of doing a basic process analysis, the Lean Six Sigma expert discovered:
- The majority of calls that could not be resolved on the first call required some research by the service representatives.
- The service representatives were primarily judged on whether they were available to answer. This limited the time they could devote to research open issues. As a result, many calls that could not be resolved right away were often never resolved.
- Customers whose inquiries were not answered within a few days would call back. This increased the call volume, inflated the numbers of calls that could not be resolved on the first call, and led to multiple entries in the computer system for the same problem.
… Baseline data showed that the company was falling far short of its goal, achieving only a 50 percent first-call resolution rate and 62 percent five-day resolution rate.
Related Story: iSixSigma Blogosphere, “Contact Center Process Owner v. HQ Process Owner”
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Tools/Toolkits, Services, Lean Six Sigma, Deployment, Processes, iSixSigma, Technology, Call Center/BPO, Data Analysis
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5th Law of Lean Sigma: The Law of Complexity and Cost
Posted by: meikah | 3 April 2007 | 11:14 pm
When I featured the five laws of Lean, Reden, a colleague, requested that I do one more post on the fifth law, which is the law of complexity and cost. This made me do some more research on the subject to back my own understanding. During my research, I came across the five laws of Lean Sigma again and this time with the other four laws being defined. Thus, I posted Laws of Lean Six Sigma defined.
I must say, among the five laws, it’s the fifth that is quite interesting, especially during this time of keeping things simple, efficient, and of high quality.
The law of complexity and cost works on the premise that when you develop something complex, naturally there are more processes involved, which may or may not be really necessary for the desired output. Because there are more processes—or what is termed WIP, work in process—it will naturally involve more cost.
In the given definition of the fifth law, a complex processes are said to be more costly than those that are of low quality and speed. But you may ask, shouldn’t all processes be done with quality in mind? Yes, of course. Besides, you cannot help processes to becoming complex over time. It is a natural occurrence as you try to continuously improve processes. That is why it is important that we are able to manage the complexity of our processes to reduce costs, and yet ensure high quality processes. There lies the value of the law of complexity and cost: managing complexity and its cost and work towards lean.
The following links will illustrate more the laws of complexity and cost, and how to manage them.
An article on TechRepublic gives us some insights on managing the cost of complexity by striking a balance and controlling complexity to a certain leve that is still functional to the company.
Over at Electronic Design, an article shows how less complexity and cost push feature-driven autotechnology.
Then Coding Horror: programming and human factors shows the effect of the cost of software complexity.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Processes, Technology
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Laws of Lean Six Sigma Defined
Posted by: meikah | 2 April 2007 | 11:48 pm
A couple of posts back, I mentioned the five laws of Lean (Sigma), but only the fifth law was described. So, today, I’m reposting the five laws, with their definitions. I got the material from IT ToolBox Leadership Archives.
- The Law of the Market - Customer needs define quality.
- The Law of Flexibility - The speed of a process depends on how easily people can switch among tasks
- The Law of Focus - 20% of the Work delivers 80% of the value
- The Law of Velocity - The speed of a process in inversely related to the amount of Work IN Process (Little’s Law)
- The Law of Complexity and Cost - Complexity generally adds more cost and WIP (work in process) than either low quality or low speed.
Source: ittoolbox.com
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma References, Tips, Processes, Technology
1 Comment |
Innovation of the Week: Brainstorm Lite
Posted by: meikah | 30 March 2007 | 4:30 am
If you’re the kind of person who gets things done by writing your every task on post-its, then Brainstorm Lite may just be your kind of thing, too.
Over at ZDNet.com, Marc Orchant talks about a new innovation and accordingly a better version to sticky notes.
Brainstorm Lite (Mac only) which is a perfect replacement for sticky notes in a brainstorming technique I use frequently in meetings and coaching session. It is a digital version of the sticky notes that allows you to define the brainstorming time period and capture each participant’s output as an OPML, RTF, or text file which can easily be imported into a mind mapping tool, spreadsheet program, or word processor for aggregation, clustering, and labeling.
Here’s how it works:
- Give each participant a sticky notes pad and a medium tip black marker
- On a white board (best) or an easel pad, write the question or topic you’re brainstorming
- Define a short time period (five minutes is usually more than enough) and have everyone write as many ideas as possible - you’re after quantity, not quality at this point. All ideas are good - the crazier the better. Encourage everyone to write as quickly as they can and keep each though to a few words (hence the marker and not a pen or pencil). Write big!
- At the end of the time period, everyone slaps their notes on the white board and reviews all of the ideas. Again, time box this review – two to three minutes is usually enough. During this review, anyone can add a few additional ideas if something they see inspiresthem.
- Now ask everyone to collectively participate in clustering similar ideas together into groups. Encourage discussion and debate.
Brainstorm Lite sounds really cool, but it is only available to Mac users? Also, some people might still prefer the colorful sticky notes.
