7 Deadly Sins of Strategy to Avoid When Deploying Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 15 October 2006 | 9:03 pm
Six Sigma is a quality strategy that has been helping companies reap rewards and enjoy savings.
However, I believe that Six Sigma or any other strategies can stand to learn from SDG’s seven deadly sins of strategy featured on BNET.
Strategic Decisions Group came up with these seven deadly sins, which are believed to destroy the organization’s value. As value is destroyed, no amount of strategic planning will propel the organization to success.
The sins are listed on how participants rated the sins on a scale of most to least deadly:
- Delusion. This is crafting a strategy without grounding in reality. Goals are unreasonable, with no means or capability to achieve them. Assumptions are unrealistic.
- Pride. Success is attributed to superior management skills. The organization pursues hyper-growth with limited controls, and lack respect for competition.
- Indolence. There is overemphasis on thinking about opportunities and a lack of emphasis on activity, execution, and follow-through.
- Incognizance. There is lack of knowledge and awareness. Often, the organization is unwilling or unable to internalize critical external threats because they are focused on satisfying the narrow needs of current customers.
- Wimpiness. This is characterized by bland alternative and overly risk-averse behaviors. The organization is prone to giving big penalties for bad outcomes and low incentives for taking risks. Wimpiness results when the organization overlearns from past failures.
- Groupthink. Making decisions involve uncritical acceptance of prevailing points of view. The group tend to quickly agree, downplay dissent, and avoid conflict. It often results in mob behavior.
- Simplism. The organization oversimplifies problems. They tend to concentrate on a single aspect of a problem without taking consideration on all other factors.
*Photo credit: MorgueFile.com
Filed under: Tips
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Women Engineers Honors Bechtel Six Sigma Leader
Posted by: meikah | 12 October 2006 | 8:05 pm
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has honored Siddika Demir with the SWE’s 2006 Emerging Leaders Award for demonstrating excellent leadership in quality assurance.
Siddika Demir is manager of corporate services/Six Sigma for Bechtel Corporation. As such, Demir sets Six Sigma strategies and goals for corporate service organizations both individually and collectively. She is responsible for the success of Six Sigma goals for five senior vice presidents; has oversight of 140 Six Sigma trained individuals in corporate services; and serves as the lead Six Sigma black belt for all corporate services, which has a staff of more than 350.
Peggi S. Knox, vice president for Bechtel has this to say about Demir and her achievement:
“Through Six Sigma, Demir is now leading the four corporate service organizations in improving the quality of services they deliver to their customers. A successful black belt, she has applied her engineering knowledge and strong leadership skills to manage these four demanding organizations and help them improve their processes.”
With that record of successful Six Sigma projects and involving that number of people is a tough feat indeed. Demir truly deserves to be honored, and she’s a valuable resource person for Six Sigma in the industry. Congratulations!
Filed under: Manufacturing, Awards
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Visa To Go Public
Posted by: meikah | 11 October 2006 | 10:51 pm
Companies do IPO (Initial Public Offering) mainly to increase capitalization. The need to increase capital often comes in the face of reorganization or restructuring.
Reorganization is tantamount to lean and process improvement. Since Visa is going in that direction, perhaps there’s room for them to go Six Sigma later, that is if they haven’t done it yet.
Read about Visa going public on Global Business Watch.
Filed under: Finance
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AVC Corp. Embraces Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 10 October 2006 | 10:07 pm
Here’s another testimonial from a company that is benefitted by Six Sigma.
AVC Corporation manufactures custom thermoformed packaging, and is an office equipment supplier. The demand and extent of usage for these products are enormous. Before the company went into Six Sigma, they experienced delays, cycle time errors, and many other wasteful activities that hindered them from fully satisfying their customers.
Over at 1to1 Media, Dan Benbenek, president of AVC Corp., was the featured interviewee in the 1to1 Magazine. Benbenek shares how his company traveled down the Lean Six Sigma journey.
The interview is mostly about how the company dealt with naysayers. One of the questions that I like is:
Q: Can you explain how you drilled down to every step?
A: Every person involved in the meeting relayed what they do when it comes to parts and parts distribution, which includes purchasing, bringing it into the system, shipping it to the technicians, shipping it to the customer, leaving it in for pick-up, everything. And so we measured them. We measured the time that it takes right now to do this, how many people, and how many steps were involved in this process.What we did on day two was look at how we can streamline the process, make it more efficient, make everyone involved more efficient, and reduce the chaos through this process. And with everyone involved, we came up with some good plans.
Continue reading the interview.
This is getting to the root cause of the problem, and solve it.
Filed under: Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, Deployment
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Implementing Six Sigma in Call Centers Level I—Yellow Belt Training
Posted by: meikah | 9 October 2006 | 7:51 pm
If you’re working in a call center, there’s nothing that will please your customers more than prompt responsiveness, reduced errors, streamlined processes, and consistent, high-quality services. If you’re wondering how to do this? Then you better attend the Yellow Belt Training on Implementing Six Sigma in Call Centers.
The training is the first step to becoming a truly Six Sigma organization. There’s no harm in starting from scratch, and build your skills with slow, but sure steps.
Sponsored by ICMI, the seminar is selling like hotcakes for already the October 16-19 dates are all sold out. Register as early as now for the March 12-15, 2007 dates in Ponte Vedra, Florida.
Course Objectives:
- Provide participants with practical examples from the customer contact center industry on how to use Six Sigma tools to improve service, quality, revenue, and cost in customer contact centers.
- Use Six Sigma tools and analysis on data from their own customer contact center operations to dramatically show the positive impact of using Six Sigma in their operations.
- Learn how to use Six Sigma to manage metric performance (set priorities, set Specification Limits, and Six Sigma Scorecard).
- Learn when to use each Six Sigma tool with specific guidelines for the customer contact center industry.
- Lean how to be wary of excessive “numbers crunching” that does not lead to performance improvement and how to prevent this from occurring.
- Use key Six Sigma tools to more effectively install, deploy, and improve the ROI from using the COPC-2000® Standard for Vendor Management Organizations (VMOs) or Customer Service Providers (CSPs).
Filed under: Training, Certification, Events/Announcements
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True Six Sigma Companies Save More
Posted by: meikah | 8 October 2006 | 7:43 pm
Many companies claim that they’re into Six Sigma and that they have been benefitted by this quality management strategy. I was just too happy to praise these companies, only to find out later that they are not what we can brand as true Six Sigma companies.
Over at Manufacturer.com, an Aberdeen Research survey (The Lean Six Sigma Benchmark), which was published in Manufacturing News, said that only 16 percent of Six Sigma adherents hold true to the Six Sigma principles. Yet those who do, even if imperfectly, produce on average 40 percent higher savings to date and 65 percent more savings per project.
Cindy Jutras, Vice President, Manufacturing & ERP Research at Aberdeen, recommends the following Six Sigma strategies:
- Apply metrics of DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities) across all business processes in all industries, not just manufactured products and parts.
- Identify and prioritize business impact projects according to anticipated savings and improved throughput. Look first for low-hanging fruit and act now for immediate benefit.
- Integrate data collection with analysis - connect disparate sources of data and alert users.
*Photo credit: MorgueFile.com
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment
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Six Sigma and Customer Satisfaction
Posted by: meikah | 5 October 2006 | 10:54 pm
It is often said that companies work toward Six Sigma, that is 3.4 defect per million opportunities, to increase bottomline and to please customers. Satisfying customer requirements is always part of the grand plan. After all, it’s the customer who brings in the cash and repeat business.
This is exactly what Taiwan’s automobile industry is working on. According to a paper authored by Shui-Chuan Chen, associate professor of industrial engineering and management at the National Chin-Yi Institute of Technology; Kun-Cheng Chen, professor at the Institute of Production System Engineering and Management, National Chin-Yi Institute; and Tai-Chang Hsia, associate professor with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Chienkuo Technology University, Changhua, Taiwan, R.O.C., at present, Taiwan’s automobile industry is in the product maturity stage—the market is saturated while the market scale has remained unchanged. Therefore, there is a need to establish an effective quality control performance and improvement models.
The system needs to start a mechanism of low-cost and high-processing speeds to be able to stay competitive in the highly demanding, and constantly changing environment. This will create a product of high customer satisfaction needed for the industry to survive.
Following the DMAIC model of Six Sigma, the study was able to measure the performance of the customer’s requirements. They created a questionnaire and “analyzed” the performance of the product quality mechanism, which is then transferred to a related product specification. Next, they used key elements found in the quality process, performed by related sectors, as a counterclosure for planning and “improvement.” Finally, they equipped management with a complete model of evaluation and improvement to help, define, measure, analyze, improve, and control the product quality mechanism quickly and effectively. A better customer satisfaction and business profit is achieved by creating a perfect product quality and service value through a timely and effective promotion of product design, manufacturing, and service quality.
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Manufacturing
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“Villanova University Launches Industry’s First Online Six Sigma Certification”
Posted by: meikah | 3 October 2006 | 8:51 pm
So goes the PR Newswire of Forbes.com.
Villanova University launches its online Six Sigma certification and becomes the first in the industry to have done so.
This certification program is reported to be a state-of-the-art, three-course master program. It will teach professionals proven techniques for minimizing waste and improving efficiencies, empowering them with key skills to use immediately. The course culminates with an online comprehensive exam—available for Green Belt, Lean Sensei or Black Belt certification—with results available immediately.
George Eckes, the best-selling Six Sigma author and consultant, teaches these online courses.
“Earning your Green Belt, Lean Sensei or Black Belt certification validates your commitment to quality, increases your earning potential, and offers you a competitive advantage in the workplace. In today’s job market, certification is an excellent way to distinguish yourself as the Six Sigma expert.” said Eckes, whose clients include Motorola, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Volvo and others.
The press release however did not say if there would be hands-on training on Six Sigma projects. I believe that is essential to a valid training. You better check out with Villanova University because this is too good a training to pass up.
Filed under: Training, Events/Announcements
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Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chain Management
Posted by: meikah | 2 October 2006 | 8:06 pm
Having problems managing your supply chain? Fret no more. Here’s a good book that will guide you every step of the way.
Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chain is written by James Martin, a Master Black Belt/Educator, who has successfully condensed into a 10 step process the application of tenets of lean operations—adopted from the Toyota Production System—and Six Sigma management principles to supply chain management. The tools, methods and concepts presented in the book provide a concise Lean Six Sigma supply chain reference for champions, managers, black belts, green belts, lean experts as well as supply chain professionals.
The 10-step solution process presented in Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chain Management will enable readers to:
- Use Lean Six Sigma Methods to Identify and Manage Supply
- Master Lean Concepts in Order to Simplify Processes
- Discover How Demand Management Impacts Inventory Investment
- Learn How Reducing Lead Time Impacts Inventory Investment
- Apply Lean Six Sigma to MRPII/Material Requirements Planning
- Utilize Inventory Models to Identify Lean Six Sigma Projects
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma References
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Six Sigma at Decatur Memorial Hospital
Posted by: meikah | 1 October 2006 | 10:26 pm
It seems like more and more healthcare companies are turning to Six Sigma.
Andrew Hillig of iSixSigma Blogosphere, a Lean Six Sigma specialist for Covenant Healthcare in Milwaukee is already running a very interesting blog on applying Lean Six Sigma to healthcare. Another healthcare company has turned to Six Sigma for excellent operations to better serve its customers.
Decatur Memorial Hospital recently announced that its team has used a Six Sigma approach to analyze the hospital’s medication-use process, and then looked for automation approaches to help streamline the process.
The team identified 132 steps in the hospital’s patient drug-delivery system; 42 were eliminated through subsequent automation projects. In addition, the hospital reduced the time it takes to dispense and administer drugs to patients from 186 minutes to 104 minutes.
Ron Wolschlag, director of the hospital’s pharmacy, said, “Medication errors have dropped 70 percent, with very few of the more serious med errors. Our nurses are much happier with the new system because it makes them much more efficient and gives them more time for patient care.”
I’m big on healthcare and this development will definitely boost patients’ confidence in hospitals. After all, how many times have we heard of stories about wrong medication administered on patients? I hope that other healthcare companies also see the advantage of Lean or Six Sigma to their operations.
*Photo credit: MorgueFile.com
