Dow Chemical Innovates with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 14 January 2008 | 8:54 pm
I had written about Dow Chemical here a number of times already: when they started going Six Sigma, how they use Six Sigma to save on energy, and improve processes in their human resource.
The latest I’m sharing with you is how Dow Chemical Co. pursues innovation by not soley relying on inspiration, but on Six Sigma.
Dow Chemical is one of those companies that regard innovation as the lifeblood of their business. Surely, they cannot wait for for inspiration to strike to come up with high-quality products and exceptional services.
Over at RealInnovation.com, Sue Reynand shares how Dow pairs innovation with Six Sigma to keep their business ahead. As a matter of fact, Dow combines different methodologies to be constantly on the go.
They have a systematic blend of Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), which supplants inspiration with investigation. According to Tom Kling, a longtime Dow employee who served as Master Black Belt:
“it has proven to be a powerful combination. Six Sigma and DFSS bring the kind of up-front decision making that makes sure the problems you’re working on are important to the business. On the other hand, it helps you arrive at new solutions by importing technical solutions or scientific principles from other disciplines. So you solve design problems much more quickly.”
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Deployment, Innovation, DFSS, Six Sigma, Dow Chemical Co.
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Erie County Goverment Gears Up for a Six Sigma Training
Posted by: meikah | 13 January 2008 | 8:32 pm
About a couple of months ago, I shared here the plan of Erie County to use Six Sigma to save taxpayers’ money. The county would begin doing it by giving its people Six Sigma training.
Well, just last week, wgrz.com reports that by a vote of 14 to 1, Erie County lawmakers voted to approve a 6 Sigma appointment for Erie County government.
Al Hammonds, a Six Sigma Blackbelt, will be the Director for Six Sigma in Erie County and accordig to him, he will teach, train, implement those methodologies, administrate and establish an infrastructure and systems to get Six Sigma, or more importantly the improvements, going.
I commend the County for going seriously into improving their operations. I wish other governments would do the same.
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Training, Deployment, Public Sector, Six Sigma
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6 Steps to Thinking Lean (Six Sigma)
Posted by: meikah | 10 January 2008 | 8:19 pm
Having lived all my life here in the Philippines, I thought I had adjusted and accepted the long lines or the arduous process by which most agencies accomplish things here.
But doing things that way is very counterproductive. It’s a waste of time! And so I long for shorter, faster way of doing things. If it can be done, why not do it?
This is why I am leaning towards learning the lean thinking. In Japan, where the Lean concept is developed, the term is muda, a philosophy that aims to eliminate waste mainly by shortening processes.
If we apply it to the supply chain, Lean is about shortening the time between the customer order and shipment. An iSixSigma article shares the six steps that can help incorporate Lean into a company’s operating philosophy. These steps are based on a customer-focused view.
These steps in Lean thinking can be best evaluated at the producer end by verifying and reviewing each step one at a time.
- Value
- Value Stream
- Flow
- Pull
- Perfection
- Replication
Incorporate these steps to Six Sigma tools, then you have a powerful methodology: Lean Six Sigma.
Source:
Promax Consulting News
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Processes, Lean
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Six Sigma Improves Hospital Processes
Posted by: meikah | 8 January 2008 | 9:41 pm
I went to Makati Medical Center last week to visit a friend. Normally, I would take the stairs for lower floors, but since his room was on the 7th floor, I decided to take the elevators. But boy, the elevator lines were long and slow! There were only three working elevators, and this was one of the premier hospitals in the country!
Not wanting to waste my lunchbreak, I found myself taking the stairs after all. Good thing, his wife sent me a text message to meet me instead at the Floating Restaurant for lunch. Three floors up would do me good, too.
I believe good working elevators are a must for hospitals. Definitely, among other processes at Makati Med, their elevators need improvement. Maybe, they’d like to have a try at Six Sigma, which could improve hospital processes as shown in the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) study.
The study shows that performance improvement practices such as Six Sigma might help hospitals decrease in-patient mortality, length of hospital stay, and healthcare costs. Click here to read how Six Sigma helps in patient care.
Source:
Quality Digest, a featured link of Six Sigma Zone
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Services, Healthcare, Processes, Six Sigma Zone, Quality Digest, Six Sigma
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How Six Sigma Quality and Statistical Tools Work
Posted by: meikah | 7 January 2008 | 9:41 pm
Six Sigma is the kind of methodology that you may or may not implement wholistically. If you think your organization is not ready or won’t really benefit from a full Six Sigma implementation, then you have the option to use its tools to improve your processes.
So how does the quality and statistical tools of Six Sigma work?
Valerie Bolhouse, writing for Vision Systems Design, shares some insights using the Windshield Project as an example.
Click here to read the article.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Tools/Toolkits, Deployment, Six Sigma
2 Comments |
Linh Ho’s 2008 Six Sigma Resolutions for IT Service Management
Posted by: meikah | 6 January 2008 | 9:06 pm
For those companies that are enjoying the benefits of Six Sigma, I’m sure they would continue with Six Sigma in 2008. However, for those who have yet to see the value of Six Sigma in their organizations, I hope you’ll find that one methodology that will help prople your organization to success this year.
For all of us, let us learn from the insights below.
Over at eweek.com, Linh Ho, co-author of the IT Service Management Forum’s Six Sigma for IT Management, shared her Six Sigma Resolutions for IT Service Management in 2008.
- Listen to the business/customers. Six Sigma and ITIL suggest ways to do that and improve the value IT brings to the business and understand the priorities to really capture what’s important to the client.
- Focus on what is critical to quality. Often, IT shops are oblivious to the needs of their customers. Six Sigma helps IT really understand what’s more client and revenue impacting.
- Improve, pay attention to quality improvement. If you improve the quality of service, essentially the business that depends on those services sees a bottom line improvement.
- Measure and report. Many IT shops have no mechanism to measure and report on service quality. Six Sigma has the tools.
- Initiative a continual cycle or continual service improvement project. Six Sigma techniques such as DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) can help with such efforts, which should start small.
- Create SLAs (service level agreements) that are relevant to the business stakeholders. These SLAs have to be more client-focused and less infrastructure component focused. Involve your business counterparts to set these SLAs to insure the services you are delivering are relevant to the business and to customer needs.
Filed under: Tools/Toolkits, Deployment, DMAIC, Six Sigma
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Top 5 Things About Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 4 January 2008 | 12:36 am
You’ve probably read a lot about Six Sigma by this time, and think that you know it by heart. But in the spirit of continuous improvement we shouldn’t stop learning. There is always something new to discover and learn.
Over at BusinessKnowledgeSource.com, Manufacturing Info section puts out the top five things you need to know about Six Sigma.
- Six Sigma gathers data from customers and turns these data into processes that can be worked on.
- Six Sigma helps determine the method by which these data will be analyzed and used.
- Six Sigma has the tools that will bring down these data into realistic goals that can be accomplished.
- Six Sigma can track and analyze the progress from change to improvement.
- Six Sigma directs you to your goal and shows you how to achieve it.
Filed under: Six Sigma
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A Six Sigma New Year Parable
Posted by: meikah | 2 January 2008 | 9:04 pm
I love the new year because it means new beginnings, new challenges. And if we speak in the context of business operations, a new year can mean new opportunities for improvement.
Perhaps, a most obvious indicator of a service or product delivered with quality in mind is doing things “just right” — not too early, not too late, but just in time.
As I scoured the web for new year insights in relation to Six Sigma, I found an interesting parable on iSixSigma Software/IT.
Mama Bear, the deployment leader in the consumer products unit, liked her porridge “fast.” In fact, Mama Bear usually prefered to eat her porridge before it is cooked. Her deployment effort had been under way for about a year, and had caused a lot of grumbling and growling from the neighborhood bears because they did not like uncooked porridge (lots of unfocused activity). They preferred well-cooked outcomes (real demonstrated benefits). So, the Bears executive committee decided it just was not going to put up with it any more, and insisted the deployment team make a plan for a hot breakfast.
As all good planning processes do, the planning process began by developing a list of all the things necessary to prepare a hot breakfast (a work breakdown structure). There were several sub-teams – one to procure the ingredients (define objectives and select projects), one to do the cooking (execute the selected projects), one to set the table (address change management issues) and one to do the serving (evaluate benefits realized). Each group was asked to develop their own to-do list and estimate the time and effort required for each item on the list.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
