SixSig Announcement: 2008 ISSSP Leadership Conference has Started
Posted by: meikah | 20 May 2008 | 7:15 pm
Check out the iSixSigma blogs for updates of this event.
Already, Michael Marx has posted two updates over at his SixSigmaCompanies blog. 
Find the conference details here.
Filed under: Events/Announcements, iSixSigma, ISSP
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Gulf Extrusions Goes Into Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 20 May 2008 | 6:17 pm
TradeArabia reports:
Gulf Extrusions, one of the largest aluminium extrusion plants in the Gulf, is in the final stages of implementing Six Sigma at its production plant in Dubai.
The move is in line with Gulf Extrusions’ strategy of achieving continuous process improvements and is expected to help the company consolidate its position in the highly competitive regional market.
“By introducing statistical process control across the plant we aim to further boost our business infrastructure and take our product quality to new heights. The pursuit of such an integrated approach towards quality is certain to help Gulf Extrusions reinforce its commitment to customer satisfaction, and in the process enabling us to maximise demand for our high quality aluminium products across the Middle East,” said general manager, Gulf Extrusions, Modar Al Mekdad.
This move is prompted by the increasing demand for aluminium (sic) extrusion in the Middle East region, specifically KSA, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait. The demand is seen to reach an average of 550,000 metric tons per annum by the end of 2008.
It’s good to know that Gulf Extrusions believes in Six Sigma to help them address this demand.
Source:
Six Sigma Zone
Filed under: Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Six Sigma, Gulf Extrusions Company
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Upcoming Lean, Six Sigma Conferences
Posted by: meikah | 18 May 2008 | 8:06 pm
GoingToMeet.com has lined up upcoming Lean, Six Sigma conferences that you shouldn’t miss:
11th Annual Lean & Six Sigma Summit 2008
Jun 02, 2008 -Jun 05, 2008
Sydney, New South Wales Australia2nd Annual Lean Six Sigma for Electronics
Jun 05, 2008 - Jun 06, 2008
San Jose, California United States3nd Annual Middle East Six Sigma Summit
Jun 22, 2008 - Jun 25, 2008
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Lean Six Sigma for Defense-San Diego
Jun 23, 2008 - Jun 25, 2008
The Estin Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego, California United States9th Annual Asian Six Sigma Summit 2008
Jun 24, 2008 - Jun 25, 2008
Singapore4th Annual Lean Six Sigma Improvement Week 2008
Sep 15, 2008 - Sep 18, 2008
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois United StatesWCBF’s Global Six Sigma Summit
Oct 07, 2008 - Oct 10, 2008
Las Vegas, Nevada United StatesASQ Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
Oct 12, 2008 - Oct 16, 2008
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Check out the conferences and Register now!
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Training, Six Sigma References, Events/Announcements, Defense, Six Sigma, GoingToMeet
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Tesco Goes Green Through Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 15 May 2008 | 1:04 am
ComputerWorld UK reports that Tesco, UK’s retail giant, reducing its carbon footprint to help preserve the environment.
Speaking before GreenIT 08 Conference in London, Mike Yorwerth, the company’s group technical director, shared that Tesco will be cutting down on its IT energy consumption. Among Tesco’s operations, it is the IT that consumes about 75% energy. This energy powers its shops through tills, servers, TVs and PDAs.
Yorwerth admitted that it might be difficult to manage that, but he was confident that with the help of Six Sigma and the coopeartion of its IT people, they could do it.
The supermarket giant has applied a Six Sigma-type methodology to greening its IT, which comprises of defining, measuring, analysing, improving and control. This has resulted in a series of initiatives that can have a major impact on the organisation’s environmental footprint, as well as longer term strategic planning, Yorwerth explained.
For instance, Tesco has 30,000 tills in the UK that traditionally have been left on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company has stared switching off unused tills overnight.
Update on Tesco:
Tesco Buys a Bigger Presence in Korea
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Sustainable Business, Retail, Six Sigma, Tesco
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Six Sigma Fixing a Deployment in Progress
Posted by: meikah | 14 May 2008 | 11:56 pm
Let’s say you already have deployed Six Sigma. After a year, you wanted to check if the projects were successful and objectives were met. The answer is in the negative.
What will you do? You create another Six Sigma project to improve your company’s Six Sigma program.
How?
iSixSigma Europe has the answer. It starts with:
Determining Project Details
The sponsor for this project was the vice president of human resources reporting to the European president. A suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers (SIPOC) diagram was used to scope the project, identifying the inputs and outputs and defining their stakeholders (Figure 1). An additional step, Identify, was added before Define in the typical DMAIC roadmap to allow for the selection of projects.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Deployment, DMAIC, Six Sigma, SIPOC
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The Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards
Posted by: meikah | 14 May 2008 | 10:41 pm
WCBF announces:
The early bird deadline for entries to the 2008 Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards program is less than four weeks ago on June 6, 2008.
The final deadline is three weeks later on Friday June 20, 2008. The Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards present you with a great opportunity to win recognition for the great work that you and your business excellence people are delivering to your organization, its customers, shareholders and other key stakeholders.
The Awards are judged by a panel of independent business improvement experts and practitioners. Each entry will be judged on the merits of the program implementation and results achieved against the organization’s strategic objectives.
The entry categories for the 2008 program include:
Organizational Categories
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in Financial Services
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in Manufacturing
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in IT, Software and Telecoms
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in Healthcare
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in Transactional Services
Business Process Excellence Categories
- Best Project Achievement in Innovation and Product Development
- Best Project Achievement in Supply Chain Management
- Best Project Achievement in Business Enabling Processes - HR/IT/Regulatory/Risk Management
- Best Project Achievement in Health, Safety and Environment
- Best Project Achievement in Sales, Marketing and Customer Experience
People Categories
- Six Sigma & Business Improvement CEO of the Year Award
- Business Improvement Deployment Leader of the Year Award
- Master Black Belt of the Year Award
- Black Belt of the Year Award
Special Awards
- The Platinum Award for Organizational Business Improvement
- The Platinum Award for Process Excellence Project
- Best Emerging Business Improvement Deployment
- Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement by a Small Organization
- Best Organizational Achievement in Lean Enterprise Improvement
Click here for more information about the awards or contact Flora Hamilton.
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Awards, Six Sigma
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Constraints Management and Lean and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 12 May 2008 | 8:47 pm
Whoa, there’s no end to these quality management concepts and methodologies! This only shows that competition is stiff and business is doing good that companies continuously find ways to enjoy benefits and savings.
Over at Supply Chain Management Review, there is a good discussion on how constraints management enhances Lean and Six Sigma. Inspired by the Eli Golratt’s Theory of Constraints, the article describes constraints management as:
Constraints management looks at the business as chains of dependent events and focuses improvement efforts on the weak links in the chains. On the face of it, the inclusion of yet another sophisticated business process might seem to lead to excessive complexity. But in practice, this new layered approach actually can simplify management’s job by providing a focusing mechanism for improvement initiatives.
Check out the article: How Constraints Management Enhances Lean and Six Sigma
Filed under: Lean, Six Sigma, Eli Goldratt, Theory of Constraints
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Nortel Continues with Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 12 May 2008 | 8:03 pm
Nortel, a recognized leader in communications capabilities, will be continuing with its Lean Six Sigma efforts for better business operations.
That’s what President and CEO Mike Zafirovski said during the annual stockholders meeting. Zafirovski highlighted Nortel’s progress against its business transformation plan and discussed the company’s growing momentum with customers. And this is what he says about the company’s view on Lean Six Sigma:
Nortel is not only addressing customer needs through innovation, but through operational initiatives as well. Nortel has launched almost 200 Lean Six Sigma projects designed to reduce costs and differentiate itself from the competition.
Nortel’s growing momentum with customers is evidence of progress against the company’s business transformation plan. “Our customer engagements are proving our relevance and momentum. A new Nortel has emerged and we have the traction to prove it.”
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Lean Six Sigma, Technology, Nortel
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Six Sigma and Lean
Posted by: meikah | 12 May 2008 | 7:17 pm
Many companies have deployed Six Sigma alone, others only Lean. Few braver ones venture into having both Six Sigma and Lean. All of them have claimed great benefits and savings.
I guess that is because every company must learn and decide which methodology is best for them, and suited to their kind of operations.
There is also another side of the spectrum, which claims that they stick to Six Sigma because Lean would require them to dismiss some of their people. In fact, many employees also have claimed to be displaced because their companies went lean.
This is not the case, however, with Hoffman. When they experienced a slump in 2001, they turned to Lean and Six Sigma to keep the company profitable and able to continue doing business. In so doing, they enjoyed great benefits and savings, and didn’t have to fire a single person.
President Del Nickel had committed the company to the philosophy and worked to ingrain it thoroughly into its culture that the results became significant enough to make a difference.
He began by initiating a number of small projects that would pay big dividends and by keeping the employees apprised of the situation. Seeing how these projects were making a difference, the employees rallied behind Nickel. “You hear horror stories about resistance to change among the workforce,” says Michele Massimino, a Six Sigma Black Belt and director of Lean Enterprise. “It didn’t happen here.”
Besides the series of successes and the continual stream of communication, there is another important reason that the employees supported the effort. “We’ve never fired somebody because of a Lean event,” notes Massimino. “We’ve always reassigned them.”
Source:
Six Sigma Zone News
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Lean, Six Sigma
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IT Data for Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 7 May 2008 | 10:48 pm
Dealing with data is part and parcel of any operation. But how to treat the data in your hands is another question. That is the usual dilemma that CIOs and senior IT team leaders face.
What’s ironic even, is that CIOs and senior IT team leaders often find themselves handling a lot of data, yet they seldom treat these information as something that can help them optimize their organizations effectively. That is because they don’t have the tools that help them sift through and find the relevant data. This is where Six Sigma comes in.
Thus, in the recent Six Sigma in IT conference, this question was asked: “What should we be measuring for our IT organization?”
To know the answers, read IT Measures That Matter.
Source:
Information Week
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
