6th Aircraft Maintenance Group Resource Management Division Goes Lean and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 19 October 2008 | 9:16 pm
TinkerTakeOff reports that recently a team from the 76th Aircraft Transformation Group provided some Lean and Six Sigma orientation and training and how the methodologies could be applied to the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group Resource Management Division.
The focus was on applying Lean, Six Sigma, and other process improvement tools to administrative, service and transactional processes.
The Lean, Six Sigma, and Process Improvement Tools training is aimed to do the following:
- Identify key administrative wastes and the constraints limiting an organization’s performance
- Analyze potential root-causes
- Apply the proper continuous-improvement countermeasures
- Elevate the administrative constraints in operating processes
- Eliminate waste in administrative value streams
- Provide the administrative employees an informative perspective of their duties and brought forth attention to areas of concern
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Airforce, Aviation, Lean, Processes, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Auto Suppliers Benefit fron Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 16 October 2008 | 12:18 am
The Birmingham Post reports:
Eight automotive suppliers from the West Midlands have retained or won more than £37 million of business with the help of an industry supply chain network initiative.
… In addition to the contracts secured, the innovative project has also helped firms save nearly £800,000 and safeguarded close on 500 jobs, not to mention improving 43 processes, ranging from invoicing and stock control to quality and product design.
This is yet another proof that Six Sigma not only improve proceses beyond the shop floor, but also allow companies to enjoy a lot of savings.
Filed under: Automotive, Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma, Supply Chain
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Six Sigma Inspires the SciHealth of The Hospital of Saint Raphael
Posted by: meikah | 15 October 2008 | 9:44 pm
The Hospital of Saint Raphael implemented Six Sigma in 2004. The purpose then was to help staff in making decisions using some data.
Years later, the process improvement effort of the hospital grew and is now named SciHealth Insight. I’m sure this a Six Sigma-inspired initiative.
With SciHealth, Saint Raphael hospital has improved the amount of time to admit an emergency room patient. It is also used to ensure a smooth flow of patients coming in and out of the hospital.
The result, from decision to admit to when the patient is checked in to their inpatient bed, improved from an average of 327 minutes to an average of 167 minutes by September 2008. That posted a 49% decrease in admit time.
This is a commendable accomplishment. Way to go!
Read:
The Hospital of Saint Raphael Uses SciHealth to Decrease Emergency Room Admission Times
Filed under: Healthcare, Services, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Lean/Six Sigma for Every Functional Area
Posted by: meikah | 15 October 2008 | 8:11 pm
Lean and Six Sigma are no longer limited to the shop floor. Their effect and influence have gone beyond the production or manufacturing areas.
Lately, companies have seen the value of Lean and Six Sigma also in marketing, sales, finance, and other service areas. As such, many corporations are looking for lean/Six Sigma experts who can help deliver the potential of the technology to every functional area.
Here are some stories of what Lean and Six Sigma can do:
At Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc., President John Gilligan shares that Lean/Six Sigma through the company’s Design For Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) software, their product development has simplified a wide variety of other manufacturing steps including reduced assembly time, potentially fewer suppliers, and reduced production floor space requirements.
At Hypertherm Inc., director of engineering, Mike Shipulski says that the DFMA software enabled a first pass part count reduction as high as 50%. About 500 parts were eliminated from the product, a main power supply sub-assembly that originally contained about 1,000 parts. The resulting reduction in assembly floor space requirements made it possible to satisfy a growing market demand within the existing building. “We didn’t have to add floor space,” Shipulski added.
Filed under: Deployment, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Manufacturing, Processes, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Improving Legal Sales and Services Process Through Lean and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 13 October 2008 | 9:03 pm
It has been already established that Six Sigma is no longer limited to manufacturing. Lean and Six Sigma has also been making improvements in the service sector.
A case in point is the legal sales and service processes. Over at law.com, an article discusses how legal processes are improved or being improved through Lean and Six Sigma.
Here are some examples:
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, through Richard J. Sabat, a Six Sigma Green Belt, developed a Six Sigma legal services model “that reduces, often by more than 25%, the cost of delivering legal service for mortgage loan transactions.” Reportedly, the project commenced first in 1974, was employed on an institutional basis in 1988 and was retooled in 1997 and then again from 2000 to 2003.
Kathleen T. Pearson, a business development professional and process improvement practitioner, fixed a problem at her firm: “We were not capturing our firm experience efficiently. Not having this information resulted in having to initiate a fire drill every time we needed specific experience for a proposal or client meeting; we ultimately were submitting incomplete information.” She tackled the project by first mapping the process in detail. This allowed her to identify issues and explore alternative process designs. The solution that was developed eliminated waste and rework, educated employees and created a very useful tool in the form of new data input screen. The results speak for themselves. The firm improved the capture rate of firm experience from 6% to 100%.
Filed under: Law/Legal Service, Lean, Six Sigma
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“Caterpillar Inc. Uses Six Sigma Teams to Achieve Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Goals”
Posted by: meikah | 13 October 2008 | 8:48 pm
That’s the news on CSRWire.
Projects implemented by Six Sigma teams focused on heating efficiency, more efficient lighting and control of equipment and can be replicated across the globe at Caterpillar facilities, not only reducing emissions, but also saving money, improving quality and engaging employees.
The results: In 2006, Caterpillar reduced its total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 36 percent per dollar of revenue, exceeding its 2010 goal of 20 percent intensity reduction. The company again exceeded the goal in 2007 with a 38 percent intensity reduction over 2002.
For Caterpillar to use Six Sigma teams to drive its sustainable projects is actually no surprise. Caterpillar has been a Six Sigma company for years now, and has been reaping benefits from it.
Filed under: Caterpillar Inc., Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Sustainable Business, Team Dynamics
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Banks Going Lean and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 13 October 2008 | 7:49 pm
Last week, we read about manufacturing companies going into Six Sigma to keep afloat during economic crisis.
Today, banks, which are probably the hardest hit, are encouraged to adopt Lean and Six Sigma principles to weather the economic storm. Quoted in an article on Bank Systems & Technology, Larry Mead, VP with Guidon Performance Solutions, said that Lean and Six Sigma principles are also applicable to financial institutions and are especially relevant today. He further says:
“Lean focuses on making things flow, like a mortgage loan request. t’s an end-to-end perspective that focuses on eliminating waste and engages the workforce.
The key for banks is to use Lean and Six as the means to reducing service times. They want to take out a lot of the hand-offs and simplify processes to reduce errors. There’s always a danger when a company says they are going to cut costs because they sometimes end up doing things that makes the service suffer. With Lean, you’re reducing cost by helping to smooth your processes.”
It’s crunch time, and so banks need all the process improvement methodologies they can use. Lean and Six Sigma can be a great help.
Filed under: Finance, Lean, Six Sigma, Tips
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Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard
Posted by: meikah | 9 October 2008 | 9:09 pm
Business Development Metrics gives us a good glimpse of the benefits of merging Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard.
Both Six Sigma and the Balanced Score Card are tools that rely heavily on the metrics for improvement efforts in the corporation. Integrating the two can be beneficial in bringing about even more focused efforts by Six Sigma leaders on overall corporational execution.
Have you had experience with merging Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard? Do share it here.
Filed under: Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma
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Manufacturers Cope By Going Into Lean, Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 9 October 2008 | 7:40 pm
Over at ThomasNet, a recent survey gives us an idea of how manufacturers cope during this economic downturn. As Philippine Senator Mar Roxas said, this is a major tsunami.
Well, on my way to work today, I heard on the radio that because of the economic turbulence in the U.S., about 400,000 workers in the Philippines might be affected. These workers work for the contact centers.
In the manufacturing side, I asked Wizheart about its implication. And he said that manufacturing companies, or any other company for that matter, live and breathe on credit. With financial institutions going bankrupt affecting local stocks, local banks would have stricter guidelines on credit or credit lines, or they might not grant loans to companies. Companies wouldn’t have the means to buy the raw materials. For manufacturing companies that are exporting to the U.S., such as semicon, they would find themselves without market.
Going back to that survey on ThomasNet, manufacturing companies are:
responding to the economic downturn by looking to streamline business, manufacturing and supply chain operations.
To handle the downward spiraling economy and to increase business efficiency, 63 percent of respondents have already adopted, or are examining, lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM) and other methodologies for improving supply chain management.
Filed under: Economy, Finance, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, TQM
1 Comment |
Lean and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 9 October 2008 | 7:36 pm
People have varying reception of Lean and Six Sigma. Some say Lean is better, others say Six Sigma is, and some others say that a combination of both is just perfect!
I say either or both is useful because it all depends on your processes, and in your process improvement goals.
In any case, PMcrunch has a good discussion going on Lean versus Six Sigma. The discussion touches on the what and the how, plus links to various resources that take a look at both methodologies from different angles.
Read the discussion HERE.
