New Six Sigma Director for Erie County
Posted by: meikah | 18 November 2008 | 9:18 pm
P. William Carey is now heading Erie County‘s signature reform and efficiency program. He will work hand in hand with Al Hammonds, the former director and now the Deputy County Executive, to train more employees and identify new cost saving projects for 2009.
Carey’s credentials:
A Six Sigma Black Belt, Carey has a long and distinguished career in banking and finance. Carey came to Erie County from M&T Bank of Buffalo where he was the Senior Vice President of Lending Process & System Optimization. Prior to joining M&T in 2001, Carey worked for HSBC Bank. Carey earned an MBA in Finance/Management from Canisius College in Buffalo and has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). A Certified Public Accountant, Carey received his Six Sigma Black Belt training from the Center for Industrial Effectiveness at UB.
His thoughts on his new post:
“This opportunity allows me to use my 30 years in the private sector to help County Executive Collins bring business principles to county government,†said Carey. “The impact Six Sigma has already had in the Rath Building is clear and I know the potential moving forward is tremendous. The Collins’ Administration is committed to making county government more efficient and improving the services we provide to county residents. Lean Six Sigma is helping us accomplish that.â€
Related posts:
Putting Lean Six Sigma in the Bureaucracy
“Slow down Six Sigma…â€
Erie County Government Gears Up for a Six Sigma Training
Six Sigma To Save Taxpayers’ Money in Erie County
Filed under: Public Sector, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Jobs
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Six Sigma and/or Lean: Is it a Choice?
Posted by: meikah | 18 November 2008 | 8:23 pm
An article on Mining and Manufacturing Systems Mag online says that we shouldn’t choose between Six Sigma and Lean. The authors recognize that every company has a different problem, thus require different solutions. True!
But they also make a good point in saying:
Making a choice to use only Lean or only Six Sigma to the exclusion of all other tools, is very much like going to the golf course with only your 7 iron. Sure, at some point you may be the best in the business at what you do. If using other tools would have enabled you to achieve that more quickly, wouldn’t that be the more profitable solution? The point is not to be “the world’s benchmark and only used Lean to achieve this” or “the world’s benchmark and only used Six Sigma to get there”. The objective in any business activity is to always be more effective, efficient and faster than your competitors, and to last longer than them. Together Lean (the woods) and Six Sigma (the irons and putter) create a much more useful set of clubs than either one alone could provide.
Yes, the goal of every business should be continuously on the lookout for improvements, even if the processes are working just fine. In so doing, the business should use all the quality or improvement tools out there to their advantage.
Filed under: Deployment, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma
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Six Sigma in Best Practices
Posted by: meikah | 12 November 2008 | 9:56 pm
A new best practice report by APQC and Ernst & Young reveals how successful organizations put process measures and analytics to effective use. It proves that the sustained and effective use of process measures and analytics is increasingly a key differentiator separating leading organizations from the rest of the pack.
Two Six Sigma companies were part of the study:
Caterpillar Financial Services: At Caterpillar, process owners, managers, continuous improvement consultants, and Six Sigma Black Belts all work together to identify, measure, and act on process measures and analytics. The measures are tied directly to the organization’s critical success factors and customer/stakeholder requirements.
GE Global Business Services: At GE, the CEO initiated the drive for integrated measures and analytics. Given GE’s background as a Six Sigma leader, he was surprised that the organization had not institutionalized strong process-based measures. The shared services organization was tapped to set an example for the entire business. With a CEO mandate in hand, GE Global Business Services leveraged a process framework and Six Sigma skills by linking process owners, product-line leaders, and quality/Six Sigma experts to establish global performance measures. GE’s leader mandate and collaborative approach has stimulated cooperation and enabled the organization to demonstrate value across the business.
Filed under: Best Practices, Caterpillar Inc., GE, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Six Sigma on Foil Stamping and Printing
Posted by: meikah | 12 November 2008 | 9:05 pm
Taylor Corporation, the parent company of over 100 printing operations (including Carlson Craft, Fine Impressions, Schmidt Printing), uses Six Sigma to reduce setup time and costs on 33 Kluge presses in operation at one of its stationery units.
The company and its subsidiaries produce a broad array of products, so they really need a good system to do all the work. Good thing, they found the answer with Six Sigma.
Using the Six Sigma tool, DOE, the Lean Six Sigma project team proposed building a measurement system to evaluate printing quality.
A manager of the printing company developed an objective measurement system that used a scale from 1 to 5 to rate print samples on four quality characteristics, each representing a different potential problem: bottoming out die, cutting through, spotting and foil marks.
Five product samples were created to demonstrate and rate each characteristic. Prints generated during the experiment were visually compared to assign a rating. A Gage Repeatability and Reproducibility (R&R) study was conducted to verify the functionality of the new measurement system. Gage R&R is a statistical tool used to measure the amount of variation in a measurement system arising from the measurement device and the people taking the measurement.
Filed under: DOE, Deployment, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, Tools/Toolkits
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Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Lean Six Sigma, and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2008 | 8:40 pm
Over at SmartSolutions, I stumbled upon Forrest Breyfogle’s modified excerpt of the book Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume II Business Deployment: A Leaders’ Guide for Going Beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard.
The equation for Integrated Enterprise Excellence, or IEE, is improved analytics and innovation equals better strategy building. The premise is to avoid sub-optimization and look at the whole organization to know its ills. Also dubbed as going beyong Lean or Six Sigma, the IEE requires a thorough understanding of the enterprise performance and constraints for better efficiency.
If you want to see each methodology alongside each other, check out the comparison table HERE. The table looks at the scope, metrics, and processes of each one, highlighting some attributes.
I don’t know with you, but as I see it, the efficacy of a quality management methodology has something to do with the implementation or execution. This reminds me of William Shakespeare’s lines, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
What are your thoughts?
Filed under: General, Lean Six Sigma, Quality, Six Sigma
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Lightning Six Sigma at DHL Exel Supply Chain
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2008 | 7:29 pm
From its name alone, Lightning Six Sigma means speedy resolutions to Six Sigma initiatives. DHL Exel Supply Chain began its Six Sigma about four years ago.
Lightning Six Sigma followed. It is implemented in targeted areas, processes on particular sites and customers within the company’s contract logistics operations. The initiative is viewed as a way of getting quicker results than one would expect with a Six Sigma traditional deployment.
So what is Lightning Six Sigma? Why Lightning Six Sigma? When is Lightning Sigma best deployed? Where to Run Lightning Sigma Events? Who needs to be engaged in Lighting Six Sigma events? How to deploy Lightning Six Sigma?
Get your answers HERE.
Filed under: DHL, Deployment, Lightning Six Sigma, Services, Six Sigma, Supply Chain
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10 Ways to Turn So-So Six Sigma Projects Into Great Initiatives
Posted by: meikah | 9 November 2008 | 11:43 pm
Larry Holpp writing for iSixSigma shares ten ways to boost up a pretty good Six Sigma program.
- Rally the Senior Team – Hold a working session with the business leader and their direct reports.
- Hold Kaizen Days – Use these times to achieve quick wins, but also to solicit ideas from everyone.
- Deploy an Electronic Project Tracking System – Encourage Champions, Black Belts and Green Belts to use a simple tracking system that creates both structure and discipline, as well as visibility for the effort.
- Assign Ownership of Key Metrics – Select metrics that will deliver important information about the one- to two-year-out future state, and begin building the infrastructure to capture those metrics.
- Encourage Support for the Black Belt and Green Belt Roles – Reexamine their roles, their support structures, their training, and their recognition.
- Enhance Coaching – Provide the tools and the responsibility to a team of more advanced Black Belts for it to take a more active role in coaching newer, less seasoned peers in their initial project work.
- Hold a Yearly Process Improvement Road Show – Showcase and reward best practices and projects.
- Evaluate and Assess Six Sigma Training – Take a hard look at both content and delivery… Always renew training content with real examples of successes and presentations by Belts who have worked on projects and can share hard-won lessons as well as great results.
- Embed Change – Evaluate how well projects have driven change in the organization.
- Survey the Customers – Think of customers not only as external, but also as peers.
Filed under: Deployment, Project Management, Six Sigma
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Six Sigma Means Preventing Variation
Posted by: meikah | 6 November 2008 | 11:43 pm
The statistical arm of Six Sigma uses the term Sigma, which is used to represent a measure of variation of a statistical population.
The term “six sigma process” comes from the notion that if one has six standard deviations between the mean of a process and the nearest specification limit, there will be practically no items that fail to meet the specifications.
It is thus important that your processes do not have too much variations. So, do you want to hear a variation story?
Ron Pereira of Lean Six Sigma Academy has a good one. Check out his two posts:
A Variation Story and Million Dollars Saved in 60 Minutes.
Filed under: Six Sigma, Statistics
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Ames Corporations Uses Six Sigma to Do Business
Posted by: meikah | 6 November 2008 | 11:05 pm
ThomasNet reports:
Ames Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high-quality elastomeric molded components, dispensed gaskets and protective coatings, develops prototype products to satisfy the most demanding customer applications.
To meet customer requirements, Ames applies the company’s considerable engineering and elastomer processing expertise (including Six Sigma techniques) to identify performance improvement and cost reduction opportunities.
A recent example of this is the company’s development of Dent Resistant Coating (DRC) Technology for fuser rollers for the printer and copier market. Ames’ ability to take materials and process developments from one product development effort to another is a key ingredient in Ames becoming a provider of elastomeric design solutions to an ever-growing list of markets and customers.
Filed under: Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Tools/Toolkits
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Six Sigma Experts Recognize United Airline’s Improved Customer Relations
Posted by: meikah | 6 November 2008 | 9:27 pm
A panel of Six Sigma experts recently recognized the improved customer relations of United Airlines. The company received the Global Six Sigma and Business Improvement Award for “Best Project in Achievement, Marketing, or Customer Experience.”
United Airlines got the award for the new processes the company has put in place to improve the timeliness and quality of its responses to customer inquiries, compliments, and concerns.
A United team made business and process enhancements at United’s Customer Contact Center to improve response time and ensure customers were receiving accurate and relevant answers to their concerns. Following the implementation, 99.9% of customer emails were responded to within 3 days.
Way to go, United Airlines!
