MPS, a Step to Lean Six Sigma Journey
Posted by: meikah | 19 April 2009 | 8:09 pm
MPS or Managed Print Services according to Ken Steward of Change Forge is a management technique that involves three steps:
- Consolidation – consolidate resources to be able to manage them easily
- Standardization – look for that common ground to create a unified procedure across the enterprise
- Governance – hold people accountable for their actions and ensure results
After taking these three steps, you are now ready to embark on your Lean Six Sigma journey. These prepare you for the task of streamlining platform support and production techniques. As Steward said, these are not new concepts and people in management have probably known this, but they just needed to be educated about it more.
Steward was able to roll out Lean Six Sigma after he underwent the three steps of MPS.
Have you tried it?
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Manufacturing, Processes, Productivity, Services
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3 Ways to Going Lean: Doing Transactions Right the First Time
Posted by: meikah | 19 April 2009 | 7:41 pm
How many times have you had to repeat your orders or return products that do not comply with your specifications?
These are just a couple of wastes that you encounter in transactions, especially in first time interactions. What happens when this happen (no pun intended) is that customers get burned so to speak, and will take their business elsewhere.
An article by Sharad Sharma on iSixSigma identifies three ways to go Lean, thereby doing transactions right the first time.
- Tracking First Time Right Encounters – Measure the current level performance and catching the right transaction at the start of it. For example, bank managers may be used to judging their staff by the time it takes them to resolve a customer query. However, staff may not always provide complete information to customers, which can result in repeat complaints. Thus, it is essential to link an employee’s performance or output with the transactions that are completed correctly the first time.
- Improving Performance – Make sure that people understand fully the tasks that they are going to do. Often, mistakes or omissions are made because the people doing the tasks do not understand the procedure at all.
- Cutting out Waste – Know the seven kinds of wastes (defects, overproduction, processing, waiting, inventory, motion, and transportation) understand each, and avoid it at all cost.
Yes, I am an advocate for doing things right at the first time.
Filed under: Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Services
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4 Factors that Affect the Success of Six Sigma Projects
Posted by: meikah | 16 April 2009 | 9:32 pm
Steve Minter, writing for IndustryWeek, gives us a good reminder about the factors that affect the success of Six Sigma projects.
Perhaps, you have been into Six Sigma for years, and your projects although ongoing, have somehow reached a plateau. When this happens, it’s time to step back and re-evaluate. Here are the four factors cited by Minter:
- Leadership – Active and visible support from senior management. “Senior managers must communicate to employees that the purpose of the Six Sigma projects is to make the company more efficient and competitive not to reduce their numbers,” says George Haley, a business professor at the University of New Haven.
- Strategic alignment – Pick projects that will have the greatest impact on the business. “No matter the size of the company, it needs to improve,” says Ellie Kemp, a Master Black Belt at machine tool manufacturer MAG G&L.
- The Right Personnel – “Black Belts and Green Belts need not only training in the Six Sigma methodology but also team leadership and communication skills so that they can shepherd these collaborative projects,” Bob Rome
- Measurement – In developing projects, leaders state the business problem, outline project objectives, list the benefits and any associated hard savings and state how the savings will be calculated.
Related posts:
4 Factors Critical to the Success of Six Sigma Projects
3 Reasons for Six Sigma Deployment Determine Its Success or Failure
Filed under: DMAIC, Deployment, Six Sigma, Tips
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Six Sigma Companies News: Boeing’s Troubles
Posted by: meikah | 16 April 2009 | 9:00 pm
Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News. Boeing is another Six Sigma company that is trying to keep afloat during this crisis.
Last year, we heard about workers’ strike, and workers returning back to work after ending strike. The airline industry was happy that Boeing was able to resolve its issue with the workers. A company like Boeing when it halts operations affects the whole aviation business.
Now, latest news has it that Boeing stock dips after analyst dowgrade.
Shares of aerospace giant Boeing fell Monday, as analysts lowered ratings and earnings estimates for the company following its announcement last week that it would cut production of wide-body jets.
Filed under: Airlines, Aviation, Boeing, Six Sigma News, Six Sigma Organizations
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Innovation of the Week: Innovation Lesson from Thomas Edison
Posted by: meikah | 16 April 2009 | 7:08 pm
This innovation update focuses on the person who we can call the father of innovation, Thomas Edison. Edison was guided by his five competencies, which inspired him to invent products with a record 1,093 U.S. patents as well as 1,293 international patents:
- Solution-centered Mindset
- Kaleidoscopic Thinking
- Full-spectrum Engagement
- Master-mind Collaboration
- Super-value Creation
These five competencies however all boils down to one thing: teamwork.
Edison’s five competencies boil down to one thing: teamwork. “The teams were centrally involved in creating value,” Miller Caldicott said. “You didn’t have layers and layers of managers” making decisions but not creating value.
Continue reading…
Incidentally, in Washington, National Charter Schools Week celebrates Innovation and Excellence in Public Charter Schools on May 3-9, 2009. This is a good way to encourage innovation. Way to go!
Filed under: Innovation Update
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Wordless Wednesday: The Greens
Posted by: meikah | 15 April 2009 | 6:54 pm
Filed under: General, Wordless Wednesday
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7 Lean Six Sigma Challenges
Posted by: meikah | 14 April 2009 | 10:08 pm
About three years ago, Hertzler Systems Inc. sponsored a research report by the Aberdeen Group on best practices in Six Sigma deployments.
In that report it was found that most of the challenges people face in Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma deployment are cultural:
- Significant culture change required 68%
- Data collection challenges 44%
- Resistance from knowledge workers and middle management 28%
- Continued commitment from top management after initial stage 26%
- Sustained company-wide training and certification program 20%
- Cost of training and certification programs 20%
- Excessive time spent “scrubbing†data 19%
Legend: Challenge – % Selected
Filed under: Deployment, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma
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The Oil Industry Looks at Six Sigma as Savior
Posted by: meikah | 14 April 2009 | 9:55 pm
In a press release on MarketWatch, oil industry visionaries foresee a decrease in consumption of gasoline. Thus, energy companies see the need to use their resources more efficiently to maintain and grow revenue and profit.
To address this need, iSixSigma Live! sets an Energy Forum for Process Excellence in Houston, the energy capital of the world, on May 19-22. The workshop will detail how upstream and downstream energy companies can spend fewer resources and achieve faster results.
One of the goals of the workshop is:
Explore, understand and discuss ways for you to integrate and apply Strategic Process Management, Lean and Six Sigma, to rapidly improve your business performance.
Via: MarketWatch Press Release
Filed under: Events/Announcements, Petrochemicals, Six Sigma, Six Sigma News, iSixSigma
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Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 14 April 2009 | 9:29 pm
PQ Systems through it’s Quality eline newsletter brings us another quality quiz.
For this month’s quiz, you get a chance to win a copy of the newly-released collection of Quality Quiz Classics. Submit your response by April 27 to be entered in the drawing.
Lewis N. Clark considers himself an explorer when it comes to statistical process control. His job as deputy quality manager for a major health care equipment manufacturer puts him in touch with a great deal of data, and he likes to pursue his own version of data mining, which to him means making a variety of different visual expressions of the same data.
In the data that has come to his attention is a breakdown of end users of the firm’s adhesive patches used for a variety of medical tests, including electrocardiogram screenings (EKGs). Lewis decides to sort this data by age, since he believes that the information produced by a frequency distribution will be useful in the company’s marketing efforts.
Filed under: PQ Systems eLine, Quality
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Ring Power Finds an Ally with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 12 April 2009 | 8:30 pm
Ring Power Corp., an equipment dealer of Caterpillar, uses Six Sigma to improve processes. The company admits that they got the idea from Caterpillar.
Here are some of Ring Power’s achievement toward this goal so far.
- focus on people as much as processes
- implement a fact-based, data-driven methodology
- create a continuous improvement culture of its own
- explore opportunities for a possible Six Sigma project together with suppliers
- launch innovative projects that reduce cost in the supply chain
