Wordless Wednesday: “Wine Nights”
Posted by: meikah | 22 July 2009 | 4:31 am
Filed under: General, Wordless Wednesday
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Webinar: Leveraging Lean Store Operations to Improve the Customer Experience
Posted by: meikah | 21 July 2009 | 8:57 pm
Meeting Description:Learn how leading retailers are applying Lean Six Sigma to improve the customer experience.The webinar will cover “Five Points of Transition†a consumer goes through in a retail environment and how those five transition points can be optimized for efficiency and improved customer experience.How does your company rate when it comes to the customer experience? Find out how well your company is performing and benchmark with other retailers.
Date: Thu, Jul 23, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM EDT
Duration: 1 hour
Host(s): RetailCustomerExperience.com
Filed under: Customer Service, Lean, Webinar
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Bringing Six Sigma, Lean, and Simulation together
Posted by: meikah | 20 July 2009 | 9:09 pm
Six Sigma Zone put out this powerpoint presentation showing Six Sigma, Lean, and Simulation together, resulting in a optimized room flow and throughput.
Click here to view this lean Six Sigma Deployment.ppt
Filed under: Lean, Six Sigma
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Twitter and Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 20 July 2009 | 8:57 pm
I stumbled upon an article on Business901 saying that Twitter is a Lean Six Sigma way of communicating.
The reasons:
- Refined searches
- Immediate feedback on issues and problems
- Instantaneous Communication
Makes sense! 
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, Twitter
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The Role of a Black Belt in Successful Six Sigma Implementation
Posted by: meikah | 20 July 2009 | 8:32 pm
I got these tips from Ditch the Black:
- explain all Six Sigma philosophies, principles, systems and tools and identify their impact on various business processes
- able understand the chain of leadership and the various Six Sigma roles and responsibilities of those roles
- able to define benchmarking and understand financial and ways to measure business performance
- need to understand basic techniques and processes as well as probability and distribution
- define the seven classic wastes, multivariate tools, and define terms such as kaizen, kaizen blitz, and theory of constraints
- able to explain common DFSS and DFX methodologies
Filed under: Black Belt, Deployment, Six Sigma
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Six Sigma and the Customer
Posted by: meikah | 16 July 2009 | 9:36 pm
The customer is always the foremost consideration when companies go into improving their processes. The bottomline is always to please the customers (and of course the coffers of the company). 
So, how can Six Sigma address the needs of the customer?
- help find innovative ways to have significant changes to cost and product utility, and the focus shifts automatically to strategies and integration of efforts
- actively involve the customer in the process
- work to make things clear to the customers by sharpening the cutting edge (value) that customers are looking for in a product
Filed under: Customer Service, Six Sigma
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Are You Data-Driven?
Posted by: meikah | 16 July 2009 | 8:02 pm
As Six Sigma practitioners, data is your best friend. So, how data-driven are you?
Over at Quality Mag, an article analyzes the concept of data-driven and which kind Six Sigma practitioners fall.
The Data Cost / Data Value Matrix is a simple two-by-two matrix that helps us talk about what it means to be “data driven.” On the horizontal axis we have the cost of data, going from high to low. On the vertical axis we have the value of data, going from low to high. The matrix gives us four quadrants. The “data driven” organization lives in Quadrant A, in the upper-right corner. Data are inexpensive and of high value. In my experience very few businesses meet this definition. Some have pockets of excellence, but most fall short of realizing their full potential.
While there may be an infinite number of ways companies fall short of being “data driven,” my experience is they fall into three broad categories, and they are represented by the other three quadrants on the matrix. I’ve seen all of these companies, and maybe you have too.
Companies in Quadrant B gain high value from their data, but pay way too much for the knowledge. From what I’ve seen, many Six Sigma companies fall into this bucket. For the most part these people understand how to maximize the value of the data. They know how to use the full array of statistical tools. They apply proven, disciplined techniques of project management and statistical problem solving to get to the bottom of chronic, entrenched problems. Payback from these programs can be huge.
Filed under: Data, Data Analysis, Quality, Six Sigma
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Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 14 July 2009 | 8:53 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 July 28 to be entered in the drawing.
Hart Faylior and his partner Ann S.Thesia are co-owners of a small medical supply firm, In a Heartbeat Inc., that manufactures devices related to cardiac care in hospitals, including adhesive disks for EKG tests and other disposable and non-disposable supplies. Their company’s customers include hospitals and clinics as well as other medical apparatus companies.
One of In A Heartbeat’s customers, St. Recover in the Long Run Critical Care Center, is demanding capability data, and Hart has instructed Ann to examine a process for capability. They decide to work through this study together, since they have never done capability analysis for any other customer.
Winners of last month’s quiz and who each gets a copy of the Quality Quiz Classics DVD are:
Ron Ellison (Oz Minerals, Australia)
Dave Gorin (Humana, Inc.)
Pat Kennedy (Bridge of Weir Leather, UK)
Hope McCoy (OCI Wyoming)
Craig Nelson (Presbyterian Healthcare Services)
Congratulations!
Filed under: PQ Systems eLine, Quality
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The Best of Six Sigma Practice in the Philippines: IBM Services
Posted by: meikah | 13 July 2009 | 8:56 pm
This is in continuation of the Best of Six Sigma Practices in the Philippines Benchmarking Forum I attended last April. I have shared with you Bank of Philippine Islands’ Best Practices.
Today, I will be sharing those of IBM Business Services.
For one, the company perhaps has the most number of Black Belts, Green Belts, and Yellow Belts. They really train their people for Six Sigma. Then they combine Quality methodologies and Lean, and then Six Sigma in their initiatives. This is what they do.
- QIPs (Quality Initiatives Programs) – all employees should complete at least 1 QIP for the year. The QIP encourages all employees to think of a bright idea, share it, and work on it.
- QPIC (Quality, Plan, Improve, and Control) and DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) – the company uses the two to improve their processes. QPIC for projects with initial root causes and potential solution identified. DMAIC for projects without initial root causes and potential solution identified.
The Benefits of Six Sigma programs to IBS:
- contributed to numerous productivity improvement and quality improvement benefits – approximately USD3.2M annualized Level 1-5 savings and USD2.7M Level 1 (Hard) savings for 2008
- total of 195 trained Six Sigma specialists in the center and 100% Six Sigma oriented population
- turned around two unsatisfied clients to become referenceable after implementing Six Sigma in their domains
- the Manila Delivery Center Six Sigma program has been lauded by clients as world-class and has been one of the key selling points during client presentations
Some of the success factors:
- sound infrastructure in place to support the Six Sigma program
- ownership/accountability of front-line supervisors and middle managers
- well-trained Six Sigma Black Belts
- 100% support from top management and Mnila senior management
The important thing is that IBM Services reward their people for a job well done. Project teams are given the 6S Milestone Award, which is 10% of the total annualized hard savings of the project.
Filed under: Best Practices, IBM, IBM Services, Lean, Quality, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Technology
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Innovation of the Week: Can Governments Till the Fields of Innovation?
Posted by: meikah | 9 July 2009 | 8:45 pm
Governments or public service really need to innovate. They had to learn to work outside a bureaucracy. Last month, New York Times online, Technology Section, carried the story about the capability and willingness of governments to encourage innovation.
But governments are increasingly wading into the innovation game, declaring innovation agendas and appointing senior innovation officials. The impetus comes from two fronts: daunting challenges in fields like energy, the environment and health care that require collaboration between the public and private sectors; and shortcomings of traditional economic development and industrial policies.
Innovation policy, to be sure, is an emerging discipline. It lacks crisp definitions or metrics. The most explicit embrace of it has been outside the United States, though the Obama administration is taking some initial steps. Its new budget directs the Bureau of Economic Analysis to develop statistics that “uniquely measure the role of innovation†in the economy. And the government’s new chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, speaks of building “innovation platforms†to spur growth.
