Six Sigma Belt Trainings and Employment
Posted by: meikah | 21 September 2009 | 6:30 pm
An article on Practitioner’s Toolbox says that during this crisis, a person with Six Sigma belt training has more chances of getting employment.
There is new trend in people to increase their employment value through Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training. It follows a belief that one should if you keep studying, follow your hearts interest it will lead to greater things in life. While students are between employment they are volunteering in the community, taking the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt skills they have learned to improve a community agency’s success, and to network with leaders.
This is a clear indication that many organizations are seeing the value of Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma, and that they have confidence in Six Sigma practitioners.
That’s a tip for you this week.
Filed under: Black Belt, Green Belts, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, Training
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Innovation of the Week: Stefan Lindegaard’s Thoughts on the Challenge of Innovation
Posted by: meikah | 17 September 2009 | 9:33 pm
Stefan Lindegaard shares why the front end of innovation is such a challenge:
In a recent meeting in one of my network groups, we focused on the front end of innovation as a couple of the members have current challenges on how to identify and develop ideas in the very early stages.
I remember attending my first Front End Of Innovation conference in Boston five years ago. Hundreds of people participated and there was a great energy. At that time, front end of innovation was the talk of the town in the innovation community just as open innovation is today. Interestingly enough, the front end of innovation is still one of the key challenges for innovation leaders and The Front End of Innovation conferences continue to attract hundreds of participants.
Filed under: Innovation, Innovation Update
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The Advantages and Disadvantages of BPR and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 17 September 2009 | 9:12 pm
Steven Walden, Beyond Philosophy, writes for CustomerThink about the advantages and disadvantages of BPR and Six Sigma.
Filed under: BPR, Six Sigma
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Application of Lean Manufacturing to Software and IT Development
Posted by: meikah | 17 September 2009 | 7:59 pm
Over at Evolving Excellence is a good discussion on how to apply lean manufacturing principles to software and IT development.
The discussion was an interview of Mary and Tom Poppendieck with Matt Heusser. Some of the insights from the interview:
- Get all workers deeply involved in analyzing feedback from the market and rapidly figuring out how to act on that feedback.
- Lean provides the theory behind Agile practices. Lean is a set of principles, ways of thinking, from which Agile practices are derived
- An underlying concept of Lean is that if you can’t create small independent-thinking teams, you can’t respond rapidly in the face of continuous change.
- Try to put in constant improvement. Try to get closer to the customers. Look at the big picture, not just software.
Read the post on Evolving Excellence and read the interview.
Filed under: IT, Lean, Lean Manufacturing, Software/Technology
1 Comment |
Wordless Wednesday
Posted by: meikah | 16 September 2009 | 3:47 am
Filed under: General, Wordless Wednesday
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Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 14 September 2009 | 8:34 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 September 25 to be entered in the drawing.
Dr. Noah Tall, quality administrator for St. Recovery in the Long Run Hospital, recently went to a half-day seminar in Hawaii, entitled “Quality Tools for the Health Care Industry.†While Dr. Tall is highly discriminating about the location of training sessions he attends, the content is generally a less critical factor in his decision.
When the seminar opened at 1:00 p.m., Dr. Tall had just finished playing eighteen holes of golf and he was having a difficult time staying awake. The instructor began to talk about the usefulness of cause-and-effect diagrams, and soon Dr. Tall’s head dropped and he was out. By the time he was jolted awake some time later, the instructor had moved on to Pareto charts, and was completing the section with an exercise that involved using M&Ms to illustrate the Pareto chart. Believing that this exercise applied to cause-and-effect diagrams, Tall took copious notes so that he could put on a seminar at the hospital upon his return.
Winners of last month’s quiz and who each gets a copy of the Quality Quiz Classics DVD are:
Kim Hobbs (Hy-dac Rubber)
Cliff McCord (General Motors Co.)
Michael Parish (BryanLGH Medical Center)
Noemi Bondar (Australian Red Cross Blood Service)
Ian Hutchison (Ceetak Limited)
Congratulations!
Filed under: General
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Good News For Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 14 September 2009 | 8:15 pm
An article on BusinessWeek says that Six Sigma is making a big comeback. As companies try to ride the economic crisis, many of them are looking at Six Sigma to help them.
In fact, the methodology can help the companies boost earnings without putting more people on the payroll.
Companies as varied as drug giant Merck, British confectioner Cadbury, and doughnut maker Dunkin’ Brands are increasingly turning to Six Sigma to lift their bottom lines. Capital One says it has launched a Six Sigma initiative to “drive continuous improvement” in its operations, while Pfizer this year embarked on 85 Six Sigma projects to lower the cost of delivering medicines to patients in its pharmaceutical sciences division.
This is good news for Six Sigma, and Six Sigma practitioners indeed!
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Innovation of the Week: Lego’s Innovation Story
Posted by: meikah | 10 September 2009 | 9:44 pm
I’m Not Actually a Geek blog shares:
Lego is a universal toy for all of us, across generations. As kids, we played with canisters of those multicolored bricks. As parents, we pass along the tradition to our kids. The free form nature of Legos is part of their attraction. Build whatever you want, exercise the creativity muscles and wonder that’s so prevalent in young children.
The company, however, was running into challenges of slow market growth and poor internal operational discipline. To combat the malaise that was setting in, a new CEO came in and made two big changes. He instilled a key performance indicator (KPI) mentality and greatly expanded the product line beyond the free form blocks. It is a story of success and innovating to become a stronger company
Filed under: Innovation, Innovation Update, Lego
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Six Sigma: Changing Organizations for the Better
Posted by: meikah | 10 September 2009 | 9:19 pm
ZDNet Asia TechGuide has a good story feature on Six Sigma. It traces Six Sigma’s roots and best practices. The article is a good reminder of what Six Sigma is, and how it can transform your organization for the better.
The Six Sigma philosophy, implemented by companies such as GE and American Express, starts with a very simple and obvious idea: defects cost money. Find out more in this high-level overview.
Filed under: Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Hospital CEOs Improve Health Service Through Lean and Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 10 September 2009 | 8:48 pm
In the face of U.S. President Barack Obama‘s proposed health care reform, CEOs take it as a time to improve their services. The task may be daunting and costly, but the CEOs believe that they can do it with the help of Toyota Productions System, Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma.
An article on USA Today reports:
Criticism came from almost every corner leading up to Obama’s speech before Congress on Wednesday night, yet many hospital CEOs aren’t complaining, at least not publicly. They say that the hospitals they run are rife with inefficiency and that they are optimistic that the $155 billion in savings is do-able with the help of business disciplines, such as the Toyota Production System, lean manufacturing and Six Sigma.
Via: iSixSigma News
