Innovation of the Week: Big Pharma for Biotech Innovation
Posted by: meikah | 19 November 2009 | 10:01 pm
For this week’s edition of innovation update, I’m sharing with you how big pharmaceuticals will be supporting biotech innovation.
If the past week is any indication, big pharma is showing that it is willing to pay for biotech innovation. On the receiving end this week, Alder Biopharmaceuticals stands to reap more than $1 billion from collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) for the development and commercialization of ALD518, a novel biologic that has completed phase 2a development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Bothell, Washington-based Alder is granting Bristol-Myers Squibb worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialize ALD518 for all potential indications except cancer, for which Alder will retain rights and grant Bristol-Myers Squibb an option to co-develop and commercialize outside the United States.
Filed under: Innovation, Innovation Update, Pharmaceuticals
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6 Tips for Six Sigma Implementation
Posted by: meikah | 17 November 2009 | 11:03 pm
Sourcing Innovation shares six tips for Six Sigma implementation.
- Go Six Sigma, Go Lean All The Way
- Don’t Forget The Change Leadership
- Get the Measurement Systems Right
- Understand the Wider Environment
- Don’t Expect Training Alone To Solve Everything …
- … But Don’t Forget the Training!
Filed under: Deployment, Project Management, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations
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Lean Six Sigma Improves Processes at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital
Posted by: meikah | 17 November 2009 | 8:33 pm
Background:
Safety and quality are top priorities at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital in Houston, Texas, USA, and methods such as Lean Six Sigma and Work-Out are among the hospital’s strategies to help improve the patient care environment. When the hospital found it had a 12 percent incidence of pressure ulcers in 2004 – exceeding the 7 percent national average – it put a team in place and launched a project to reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers by half within a nine-month period.
Action:
- Raise customer satisfaction through better skin and wound care.
- Avoid the risk of lawsuits.
- Avoid fines from regulatory agency (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
- Reduce specialty bed rental cost by $125,000.
- Reduce length of stay associated with Stage 3, Stage 4 and “unable-to-stage” pressure ulcers.
- Increase International Classification of Diseases coding for pressure ulcers.
- Reduce supply costs.
Read how Memorial Herman Southwest Hospital uses Lean Six Sigma and Workout to address the problem.
Filed under: Healthcare, Lean Six Sigma
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Pixar Is An Example of Lean and Innovation Working Together
Posted by: meikah | 15 November 2009 | 9:24 pm
In some companies, they view Lean or even Six Sigma as hindering innovation. But for others they attest to the fact that lean and innovation can co-exist in one organization.
Pixar is an example of this organization. An article on Knowldge@Wharton shares how Pixar does it.
Hollywood animation company Pixar, the maker of blockbuster movies including the “Toy Story” series and “Finding Nemo,” is a good example of how innovation and lean practices can enhance outcomes. Pixar has combined lean and innovation to good effect, according to Kartik Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations and information management. Working within the movie industry “where lack of predictability is the norm,” Pixar has created a set of processes that emphasizes team-based collaboration and continuous feedback loops to help overcome creative blocks and track deliverables, but without the stress that could go with a regime of control.
Pixar’s record is proof that lean and innovation can coexist. “Pixar hasn’t had a single failure as yet. All its projects have been successful,” Hosanagar says, adding that unlike the rest of the movie industry, it has never bought scripts from outside; it develops all its ideas and scripts in-house. “I discovered that much of what the industry uses is madness; what Pixar uses is a method to the madness,” says Hosanagar, who for the last year has been fascinated by the company while studying it along with Jehoshua Eliashberg, a Wharton professor of marketing, operations and information management.
Filed under: Innovation, Lean, Pixar
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Include Lean Six Sigma in the 2010 Process Improvement Plans
Posted by: meikah | 15 November 2009 | 9:03 pm
That’s the advice of Alphy L. Johnson, the COO of the Hotel Management Services Group of Candela Hotels. Johnson listed down 10 new budgeting steps for 2010, and number 8 on his list is:
8. Use Lean Six Sigma, or similar processes to improve quality and reduce waste. The aim is to achieve the most rapid rate of improvement in customer satisfaction, quality, process time and cost reductions.
Check out the rest of the list here.
Well, if you’re a company looking at how to minimize your wastes and improve operations, then you can count on Lean Six Sigma to help you.
Filed under: Hotels, Lean Six Sigma
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Bath Fitter in Springfield Gets Funding for Six Sigma Training
Posted by: meikah | 15 November 2009 | 8:33 pm
Bath Fitter in Springfield gets funding support from the state Department of Labor & Workforce Development for Six Sigma training. The amount is $19,736.
The funds will be used for the training of 83 employees in Six Sigma, Manufacturing Efficiencies, and Lean offices.
Workforce Essentials, Inc. played a key role in awarding the grant to Bath Fitter.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development administers the Incumbent Worker Training program. The program has been structured to be flexible to meet the business’s training objectives. The business may use public, private, or its own in-house training provider based on the nature of the training.
Filed under: Bath Fitter, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Training
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100 Reasons to Embrace Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2009 | 8:50 pm
Gianna Clark of iSixSigma Blogosphere has listed down 100 reasons why a company should embrace Six Sigma.
Filed under: Six Sigma
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The SixSig Trivia
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2009 | 7:48 pm
This year, Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the 26th of November.
In the United States, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated as a way of giving thanks to food collected from a good harvest in 1621. It started somehow as a religious festival, but has evolved into a secular one. American families gather together on this day and prepare a feast. The symbol of Thanksgiving Day is a stuffed turkey.
Now you can just imagine how many turkeys will be served on the tables during that day. Here’s an interesting data about that.
Quality eLine’s Data in Everyday Life presents data on turkey production, and which states produce the most number of turkeys.
Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau
If production of turkey fails, whatever will happen to Thanksgiving Day celebration?
Filed under: Data, Data Analysis, SixSig, Thanksgiving Day
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Quality Quiz from PQ Systems e-Line
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2009 | 7:26 pm
PQ Systems through it’s Quality eline newsletter brings us another quality quiz by Professor Leary.
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 November 30 to be entered in the drawing.
Our dauntless newly-appointed quality manager, Hartford Simsack, stumbled into the central limit theorem last month, with the help of Dr. Stan Deviation. While the concept seemed fascinating to him, it never occurred to him that it might be useful in understanding how control charts work. You will recall that he used Quality Gamebox to demonstrate the central limit theorem.
Winners of last month’s quiz who will get a copy of the Quality Quiz Classics DVD each are:
Alejandra Bahena (Teleflex)
Sheldon Parmer (Hewlett-Packard Company)
Steve Salter (Morgan Advanced Ceramics)
Robert Tucker (Continental Crushing & Conveying)
and Karen Whitmire (BorgWarner)
Congratulations!
Filed under: PQ Systems eLine, Quality Quiz
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SixSig Reference Feature: Rethinking Lean (Six Sigma) Service
Posted by: meikah | 8 November 2009 | 9:57 pm
Author: Tripp Babbitt
Source: Six Sigma iQ
Babbitt says:
I have identified myself as a “reformed†Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Some will see this as an affront to Lean and/or Six Sigma. I want to assure you that there are many things to like about Lean and Six Sigma. The issue at hand is that a better solution is available that can help organizations achieve more robust performance improvement.
