Michael Marx

Ford Motor Company started their Consumer Driven Six Sigma initiative in 2000.Today, Six Sigma permeates all business units and brands: Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Ford Credit and Hertz.It is important to note that Six Sigma is not a stand alone initiative at Ford but is an essential piece of a […]

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control and Replicate (DMAICR).Replication is the differentiator in ServiceMaster’s Six Sigma Initiative.Launched in November 2001 with the appointment of John Biedry as Senior Vice President, Continuous Improvement/Six Sigma, ServiceMaster’s Six Sigma initiative focuses on making processes efficient and then replicating the improved processes across thousands of branch locations and franchises.(Sounds like […]

Business Services is a very diversified sector. It consists of the following Fortune 1000 industries: Diversified Outsourcing, Miscellaneous, Real Estate, Advertising & Marketing, Temporary Help, and Education. The majority of the companies in these industries are Fortune 501-1000.The Fortune 500 holds a short list of Six Sigma Companies. Cendant Manpower ServiceMaster

I read a great blog post today in Agus Rachman’s Blog. He attended Microsoft’s Enterprise Project Management Solutions Seminar at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. He comments on the Office Solution Accelerator for Six Sigma presentation by Microsoft: “But the third, by Sudimin Mina of Microsoft Indonesia was quite enlightening. He opened his session by […]

Phelps Dodge is one of the world’s leading producers of copper. In 2001 they began an initiative called “Quest for Zero” that involves Lean, Six Sigma and other tools. Today, they continue in their Quest for Zero and have seen significant savings. “Quest for Zero – as in zero accidents, zero production variances, zero environmental […]

Who says Six Sigma isn’t for small companies?This is the smallest company I know of that uses Six Sigma.At five employees and $3 million projected revenue for 2005, Delta Staffing Precision Hiring Systems is a placement services firm in Clarkston, Michigan, USA that uses Six Sigma to streamline the personnel selection process: “Employing Six Sigma, […]

The heart of DuPont’s continued growth lies in its three strategic pathways: integrated science, knowledge intensity and productivity through Six Sigma.DuPont is yet another clear example of Six Sigma complementing a strategic directive.DuPont has been around for a long time and according to this chart (found in the 2004 Annual Report), plans to stay around […]

American Express began their Six Sigma journey with a pilot initiative late in 1998. A small group of Black Belts across disciplines, functions and business units were trained and completed projects. After the initial pilot the program spread slowly to other business units. In 2001, Six Sigma became part of the Global Reengineering initiative and […]

ITT Industries began their Six Sigma program in 2000. It is named Value Based Six Sigma (VBSS) because it is linked to Value Based Management principles. Their Summer 2000 newsletter (PDF) is loaded with information introducing the new initiative: “Value-Based Six Sigma is a new company-wide continuous improvement effort that — according to ITT Industries […]

Fortune 500 Six Sigma companies in the Industrial Sector. Includes Metals and Industrial & Farm Equipment industries: Alcoa American Standard Black & Decker Caterpillar Cummins Deere Eaton Illinois Tool Works ITT Industries Parker Hannifin Phelps Dodge Timken York International

Fortune 500 Six Sigma companies in the Retail Industry: Albertsons Amazon.com Avnet Best Buy Big Lots Circuit City Stores Federated Department Stores Fisher Scientific International Home Depot IKON Office Solutions Ingram Micro Lowe’s May Department Stores Office Depot Radio Shack Sears Roebuck Target Wal-Mart Stores

Richard Weissman “shamelessly promotes” his article “The Pitfalls of Six Sigma” on the SCM Wire blog.The article appears in the May 2005 edition of The Manufacturer. The title of the article is deceptive and lead me to believe it was written from a negative bias, but the opposite is true.The article discusses some of the […]

Supply Chain Management Review – The Next Stage of Supply Chain Excellence. This article does a fine job speaking to how Lean and Six Sigma are helping shape the future of Supply Chain.Six Sigma Companies included in the article: IBM, Dow, 3M, Textron, Lockheed Martin, GlaxoSmithKline and Delphi. The authors, Gregory L. Schlegel and Richard […]

Dow began their Six Sigma journey as a pilot initiative in 1998.Early success in a few business units convinced management to deploy Six Sigma corporate-wide in 1999.The annual report their first year introduces their customer-centric Six Sigma philosophy: “We’re centering Six Sigma quality and productivity efforts around one concept—what keeps customers coming back to us […]

After following the market for nearly four years, I decided I needed a place to organize my Six Sigma thoughts as they were crowding my head. I decided to jump on the blogwagon and write about something I knew well…Six Sigma. A few months worth of posts to my blog caught the eye of Michael […]

Dominion is now in its fifth year of an enterprise-wide Six Sigma initiative. Their unique approach encourages the entrepreneurial spirit and has led to $300 million in savings since 2001. Dominion is active in the Six Sigma community, speaking at conferences and sharing best practices on deployment issues. A quick stroll through Dominion’s history and […]

The Energy Sector consists of the Energy and the Utilities: Gas & Electric industries of the Fortune 500. Six Sigma companies in the Energy sector: Constellation Energy Dominion Entergy FPL Group Public Service Enterprise Group TXU Notable Fortune 1000 companies using Six Sigma are: Alliant Energy Allegheny Energy Aquila

The article, Lehman Wants More Efficiency, appeared today on Forbes.com. The author, Liz Moyer, writes: “Lehman has quietly put together what it calls a “productivity and process improvement” group. Formed in January, it reports to Chief Administrative Officer David Goldfarb.” Mike Cyger, founder of iSixSigma.com, is quoted in regards to productivity improvement: “There are twice […]

Larry Johnson, CEO of Albertsons, spoke at the Lehman Brothers Retail Seminar on April 26, 2005. He gave a detailed update on the progress they have made with their Six Sigma deployment. The webcast is available from Albertsons Investor Information until May 17, 2005. The following quotes were transcribed: “All of these initiatives, along with […]

Sun Microsystems started their corporate-wide Six Sigma initiative in the Spring of 2000. “To institutionalize Sun Sigma, Sun has created a training program for all 37,000 Sun employees, beginning with upper-level management. Scott McNealy and the executive staff have already completed Sun Sigma training, which includes two days of training on the Change Acceleration Process […]

Over the years I have enjoyed the many articles that have speculated on the future of Six Sigma.This past month I have read three articles in particular that offered differing opinions on where Six Sigma is headed. According to Thomas Pyzdek, in Cargo Cult Six Sigma. Is the fad fading?: “As someone who follows Six […]

The Construction sector includes the following Fortune 500 industries: Homebuilders – Engineering, Construction – Building Materials, Glass The list is short and includes: Jacobs Engineering Group Owens Corning Notable Fortune 1000 companies include Armstrong Holdings, Vulcan Materials and  Martin Marietta Materials.

Chemical giants Dow and DuPont are the premier Six Sigma examples for the Chemical industry.As the early adopters in 1998, they continue to lead the industry today with innovative Six Sigma projects and deployment approaches.Many of the Fortune 1000 chemical companies employ Six Sigma: Air Products & Chemicals FMC Albemarle Great Lakes Chemical Ashland H.B. […]

The troubled Airline industry is a classic example that solidifies the fact that Six Sigma can do wonderful things for your bottom line… until gas prices rise dramatically or other market variables change and offset the Six Sigma savings.I know of only three Fortune 500 Airline companies that are using Six Sigma: Delta Air LinesSouthwest […]