Paul Arnold

Union Pacific has named D. Lynn Kelley, Ph.D., vice president in charge of continuous improvement, effective July 1. She succeeds Richard R. McClish, who is retiring, and will report to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Young.

Got best practices? If you’ve been attending (or separately purchasing components of) the iSixSigma “Best of the Best” Webinar Series, you are on your way. These hour-long sessions deliver process improvement secrets from some of the world’s most respected companies. The first two sessions in the series featured best practices from MoneyGram International (“MoneyGram’s Transformation […]

iSixSigma’s “Best of the Best” Webinar Series continues on Wednesday, July 14, when two Black Belts from Best Buy, Tonya Bescheinen and Tracy Gardiner, lead an hour-long session titled “Reap the Rewards of Investing in Your Culture”. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern on July 14 and the cost […]

Sixty-nine organizations have tossed their hats — and their strategies for success — into the ring for the 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest recognition for organizational performance excellence through innovation and improvement. Applicants include two manufacturers, three service companies, two small businesses, eight educational organizations, 40 health care organizations and 14 […]

In the summer of 2010, Iowa Congressman Tom Latham began drafting a serious legislative effort to systematically identify waste at every level of the federal government – both within federal agencies and the programs they oversee. Latham’s goal was to introduce legislation that would force the federal government to follow one tried-and-tested uniform protocol that […]

iSixSigma’s “Best of the Best” Webinar Series continues on Tuesday, June 21, when Shannon Coursey leads an hour-long session titled “Applying SPC Concepts to Better Understand Systems Delivery Performance”. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern and the cost is $49 (Register Now!)

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a best-selling author and consultant who may be best known as the creator of the Theory of Constraints, died on June 11 at his home in Israel after a brief illness. He was 64.

If you didn’t have the ability to attend an iSixSigma Live! event in person during the first half of 2011 (and given the content at these world-class conferences, you really should have been there), you still have the chance to take in some of the best presentations from those programs with the iSixSigma “Best of […]

Ramblings, grumblings and samplings from the desk of Paul V. Arnold on June 9, 2011: Notes on Newt: iSixSigma publisher Katie Barry forwarded a Politico.com article to me this morning that chronicled Newt Gingrich’s formal signing in New Hampshire of a pledge to adopt Lean Six Sigma principles if elected President of the United States. […]

Nearly 150 change management professionals representing more than 60 companies in the oil & gas and utilities sectors attended the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Energy Forum for Process Excellence on May 16-19 in Houston. Those attendees came from 19 states and eight countries (United States, plus Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Thailand and the United […]

Three exceptional workshops opened up the third annual iSixSigma Energy Forum for Process Excellence, being held May 16-19 at the Westin Oaks Hotel in Houston. The workshops, attended May 16 by a host of leaders in the oil & gas and utilities sectors, were as follows: “Change Management: The Cornerstone of a Successful Lean Six […]

The conference portion of the 2011 iSixSigma Retail Forum for Process Excellence concluded on Wednesday afternoon, March 30, with three case studies, a panel discussion and a keynote address. The four-day event officially wraps up on Thursday, March 31, with a post-conference workshop and a benchmarking tour of Best Buy headquarters. All total, the 2011 […]

Macy’s, CVS and Best Buy. Oh my! Those were just three of the companies that shared their stories of process improvement success during the afternoon session on Day 2 (Tuesday, March 29) of the iSixSigma Retail Forum for Process Excellence. The conference is being held through Thursday, March 31, at the Westin Edina Galleria in […]

Stories of innovation, growth and business transformation were shared during morning sessions on Day 2 (Tuesday, March 29) of the iSixSigma Retail Forum for Process Excellence, being held at the Westin Edina Galleria in suburban Minneapolis. The four-day conference runs through Thursday, March 31. Keynote sessions this morning were delivered by Tim Wilson, the vice […]

iSixSigma’s inaugural Retail Forum for Process Excellence opened on Monday, March 28, with six hours of educational workshops. The conference runs through Thursday, March 31 at the Westin Edina Galleria in suburban Minneapolis. Robert Hafey, the president of RBH Consulting and the author of the book “Lean Safety – Transforming Your Safety Culture Using Lean […]

Over the past month, as I’ve been reading and researching articles in my new role as editor in chief of iSixSigma, I’ve come across the term VOC a bunch of times. VOC, or voice of the customer, is important and worthy of its numerous mentions. The “Dictionary of Lean Six Sigma Terminology” on iSixSigma.com lists […]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to engaging employees … either in training or for roles within a change initiative. One says that it is perfectly fine (even necessary) to infuse such efforts with elements of entertainment, creativity … (dare we say) fun. The other says that such frivolity should be avoided […]

There has been plenty of buzz at the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, being held this week at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. iSixSigma’s team of reporters have been blogging and Tweeting throughout the event. Here are 20 of the most interesting things heard and noted on iSixSigma’s Twitter account (http://twitter.com/iSixSigma) […]

In his standing-room-only breakout session “The Heart of ROI: Project Identification, Selection, Tracking and Replication”, Steven H. Jones of Siemens IT Solutions and Services educated iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards attendees on methods to overcome several key Lean Six Sigma deployment challenges. The session took place in the “A Solid Investment” track on Wednesday, Feb. […]

In finance departments, focusing Six Sigma efforts on cost savings can be a recipe for failure. The way to be successful is to focus on the areas in which employees perceive more value – risk mitigation, metric development, controls, gap analysis and assessments. This was the message of “Delivering Value in Corporate Finance”, a breakout […]

  Day 3 brings big news and big learning opportunities at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Featured activities for today (Wednesday, Feb. 9) include a high-energy general-session keynote, 11 program sessions and three panel discussions. But probably the most anticipated portion of the day is […]

What is Scrum and how can it help you in your Lean Six Sigma efforts? That was the topic of a breakout session presented by Brad Zylstra of Volt Information Services on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami. Zylstra, the Vice President of Strategic Business Services and Support at […]

Eric Michrowski of TELUS provided an excellent learning session at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Michrowski – the Director of the Process Improvement Center of Excellence and Lean Deployment Leader at this full-service, Canada-based telecommunications provider – shared with the audience […]

  Excitement and learning continues to build at the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, behind held this week at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Featured activities for today (Feb. 8) include several general-session keynotes and addresses, 11 program sessions and two panel discussions. The day opens up with an opening address […]