Randy Woods

Employed with Textron for 22 years, Stern entered the continuous improvement program in 2005 as a Black Belt and has since become a Master Black Belt. She currently oversees training in Textron’s CI program and leads value stream mapping improvement workshops. Here are Stern’s thoughts about the evolution of the company’s CI efforts and how […]

AkzoNobel Car Refinishes Americas and Toyota Motor Sales, USA, have agreed to combine experience and resources surrounding process improvement methods for collision repair operations, resulting in the Toyota Production System for Collision (TPS-C).

Earlier this month, iSixSigma Live! held the second of its three scheduled Social and Networking Parties for the quality community this fall. For the nearly 40 Six Sigma professionals in attendance at this event in the Greater Phoenix area, the Social was a rare chance for practitioners to strengthen old ties, meet new contacts, chat […]

A New England-based healthcare system is proving Lean Six Sigma tools are not just for manufacturing companies after realizing substantial cost savings in a nearly two-year implementation process.

The Singaporean government has launched the Innovation Improvement Initiative program, to help enhance Singapore companies capabilities in innovation and productivity. The project-based program is designed to jumpstart productivity improvement.

Scrum is an Agile project management methodology that can be used to control software and product development using iterative, incremental practices. Scrum generates the benefits of Agile development with the advantages of a simple implementation. This methodology can significantly increase productivity and reduce time to benefits while facilitating adaptive, empirical systems development.

Avery Dennison has appointed Michel Schuetz to the post of vice president, operations and supply chain, for its materials businesses in Europe.

Elcoteq Bangalore announced that it has received awards for manufacturing quality at the Chapter Convention for Quality Circles, organized by Quality Circles Forum of India, Bangalore Chapter.

The Hartford Financial Services Group today announced that James Eckerle, 51, has joined the company as executive vice president, strategic initiatives and enterprise technology. In this newly created role, Eckerle will report to the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, Liam E. McGee.

Drive control and hydraulics firm Bosch Rexroth Corp., based in Fountain Inn, S.C., USA, received the Silver Crescent Award from the Silver Crescent Foundation and South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, in recognition of the company’s overall quality, workforce development, and community stewardship.

Australian financial services firm Westpac has launched a large-scale initiative to overhaul its information technology (IT) services, part of which will be accomplished through the application of Lean and Six Sigma techniques to reduce waste and remove unnecessary banking processes. The IT plan was announced during an Oct. 8 webcast briefing with Westpac investors. During […]

Dave Wheeler has been promoted to senior vice president, global supply chain and corporate Six Sigma at Cintas Corp. in Mason, Ohio, USA. Wheeler will be responsible for all company-owned and contracted production facilities, procurement, distribution facilities, textile research, new product development, production planning and Six Sigma initiatives.

In just six months of applying Lean Six Sigma techniques, the State Police Crime Lab in Baton Rouge, La., USA, has dramatically reduced the turnaround time for the processing of evidence in criminal cases.

After a brief hiatus, the iSixSigma Live! Social & Networking Party returned last week, with the first event taking place in Seattle, welcoming nearly 70 Six Sigma professionals from the Puget Sound region. Held on the top floor of the popular Rock Bottom Brewery in Bellevue, Wash., the Social drew continuous improvement professionals from the […]

A Minnesota-based quality group recently presented three people with the 2010 Shurson Awards, honoring commitment to quality principles. The winners, chosen by the Rochester Area Quality Council (RAQC), are Gene Dankbar and Dr. Prathibha Varkey of the Mayo Clinic, and Darryl Mickelson of Hormel Foods Corp.

iSixSigma.com and iSixSigma Magazine are pleased to announce that the top 10 finalist companies have been chosen for the third annual list of iSixSigma’s Best Places to Work™ for Six Sigma professionals.

On iSixSigma’s Discussion Forum, a poster working on a doctoral thesis asked about how various differences in national culture can affect Six Sigma implementation. Respondents provided several links to studies on the role of cultural differences among deployments in the United States and Europe. One reader added that the corporate culture is far more important […]

Despite the common allegation that Lean improvement methods must lead to layoffs at healthcare systems, the reality is quite different at several leading hospitals, where Lean methods are actually saving or creating jobs.

Boeing is introducing several improvements on its Boeing 767 assembly line as it ramps up production to meet higher commercial demand and a potential tanker order from the US Air Force.

Earlier this month, a member of the iSixSigma Discussion Forum asked about the best methods to measure financial performance among business units within the same company, but in different regions. The answers that came back ranged from simple bottom-line comparison using accounting department data to more complex metrics, such as profit per item sold and […]

808 Renewable Energy Corp. has named Pascal Lorthioir as it s new Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors Member. Lorthioir brings to the firm – which started in 2006 as 808 Investments, LLC – more than 20 years of professional, hands-on corporate experience in operations, management, research and development, mergers and acquisitions and international […]

A study of 835 individuals, representing a variety of companies of all sizes and industries from across the globe, has been released, showing trends and success factors in business process excellence (BPE) initiatives worldwide.

Boston Strategies International announced that Chevron, Shell and Baker Hughes have won BSI’s 2010 Oil and Gas Supply Chain Excellence Awards.

Hansen Transmissions International NV is pleased to announce the appointment of Leszek Biskup-Koestner as Vice President, Six Sigma.