Lean Sigma engagements mean I am frequently travelling around the country with many nights in a hotel. This typically means full English breakfast, canteen lunch and hotel dinner. Unfortunately after 18-months it has started to show and I have gone from lean-mean change machine to chubby-mean change machine.

Imagine the shock on returning home after a weeks-long travel to find a set of scales, measuring tape and two beaming children. They had decided I was too fat. The elder had made a poster at school: – “Go on Daddy!”. The younger has drawn a picture of me on a treadmill. I was duly weighed and my waist measured and the results put on a chart to check weekly progress.

So I am trying to watch what I eat and do make an effort to use the hotel gym.

But this got me thinking; it was a long journey in the car. The project team had found their project (me) and were measuring two process outputs. What are my key process inputs? What is my process capability? What is my goal? What is my improvement plan? Can I really achieve long-term sustainable results?

What is the size of opportunity here? Picking -up on J P Spencer’s blog, it would seem the principles of Lean Sigma have unlimited potential in the diet industry. A brief search on-line gave no real hits on “Six Sigma Diet”. I think a business using Lean Sigma with a well-structured workbook, wall-chart, reading material and web site would be of great appeal. Maybe the healthcare contingent would like to comment?