The iSixSigma Live! Miami Summit and Awards opened yesterday with a bang.Richard Willet, Jr., President and CEO of NewPage kicked off the morning session.

Rick gave an enthusiastic overview of Lean Six Sigma at NewPage. There was so much he spoke about, but one of the points really stuck me as unique. He said that Green Belts are first asked to spend one week leaning out their own work process, freeing up 25 percent of their time. They then use that new-found time to work on their Green Belt projects.

I think we can all learn a lesson from that. If you feel you do not have enough time in the day to get your work done, consider investing time leaning out your own processes, an extra 2 hours a day can go a long way. Use it wisely.

Jason Tafler, CEO PointRoll spoke about how a creative company can utilize Six Sigma. Once again what struck me was his take on Lean. After the initial Six Sigma deployment, PointRoll felt they needed more. So they deployed Lean and TPS. The Lean work caused an awakening at PointRoll. Growth is now scaled at the company through Lean efficiencies vs. hiring.

Buzzwords from the morning… Lean, and economy. More to come.