Category: Blogs

The September issue of US News & World Report has the most recent rankings of the Best Colleges. However, I think what’s interesting is the article “Is College Still Worth it?” Instead of which college to attend, the question it asks is whether to go to college, given the rising costs at as much as […]

Making a seamless transition of an improved process from the project leader to the process owner is the topic of “Getting a Grip,” an article in the September/October issue of iSixSigma Magazine. Author Sean Rohen has seen firsthand how the transition can go awry; he is a Champion and Master Black Belt and has worked […]

I was reading the USAirways in-flight magazine while flying from Philadelphia to Boston the other day. The issue’s Must Read is anexcerpt from Chapter 1 of the book Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us by Emily Yellin. I thought it was interesting as it is filled with horror stories of how Customer Service […]

Recently, someone asked me what I thought to be the biggest mistake of a manager. I believe that managers can get so caught up with processes that they forget about the people. People are what drives an organization. People are not machines, they are emotional. A manager needs to be able to sense the emotional […]

The internet has brought us so much more information. Statistics are often used to support our opinions or views, and they show up in all types of media, including the internet. But are we more informed and educated on issues as common and important as health care? Let’s take a look at some numbers that […]

Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence wrote, “The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.” After […]

Whether you wear stripes, bars, or stars on your shirt, the environment needed for open communication begins with you. Unfortunately, it is easy to become over-directive in our management styles when burdened with deadlines and our other “important” issues. With so much going on, who has time for idle chat, right? Well, it should be […]

Time is running out for you to take part in the 2010 iSixSigma’s Best Places to Work™ for Six Sigma Professionals.The deadline for submitting your nomination is Monday, July 26, 2010. There are just two weeks left to send us your nomination, so please visit our Best Places to Work page today and fill out […]

For those of us involved with Lean it is easy to understand the challenges that come from starting a process improvement program from the ground floor. I would like to personally thank the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for providing such a great model for all government agencies to follow. There website is a great resource, packed […]

I was shopping at IKEA and found a bureau on sale for $30. The display model looked well-made with nice materials and finish. However, as expected, IKEA furniture comes in a box assembly required. No problem as I have plenty of experience. The assembly process took a number of steps: Find a suitable area large […]

The “Y” generation is definitely living up to its name. Why, why, why…everything is why these days. It appears that the good old days of say it and obey it are over and behind us. Blind faith leadership is becoming a thing of the past. Personally, I say thank goodness. After all, as Colin Powell […]

Top process improvement professionals in the energy sector met recently at the 2010 iSixSigma Live! Energy Forum for Process Excellence, May 24-27, in Houston. Presentations covered a broad range of topics – from innovation to leadership and getting started to giving back. Each of the topics was tailored to the specific needs of professionals in […]

Hard as it is to believe, July 4th is almost here, which means that the deadline for submissions for iSixSigma’s Best Places to Work – Monday, July 26, 2010 – is drawing near. Therecognition is an excellent opportunity for companies and employees to celebrate the strength of their Six Sigma programs. The purpose of iSixSigma’s […]

The June 14 issue of Fortune magazine featured an interview with Vanguard CEO William McNabb as a part of their C-Suite series. McNabb became CEO on August 31, 2008, two weeks before Lehman Brothers failed. Many more companies lost employees, customers, and certainly, a lot of money during the crisis. In contrast, Vanguard emerged stronger, […]

Since 2004, Sheriff John Rutherford has being fostering a culture of continuous improvement throughout the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO). With over 3000 employees having received initial roll out training, a full fledged division that bears the continuous improvement title, a dedicated steering committee comprised of top level executives to help ensure every project’s success, and […]

A well-run event can be cathartic, exciting, and extremely effective. A poorly run one wastes a lot of people’s time, money, and at worst, vaporizes everyone’s motivation to support any future quality activities. In either case, you can be sure that people will spread the word about how it went.   In no particular order, […]

Like many of the tools available for law enforcement officers today, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) process improvement methodologies are only as good as the officer’’s skill level, trained in its use. Firearms, TASERs, pepper spray, batons, are all examples of what law enforcement officers, the world over, are required to achieve proficiency with before hitting […]

I have facilitated and experienced the benefits of Lean Six Sigma in both military and law enforcement. My experience tells me this. Everyone looking at making improvements, whether in the corporate setting, or in the public service sector, have one, and only one, main overarching project…figuring out how to get its workforce engaged enough to […]

Thanks Chief, but you really aren’t in charge…The talk that has to happen. In most organizations there are several layers of decision makers. Each layer has more authority to make decisions than the one before. Military and law enforcement know this to be called, “chain of command.” Several times, I have had a high ranking […]

As we prepare for the arrival of our second child, we’ve decided to repaint the nursery. If you’ve ever tried painting a ceiling before, you know how easy it is to miss spots. Rather than go with normal ceiling paint, we opted for a special paint that goes on pink, and dries white. Pros call […]

I am fresh off of the American Society of Quality’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement. It was an outstanding idea forum that charged me up and allowed me to press some of the key thought leaders in Lean/Six Sigma/Quality on this idea of the need for innovation WITHIN the process improvement community. I was […]

OK, we’ve got our kaizen team going full speed ahead, and one of the improvements will be to replace the central printer with individual desk printers to avoid interruptions and transportation waste. Workers won’t have to get up and walk to get their forms. Hooray! “But,” one of the workers says, “we like getting up […]

We home educate our children and one approach we take is to think up and solve problems. When solving one of these, “how can you measure how tall a tree is?”, the Tan-o-meter was born! The maths is straightforward. You measure yourdistance from the treeand the angle to the top of the tree. Multiply the […]

I’ve used the phrase “closest to the customer” when explaining some aspects of lean – for example, starting improvements with the process closest to the customer outcome then working backwards in the process. Lately, I’ve been using the phrase “closest to the worker” to get people to think about removing non-value-added effort from out processes. […]