Category: Blogs

CanLean Six Sigma help companies get through this economic downturn? Dale Barnhart, President and Chief Executive Officer at Lydall thinks so. In the Lydall 4th Quarter Earnings report he said: “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of Lean Six Sigma to Lydall in light of the current economic conditions. In 2008, the Company realized significant […]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been pouring over the latest iSixSigma survey results about the use of process improvement methodologies and models in the supply chain. So far I’ve found a couple of interesting things… 1. Success factors for implementing Six Sigma in supply chain are pretty consistent with implementing Six Sigma anywhere: […]

If you’d like to take a beginner’scourse on Lean, look to Ron Pereira’s Gemba Academy. He has releasedhis first video, Introduction to Lean Manufacturing. The clip below (and on the LSS Academy site) is the first 10 minutes of the 15 minute intro to Lean. Don’t waste another minute in Lean ignorance…

This morning as I was reading my Six Sigma news feeds, I came across a mention of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) crediting Lean Six Sigmafor their high service ratings. The use of Lean and Six Sigma outside the traditional business setting intrigues me…so I investigated further…It turns out that back in 2005 CML identified […]

Andrew’s recent reflections about the relevance of continuous improvement practitioners in these times mirror my thoughts with an added perspective. If lean thinking and continuous improvement were only about measuring production and process I would wholly agree. However, continuous improvement, in my mind, is more about positive change and moving toward perfection than it is […]

Perhaps you all arrived at this conclusion way ahead of me, but I’m starting to worry more and more about the way we, as continuous improvement professionals, are spending our time. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the world in general, and the economy in particular, has gone off meds. Yes, I know, this isn’t news […]

As a former forklift operator, I can understand the complexities of forklift operations. I know absolutely nothing about forklift manufacturing, but one could argue that it might be harder to operate a forklift than build one… The very first Six Sigma project I ever heard about involved a forklift. It perked my interest, because naturally, […]

I was talking with a group of people about leading lean, and someone asked me, “Are you a Sensei?” So of course I said “No!” I don’t call myself a Sensei, because I consider myself to be at the grasshopper-level of lean expertise. However, the question did make me think. I call myself a Black […]

If your customers rate you a “7” on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), do your customer ratings range from 6 to 8 or do they range from 4 to 10? What would you do with this information?

AIG Said to Offer $1 Billion in Retention Payments to Employees As it turns out, this how AIG is choosing to spend part of the $150 Billion it received from the US Government, with much of it going to the very business units that caused AIG to falter in the first place. While the company […]

Photos stream of the iSixSigma Live! Summit and Awards in Miami. To browse all photos and download your favorites visit: http://photos.isixsigma.com/gallery/7136980_gHfnR

It seems like a month can not go by without some large scale food recall, with the latest being approximately 31 million pounds of peanut butter (due to salmonella contamination). I started to wonder what the sigma level for the aforementioned peanut butter would look like. According to a major news website, at least 500 […]

Michael Cyger moderated a panel with Mikel Harry and Don Linsenmann. Together they put on a good show, fielding questions from Mike as well as the audience. Don, as usual, instill humor into just about every story he tells. On the economy and Six Sigma: Don: “We’re all impacted by this downfall. Take initiative. Let […]

As an iSixSigma Blogs reader I invite you to participate in iSixSigma’s latest survey on Six Sigma in the supply chain. This short survey will explore how Six Sigma and other process improvement methodologies, including supply chain models such as SCOR, are being used to optimize supply chain activities. It will also look at how […]

Over 200 energy industry professionals will gather in Houston, Texas, May 19-22 for iSixSigma Live’s premiere Energy Forum for Process Excellence, supported by Chevron, Halliburton, Hess and Marathon Oil. Here’s your chance to be one of the speakers. Click here for the speaking proposal form: https://www.isixsigma.com/KQ5 We’re especially looking for process improvement professionals who can […]

I spent the Wednesday afternoon in the Deployment Models breakout session with Bob Crescenzi, from NewPage, Pam Cagle from Wal-Mart, and Stephen Turnipseed from Chevron. Each company is deploying Six Sigma with a different approach. Bob Crescenzi made a great point kicking off the discussions. He said, “There is no vanilla deployment.” Top-down, middle-out, or […]

“Do you have the courage to lead?”

I was very honored to have been nominated for the iSixSigma MVP Award for “Best Blogger” – given the high quality of my fellow nominees, Robin Barnwell and Gianna Clark, I was not expecting to receive this recognition! Attending the iSixSigma Live! conference was a blast, and I had a lot of fun and met […]

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 […]

Well we did it. We announced the order of the Top Ten iSixSigma Best Places to Work list this morning. If you were following my tweets this morning you already heard where the No. 1 place is… if not, here we go… #10 Rio Tinto Alcan #9 Volt Information Sciences Inc. #8 EMC Corp. #7 […]

I had the privilege of presenting the iSixSigma MVP Awards this morning to a fine group of Six Sigma professionals. The MVP Awards are iSixSigma’s way of recognizing those people who volunteer their time and expertise making iSixSigma.com and the iSixSigma Blogosphere meaningful places to learn. Without purse or script, these knights and nobles selfishly […]

The iSixSigma Live! Awards ceremony went off beautifully this morning. Congratulations to all the finalists, and woo hooo! to all the winners! Winners: Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects * Environment – Bell Helicopter, Textron Inc. for “Compressed Air Savings Headstart (CASH)” * Supply chain – General Dynamics for “Submarine Material Receipt Inspection” * Transactional – North Shore-LIJ […]

It’s a busy week for us here at iSixSigma. The final day leading to the iSixSigma Live! Summit& Awards in Miami… If you tweet you’re in for a treat.I’ll betweeting live from Miami. Follow the iSixSigma tweetfor mini updates on what I’m up to at the conference. Be the first to readthe winners of the […]

This year, I’m making a resolution to do a good deed daily. This is inspired in part by Gianna Clark’s latest blog, How W.O.W.?, but also by my own sense of imbalance in the customer feedback that most organizations receive. I’ve communicated about problems and complaints many times – but – I realized that I […]