Category: Blogs

Over the course of the last year, I have had the privilege to speak with many companies that are either starting or are in the early stages of business transformation. It is astounding how many have not engaged in any form of benchmarking and even more astounding that many never intend to. Most understand the […]

Are you paying attention to your iSixSigma User Profile rankings? Get your ranking higher like two community members have in the past month. We offer our thanks and congratulations to them for being a part of the iSixSigma community! Pranali Humne: Aluminum Eric Maass: Aluminum You can earn reputation points a variety of ways, including: […]

Many organizations have attempted to implement some form of project management into their organization with different degrees of success. Implementation success varies by the awareness and method to which the program was introduced, often leaving many feeling that LSS is just another flavor of the month. Once the awareness of the benefits that LSS can […]

As announced in the Democrat & Chronicle today, Xerox is cutting its formal Lean Six Sigma program (“Xerox cutting back on Lean Six Sigma program, jobs“). According to the president of corporate operations Herve Tessler, Xerox has met its goals of embedding the culture of Lean Six Sigma within the organization an “we no longer […]

There are many reasons why you should be submitting articles to be published on iSixSigma.com: You receive the notoriety of being published on the premier worldwide Lean Six Sigma website You share their professional experience and expertise You earn 100 iSixSigma reputation points for each published article, increasing your standing in the business community We’re looking for […]

Have you been paying attention to your iSixSigma User Profile rankings? We’ve had a couple of community members jump levels in the past month. We offer our thanks and congratulations to them for being a part of the iSixSigma community! Marc Schaeffers: Copper Prabhu V: Copper Forgotten what the rankings are? Want to learn more […]

Have you been paying attention to your iSixSigma User Profile rankings? We’ve had a couple of community members jump levels in the past few months. We offer our thanks and congratulations to them for being a part of the iSixSigma community! Tejal Deo: Copper Niraj Goyal: Titanium Forgotten what the rankings are? Want to learn […]

In Hamlet, Act 1, scene 3, Polonius advises his son Laertes, “To thine own self be true.” This advice is just as true today as it was when Shakespeare wrote it around 1600. Or perhaps you prefer the Latin, caveat emptor, which means buyer beware. In both cases, the message seems to be to look […]

What do emails, popcorn and tsunamis have in common? As heat increases, corn kernel popping peaks and the scrambling activity accelerates like a tsunami. If not carefully watched, the popcorn kernels may burn, create that awful smell, and start smoking and trigger a fire alarm (waste). This popcorn-tsunami analogy is similar to email strings. The […]

If you work at an organization with 10 or more employees, you are probably a member of one work team or another. And it’s safe to say that most work teams sincerely want to be productive. But when faced with lots of stuff to get done, teams can get bogged down trying to distinguish “stuff […]

I have been a Lean and Six Sigma Black Belt for two and a half years and have come to a heartbreaking realization: I’ll never be good at everything. This is not what my teachers expected from me. My Yellow, Green and Black Belt education included a diverse curriculum including a week on statistics and […]

Lean can sound “mean” to the people who hear it’s coming to their workplaces. We all know that healthcare enterprises are under unprecedented pressure to cut costs. We understand that much of our work is stupid and repetitive. We can’t find the documents and supplies we need, we don’t have the tools we need and […]

First, let’s define single minute exchange of dies (SMED), also referred to as quick changeover. This method was developed by Shigeo Shingo in Japan, and arose from automotive machine setups and changeovers that were taking up to 24 hours. This was downtime that was robbing production capacity. The SMED methodology focuses on the waste in the […]

UPDATED! FINAL DATE OF PARTICIPATION EXTENDED TO APRIL 6, 2014!! It is time for iSixSigma’s 11th annual Global Six Sigma Salary Survey! Every year iSixSigma analyzes information in its Job Shop database to produce a Six Sigma-specific salary report. Please note: All responses will be kept confidential and data only will be used in the […]

I often think about the losses corporations and government entities take on with initiatives that result in decorative shelfware (the unused products that sit on a buyer’s shelf). There must be millions of great ideas and intelligent business plans just sitting on shelves because of the lack of execution. For all we know the solutions […]

We’re so grateful to everyone who participated in the 2014 iSixSigma Reader Survey! Not only did you participate in droves, but you gave detailed, thoughtful replies about what keeps you up at night and how we can meet your Lean Six Sigma content needs. We look forward to providing you with more articles on real-world […]

When we leave the shop floor and enter the back office, we might think that people’s desks are where they work. We’d be wrong. Their workbench, their tooling, their line … is in their heads. This means that most knowledge work (information technology [IT], legal, management, product design, finance) is invisible. My colleague Tonianne tells […]

Communication can make or break a relationship, an organization or even a company. The next time you are writing a mission statement for your new project remember to think about how you plan to communicate.

I propose that we replace the concept and word of “resistance” with the concept and word of “objection” in the change management industry. To date, we have cavalierly used “resistance” to characterize the people who don’t choose to go along with our change management plans. These people “resist” us for reasons that have been well […]

With the holiday season upon us, iSixSigma is showing appreciation to our authors by offering extra rewards for submissions in December. There are many reasons why you should be submitting articles to be published on iSixSigma.com: You receive the notoriety of being published on the premier worldwide Lean Six Sigma website You share their professional […]

There are many reasons why you should be submitting articles (and blogs) to be published on iSixSigma.com: You receive the notoriety of being published on the premier worldwide Lean Six Sigma website You share their professional experience and expertise You earn 100 iSixSigma reputation points for each published article (20 for each blog), increasing your […]

iSixSigma is publishing a series of short interviews with our community of Lean Six Sigma practitioners and leaders. Today’s special guest – Gokhan Gureser. You’re at a party and you’re introduced to someone new. Explain what you do in 2-3 sentences. Just like people, organizations also desire to recognize their potential and unleash it. The […]

With this post, iSixSigma is launching a series of short interviews with our community of Lean Six Sigma practitioners and leaders. Today’s special guest – Artagnan Ayala. You’re at a party and you’re introduced to someone new. Explain what you do in 2-3 sentences. I do two things. I work to improve profits for those I […]

The UK government has launched the SIM (See Inside Manufacturing) campaign, which educates and encourages individuals to embark on engineering and similar career paths. As part of the program, a SIM day will be organized at GKN Driveline to let them see how machines work and how parts are being handled in facilities, such as those […]