Category: Blogs

   Six Sigma Slogan: Pleasant and Happy Changes For POSCO, Six Sigma is not merely a series of projects to be completed, but a potent tool for management reform designed to help reach business objectives, change corporate culture, and present the most ideal solutions for every business issue. 2004 Annual Report POSCO, the South Korean […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify critical factors that are needed to increase the probability of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 2: I’m already working 60 hours a week, so how do you expect me to devote anytime to champion a Six Sigma […]

Six Sigma at CSX is a GE success story. What started out as a GE “At the Customer for the Customer” engagement, turned into a corporate-wide deployment of Six Sigma at one of the leading transportation companies in the United States. Bill Smith, National Account Executive at GE Transportation Systems, tells the story best in […]

Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies in the Transportation and Logistics industry that are practicing Six Sigma: Burlington Northern Santa Fe CNF CSX Corporation FedEx Norfolk Southern Sirva Union Pacific United Parcel Service United States Postal Service

Benchmarking results consistently identify critical factors that are needed to increase the probability of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 1: Black Belts and Green Belts are actually doing the work, so why does the senior leadership team need to be “belt” […]

In October 2000 Norfolk Southern began an initiative called “Norfolk Southern for the 21st Century” (NS21). NS21 is an internal effort to improve performance, focus on customer service, and reduce costs. Six Sigma is used in conjunction with NS21 and has helped the railroad giant become one data-driven locomotive! In 2003 Norfolk Southern refocused the […]

Notes from the deployment frontline 31 Aug 05 Having been raised 20 miles from salt water in Tampa, I am in love with warm and salty water and mesmerized by hurricanes. That said, I think we should all pause this week and think about what is really important. Those of us that think our companies, […]

Union Pacific (UP) has been using the Six Sigma methodology for a number of years to increase customer satisfaction, reduce failures, and conserve energy. Last year Thomas A. Myers, Michael Carver, and Dr. Michael Echols wrote a case study describing how UP reduced the cost of training Six Sigma Black Belts by partnering with Bellevue […]

Have you taken an eLearning course in the past? Do you offer eLearning training through your consulting company? Have you researched eLearning options in the past? We want to hear from you. iSixSigma is preparing to research eLearning options available within the Six Sigma industry. For this study, we’re defining eLearning as: “Any learning that […]

Patricia Collins wrote an article in the September/October 2005 issue of iSixSigma Magazine titled, “Better Business Leaders.” Patricia is the senior deployment champion for Merrill Lynch’s enterprise-wide Six Sigma program. The article details Merrill Lynch’s unique approach to leadership development through Six Sigma. “The goal is not only to give the company’s future business leaders […]

When I accepted this invitation from Mike Cyger, he suggested that I post once a week and so I have set aside Tuesday mornings from 5:00 to 7:00 to put down something I think is worthwhile. This week I got a call at 4 am from my beautiful wife, Aimee, telling me to catch the […]

Recently EMC began an initiative called Total Customer Experience (TCE) and Six Sigma is at the heart of it. Six Sigma at EMC is driven from the top as an enterprise-wide initiative. EMC President, CEO, and Green Belt candidate, Joe Tucci, recently spoke about TCE and Six Sigma at the EMC Technology Summit in New […]

Notes from the deployment frontline Why does this stuff work? For those of you who don’t know me, I work in the land of Laverne and Shirley for a fine 100 year old company that is trying to change without losing what makes people want to spend a career here. I am five months into […]

Xerox has a successful history applying Lean Manufacturing techniques in their operations since the early 90s. In 1998 Six Sigma was introduced in various manufacturing and supply chain operations. Although these operations achieved efficiencies, the scope of the deployment was limited. In 2002, Six Sigma and Lean were integrated and driven as a corporate-wide strategy. […]

It does not matter how small the business, Six Sigma can help improve any process. Even a niche bed and breakfast business can profit from Six Sigma principles. Case in point: Al O’Donnell, who runs a Six Sigma program for Southern Clay Products in Gonzales, Texas, USA, wrote us this note. “My wife owns the […]

The Consumer Products industry sector containsa wide array of industries: Apparel, Home Equipment and Furnishings, Household and Personal Products, Textiles, Tobacco, Toys and Sporting Goods. Listed below are Fortune 1000 companies in these industries (broadly labeled “Consumer Products”) that are using Six Sigma. 3M Alberto-Culver Clorox Colgate-Palmolive Estée Lauder Kimberly-Clark Masco Newell Rubbermaid Procter & […]

I had the pleasure of being invited to the Northwest Quality Forum on Wednesday (3 Aug 2005). It’s an informal group of like-minded peers (deployment champions and regional leaders) in the Seattle area that get together every other month to discuss Six Sigma, Lean, management, leadership, change management and related issues faced by their organizations. […]

Barclays is just starting out on their Six Sigma journey. They began their initiative just over a year ago and were recently recognized with a Six Sigma Excellence award in the category “Best Defect Elimination in a Service & Transaction Project.” Chris Lorimer, Head of Supplier and Service Improvement at Barclays International and Private Bank, […]

James McNerney hints at what’s to come at Boeing duringyesterday’s Second Quarter 2005 Earningsconference call with analysts and journalists: “Boeing has very strong pockets of process improvement, quality, technology sharing and leverage, sourcing, management development and more. We plan to take those that have the most company-wide impact on growth and company productivity and drive […]

In 2001 Countrywide Financial launched an internally developed, proprietary program called FASTER. The six step methodology (Flow, Analyze, Solve, Target, Execute, and Review) is modeled after Six Sigmaand specifically designed for the financial services environment. FASTER as well as the customer satisfaction program PACE (Proudly Achieving Customer Expectations) are both helping Countrywide improve all aspects […]

If you get Executive Decision magazine, check the recent issue (July/August 2005)on page 35 (article: “Don’t Let Company Growth Stall: Innovation is the key factor in charting a course of long-term sustained growth”).

In an interview in 2004 with Alsom’s Cindy Kortebein, VP of Business Processes, Environmental Control Systems (ECS), James Works, President, George Group, learns how Six Sigma is working its way through Alstom: “JW: Tell me about Six Sigma deployment at Alstom. “CK: Alstom has really made a concerted effort to step up the deployment especially […]

Well, the folks at iSixSigma have seen it fit go give me a blog site. After consulting with my youngest of two daughters, 15 going on 25, she tells me that this is a cool thing (my words not hers). So here goes blog #1… I plan to use this site to keep in touch […]

All well trained Six Sigma professionals know that variation is the root of all evil – at least with respect to the customer experience. I understand this all too well myself. I usually experience it when it is least appreciated – in the early morning. Many nights I find myself up late programming some new feature […]