Category: Blogs

Six Sigma has been growing slowly but surely over the years at HSBC . The Six Sigma deployment model of the United Kingdom based banking corporation is best described as the “middle-out” approach in Michael Cyger’s blog entry, “Are All Six Sigma Deployment Models Created Equal”. Recently, HSBC won the Six Sigma Excellence award for […]

Hesh Reinfeld, a Pittsburgh-based business columnist and humorist wrote a column yesterday about improving the quality of his columns: “When my readers question the quality of my columns, I don’t look to the subjective evaluations of an editor. No, I call my six sigma black belt, Harry, for help. “Harry has worked on process improvement […]

Yesterday I ran my second 5 kilometer running race in about 7 years, causing me to contemplate the difference between causation and correlation. It was Bear Paw 5K Classic inEagle River, Alaska (USA), the last day of my week vacation in Anchorage. Eagle River is a small town about 20 minutes north of Anchorage. My […]

Yesterday, Bank of America employees gathered for the third annual “Best of Six Sigma Expo” to celebrate and recognize the teams that completed the best Six Sigma projects in 2004. “This was how Bank of America praised employees who last year carried out its 15 best ‘Six Sigma’ projects, designed to increase revenue and cut […]

Michael Marx and I had a discussion yesterday about the opening of the recently launched iSixSigma Blogosphere to additional bloggers. What’s amazing is not that we came to a similar conclusion, but that the entire conversation took place through instant messaging, or IM. (Since I’m in Alaska this week on vacation I find that the […]

Each week the iSixSigma Blogosphere newsletter will feature a blog entry from a guest blog. I read several different business related blogs each day and I amconstantly searching for new ones. I have been visitingDecker Marketing for over a year now and always enjoyreading whatSam Decker has to say. He is insightful, understands businesses from […]

Cummins Inc. began using Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) in 2000. In April 2004 they completed their 2,000th Six Sigma project and in the same year began working on Six Sigma projects with customers. Cummins is featured in the Corporate Leadership section of the July/August issue of iSixSigma Magazine. In the article, […]

Hal Macomber and Joe Ely have decided to blog about Everyday Lean Examples.They have each made their first post in a series that will last through July. In his post titled Everyday Lean — “Jugban”, Joe describes how he leaned out his contact lens cleaning process: “I wear gas-permeable contact lenses. Though the parents who […]

Stephen Turnipseed, Lean Sigma Process Advisor, presented an overview of Chevron’s Lean Sigma activity in the San Joaquin Valley Strategic Business Unit (SJVBU). Although he said Chevron Corporation is only two and a half steps into enterprise-wide deployment of Six Sigma, the SJVBU has benefited from the tools since its first project at a water […]

Michael Slocum of Breakthrough Management Group (BMG) presented a workshop on Six Sigma and Innovation.  He began with a stream of quotes from innovation authors such as, Gary Hamel, David Kirkpatrick and Peter F. Drucker.  (He said Hamel was his favorite). “There are no strategies for creating wealth in the long term that are not driven […]

On Wednesday, June 29th, Jean O’Connell of 3M shared a presentation titled “Six Sigma for Growth: The Customer Project Approach”. 3M is currently focused on engaging their customers in Six Sigma projects. To date they have jointly worked 400 plus projects with customers such as Estee Lauder, Grainger, The Home Depot, Toyota, Wal-Mart, Motorola, Procter & […]

William Swanson delivered a high energy keynote address packed with insight into Raytheon Six Sigma. Aside from the details of the tremendous progress they have made since 1999, his advice on leadership was the highlight of his remarks. Bill said there are four qualities of leadership: Confidence: Confidence is knowing your strengths and weaknesses and […]

This is my first post from the ISSSP 6th Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference. I’ll be attending the four-day event in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA mingling with the Six Sigma community and, of course, blogging. Today, Steve Zinkgraf and Debby Sollenberger of Sigma Breakthrough Technologies (SBTI) delivered a workshop called “Program Revitalization – The Next Evolution […]

Leslie Behnke, Vice President Six Sigma Business Excellence, is leading the Six Sigma initiative at CIGNA. She joined CIGNA in 2002 from Motorola where she led Six Sigma activities for over a decade. The initiative is called “Six Sigma Business Excellence” and includes the standard DMAIC and DMADV methodologies. CIGNA annual reports do not mention […]

Fortune 500 companies in the Insurance industry using Six Sigma: American International Group, Inc. (AIG) Berkshire Hathaway Allstate Prudential Financial Aetna CIGNA Northwestern Mutual UnitedHealth Group USAA Principal Financial Lincoln National Conseco

The Last Word from the July/August 2005 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Designing for Perfection: Six Stories of Innovation with Six Sigma.” One of my pet peeves is when people refer to Six Sigma as a cost-cutting or productivity methodology. That definition tells only half of the story, focusing on the DMAIC improvement methodology and […]

Six Sigma for Dummies has been getting a lot of press lately in the news. I had the chance last week to meet with Craig Gygi, co-author of Six Sigma for Dummies, at his office in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.The only thing difficult about Craig is trying to say his last name, Gygi (pronounced “gee-gee” as […]

American Standard has been using Six Sigma to improve just about everything in the business from reducing energy costs to building a better toilet. Five years into their program Six Sigma has grown to include Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and supplier training. And they are serious about their suppliers getting trained in Six Sigma […]

Jacobs Engineering Group is a diversified provider of professional technical services. They work on construction and engineering projects for the Automotive, Chemical, Petroleum, Pharmaceutical and Technology industries. They also do work for the Aerospace and Defense industry including the US Department of Defense, NASA, and US military operations. Savings and Benefits Jacobs Engineering Group uses […]

The International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP) will host the Sixth Annual Six Sigma Leadership Conference, June 27-30 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. I will be attending this conference and hope to have the opportunity to do some real-time blogging of the events. Conference Highlights Keynote Address: William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO, Raytheon Company. […]

On Wednesday, I listened to an Industry Week webcast on Six Sigma deployment strategies for small and mid-sized companies. Terence T. Burton, President of The Center for Excellence in Operations, Inc., delivered a well thought-out presentation covering an intro to Six Sigma, the Scaleable Six Sigma approach for small companies and lessons from the trenches. […]

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the second largest bank in the US. The leading global financial services firm was built from the successful merger of JPMorgan and Chase Manhattan Bank in December 2000 and the recent merger with Bank One in July 2004. Dr. Alex Balbontin, Vice President of Productivity and Quality and Master Black […]

Albertsons released their First Quarter 2005 Results today. They continue to publicly announce their progress with their corporate-wide Six Sigma initiative: “The number of Six Sigma black belts rose to nearly 100 during the quarter. Currently, 178 projects are underway, providing the potential for significant process improvement and cost savings going forward.”

The following items recur too frequently in my daily activities. I submit them as “pet peeves” to raise awareness of them. OK, let’s be honest – venting helps me too. Pet Peeve 1: People who are more concerned with obtaining a Six Sigma certification than with what the newly acquired skills will allow them to […]