Category: Innovation

Arrow Electronics had already been utilizing Six Sigma practices when it introduced its drone project in 2016 at its two main distribution centers in Malaysia and Asia. The drone project gained them further recognition for their use of Six Sigma methodology and helped usher in a new era of using drones in warehouses in the […]

It’s easy to fall into business-as-usual routines, but it’s only a matter of time before that will lead to loss of business. Use ideation to avoid stagnancy and keep your business fresh.

Virtually every business decision is a matter of investment and success is based on how companies deploy resources like employee time, capital and brand image. The authority to make independent decisions is also a type of resource that can and should be invested by delegating it to team members. Overview: What is empowerment? Employee empowerment […]

The Lean Six Sigma (LSS) toolbox can always be extended with new approaches that enable the harvesting of new opportunities for improvement. Philosophically, improvement in terms of velocity, cost, quality, performance, reliability and widespread customer acceptance remain relevant but also complex. One way of extending the use of these methodologies and tools is by developing […]

The common Six Sigma roadmap can provide value in even the most unstructured environments By Braden Kelley On the surface, the DMAIC roadmap and the concept of innovation appear to be mutually exclusive ideas. At least that’s what many critics have claimed is the Achilles’ heel of the Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma and innovation, […]

The fourth installment in a series of articles about the on-going research of advanced strategies and trends in deploying and team-training Six Sigma. Six Sigma Trends: Next Generation of Projects Six Sigma Trends: Upgrade for Supply Chains and Solution Providers Six Sigma Trends: Management of Six Sigma Deployments I am pleased to present another article […]

Innovation is vital to a company’s growth. Therefore it is sensible to establish a work environment that encourages people to be creative – a prerequisite to innovation. Introducing Six Sigma as a change initiative can help build that creative environment. But creating such a culture from scratch takes time. During the first years of a deployment, […]

Innovation has broad appeal. Businesses see it as a key to survival, and most individuals enjoy being creative – at work or anywhere. At first it might seem that the discipline called for in the workplace would take all the fun out of being creative. But actually, innovation coupled with Six Sigma discipline and data […]

Six Sigma practitioners capture the voice of customer (VOC) in the process of designing or improving a product or service; however, practitioners often compromise while implementing the VOC in the actual design, citing reasons such as cost, cycle time and design constraints. As a result of these compromises, products or services can lose competitiveness in […]

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Pogo (a comic strip character created by Walt Kelly) A principal enemy of business innovation is cultural norms, or – as Professor Josep Valor-Sabatier of the IESE Business School of Navarra, Spain, describes it – the “dominant logic” of a company. Dominant logic can stifle openness and […]

Since 2007, the Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC) has made efforts to institutionalize a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. The goal to have TACOM LCMC associates at every level advocate, pursue and implement continuous process improvement methods through the promulgation of Lean Six Sigma across the command is a […]

“Innovation is something new and contrary to established customs, manners or rites.” – Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Passion is one thing that both innovators and innovative companies share. Innovation, by definition, runs counter to conventional wisdom. To see a new idea become a reality, an individual or company has to have enough passion to overcome […]

In a production and development environment, Six Sigma attempts to reduce rework from the start, cutting down on costs and development cycle time. Compared to the try-fail method, in which practitioners usually generate thousands of ideas before finding a really useful concept for developing a new product or service, Six Sigma’s systematic approach may be […]

  “Invention is 2 percent inspiration, and 98 percent perspiration.” – Thomas Edison How much productive and creative potential of its personnel does a business utilize today? An informal poll across a wide range of industries suggests it is less than 20 percent. Why? How people are led, managed and supervised is part of the […]

“…It is not possible to find in all geometry more difficult and intricate questions, or more simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to his natural genius; while others think that incredible effort and toil produced these, to all appearances, easy and unlaboured results. No amount of investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the […]

“Why bother about process improvement? Let’s do it right the first time. We don’t need process improvement. We have to implement DFSS!” This is a common theme from engineering people in Six Sigma deployments. A common response from practitioners is that DMAIC should be implemented first; experience with the methodology should come before the introduction […]