Category: Transportation & Logistics

In this case study, a team wants to be sure their customer-focused business is satisfying its clients. Part 1 focused on reducing the wait times associated with transferring cargo and documents. Part 2 looks at making more improvements using just-in-time (JIT) principles. It is often possible to make significant improvements in speeding up documentation processes […]

In this case study, a team wants to be sure their customer-focused business is satisfying its clients. Part 1 focuses on reducing the wait times associated with transferring cargo and documents. Part 2 looks at making more improvements using just-in-time (JIT) principles. A 15-year-old shipping company with a network of offices throughout India considered being “value-driven, customer-focused” […]

A leading environmental services company provides collection, processing, recycling and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous materials for industrial and automotive customers. The company has branches all over the United States. The service representatives in these branches carry out services for geographically dispersed customers in their respective territories. This case study describes how DMAIC (Define, Measure, […]

Cummins operates three plants San Luis Potosi, Mexico, which produce and ship products daily to distribution centers in the United States. These plants produce systems such as reconditioned engines, alternators, and filtration and exhaust systems. Two of the three plants were looking for ways to reduce the high costs of trucking the products, so Rebecca […]

We’’ve all been to the post office and waited in line for what seems like eternity…. At the post office, it’s first in, first out. One postal worker for each transaction. With the holidays upon us, I’’m sure we’ll all have the experience again soon. The following story didn’t happen in a post office. This […]

Roger Penske expects and gets – perfection, IRL-Live.com, May 23, 2006 Roger Penske talks about preparation for the Indianapolis 500 this weekend. Penske is a Six Sigma company when it comes to business, but as for racing, Six Sigma just isn’t enough: “After qualifying, Penske gave an overview of his preparation plan. “We’ll go back, […]

Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the largest Railroads in the United States, has developed a system called World Class Maintenance (WCM) which includes several methodologies including Six Sigma and Lean Process. In September 2002 BNSF CEO, Matthew Rose, spoke at the AREMA conference in Washington D.C. In his address here viewed the WCM system […]

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

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 […]

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 […]