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Anthony Gingras, ammunition planner for the Ammunition Management Division at the Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), was recently named the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command’s (ATEC) Employee of the Year for 2010 for a Lean Six Sigma project involving ammunition delivery.

In my prior post, I introduced the concept of program leadership in the Lean Six Sigma context and articulated the value that I saw as part of the process of certifying Master Black Belts. Based on some of themes that emerged in correspondence, I thought it might be beneficial to articulate a few more thoughts […]

How long did it take to finish your last project? Do you feel like you never have enough time to do your current project because so much else is going on? When I meet with my mentees, I often hear them apologizing for not having made much progress since we met last time. Obviously they […]

After making a $3 million investment and securing funding from the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County, N.C., roofing firm W.P. Hickman Co. is poised to open its newly expanded Lean facility near Asheville, N.C., USA, on May 26.

During both prosperous and difficult times, successful businesses naturally look for new ways to improve performance. However, in recent years, as the world economy suffered through one of the worst recessions in history, many companies turned in droves to Lean and other variations of continuous improvement programs to rescue their sagging businesses. But, did they […]

Lion Vallen Industries, a maker of protective equipment for military and emergency-services personnel, was named the Progressive Manufacturer of the Year for the small and mid-sized company category at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Palm Beach, Fla., USA.

Following the keel-laying ceremony of the 14th and final ship in the T-AKE dry cargo-ammunition shipbuilding program in San Diego, contractor General Dynamics NASSCO said that Six Sigma-based improvements deployed over the last decade have reduced the labor costs of the $6 billion program by 60 percent.

Many consider the “Design” in DfSS to be the product design, but that is not the only entity that a producer of products delivers to its customers. When I refer to the “design” in Design for Six Sigma, the context is more comprehensive than simply the product design. The “design” in DfSS can be anything […]

One of the “holy grails” of continuous process improvement is the reliable collection and analysis of real-time data. At Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the largest utilities in the United States, this fine level of data is being given not only to the process improvement teams, but to their customers, as well, in the […]

Provider of Lean Six Sigma Online Training Continues Steady Growth in 2011

Aviation parts supplier LMI Kitting LLC, has been named the Georgia Small Manufacturer of the Year at the Governor’s Awards, held in Atlanta.

The latest issue of iSixSigma Magazine highlights the DFSS program at John Deere Power Systems, measures the critical inputs for Lean Six Sigma success and offers tips for recharging your deployment.

UpWind Solutions Inc., a wind-power asset management firm based in Medford, Ore., USA, has promoted Peter Wells from vice president and general manager of parts services to the title of chief operating officer.

Wark will be presenting on the role of the CSB and the lessons learned from its investigations during a keynote address at iSixSigma’s Energy Forum for Process Excellence on May 17 in Houston. In an interview with iSixSigma Senior Editor Kirsten Terry, Wark offered a preview of some of the topics he will cover during […]

Direct marketing firm Harte-Hanks Inc. has named Lean Six Sigma expert Tony Paul as its new group managing director for mail and logistics in its direct marketing business.

Transplace, a transportation management and logistics firm based in Dallas, has promoted its director of operations, Fadra Norton, to vice president of the company’s Lean Six Sigma group.

Writers Steven E. Hoeft, Steven C. Bell and Michael Orzen have all been named winners of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, Research, and Professional Publication, which is bestowed on authors who advance the Lean body of knowledge into new areas and promote a broad understanding of operational excellence.

Targets Hands-on Project Management Skills Plus PMI Testing Standards Support

The first article of this series discussed how many Lean initiatives either fail outright or fail to deliver as planned. Furthermore, that article went on to attribute these shortcomings to four cultural factors. This article explores the second of these cultural factors: Lean Leadership. We will focus on why leadership is critical and highlight the […]

Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, an information technology (IT) services firm that first began its Six Sigma deployment 14 years ago, has made its second consecutive appearance on iSixSigma’s Best Places to Work list. Computacenter was ranked at No. 10 for this year’s list, the same position it was given in the 2010 list. The […]

When talking about Lean and Six Sigma, people often associate them with improved productivity. Other times they associate them with their possible consequences: high profitability or loss of jobs. In today’s economic environment, many people are concerned with the potential trade-off between productivity improvement and employment. But is there such a trade-off relationship? A recent […]

For the next two years, many Forutne 1000 companies say they expect to see revenue growth as the economy recovers from the Great Recession, yet a significant fraction of these firms also say they plan to continue cost-reduction efforts, some of which involve Six Sigma, according to a recent Deloitte survey.

Service, or transactional, Six Sigma has sometimes struggled to keep up with its manufacturing big brother in terms of sustainable results. Lean Six Sigma is currently the approach of choice for many service organizations, but that methodology is under pressure as businesses look to cut costs aggressively to survive the recession. In more than 15 […]

EverBank Commercial Finance, an equipment financing subsidiary of Islandia, N.Y., USA-based EverBank, has named Curtis C. Brantl, a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, as the company’s new operations and process leader.

This flow chart for the Problem Solving Methodology Wizard will guide you through the process of determining the most appropriate problem solving methodology for your process.

According to the latest figures from iSixSigma’s 8th Annual Global Salary Survey, certified Black Belts in Europe earned an average of $71,500 in 2010, down from the $75,000 figure from 2009. Bonuses for Black Belts in Europe, however, fell by more than 34 percent compared to the previous year (close to the worldwide average), from […]

Nexteer Automotive, a manufacturer of steering and driveline systems, has reported significant operational savings at its plant near Saginaw, Mich., USA, by using motion analysis software commonly used by figure skaters.

The 21st century has brought on many changes for the Department of Defense, affecting all the military branches. In particular, the Air Force has encountered a reduction of forces, base closures and funding cuts to many of its programs. Additionally, the message from the Department of Defense and Air Force senior leadership is simple: resources […]

Cetero Research, a clinical pharmacology research organization, has hired James “Jay” Dixon as its new senior vice president, quality and compliance.

According to a March 24 report from Objective Analysis, nearly 25 percent of the world’s semiconductor production capacity is in Japan, as well as more than 60 percent of the silicon wafers from which semiconductor chips are created. In 2010, industry analysis firm iSuppli determined that Japan held about 35 percent of the $31.5 billion […]

There is obviously the classic dictionary type definition such as: Design for Six Sigma (DfSS) is an emerging business process which involves a highly disciplined methodical approach to integrating the principles of Six Sigma as early as possible into the design and development process. It is a customer-driven business strategy that creates robust designs that […]

An iSixSigma Discussion Forum exchange involved the manager of a call center who was interested in eliminating her organization’s “online chat” channel of communication and have all contact flow through the phones instead. However, she wanted to see if she could make an apples-to-apples comparison between the online chat and phone channels, given that they […]

  As many of you know, there are significant differences in Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt expectations and certification criteria between organizations. Typically Master Black Belt certifications focus on advanced tool knowledge, training/project coaching experience, portfolio management and program leadership to name a few of the most common ones. While I’ve always thought that […]

Hello fellow Lean Six Sigma professionals! Not so long ago, in conversation with iSixSigma, the opportunity to start blogging to share ideas and insights on deployment leadership came up. In addition to the personal blog that I’ve been maintaining for the past few months on WordPress in which I’ve been touching on a broad range […]

The Six Sigma world is filled with stories reiterating the importance of leadership focus when implementing Lean Six Sigma. However, the continuous improvement landscape is also littered with examples of Lean Six Sigma programs that were implemented in full force to start with and then were slowly abandoned after they had spread to other departments […]

In the May/June issue of iSixSigma Magazine, the article, “Taking the Next Step: How to Eliminate Errors for Good,” offers an approach for managing human performance factors in an effort improve processes in service organizations. An excerpt of a checklist used to measure human performance factors and gauge risk is featured in the magazine article. […]

More organizations deploying Lean Six Sigma are using this innovative team process from Leap Technologies to capture quick wins, replicate best practices and engage more employees.

Regal Beloit Corp., a manufacturer of electric motors and motion controls, has promoted Master Black Belt Jonathan J. Schlemmer to the title of chief operating officer.

Today, irrespective of industry, corporations must focus on speed, efficiency and customer value to be globally competitive. Lean and Six Sigma are both powerful tools for improving quality, productivity, profitability and market competitiveness. While Six Sigma is focused on reducing variation using a problem solving approach and statistical tools, Lean focuses on eliminating waste and […]

A free workshop for executives detailing the critical role of change management in a Lean Six Sigma deployment is scheduled for May 16 at the third annual Energy Forum for Process Excellence.

Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, in Hinsdale, Ill., USA, has appointed Master Black Belt Steve Brown as director of operational excellence, a new position that will focus on improving processes and operations.

Strong America Now, grassroots political organization based in Austin, Texas, USA, has helped draft legislation in the Texas Legislature with the intention of cutting billions of dollars of spending in the state by the application of Lean Six Sigma methods.

Everyone building Lean Six Sigma in an organization probably agrees that the challenge is not teaching the tools but changing the mindset. As many of us have experienced, we could introduce misconceptions that are counter-productive. For example, there are a lot of discussions or even debates on the standards of Black Belt certification – what […]

Manufacturing facilities can be faced with major challenges when it comes to process improvement, largely because practitioners don’t always know enough about the underlying process factors (x’s) are that drive the improvement metric (Y). Practitioners might have a brainstorming session to tap into the collective experience of experts involved in the process, and design experiments […]

Prestigious Authorization Demonstrates Commitment to High-Quality Lifelong Learning

The executive search firm Avery Point Group has released the results of a study finding that demand for people with Lean and Six Sigma training has nearly doubled since last year’s study.

Throughout my professional career, I have always considered myself to be a life-long learner and educator who has continually strived to improve my own skill set as well as many of my business colleagues. My primarily focus for competency development has related to how organizations can become more effective in problem solving/prevention, innovation and continuous […]

In a recent study of 100 senior manufacturing staff, British magazine Works Management (WM) found that the largest barrier to the adoption of continuous improvement (CI) programs is lack of cooperation from their staff.