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As a Six Sigma professional responsible for managing projects, have you ever been asked the following questions? When do you reasonably expect to complete your project? What’s the probability of completing the project on time or on a given date? Which activities on the critical path should you focus your attention on to meet the […]

Former Motorola Inc. executive James Melton has been appointed the new director of Lean Six Sigma programs and initiatives for Erie County, N.Y., USA.

The March 8 webinar, hosted by iSixSigma Live! and Instantis, will feature a hands-on project portfolio management (PPM) system demonstration of the business financial results validation and communication process at Xerox.

Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania – One Tobyhanna organization sees the writing on the wall when it comes to cutting overhead costs and improving efficiency. Members of the Productivity Improvement and Innovation Directorate’s Process Improvement Division estimate an annual cost avoidance savings of more than $2,000 by transitioning select processes from the use of paper products […]

Latest Version of Lean Six Sigma Data Analysis Tool Features New Lean Templates

Former Dallas police chief David Kunkle has announced his intentions to run for Dallas mayor, saying he will favor the application of continuous improvement programs to address the city’s most pressing needs.

ADA Carbon Solutions LLC, which produces activated carbon from coal-fueled power plants, announced that Dr. Joe Wong has been hired as the company’s new vice president of technology.

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 […]

Printing Industries of America (PIA) has reported that Kenneth E. Rizzo, 61, the company’s director, technical and Lean services, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, Feb. 15, while on assignment in suburban Boston.

Over the past month, as I’ve been reading and researching articles in my new role as editor in chief of iSixSigma, I’ve come across the term VOC a bunch of times. VOC, or voice of the customer, is important and worthy of its numerous mentions. The “Dictionary of Lean Six Sigma Terminology” on iSixSigma.com lists […]

Vestas, the Danish wind-turbine manufacturer, has hired David Gels as its new vice president of quality and process excellence. The company also hired two other executives to its North American operations: Ramon Mendoza as warranty management chief specialist and David Sword as government relations director for Canada.

By using question-based workbook exercises in training, Belts will be better prepared to guide teams in solving problems.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to engaging employees … either in training or for roles within a change initiative. One says that it is perfectly fine (even necessary) to infuse such efforts with elements of entertainment, creativity … (dare we say) fun. The other says that such frivolity should be avoided […]

Six Sigma projects differ from traditional projects in one important requirement – understanding of the Y=f(x) relationship with data before developing or implementing a solution. In the DMAIC framework, we identify, test and verify the causal relationship between a potential root cause (x) and the outcome (Big Y), and then develop a solution to change […]

In response to what has been called a difficult 18 months for the estate agency sector in the United Kingdom, senior management at Frank Marshall & Co. have announced that the company is the first to adopt the Lean Six Sigma methodology in the estate indsutry.

Thoughts of fraud can cause call center leaders to sit bolt upright in bed at night. The damage to a company’s reputation from agents stealing credit card information is a serious threat. Further, companies are constantly trying to combat a low, but steady percentage of consumers’ attempts to not pay for goods they have received. […]

The “Great Indian Bazaar” – the rapidly growing and evolving Indian retail market – presents special and daunting distribution challenges for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) products. For a typical producer, about 100 stock keeping units (SKUs) flow through 40 to 50 depots to 2,000 to 3,000 distributors to more than 1 million outlets varying in […]

UL extends the reach of its knowledge and training arm to deliver a differentiated offering that addresses customer needs.

Benjamin Franklin once said that “time is money.” In the clinical world, time can be more valuable than money. When a patient is in need of attention, bedside clinical caregiver time is worth more than money. As Vice President of Support Services at Heartland Health, my job is to make sure support service departments – […]

Delta Faucet Co. has promoted its continuous improvement (CI) manager Todd Shadburn to the position of senior CI engineer.

The third annual iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards conference wrapped up last week at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami.

I received a very nice comment today from a team member of a lean project. She said, “You know, I didn’t want to be on this team. My boss made me attend. I didn’t think anyone was going to care about my opinion, and I wasn’t sure what I could contribute. Also I was very […]

iSixSigma, the leading provider of content for the Six Sigma community, has named Timothy C. Tyson, executive chairman and CEO of Aptuit, as the third inductee in its Six Sigma Hall of Fame.

For the second consecutive year, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, North America, was voted as iSixSigma’s No. 1 Best Place to Work for Lean Six Sigma professionals.

Betfair, Firstsource, Nationwide, Tyco, U.S. Army take home project and program accolades

By Paul V. Arnold, Editor-in-chief Day 3 brings big news and big learning opportunities at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Featured activities for today (Wednesday, Feb. 9) include a high-energy general-session keynote, 11 program sessions and three panel discussions. But probably the most anticipated portion […]

There has been plenty of buzz at the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, being held this week at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. iSixSigma’s team of reporters have been blogging and Tweeting throughout the event. Here are 20 of the most interesting things heard and noted on iSixSigma’s Twitter account (http://twitter.com/iSixSigma) […]

In his standing-room-only breakout session “The Heart of ROI: Project Identification, Selection, Tracking and Replication”, Steven H. Jones of Siemens IT Solutions and Services educated iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards attendees on methods to overcome several key Lean Six Sigma deployment challenges. The session took place in the “A Solid Investment” track on Wednesday, Feb. […]

In finance departments, focusing Six Sigma efforts on cost savings can be a recipe for failure. The way to be successful is to focus on the areas in which employees perceive more value – risk mitigation, metric development, controls, gap analysis and assessments. This was the message of “Delivering Value in Corporate Finance”, a breakout […]

By Paul V. Arnold, editor-in-chief Excitement and learning continues to build at the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, behind held this week at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Featured activities for today (Feb. 8) include several general-session keynotes and addresses, 11 program sessions and two panel discussions. The day opens up […]

  Day 3 brings big news and big learning opportunities at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Featured activities for today (Wednesday, Feb. 9) include a high-energy general-session keynote, 11 program sessions and three panel discussions. But probably the most anticipated portion of the day is […]

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?… Well, almost gone. After 10 years of ups, downs and near cancellations, the Lean Six Sigma team at Starwood Hotels and Resorts, North America, knows what it’s like to see years of hard work nearly wiped out by mistakes […]

What is Scrum and how can it help you in your Lean Six Sigma efforts? That was the topic of a breakout session presented by Brad Zylstra of Volt Information Services on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami. Zylstra, the Vice President of Strategic Business Services and Support at […]

Eric Michrowski of TELUS provided an excellent learning session at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Michrowski – the Director of the Process Improvement Center of Excellence and Lean Deployment Leader at this full-service, Canada-based telecommunications provider – shared with the audience […]

By Paul V. Arnold, Editor-in-chief, iSixSigma The 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards kicks off today, Feb. 7, at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Today’s featured activities include the iSixSigma Project Bowl and four Master Class Workshops. The Project Bowl – sponsored by CS International, Minitab and MoreSteam.com – is a daylong […]

Continuing Monday’s e-learning workshops track, Master Class D, “Creating, Sustaining or Re-energizing a Blended E-learning Program,” focused on the various trends and new iterations of the “blended learning” model of internet-based and classroom training programs. John Best, vice president and managing director of The Quality Group, led an interactive discussion with attendees about how to […]

  Excitement and learning continues to build at the 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, behind held this week at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Featured activities for today (Feb. 8) include several general-session keynotes and addresses, 11 program sessions and two panel discussions. The day opens up with an opening address […]

To kick off the 3rd annual iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, our annual chance to gather as a community and share continuous improvement tips face to face, it felt a bit strange to spend much of the first day discussing ways to train future Belts by way of the internet. But after the three-hour Master […]

By Paul V. Arnold, Editor-in-chief There’s a tried-and-true reason that organizations adopt Lean Six Sigma. It’s a proven set of principles, problem-solving methodologies and tools that fundamentally improve the business. But simply because an organization is doing Lean Six Sigma doesn’t mean it’s successful. Is your organization achieving a return on investment that rivals that […]

By Paul V. Arnold, Editor-in-chief Jason Gerros’ Master Class Workshop, “The Best Metrics for Your Organization,” held Monday, Feb. 7, at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami, provided an excellent look at better understanding and utilizing performance metrics. More than 30 conference attendees, nearly all of them holding Black Belt or Master Black […]

By Paul V. Arnold, Editor-in-chief, iSixSigma The 2011 iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards kicks off today, Feb. 7, at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Today’s featured activities include the iSixSigma Project Bowl and four Master Class Workshops. The Project Bowl – sponsored by CS International, Minitab and MoreSteam.com – is a daylong […]

The role of Lean and Six Sigma in drug discovery and development is a controversial topic. Does Lean Six Sigma improve innovation or stifle it? A recent article in Drug Discovery Today offers new perspectives, analysis, and suggestions that I found encouraging. While acknowledging the contradicting perspectives and experiences many organizations have, the authors see […]

PowerSteering Software, the leading provider of business-driven project & portfolio management (PPM) solutions for managing Lean Six Sigma and other strategic programs, will sponsor a new webcast on Tuesday, February 15, at 11:30 a.m. (EST).

Process improvement deployment expert and healthcare industry veteran Angel R. Garcia, of Edwards Life Sciences, will deliver a keynote address at the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards. The event takes place next week, Feb. 7-10, in Miami, Florida.

Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has created a new quality management award program aimed to promote creativity and innovation in the Arab world.

With assistance from Spanish wind-turbine manufacturer Gamesa, nonprofit foundation Tekniker and several other European technology firms, COSMOS seeks increases in turbine quality, as well as lower costs and faster manufacturing times, according to a release from Ibermática. According to the COSMOS consortium, many European turbine assembly operations involve both manual labor and work done by […]

Recent news from Lean Six Sigma use in government includes the announcement of Marine Corps Continuous Process Improvement award recipients and Lean savings for the Postal Service.

Most organizations are emerging from largest recession and slow recovery since the Great Depression. Unfortunately, the reactionary and inconsistent leadership responses to the meltdown have become the new cultural norm in organizations, taking culture backwards and destroying their ability to improve anything. Organizations have placed a “freeze” on improvement when they need it the most. […]

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is embarking on an initiative to overhaul and streamline its business operations systems with process improvement methods, such as Lean Six Sigma, according to a recent presentation at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s (AFCEA) West 2011 conference in San Diego.