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The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard can be traced back to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) who introduced the concept of the normal curve. Six Sigma as a measurement standard in product variation can be traced back to the 1920’s when Walter Shewhart showed that three sigma from the mean is the point […]

Lean Six Sigma has special challenges in organizations that have a military styled rank structures. I have personally experienced this as a Representative of a law enforcement agency and as a military guardsman. Recently, I have had the good fortune of making the acquaintance of Retired Colonel Billy Asbell, former Director for the Air National […]

Supervisors never “earn” the privilege to be disrespectful to subordinates simply because they have achieved a higher rank. This can be an indication that they have been promoted beyond their ability to lead and digress to using intimidation as a resource to get things done. If you find yourself using positional authority to get things […]

Six Sigma course materials can benefit from “dynamic content,” engaging and relevant examples and assignments tailored to class participants.

Dr. Mikel Harry answers the question, “How can Six Sigma be applied to the Human Resources (HR) function?” Listed are some simple examples for Human Resource projects: 1) Employee turnover rate. 2) Job satisfaction issues (surveys). 3) Management satisfaction. 4) Cafeteria food quality. 5) Policy deployment. 6) New hire process quality and cycle time. 7) […]

Three Tobyhanna Army Depot employees earned Green Belt certification for their work on separate projects that improved processes, saving time and money.

Effective brainstorming can be accomplished by following simple brainstorming do’s and don’ts with your team. A brainstorming session is a tool for generating as many ideas or solutions as possible to a problem or issue. It is not a tool for determining the best solution to a problem or issue. Before beginning any effective brainstorming […]

Six Sigma has a martial arts convention for naming many of its professional roles. The chart below describes how these roles are typically defined. Leaders and Champions usually receive high-level training on the technical aspects of Six Sigma and specific training on how to lead an initiative. At the “Belt” level, each candidate is assigned […]

Mike Carnell of CS International discusses how organizations can internalize and incorporate Six Sigma.

How does an organization manage the Six Sigma process for delivering outstanding business results? 1. Leadership/top management commitment is essential. Secure the top management commitment by first training them. This training should consist of an introduction to Six Sigma, tools and techniques used, and the roles and responsibilities of the management as Champions. The leadership […]

Education is a key component of your Six Sigma initiative. Below is a recommendation of what should be included in your training, whether conducted in-house or by a third-party consultant. If you feel that some relevant topic is missing from the curriculum or body of knowledge of any of the areas listed below, please send […]

Education is a key component of your Six Sigma initiative. Below is a recommendation of what should be included in your training, whether conducted in-house or by a third-party consultant. If you feel that some relevant topic is missing from the curriculum or body of knowledge of any of the areas listed below, please send […]

PowerSteering Software, the leading provider of on-demand Project & Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions for Six Sigma, will host a free webcast, “Diagnosis PPM: Curing Common Product Development Ailments with Project Portfolio Management,” on Tuesday, April 6 at 11:30 a.m. (EDT).

Education is a key component of your Six Sigma initiative. Below is a recommendation of what should be included in your training, whether conducted in-house or by a third-party consultant. If you feel that some relevant topic is missing from the curriculum or body of knowledge of any of the areas listed below, please send […]

Education is a key component of your Six Sigma initiative. Below is a recommendation of what should be included in your training, whether conducted in-house or by a third-party consultant. If you feel that some relevant topic is missing from the curriculum or body of knowledge of any of the areas listed below, please send […]

The bank in the following case study had been encountering problems with new customer accounts. The account setup cycle time was quite high because the information-gathering process was ad hoc. It typically took several attempts to collect all the needed specifications from customers. This was causing customer dissatisfaction and, in some cases, defective accounts. The […]

Heather Tollefson has joined iSixSigma, the leading provider of content for the Lean Six Sigma community, as Director of Events for its iSixSigma Live! events division.

iSixSigma Live! is pleased to announce that SSA & Company will present the second annual Energy Forum for Process Excellence (May 24-27, The St. Regis, Houston, Texas, USA).

Harris Waste Management Group Inc, Peachtree City, Ga., the global supplier of balers, shears and shredders to the recycling industry has added Lonnie Leeman as its quality director.

Lean Six Sigma is still fairly new to the R&D people in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, where I have been supporting its deployment. Often people ask me “What is Lean Six Sigma?” and “How did you become a Black Belt from a scientist?” I used to give a textbook answer to the first question […]

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), or the Six Sigma DMADV process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify), is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. It also can be employed if a current process requires more than just incremental improvement. It is executed by Six Sigma Green Belts […]

From environmentalleader.com Businesses today generally understand they need to do as much as possible to conserve energy and water, reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize their environmental impact overall. Societal pressures from customers, increasing regulation and economics all make this a fact of life for them. Most are taking steps to address these […]

Businesses today generally understand they need to do as much as possible to conserve energy and water, reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize their environmental impact overall. Societal pressures from customers, increasing regulation and economics all make this a fact of life for them. Most are taking steps to address these issues, consulting […]

The DMAIC methodology should be used when a product or process is in existence at your company but is not meeting customer specification or is not performing adequately. For DMAIC milestone reviews, there are certain deliverables, checkpoints, questions and concerns that the Black Belt and improvement team should be aware of prior to a tollgate/milestone […]

Lean Six Sigma has led to improvements for many of the companies that use it; a few companies have even achieved spectacular results. However, not every company is pleased with its progress with Six Sigma. One area that may lead to this disparity of results is the use of screening tools developed by Dorian Shainin. […]

During the past four years the Internet channel has seen the migration from an exploratory revolution of new functionality to creating a viable profitable business. It is no longer feasible to place additional technological enhancements on the web without considering the payback model in which returns and/or cost savings can be generated. This young Internet […]

Erie County’s executive and comptroller agree the county has a more than $40 million surplus, but can’t get together on the proper use for it.

In my process engineering experience I have found a good number of people confused about the important process measure indices of capability and performance. The capability index is useful for measuring: Continual improvement using trends over time, or For prioritizing the order in which process will be improved, and For determining whether or not a […]

A number of improvement projects are hampered because of lack of quality data. Engineers tend to overlook the importance of validating the measurement system, and even more importantly often times don’t select the right measurement instrument. During one such project, a company team was measuring the tube width with a vernier caliper. The specification width […]

The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) was developed by an American, W. Edwards Deming, after World War II for improving the production quality of goods and services. The concept was not taken seriously by Americans until the Japanese, who adopted it in 1950 to resurrect their postwar business and industry, used it to dominate […]

Quality tool books are full of terms, acronyms and charts that can make a non-quality professional faint of heart (some quality professionals as well). Here is how to change the “policing” perception to one of “a-gift” giver to your bottom line. A-GIFT A ccept G ather I mplement F ollow-up T 3 (track, transfer and […]

While training traditional software services personnel it becomes imperative to give an experiential feeling in the classroom. Using case studies and sharing success stories will help develop conviction in practitioners.

It’s common for me to have conversations about how to motivate people to accept change. For those of us who are early adopters, it’s not a problem; we kinda like doing something new. But, from those whose favorite radio station isWII-FM*, I hear this song: “This new process looks harder, not easier. In fact, you’re […]

Catalyst Development Corporation, publisher of software components and applications, today announced the release of ChoiceAnalyst, the first affordable decision support tool with great Six Sigma application.

Parrish Medical Center, a 210-bed community hospital in Titusville, Fla., has reduced mortality by 30.8 percent using the Clinical Xpert™ CareFocus solution from Thomson Reuters.That equates to more than 60 lives saved annually.

The success of any change is enhanced by building a culture of alignment, accountability and acceptance. This is evident in the implementation and deployment of Six Sigma at Virtua Health, a comprehensive healthcare system consisting of four hospitals and headquartered in Marlton, NJ, USA. Throughout its more than eight year deployment, the organization has worked […]

David Silverstein of BMGI discusses the details of a Six Sigma deployment.

Six Sigma Black Belts, Master Black Belts and project Champions, when embarking on a DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify) or process management project, need to be aware of the importance of establishing a communication plan when developing and validating a team charter. A finely executed Black Belt project can suffer […]

iSixSigma often focuses on the continuous process improvement methods used by companies to achieve bottom-line results. However, for much of our March/April 2010 issue, published last week, we look not just at the processes but also at the at the professionals behind the methodology. In keeping with this issue’s theme, “Building a Process Improvement Culture,” […]

During the recent iSixSigma Live! Conference held in Miami on February 1-4, EMCON Technologies was awarded “Best Lean Six Sigma Start-up Program.”

The Department of Defense Lean Six Sigma Program Office announced today they will sponsor the third annual Department of Defense (DoD) Performance Symposium June 8-10 at The National Conference Center in Lansdowne, Va.

Michael George, chairman and CEO of George Group, answers common questions about integrating the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies.

Many people have written to iSixSigma asking various questions about Six Sigma certification, like: How can I get Six Sigma certified? Where can I get Six Sigma certified? Is Six Sigma certification transferable if I leave a company for another? This article will help answer these questions regarding the ubiquitous and confusing “Six Sigma certification” topic.

A medical imaging device manufacturer’s profitability was severely affected by quality defects in its X-ray tube product line. In addition, customer satisfaction was suffering due to consistently missed production schedules. All of the failures were discovered at final inspection. As a result, bottom-line losses were significant, since most of the defective product was either damaged […]

If you are engaged in teaching, whether formally in classes or informally as you facilitate projects, you probably have a few favorite sayings that you like to use toremind people of important points. I take my blog title today from the ancient teacher Aesop, who liked to close his fables (usually stories with animal characters) […]

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The Sigma Calculator allows you to calculator your process sigma using either a basic mode (assumes a 1.5 sigma shift) or advanced mode (allows the user to specify the sigma shift). Basic Mode Advanced Mode