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“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” This axiom, while intuitive for most managers and business professionals, is often not applied to the Six Sigma management process itself. For Six Sigma or any other management initiative to yield the advertised results, many factors must be considered, aligned, measured and acted upon. Having been involved with […]

To maintain control and assure a payoff from LSS, it may help to start on a limited scale. With only a few key team members – including the right Black Belt candidate – a company can create a program that will have an impact enterprise wide.

Good Quality leaders rely on the strengths of employees. Learn how to solve business issues by asking a simple question and empowering employees.

Celebrations and awards not only serve to honor the accomplishments of successful Quality projects and employees, they bolster and endorse the specific actions, behaviors and values that your business is striving to put in place as a Quality culture.

Without employee contributions, we might as well hang a sign in the window and close up shop. We need to make sure that employees are always contributing to their maximum extent — we need to keep them energized on Quality.

Effective brainstorming can be accomplished by following these simple brainstorming DOs and DONTs with your team.

Only by using the appropriate information source can you begin to truly know your customer and understand your customer needs. Read about all the possible information sources that are available that you may already have access to.

One of the most distinct differences between Six Sigma and other quality management systems is the link to business finances. For the greatest business benefit, calculate financial benefit before, during and after.

This work described below was carried out in a large company based in the U.S. and India. The project dealt with converting printed paper from U.S. customers into electronic copies. The material was quite heterogeneous in nature – consisting of assorted magazines and legal papers. It is part of an ongoing operation that services several […]

Among the challenges that face Black Belts and Green Belts today is the ability to frame the project into a clearly understood action plan. One tool that I have enjoyed success with in meeting this challenge is to use the GRPI model for framing the project. The GRPI model is broken down as follows:  G […]

Create Six Sigma project charters that are compelling to business leaders by capturing all quantifiable benefits of eradicating a business problem. This checklist will help you do so.

There are continuing questions about the relationship between Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma techniques. This relationship has been expressed as follows: Stretch the process applying Lean techniques Solve the problems of deviation from the standards Ensure maintenance of the improved status using Six Sigma techniques However, if the system and processes are too poor, stretching […]

Mikel Harry to Rejoin SSA as Vice-Chairman and Chief Knowledge Officer

Challenges Faced Today Offer Solutions for Tomorrow Six Sigma has come a long way from statistically oriented tools to today’s “not so data driven” tools like Lean and quality function deployment (QFD). The application of Six Sigma across different sectors has made this change from statistical tools to softer tools possible. The methodologies and framework […]

Defining “Pilot” The meaning of acronyms and words change over time – for example, ARM for many was an acronym for allergy relief medicine; banks use the acronym for adjustable rate mortgages. The same holds true for the meaning of pilot – the light that kept stoves burning, the title of an airplane captain or […]

As Six Sigma continues to be adopted and integrated across the spectrum of global businesses, from manufacturing, to finance, to pharmaceuticals, it is important to recognize the evolution of the role of the Six Sigma professional within those businesses. Traditionally, Black Belts and Master Black Belts were expected to be experts on applying the tools […]

Breakthrough Management Group Hosts 2-Day Innovation Workshop for Executives

SigmaXL Announces Release of SigmaXL V5.1 Excel Add-in for Six Sigma Statistical and Graphical Analysis

Breakthrough Management Group Announces New Executive Education Program for Leaders in Charge of Growth and Innovation Inside Their Organizations

A high performance culture is the result of high performance actions. An organization should strive to implement actions which deliver the desired performance and assess the results of these actions on the culture. If these actions are successful, performance targets are achieved and a high-performance culture ensues. The pursuit of performance gains starts with defining […]

Lean Six Sigma Certification by Brain Scan Now Available Over Web

GOAL/QPC Leader Will Help Healthcare Professionals Use Quality, Creativity and Innovation Tools to Boost Productivity

One common problem many companies run into when starting Six Sigma and Lean efforts is what projects to choose. If they choose unwisely, the whole effort can be stalled or abandoned because the results may not be impressive enough to gain momentum for the cause. New practitioners should be wary of an initial project that […]

Tracking financial metrics, reporting on project status and sharing knowledge more easily are just a few of the benefits of project tracking software. This directory provides information about the capabilities and functionalities of several products. Sponsors: MoreSteam.com Tim Kelley, 414-247-1080, [email protected], moresteam.com SigmaFlow Jim Henry, 972-447-8340, [email protected], sigmaflow.com Six Sigma practitioners use project tracking software […]

2007 Pharmaceutical Technology Conference Focuses on Lean Design, Quality Initiatives and Cutting Edge Technologies

Their debut product is a comprehensive package of DMAIC training curriculum consisting of 1,235 slides of content along with instruction explanations per slide, 37 data sets and 19 templates in total.

Business could not have been better. Customers were reacting positively to the company’s new and enhanced service portfolio, the company entered the market without much competition and customer satisfaction was at an all-time high. Profitability continued to rise, and the company’s efficiency rate was impressive. But then things changed. New account numbers abruptly fell. Some […]

Lean Six Sigma and Global Supply Chain Practitioner Is Certified by Maryland/DC Minority Supplier Development Council

A bad taste can prevent some people, particularly the young and the elderly, from taking a medication – which can endanger their health. Taste can also influence what over-the-counter drugs people purchase and the choice between generic and brand-name medications. Because taste is such a key factor in compliance and purchasing decisions, optimizing taste is […]

As the popularity of Lean Six Sigma techniques expands into software and technology environments, the notion that these methods and tools can provide a quick fix, unrealistic results or a panacea (for all that is wrong) has been proliferated. Some of these notions are further compounded by the reality that many of these environments are […]

Of all the activities and tools used in the Measure phase of DMAIC, the thing many Belts struggle with the most is the cost of poor quality (COPQ), or the cost associated with the quality of a work product. Belts need to understand what COPQ includes, and what it does not, so they can determine […]

Rapid Action Teams Help NewPage Win Lean Six Sigma Award

Organizations are often challenged with managing seemingly unmanageable work volumes with available staff. At times, staff may feel overwhelmed with high work volumes, or underutilized during periods of low work volumes. When a management team finds itself confronting these issues, team members may ask the following questions: How can staff respond to internal and external […]

Availability is one of the key metrics that demonstrates the overall performance of an information technology (IT) system. But defining and calculating the availability of an IT system from a business perspective is a challenging task. Most of the time, IT departments report availability values that are on the higher side (such as more than […]

Breakthrough Management Group International Hosts 2-Day Innovation Workshop for Executives – Seminar Targets Senior Leaders Looking to Enhance Organizational Innovation Efforts

Lean Six Sigma Shares Innovation with DOD Components

Organizations looking for a silver bullet customer metric look no further than the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Developed by Frederick Reichhold and his colleagues at Bain & Co., NPS provides an economical and concise metric for assessing how loyal a company’s customers are. Managing that measurement is the key to future growth. What Is NPS? […]

New Release of Crystal Ball Gives Users Scatter Charts and Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility

Medication reconciliation – the process of comparing a patient’s medication orders with all of the medications he or she has been taking – can be difficult. Lack of patient knowledge regarding medication details, multiple care providers, multiple sources obtaining different medication lists for the same patient and new Joint Commission requirements all contribute to the difficulty. Hospitals […]

With more than 1,000 trained Black Belts, the U.S. Army continues marching forward in its Lean Six Sigma efforts. Trained Black Belts who complete projects and obtain certification are essential to building a robust cadre of practitioners. To this end, the Army formalized the use of Belt course portfolios (BCPs), the collection of projects assigned […]

Lean Six Sigma is part of a broader U.S. Marine Corps and Department of Defense (DoD) continuous process improvement (CPI) effort aimed at enhancing all aspects of support provided to Marine Corps operating forces to maximize combat readiness and war fighting capability. The Marine Corps has emphasized that the CPI program is entirely focused on […]

The U.S. Marine Corps’ continuous process improvement (CPI) effort is aimed at enhancing all aspects of support provided to operating forces to maximize combat readiness and war fighting capability. That means the Marine Corps is emphasizing that the CPI program is for every level and every element of the corps. Here is what is being […]

Free Six Sigma iPhone app now on iTunes

The Quality Group announces several education programs designed to help organizations that are looking to blended learning as a way to face the seemingly insurmountable task of maintaining–or even increasing-their Lean Six Sigma / Continuous Process Improvement training levels.

Caught in an exploding market, with rapidly improving products, the management of a media organization in India realized that improving the quality of printing of its newspaper was imperative to survival and progress. The organization adopted total quality management (TQM) and has completed several improvements in office processes related to turnaround, which is so vital […]

Hertzler Systems Releases Case Study of Six Sigma in Financial Services

Based on the desirability function, using batting average, home runs, runs batted in (RBIs), All Star Game appearances and Gold Glove awards all weighted equally, Ron Santo, a third baseman for the Chicago Cubs from 1960 to 1973, should be a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. An understanding of the desirability function […]

An Unprecedented Quarter for i-nexus: i-nexus Today Announced Record Trading Figures for the Final Quarter of 2007

Rath & Strong is pleased to announce the release of its Lean, Integrated Lean Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma Champions, Six Sigma Team and Six Sigma Pocket Guides on Amazon Kindle™.

Instantis, the leading provider of on-demand project portfolio management software used by business process and IT leaders to improve strategy execution and financial performance, announced today its spring Webinar series line-up.