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Once a healthcare organization has decided that Six Sigma can be an effective approach to improving the many services it delivers, the question then becomes how does it know where to start implementing the methodology’s statistical process tools. Process issues or variability in healthcare may exist around a particular piece of technology, within a certain […]

It is common to hear great claims of monetary benefits from various improvement initiatives. But how confident can a company be that those “benefits” – both cost saving and generation of additional revenue – actually impacted the bottom line? BHP Billiton Base Metals considered this question and found an answer through the involvement of its finance department […]

The managers of a lockbox operation in the upper Midwest were not at all pleased. The corporate clients for whom they processed millions of dollars in payments were very intolerant of errors. Yet in the first months of a new quality improvement effort, the error rate per 100,000 transactions doubled from 15 to 30. Truth […]

As startling as the 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine was – estimating that medical errors may cause 98,000 deaths annually – a new national study indicates the problem may actually be much worse. According to the report released in July by HealthGrades, a Denver-based healthcare ranking group, the number of hospital patients who […]

“Why bother about process improvement? Let’s do it right the first time. We don’t need process improvement. We have to implement DFSS!” This is a common theme from engineering people in Six Sigma deployments. A common response from practitioners is that DMAIC should be implemented first; experience with the methodology should come before the introduction […]

Most people would agree that customers are the most important part of a business – no customers, no business. In order to be successful, a business must know who its customers are and what the expectations of those customers are for the product or service the business sells. In Six Sigma, that process is known […]

An emerging trend – which can justifiably be labeled as a case of “Mad Belt Disease” – may be threatening the long-term credibility and success of Six Sigma. It is time for practitioners of Six Sigma to help stem the spread of what is beginning to look like an epidemic. This disturbing trend is the increasingly […]

Dr. Joseph M. Juran, “Architect Of Quality,” Celebrates 100th Birthday

Corporate innovation and Six Sigma go hand in hand if the methodology is fully utilized. That was the conclusion of participants in a lively discussion at the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP) conference in June.

iSixSigma’s 2004 Salary Survey for Six Sigma Professionals: Continental Asia/Africa This section of iSixSigma’s 2004 Salary Survey for Six Sigma Professionals provides an overview of the average salaries in Continental Asia/Africa. Salaries for Black Belts (BB), Master Black Belts (MBB), Champions (CH) and Deployment Leaders (DL) are broken down by levels of education and experience, […]

Surveys surround us. The questions come via the mail, face to face in shopping malls, on the telephone, and increasingly over the Internet – a multitude of surveys, but many of them fail to achieve their goals. The fault often lies with those who design and administer the surveys with good intentions, but without the […]

iSixSigma’s 2004 Salary Survey for Six Sigma Professionals: Pacific Nations This section of iSixSigma’s 2004 Salary Survey for Six Sigma Professionals provides an overview of the average salaries in Pacific Nations (Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Pacific islands). Salaries for Black Belts (BB), Master Black Belts (MBB), Champions (CH) and Deployment Leaders (DL) are broken down by […]

iSixSigma’s 2004 Salary Survey for Six Sigma Professionals has two unique perspectives. First, the survey provides a global view. Second, unlike other quality salary surveys, this one is focused as specifically as possible on Six Sigma professionals. By Matthew LeVeque, iSixSigma Senior Contributing Writer During the past 10 years Six Sigma has become one of […]

On March 10, 2010 a free webcast is being held to discuss a standard for Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.http://www.moresteam.com/morenews/webcast031010.cfm

I never cease to be amazed at the amount of information that’s “out there” on the web. I searched on “Lean Six Sigma” and got about a million hits. “Process Improvement” – 3.6 million.”Change Management” – 6.2 million. “Project Management” – 32 million. But lately I’ve been using an additional source of information-the ever-growing on-line […]

This was handed out at an all-hands today – not my words, and a great reminder of why we do what we do. I am your customer. Satisfy my wants, add personal attention and a friendly touch, and I will become a walking advertisement for your products and services. Ignore my wants, show carelessness, inattention […]

When I teach lean tools, I naturally reference the Toyota Production System and talk about their journey (which they don’t call lean!) as an introduction to the topic. Naturally, in the healthcare setting, I don’t dwell on the assembly-line function too much, but I have always felt that it’s helpful to put the approach in […]

Have you completed a process improvement project that has saved your company millions, delivered breakthroughs in productivity or safety, or grown its top-line? Do you have an inspirational story to tell and lessons learned from your experiences with CPI in the energy industry? Let iSixSigma know what topic you would like to present or see […]

It’s been a full week since the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami, and I’m still digesting the full meal of process improvement informationserved during those four days. As Steve Wilson of Quality Conversations mentioned in his opening address, nooneleft the conference”hungry” last week. Now that I’m back to my office routine, there are […]

The streets of the French Quarter are no doubt still packed with happy Saints fans following Sunday’s surprising and convincing win against the favored Colts. As first-time champs, it’s a feeling the players and fans will never forget. We at iSixSigma are also enjoying the afterglow of a first-time Bowl event: iSixSigma’s Project Bowl contest, […]

At the recent iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami, attendees got something to sing along to. J.D. Sicilia shared a song, called “Lean, Lean, Lean” before his presentation on “Performance Management in the Worldâ??s Largest Organization.” Sicilia is the director of the Lean Six Sigma Program Office at the U.S. Department of Defense. Not only […]

Those whotake mass transitto work know the frustration of trying to make an important meeting only to discover the bus is not at the stop at its appointed time. The same goes for students who are trying to make that all-important class and get to the stop just as the bus is pulling away from […]

I am personally gratefully for the Toyota quality.

  In a couple of days, Miami will be aflame withSuper Bowl fever. South Beach’s Ocean Driveis sure to be covered in either blue-and-white or black-and-gold confetti on Sunday night, depending on who holds up the Lombardi Trophy. Earlier this week, however, there were some other trophieshoisted maybe not with quite as much hoopla as […]

After a tasty appetizer of seminars and the hands-on work at the Project Bowl on Monday, iSixSigma Live! offered it’s main course yesterday in Miami to start the first official day ofthe summit. Steve Wilson, of Quality Conversations, may have summed it up best in his opening remarks when he said of the conference’s many […]

The most famous example of right-to-left planning I can evoke is – That the United States should set as a goal the “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” by the end of the decade Powerfull stuff, no messing around, but with a budget of $19.6bn you get a […]

We’ve all sent the news of Toyota’s recall problems, including the latest decision to pull the andon as it were and halt production until the defect is sorted out. Suddenly the company, and its venerable Toyota Production System do not appear to be as infallible as it has in the past. Indeed, some analysts are […]

The 5 Whys approach to root cause analysis is by no means new, nor does it originate in Six Sigma. Yet it is often used in the Analyze phase (of DMAIC [Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control]), especially when significant data on the Xs is not available. Most of us have been there – we gather the […]

People may not always agree with what you say or find value in what you offer, but at the end of the day, if only one person walks away with a different question, thought or idea, then you have made a difference.

I am spending January travelling around the country running process workshops. This means lots of travel and time to ponder on the dynamics of the meetings.……. Cross-functional Teams A group of people with different functional expertise who work toward a common goal, it may include people from finance, marketing, operations, research, engineering, and human resources […]

I don’t usually win prizes. In fact, only once has my name been drawn out of the hat. (That was in middle school, when I became the proud owner of a Sony Walkman.) But what’s up for grabs now is a much better prize. Here’s your chance to be entered into a drawing to win […]

“All or nothin’ at all… Half a love never appealed to me If your heart, it never would yield to me Then I’d rather, rather have nothin’ at all.” (Song composed in 1939 by Arther Altman, lyrics by Jack Lawrence – a big hit for Frank Sinatra) I was thinking of these lyrics the other […]

I re-read Ken Miller’s book ” We don’t Make widgets” recently and rediscovered a wonderful resourse for our current times. Now more than ever this is the work that needs to be done.

Former Formula One and Indy 500 racecar driver, Derek Daly, is coming up as a guest on Quality Conversations on BlogTalkRadio â?? hosted by Steve Wilson, emcee of iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards. Click and listen on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 8 a.m. PT to a discussion on “The Championâ??s Model.” Although the language of sports […]

I have the good fortune to sit in an office right next to a hallway speaker, which has been loudly proclaiming the festive season since the day after Thanksgiving, in about a 4-hour loop. Naturally, I can’t help but think of work-related words as the songs repeat… and repeat… and repeat… Here are some of […]

There are five hats, two Black and three White. In a room sit three people, two can see and one is blind. The room is darkened and a hat is placed at random on each person’s head. People can only see the other hats not their own. The first person on seeing the other two […]

Are you searching for the perfect gift for your favorite Black Belt during this holiday season?

I have always thought the toughest parts of DMAIC are I(mprove) & C(ontrol). One of the reasons for this is that to deliver a sustainable solution means asking people to change. The opportunity to resist change and revert to status-quo being one of the challenges faced. What early indicator can you use to measure if […]

Lately I have been bombarded with well-meaning, intelligent, conscientious, motivated people asking me how they can get Black Belt certified. They’re not in a Six-Sigma environment; they just want to be able to learn how to improve their processes more effectively. So do they need to be a Black Belt? Here’s what I usually tell […]

In preparation for the Sherlock Holmes movie coming out, I decided to first introduce myself to the mystery-solving duo in print. Not very far into “A Scandal in Bohemia,” I ran across some wisdom from Holmes that I thought you might enjoy. Holmes has just finished reading a letter of unknown author to Watson. “This […]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about resistance to change. The RogersAdoption / Innovation curve (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards) is referenced in some form by most people involved in change management. Now, I’m not an innovator myself. My special form of creativity doesn’t manifest itself by coming up with new ideas […]

Last year, we celebrated Bill Smith, widely known as the Father of Six Sigma, as the first inductee into iSixSigmaâ??s Six Sigma Hall of Fame. We are now identifying who should be the next person to join the Hall of Fame as someone who has made significant and lasting contributions in the Lean Six Sigma […]

Dear iSixSigma Blogosphere Readers, Back in January 2005, I started up a little blog about Six Sigma companies. It caught the eye of iSixSigma’s very own Mike Cyger and he invited me to join his growing team of forward thinking Six Sigma zealots dedicated to providing the best information about Six Sigma to the masses. […]