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I was asked a very interesting question last week, after I gave a lecture on 5S. “Do you find that people who are very organized and who apply Lean or Six Sigma principles at work, also apply these same principles at home? Is this linked to a personality trait?” Now I will confess right off […]

That’s the question that will be answered at one of the anticipated presentations at the Energy Forum for Process Excellence in May. Presenting will be Steve Wells, Internal Continuous Improvement Consultant at Luminant. The power generation company received the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence last year.

That would be… Consultants. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak about lean for clinical laboratories at the recent Leadership Exchange conference, hosted by the American Society for Clinical Pathology. In discussions during the conference, I was asked many questions about the use of consultants to get started with lean. In many cases, […]

We have two great tours planned for the Energy Forum for Process Excellence. On Friday, May 22, in Houston, attendees will have the chance to see: A. Halliburton Drill Bit Manufacturing Plants Woodlands Facility B. Cameron Gas Compressor Manufacturing Plant Picking which one to go to will be a tough decision. And there are a […]

There is a great story this morning about Halliburton’s efforts to lead suppliers to Lean and Six Sigma. Having just completed a research feature (to be published in May) on this very subject I can attest the article is a living example of what to do when encouraging suppliers to become more efficient: Len Cooper, […]

I’ve had a lot pf people asking me about healthcare lately. As in, “Now that big corporations and the automotive companiesare reeling, with the stimulus coming and promises of healthcare reform, isn’t it a great time to move out of the manufacturing sector andinto process improvement in healthcare?” Well, it’s true that thereare vast opportunities […]

This was sent to me by a friend and I thought about how important it is that we view Continuous Improvement as so much more than measurement. http://www.stservicemovie.com/ ON Ward!  

Dear iSixSigma Readers, Advertisers, Sponsors and Partners, I have notified the board of Schofield Media Group that I will be transitioning out of my role with iSixSigma during the next several months. Despite current economic conditions, iSixSigma is now a stronger company in many ways than it was just 14 months ago when Schofield Media […]

Saw an article this week in the Federal Computer Week emagazine about our new President making federal contracting more efficient. This is great news and about time. http://fcw.com/articles/2009/03/04/obama-reforms-contracting.aspx?s=fcwdaily_050309 This looks very promising for the Lean Government Champions. Sounds like a job for a Continuous Improvement Practitioner. Are there any CI-Ps in the federal government yet?

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, O’er Breyfogle, George, and other volumes of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my office door. ‘’Tis some Green Belt,’ soft I muttered, ‘working late on his R4 – Only this, […]

As I was getting into the cab outside Sheraton Saigon, the concierge guy handed me a small squarepiece of paper. “What’s this for?”, I asked, without really looking at what was handed to me. “In case you havetrouble with the driver sir.”, the concierge guy answered. It was a small feedback form allowing hotel guests […]

I thought I would share my views on a question frequently posed by newly trained belts. I imagine you to may have encountered this situation. I do not have a clear answer but have come-up with a theory. Could be right, could be wrong. We talk about the discrete sampling equation used to calculate minimum […]

CanLean Six Sigma help companies get through this economic downturn? Dale Barnhart, President and Chief Executive Officer at Lydall thinks so. In the Lydall 4th Quarter Earnings report he said: “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of Lean Six Sigma to Lydall in light of the current economic conditions. In 2008, the Company realized significant […]

After a long and extended absence, I am back to share some practical tips to help your Six Sigma program in times of economic turmoil. For starters, during the measure and analyze phases of a project, any of my readers know I talk about, this point of all projects and the introduction of BI, or […]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been pouring over the latest iSixSigma survey results about the use of process improvement methodologies and models in the supply chain. So far I’ve found a couple of interesting things… 1. Success factors for implementing Six Sigma in supply chain are pretty consistent with implementing Six Sigma anywhere: […]

In my last blog, Targets, I covered the situation of hitting time targets in a services environment. I thought I was onto something but wasn’t sure just what…….. Just to recap, people are targeted on delivering work within a certain time frame e.g. reply to a customer letter within X number of days. There was […]

If you’d like to take a beginner’scourse on Lean, look to Ron Pereira’s Gemba Academy. He has releasedhis first video, Introduction to Lean Manufacturing. The clip below (and on the LSS Academy site) is the first 10 minutes of the 15 minute intro to Lean. Don’t waste another minute in Lean ignorance…

This morning as I was reading my Six Sigma news feeds, I came across a mention of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) crediting Lean Six Sigmafor their high service ratings. The use of Lean and Six Sigma outside the traditional business setting intrigues me…so I investigated further…It turns out that back in 2005 CML identified […]

Andrew’s recent reflections about the relevance of continuous improvement practitioners in these times mirror my thoughts with an added perspective. If lean thinking and continuous improvement were only about measuring production and process I would wholly agree. However, continuous improvement, in my mind, is more about positive change and moving toward perfection than it is […]

Perhaps you all arrived at this conclusion way ahead of me, but I’m starting to worry more and more about the way we, as continuous improvement professionals, are spending our time. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the world in general, and the economy in particular, has gone off meds. Yes, I know, this isn’t news […]

As a former forklift operator, I can understand the complexities of forklift operations. I know absolutely nothing about forklift manufacturing, but one could argue that it might be harder to operate a forklift than build one… The very first Six Sigma project I ever heard about involved a forklift. It perked my interest, because naturally, […]

I was talking with a group of people about leading lean, and someone asked me, “Are you a Sensei?” So of course I said “No!” I don’t call myself a Sensei, because I consider myself to be at the grasshopper-level of lean expertise. However, the question did make me think. I call myself a Black […]

Last Friday I taught a Lean Leadership class for my healthcare organization. The participants included all levels of support staff, physicians, nurses, anddepartment leaders. They grasped the concepts easily, and we had a lot of fun with the simulation exercise. In the first round, of course, no products made it to the customer. In the […]

If your customers rate you a “7” on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), do your customer ratings range from 6 to 8 or do they range from 4 to 10? What would you do with this information?

AIG Said to Offer $1 Billion in Retention Payments to Employees As it turns out, this how AIG is choosing to spend part of the $150 Billion it received from the US Government, with much of it going to the very business units that caused AIG to falter in the first place. While the company […]

Photos stream of the iSixSigma Live! Summit and Awards in Miami. To browse all photos and download your favorites visit: http://photos.isixsigma.com/gallery/7136980_gHfnR

It seems like a month can not go by without some large scale food recall, with the latest being approximately 31 million pounds of peanut butter (due to salmonella contamination). I started to wonder what the sigma level for the aforementioned peanut butter would look like. According to a major news website, at least 500 […]

Michael Cyger moderated a panel with Mikel Harry and Don Linsenmann. Together they put on a good show, fielding questions from Mike as well as the audience. Don, as usual, instill humor into just about every story he tells. On the economy and Six Sigma: Don: “We’re all impacted by this downfall. Take initiative. Let […]

As an iSixSigma Blogs reader I invite you to participate in iSixSigma’s latest survey on Six Sigma in the supply chain. This short survey will explore how Six Sigma and other process improvement methodologies, including supply chain models such as SCOR, are being used to optimize supply chain activities. It will also look at how […]

Over 200 energy industry professionals will gather in Houston, Texas, May 19-22 for iSixSigma Live’s premiere Energy Forum for Process Excellence, supported by Chevron, Halliburton, Hess and Marathon Oil. Here’s your chance to be one of the speakers. Click here for the speaking proposal form: https://www.isixsigma.com/KQ5 We’re especially looking for process improvement professionals who can […]

I spent the Wednesday afternoon in the Deployment Models breakout session with Bob Crescenzi, from NewPage, Pam Cagle from Wal-Mart, and Stephen Turnipseed from Chevron. Each company is deploying Six Sigma with a different approach. Bob Crescenzi made a great point kicking off the discussions. He said, “There is no vanilla deployment.” Top-down, middle-out, or […]

“Do you have the courage to lead?”

I was very honored to have been nominated for the iSixSigma MVP Award for “Best Blogger” – given the high quality of my fellow nominees, Robin Barnwell and Gianna Clark, I was not expecting to receive this recognition! Attending the iSixSigma Live! conference was a blast, and I had a lot of fun and met […]

The iSixSigma Live! Miami Summit and Awards opened yesterday with a bang.Richard Willet, Jr., President and CEO of NewPage kicked off the morning session. Rick gave an enthusiastic overview of Lean Six Sigma at NewPage. There was so much he spoke about, but one of the points really stuck me as unique. He said that […]

Well we did it. We announced the order of the Top Ten iSixSigma Best Places to Work list this morning. If you were following my tweets this morning you already heard where the No. 1 place is… if not, here we go… #10 Rio Tinto Alcan #9 Volt Information Sciences Inc. #8 EMC Corp. #7 […]

I had the privilege of presenting the iSixSigma MVP Awards this morning to a fine group of Six Sigma professionals. The MVP Awards are iSixSigma’s way of recognizing those people who volunteer their time and expertise making iSixSigma.com and the iSixSigma Blogosphere meaningful places to learn. Without purse or script, these knights and nobles selfishly […]

The iSixSigma Live! Awards ceremony went off beautifully this morning. Congratulations to all the finalists, and woo hooo! to all the winners! Winners: Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects * Environment – Bell Helicopter, Textron Inc. for “Compressed Air Savings Headstart (CASH)” * Supply chain – General Dynamics for “Submarine Material Receipt Inspection” * Transactional – North Shore-LIJ […]

Targets appear in all shapes & sizes. Sometimes seen as positive, “we operate a target-driven culture” and sometimes negative, “targets drive the wrong behaviour”. So what is true? Given the sheer diversity of targets, I want to focus on a specific area, daily work targets in a services environment. Let’s look at a scenario. Imagine […]

It’s a busy week for us here at iSixSigma. The final day leading to the iSixSigma Live! Summit& Awards in Miami… If you tweet you’re in for a treat.I’ll betweeting live from Miami. Follow the iSixSigma tweetfor mini updates on what I’m up to at the conference. Be the first to readthe winners of the […]

Happy New Year! Today, rather than talk about something deeply insightful I thought I would share one of the tools I like to use. Ever had to arrange a project meeting? Did you need to get say 10 people’s diaries aligned, usually at short notice? Was it fun? There are many ways to approach this […]

While scanning news for lean and six sigma related articles this morning, I came across this gem: “Six Sigma Certification Booms as Employment Busts” – it was actually a press release posing as news over on msnbc.com. That’s fine – I recall from my days in media relations that many news outlets craved pre-written content, […]

This year, I’m making a resolution to do a good deed daily. This is inspired in part by Gianna Clark’s latest blog, How W.O.W.?, but also by my own sense of imbalance in the customer feedback that most organizations receive. I’ve communicated about problems and complaints many times – but – I realized that I […]

If you are providing your Customers with a W.O.W. experience, you will know it. If you are not, you will know it as well.