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5:15 am: I’ve always heard that the wake up to life is an experience not to be missed.People I spoke to last night at theGrand Evening went on and on about the sunrise, the moon set and the desert scenery. They even said they were going to show up *again* this morning to do the […]

It’s closing in on 1:00 am and right about now I’m thinking my earlier commitment to hike Pinnacle Peak is appearing very silly. The bus leaves the hotel at 5:15 am. This is the second time I’ve typed this blog posting, and yes, even those of us in Internet-land mess up and lose entire postings […]

Last evening, about 100 of Six Sigma’s finest went up to the Arizona hills to the Outback Oasis for some R&R after a full day of conference workshops. It was a great day for learning, and it was topped off with 80 degree F weather and cloudless skies. Roxanne O’Brasky, president of ISSSP, and her […]

After a much needed break, we’re back in the main hall and will hear from Rusty Patterson, VP Customer and Supply Chain Institute for Raytheon. His presentation is titled, “What’s Next for Six Sigma? Transforming Your Company to Remain Competitive.” Raytheon kicked off Six Sigma in the beginning of 1999. For cornerstones for Six Sigma […]

Next up is Stephen Turnipseed, Lean Six Sigma Advisor for Chevron Global Upstream. I’ve heard Stephen speak before. He is a great speaker. Chevron does not have the luxury of a CEO driven deployment. They started Six Sigma as a grassroots deployment, and it has been expanding. Now it’s moving into supply chain. Steve is […]

The ISSSP Leadership Conference general session has started. Roxanne O’Braskey is welcoming the attendees and giving a shout out to the 18 SKF employees from around the world that are here today. Marty Sherber is the Master of ceremonies, he is the senior VP of client development for AIT. He’s also a 5th degree Master […]

I’m at the ISSSP Leadership Conference with Jessica Harper, managing editor of iSixSigma Magazine and Michael Marx, our resident research manager and blogger-extrordinairre. The weather is beautiful – definitely not as green as Seattle, but the sun is glorious. I’m sitting in a presentation by Larry Goldman of Crystal Ball (of Hyperion and Oracle acquisition-fame) […]

The following is theOpen Mike column from the May/June 2007 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Getting Ahead in Business with Six Sigma.” Attending the IQPC Six Sigma Summit in January, I was excited to hear the keynote speaker, and I wondered what Gen. Colin Powell could teach Six Sigma professionals about leadership. He had a […]

Ever wonder which Naysayers hold the distinction of being on the Six Sigma Most Wanted list? With so many types of naysayers to pick from, it’s tough competition. But after two years and 44 Nayisms, your time of wondering is coming to an end because the “Top 5 Countdown” is about to begin. This week, […]

It seems “Voice of the Customer” (VOC) is a label applied to almost any interaction between a business and a customer these days. Anything from direct interaction to the vaguest involvement along the periphery. Anything from highly structured, planned, and observed interactions to informal, anecdotal, and third-hand accounts. Some VOC is certainly useful. But more […]

The May/June issueof iSixSigma Magazine has hit the shelves (metaphorically speaking of course) as well as cyberspace via the digital edition. If you do not subscribe to the magazine you are really missing out on a wealth of information. I’m not just saying that because I work for the Magazine. I was hooked on iSixSigma […]

Pete Abilla who runs the shmula blog has just started working as the process improvement leader at eBay. I have been reading shmula since Pete started blogging and can honestly say that he is one of the best process improvement bloggers out there. I often link to him in the Guest Blogger section of the […]

Michael Cyger has been on an office cleaning frenzy lately, giving away books for trivia ¦ I thought I’d do a little spring cleaning myself. I’ve got five Cox-Box wall calendars sitting on my shelf when they should be hanging up in your office.  I’ll send one calendar out to the first five people to email […]

Most methodologies warn against the use of part time resources as project leaders. This is more so true with Blackbelts. However, the Army has a unique situation with the Army Reserves. These are true full time members who serve up to a total of 38 days per year. Couple that with the fact that most […]

Six Sigma critics are right about one of their chief complaints: the program is a re-packaging of a lot of tools and ideas that have been around for a long time. Personally I don’t think that’s a bad thing, since many of the ideas that have been re-packaged were languishing before. Regardless of where the […]

In preparation for an award I am accepting for being a pioneer in the CPM (Corporate Performance Management) and BI space for the work done infusing the balanced scorecard (BSC) methodology prior to our deployment of lean six sigma (LSS) , I started thinking about how many blank faces I see when I start talking […]

The IBM Institute for Business Value released a study earlier this year entitled “Driving operational innovation using Lean Six Sigma.” This study showcases how three companies – Caterpillar, POSCO, and Scottish Power have elevated Lean Six Sigma to do more than improve processes and reduce costs: Although CEOs might instinctively think of management approaches such […]

Hi Blogosphere, I’ve recently taken a big decision. It’s important to know that it is totally the right decision but it was also a big decision. You know when you make a decision sometimes you agonise over it and, as BBs, we often spend weeks gathering data to ensure we’ve absolutely, statistically verified that the […]

One of the most recent moves to engage the leadership in Business Transformation is to have the Project Sponsors brief/present BB/GB projects to the Deployment Directors/Senior Leadership. The strategy is a great way to change the old thought process of “kicking the can down the road” or “maintaining the status quo” until the next bloke […]

When you are just started to work on a new project, as Six Sigma professional you are conditioned not to jump to conclusions and let the data and facts guide you to process improvements. However, by asking yourself two simple questions at the start of such an improvement initiative, you be able to get a […]

Reading Robin Barnwell’slastest post, I was reminded of a conversation I had recently regardingstandard work in our own projects. When our Black Belts share their experiences, it’s really interesting to seehow parts of the project structure are valued differently by each individual. Let me give you an example. We have a guideline for rapid improvement […]

Jessica Harper (managing editor of iSixSigma Magazine), Michael Marx (iSixSigma’s research manager) and I will be in warm Scottsdale, Arizona, May 7-10. If you’re looking to escape the weather and be (almost) guaranteed warm days and sunny skies, then consider joining us in Scottsdale for the ISSSP Six Sigma Leadership Conference. This year I vowed […]

I recently had an opportunity to talk with someone involved in a manufacturing deployment. What struck me was how different their deployment was to ours. This worried me into thinking we were somehow doing it wrong and not doing real Lean Six Sigma. I think I have now rationalised the experience and here is what […]

Last week I joined several of my colleagues in Chicago to participate in the Conference Board’s 2007 Six Sigma Leadership Conference. More than 115 Six Sigma leaders gathered to network and learn more about how companies are “Leveraging Lean and Traditional Six Sigma to Optimize Business Process Delivery.” Mike Kirby, Deputy Under Secretary of the […]

I’ve been having some conversations about belts with my colleagues. Officially, we have “Lean Green Belts” (learn Lean Six Sigma basics, facilitate Lean Kaizen events) and “Six Sigma Black Belts” (know both Lean & Six Sigma, facilitate Lean & Six Sigma projects, coach & mentor Green Belts). We had “Yellow Belts” for a while – […]

Successful operations planning can be a powerful cost reduction and organizational development strategy to help define resources and processes needed to sustain the project’s business outcome after control phase, especially in the contact center space. The black/green belts should not keep the responsibility for the product after delivery, nor be listed anywhere in the control […]

Lean Six Sigma for Contact Centers Once your improvements have implemented, the next step is to ensure sustainability of your results through tools like the Control plan & FMEA.To ensure a smooth transitionto your Contact Center Process Owner, the black/green belt should takea more hands-on approach than one may be used to in the transactional […]

Theterm “Mission Creep” with the Military can be applied to “Scope Creep” in a LSS Project. The constant tension to solve problems has to be tempered with the fact that many problems are “Elephants” that need to be eaten one bite a time. The issue of Mission/Scope Creep boils down to being able to define […]

This could be you! Are you a small or medium-sized business that’s seen great results with Six Sigma or process improvement tools? Do you rely on “Six Sigma thinking” to improve the customer experience? We’re looking for a company that would be an inspiration to other small and medium-sized businesses to feature in an article […]

In two previous blogs, I wrote about intersections between Six Sigma, internal control and data quality. By way of background information, my department performs compliance functions, where we monitor information delivered by third parties and created through internal operations. For example, we receive property-address information and derive new information like geospatial position through “geocoding” processes. […]

Wiley Publishing, Inc. was kind enough to send me a few copies of the new Lean for Dummies book, hot off the presses.

Part two in a two part series on First-Call Resolution. Read Part one, Inputs Driving Poor First-Call Resolution Here’s how to get started with a Six Sigma project: Step 1. Define: Conduct an information-seeking drill-down with SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) who are proven resources in the center. This can help determine the objective and scope […]

Meridian Gold finds and produces gold with its mining operations in Chile as well as a pipeline of exploration projects throughout the Americas. While continuous improvement is nothing new to the El Peñón mine, they recently began using Six Sigma in their Operational Excellence initiative: Edgar Smith, Meridian’s Vice President of Operations, commented, “I am […]

Part one in a two part series on First-Call Resolution For most contact centers, nearly one-third of inbound calls are repeat callers who weren’t satisfied the first time, and more often than not, the antiquated switches that contact centers leverage, just do not do that great of a job reporting on the true FCR (First-Call […]

Ever wonder what kind of eggs would be found in a Six Sigma easter basket? Here’s what I say . . . Eggs-ceptional teams Eggs-citing projects Eggs-ponential ROI Eggs-traordinary improvements Eggs-hilarating challenges Eggs-treme customer satisfaction Hope your Six Sigma easter basket is filled with Eggs-actly what you need. Happy Easter!

After last year’s run-in with my broadband provider, here is an equally nonsensical situation encountered with my wireless provider. It highlights another core business issue. My mobile phone (cell phone) broke, so I ordered a new one and it arrived the next day. Handed over the broken phone and started-up the new one. Hold on, […]

In a prior post I reflected on desirable attributes for a Black Belt. After mentoring numerous Black Belts I can tell you what makes a good one, however I am wondering if one can statistically quantify a good vs. great belt. Sure, there are tons of metrics that can be used to measure a belt:hard […]

Nayism 44: “What do you mean by asking my employees to spend an hour doing online Six Sigma orientation? You must be dreaming if you think I can afford to have them away from their job for that amount of time.” Will trying to get this naysayer on board be your next nightmare? How should […]

Update on Pay for Skills A while back I wrote about a Six Sigma project that focused on implementing a pay for skills initiative. I am happy to say the project has passed through control phase and is currently institutionalized. Validating cross training employees created savings was a little difficult at first.Sure, there were tons […]

The training and curriculum of Lean Six Sigma is the perfect example of variation in action. I have the ability to see about 4 different types of curriculum for GB’s and BB’s. In all cases, each one presents you with a almost totally different perspective of what the trainers want you to be able to […]

Here’s your chance to tell us what you think about the iSixSigma Blogosphere.

I was cleaning up my office today and found two extra copies of The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook written by Michael George, David Rowlands, Mark Price and John Maxey of George Group, published by McGraw-Hill. It’s rated 5 out of 5 on Amazon.com and is a great compendium of every Lean Six Sigma tool […]

TAGSYS has announced what they are billing as the RFID industry’s first quality of service guarantee for pharmaceutical manufacturers. This new guarantee — what TAGSYS is calling the “Six Sigma Performance Program” — promises fewer than four failures in one million read opportunities in the item-level track-and-trace process. Read their entire Six Sigma guarantee.

KPMG, the public accounting firm, recently published a survey of outsourcing. Nearly three out of four companies in the survey do not measure the value of their outsourcing arrangements. Yet paradoxically, KPMG concludes outsourcing is working because 89% of their survey participants plan to maintain or increase their use of outsourcing. The survey leads me […]

The first business process I ever put together was heavily indebted to Kevin Costner. If I build it, I figured, they will come. And I did build it. A perfect process, polished in every detail. A global process, that everyone involved would adopt. A useful process, that would solve many disparate problems in a foul […]

Textron released an article last week entitled, Bob Zimering, a Textron Master Black Belt, Discusses Six Sigma at Textron and Responds to Some of the Critics. In the article Bob Zimering does exactly as the title suggests. He responds to the Fortune article where Qualpro said that Six Sigma companies trail in the S&P… Textron’s […]

As is well known by all, the Army exists as a non-profit organization. Our motives and measures of success are not around EPS or net profit. We measure mission accomplishment and effectiveness. Our motto is always, “make it happen” or as the cable guys says, “get ’er done.” However we do measure project success in […]