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Last week was a difficult week in the office with a number of day-to-day issues going the wrong way. As the week drew to close I found myself feeling low and faced with a 4-hour drive home. On the way home I indulged in some negative brainstorming around people’s job titles e.g. Director of Infuriating […]

We have a fantastic issue of iSixSigma Magazine coming up in May. The cover story is about Lonmin, a primary producer of platinum group metals. They focus on discovery, acquisition, development and marketing of minerals and metals. The short story goes like this: Prior to Brad Mills becoming CEO, the quality of life for Lonmin […]

I was facilitating a process-mapping session recently, and one of the team members came up to me during a break. She said, “I think it’s really interesting that you are leading us in the process mapping in a way that’s much different than I’ve seen before.” I said, “What do you mean?” She explained that […]

A few comments on organizational design and Six Sigma…. Organizational structure is one consideration. The decision to centralize or functionally embed black belts has to consider an organization’s business model, culture and past experience with process improvement. Likewise, compensation, career track, professional development and human capital management practices are important. In some organizations, Six Sigma […]

Hitachi is running a series of advertisements in the Wall Street Journal focusing on their plasma TV technology capabilities. In today’s issue (March 13, 2007, p. A16), their ad talks about kaizen: No matter where in the world they’re made, Hitachi plasma TVs have one trait in common: They’re the product of kaizen, the Japanese […]

Nayism 43: Ever since we started deploying Six Sigma, everyone has been jumping around like they found the golden nugget. Don’t they know that golden nuggets don’t really exist? Hmmm. Sounds like this naysayer may have kissed the ’ole blarney stone one too many times. Believe it or not, the Six Sigma Pot O’Gold is […]

Nayism 42: Why does every department have to have their own Black Belt? Let’s just pick some people to be Black Belts, give them a job title, put them in a separate department and be done with it. Sound like a good idea? Here’s what I say. . . One of the most important aspects in […]

“Resistance is futile.” That is the warning statement from the Borg Collective, an arch enemy of the Federation of Planets in the Star Trek television series. Any trekkies out there? The first time I heard that phrase I thought; boy are they over-confident, they have not dealt with Captain Jean Luc Picard yet. And of […]

Recently the Under Secretary for Business Transformation (DUSA-BT), the Honorable Mike Kirby spoke with our Command and BB/GB trainees on the need for change. He presented an hour long slide show on why we must change the way we do business. Most compelling was his analysis of the evolution of the capability of the war […]

After spending considerable time over the last few weeks on designing a compliance process to measure the quality of information, I want to share a few observations.Feedback about how companies are addressing data quality through Six Sigma would be most helpful. Companies are approaching an inflection point: exploiting information is their next lever to innovate […]

Praveen Gupta, President of Accelper Consulting, sent me a few copies of his new book entitled Virtually Stat Free Six Sigma. (Thanks for the reference to iSixSigma.com in the first chapter, Praveen!) Subtitled “Focusing on Intent for Quick Results,” this book dives into the biggest problems facing most companies and what tools are most likely […]

As research manager for iSixSigma Magazine, I spend my Decembersanalyzing the data from the iSixSigma Job Shop to figure out who makes what and where they make it. I really enjoy crunching the numbers because I get to spend so much time in Minitab. (My love for Minitab waskindled by my Black Belt instructor, Paul […]

I was speaking with Joe Ficalora, EVP of Technology for Sigma Breakthrough Technologies, Inc., at the IQPC Miami Summit in January and we got to talking about all the bad press Six Sigma had been getting lately.  Joe told me that he and his colleague Joe Costello had co-written a letter to the author of the […]

A review of the information covering Lean Six Sigma deployments shows a clear focus on such items as. Roles & responsibilities: – e.g. champion, process owner, MBB, and BB Critical success factors: – e.g. Leadership commitment, alignment to strategy and suitable training/accreditation system Project selection & sponsorship But what I have been interested in is […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2007 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

We have recently become aware of fraudulent emails and telephone calls from a person claiming to be from iSixSigma which was sent to multiple people, including some of our readers. The fraudulent email, which was sent by Aditi Raisurana and may be personally addressed, tells recipients that iSixSigma is “in the process of promoting our […]

It seems that no sooner does Hyperion start the transition from the acquisition of Decisioneering to the process of integrating Crystal Ball with their products, when Hyperion announces that *they’ve* now been acquired by Oracle! The deal is in cash for $52.00 per share, or approximately $3.3 billion. In an email I received today from Jim […]

For my first blog at iSixSigma, I would like to contemplate disciplines that are slow to embrace Six Sigma but need it most: internal control and enterprise risk management. Passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 thrust these domains into the limelight. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) defines enterprise risk management as follows: […]

I have been contemplating organizational transformation over the last few months. Jim Womak at the Lean Institute has started a new research project that is collecting organizational development results from various lean projects in the public sector. He has encouraged all who have thoughts to contact him. The driving question is: “What is the best […]

I was raised to believe thatin Six Sigma,the “Voice of the Customer” is the source of process specifications. While training, we spent quite a bit of time learning Customer Needs Mapping, developing the Critical to Quality characteristics, and filling out the CTQ tree. We defined a customer as the end-user, or beneficiary, of the process […]

My understanding of Lean Six Sigma is mainly based on the projects and the people I work with here at Aviva. Being one of the biggest businesses in the UK, Aviva gives me great opportunity to work on complex problems & processes. But it has its limitations. I work exclusively in the financial services market […]

Recently, I was part of agroup Black Belts who were discussingthe pressure on leaders to improve, not just in one direction, but in as many ways as possible, seemingly all at once. Here’s a possible scenario, from a hypothetical healthcare organization in the beginning stages of deploying Lean Six Sigma. A Vice President is speaking […]

(Or “On Arithmetic Means”, if you prefer.) I hardly need mention in this forum that as a standalone descriptive statistic, the average can be a dangerous piece of information. Averages quoted in the absence of other descriptive statistics are generally insufficient at best, and downright misleading at worst. I’ll skip the lecture on the importance […]

A little off message today, but (eventually) topical. Britain’s ancient roads have carried people and livestock for centuries. But it was the engineering skills of the Romans who transformed our road transportation system. In the first 100 years after their invasion in 43AD they built at least 8000 miles of road so even the most […]

While traveling on an international flight earlier this year, I was asked to fill out forms for customs. After filling out the forms I proceeded to wait in line where fellow travelers in front of me delayed processing time because of a simple data entry error on their customs card. Apparently 1/11/07 is read as […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2007 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Nayism 41: “Six Sigma” is not for us. We’re past all the buzz words and latest fads. For various and sometimes unknown reasons, people shy away from Six Sigma because of the name. In fact, Six Sigma has become so popular that it could be the hype surrounding the name that turns them off. So […]

Mayor Graham Richard of Fort Wayne Indiana recently published a new book called Performance is the Best Politics: How to create high-performance government using Lean Six Sigma. In conjuncton with the book the Mayor launched a new website, http://www.performanceisthebestpolitics.com,that offers previews of case studies included in the book. In the Mayor’s own words: “This book […]

We must be data driven!We must manage by fact!What happens when we don’t have any data? What happens when we can’t tweak a bit of machinery to improve our primary metric? What happens when one of our critical Xs is a behavioural problem?Or, one of our action items in the Improve stage is something a […]

Nayism 40: The year-end financials are out and Company XYZ who is using Six Sigma didn’t do well. Looks like Six Sigma is looking more like Sick Sigma. It’s that time of year when Six Sigma naysayers turn to company year-end financial performance and try to lay blame on Six Sigma for companies that may […]

Recently, I had an interesting conversationwith the editor of our facility newsletter. She was looking for short articles for the next edition, and I asked if she thought people would be interested in some tips for email organization. Simple stuff, like sorting your inbox by sender so you can take care of your boss’s communication […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2007 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Nayism 39: Our organization is flat and has little turnover. There just aren’t any leadership positions available for Black Belts when they repatriate. Organizations with little movement might find themselves getting a little stale when it comes to repatriating black belts. Is there anything you can say to clear the air? Here’s what I say . […]

If you’ve read some of my previous blog entries, you’ll know I’m no fan of roadmaps. I used to think this was a radical proposition in the Six Sigma community. But more and more, when I talk to practitioners – the people on the ground who do the hands-on work of process improvement – I […]

Keynote address at the 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida, USA The Six Sigma crowd was on their feet before General Powell even said a word. The General launched his address by telling us he got an A in statistics at The George Washington University. That made all of us Six Sigma data […]

Below are a fewpictures from theIQPC Six Sigma Summit in Maimi. Jami Smith from Expedia.com singing with the entertainment. Next year Jamie should”be” the entertainment. She can sing! Fellow blogger Gianna Clark, Managing Director of Six Sigma at Dominion, meeting General Colin Powell. Your very own iSixSigma: Michael Cyger, Michael Marx and Managing Editor of […]

Ellen has personality. She tells it like it is. She is a recent addition to the “turnaround team” at Nortel Networks. As the VP of Lean Six Sigma and Global Quality, she laid out Nortel’s plans to execute on their new Lean Six Sigma initiative launched in April last year. “Lean Six Sigma will be […]

Don Linsenmann, VP Business Process Excellence & Corporate Six Sigma Champion at DuPont delivered a superb presentation on Tuesday. If the only two people I heard this week were Don Linsenmann and General Colin Powell, I would have been satisfied. Once again, Don reviewed the faces of Six Sigma with his Rubik’s Cube analogy. Each […]

Some of the biggest news to be announced yesterday and circulated around the IQPC Six Sigma Summit in Miami is that Hyperion is acquiring Decisioneering. For those of you not aware of Hyperion, they are one of the leading enterprise-wide BPM (business performance management) software applications in the world. As the press release on Decisioneering’s […]

Because I’m currently reviewing the materials on cause and effect I seem to be noticing it everywhere, I wonder why? Either way finding root-causes is an essential part of my job and I have a wealth of tools available such as Ishikawa diagrams, correlation, regression models, DOE and multivariate charts. In reviewing the on-line materials […]

I just came from the award gala dinner… and the 2007 Six Sigma Excellence Award Winners are: Award for Best Defect Elimination in Manufacturing Project- Sponsored by Minitab Winner: Delphi Thermal Systems – 2007 930 HVAC Module Snap Case Machine Honorary mention: Delphi Corporation – Process Optimization to Significantly Increase Product Strength Award for Best […]

This week I’ll be blogging from the IQPC 8th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida. Today’s sessions are over and I must say that I was impressed with the presentations. My favorite speaker today was, hands down, Don Linsenmann, VP and Corporate Champion at DuPont. Don is one dynamic speaker. He’s part comedian, part […]

Yesterday, our organization graduated its first class of Lean Green Belts that was taught on our own, without our consultant. We’re using the term “Lean Green Belt” because we’re teaching them primarily Lean so they can facilitate Rapid Improvement Events, although we’re using the DMAIC structure as an organizing principle. (Our BBs are called Six […]

After an extended holiday from the blog and from work in general, I have to say I’m glad to be back. I hope everyone out there in isixsigma land enjoyed the season as much as I did. I started a project in the U.K. this week. I’m fascinated by the differences in culture one finds […]

Each of our hundred of processes required a common format/look for consistency in the creation of our cookbook. We sit down with our Knowledge Management team to discuss what our users should know about a process and we came up with this list: Procedure Name–The identifying name of the procedure that makes a distinction between […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2007 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

He’s at it again. But this time I laughed out loud, I’m sorry to report. What are your thoughts?

As part of becoming an MBB I need to really understand statistics. I spend a lot of my own time studying and use Minitab to support this. But I was surprised to find there was no Minitab User Group where I could meet like-minded people to share my experiences and accelerate my learning. So I […]

Paula Parmeter, a Six Sigma advocate and pioneer, recently passed away. Everyone that knew Paula is tremendously saddened. Below is a tribute, written by Ilona Kirzhner.     iSixSigma has been nice enough to allow us to pay a Six Sigma Tribute to Paula (Feldman) Parmeter. In my knowledge of Six Sigma consultancies, practitioners, trainers, […]