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Greetings from Detroit, where the North American International Auto Show is in its first full week. I had the opportunity to visit over the weekend, and was mightily impressed with what I saw. This time, I have to say I looked with different eyes. The last time I attended, a few years ago,my perspective was […]

Many organizational leaders are inspired by management books, and quite a few have gone to the extremes of ordering the books for their leadership teams. Some even start book clubs or go through each book chapter by chapter in their meetings. I’m an avid reader and have gone through a lot of management books in […]

Let me introduce you to the iSixSigma published report, Six Sigma Saves a Fortune.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to feel a little “winterized” already (or is that “non-winterized”?). The Seattle rainy season has hit multiple records this season and I’m looking forward to a break later this month by visiting warm — and hopefully dry — Miami for the IQPC Six Sigma […]

Okay, okay. I know this has already been covered to death in other blogs and various discussion forums. But I am nonetheless compelled to offer my own take on the Wall Street Journal’s article concerning the departure of Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli. And more specifically on the comments within that article suggesting that this […]

People only jump when they are pushed. Kotter in his book Leading Change (1994) talks about creating the “Burning Platform”. My mental image of this burning platform is a team of guys and / or gals on a burning oil rig knowing the oil rig is going to sink but only jumping into the murky […]

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

I don’t usually make too many New Year’s resolutions, but here are a few that I’ll be attempting this year. 1. To be less judgmental of people, and more judgmental aboutprocesses. 2. To look more closely at the “story behind the headlines” when confronted with a problem. 3. To clarify when I’m giving advice as […]

Nayism 38: Six Sigma doesn’t work. Just look at the Fortune 500 . . . yada . . . yada . . . yada. . . blah . . . blah . . blah After reading yet another Six Sigma bashing news article, I find it interesting that intelligent people are publishing the kind of […]

From a building in the centre of Glasgow a team continues to grow, spread and populate one of the world’s largest financial institutions. The team is ours, the mission (which we duly accepted) was to change the way things were done, to build and prepare for growth and to change an embedded culture of ‘that’s […]

Middle manager of a mid-sized business with an average market share makes a New Year’s resolution, “I must improve our performance!”. Hits the Internet to discover what’s out there and is absolutely bombarded with the latest thinking and best practise in how to improve their business. KISS…4P…5P…Burning platform…Blue Ocean…7S…PRINCE2…MBWA….Seven Habits…CMMi…Governance…Scenario Planning…Six Sigma….Innovation…Kotler…Activity Based Costing…Balanced Scorecard…Six […]

We all want to get it right the first time. And a brief browse through the business section of any major bookstore, or even various sections of this website, will turn up hundreds of best practices and other bits of advice that promise to help us get it right the first time. Consultants would never […]

(Continued from “Lean Journeys – Part 2“) Another year is upon us, and it’s time to look forward to new challenges and frontiers. It has been a while, and I will finally finish my thought on going lean from back in October! (Thanks for bearing with me – please refer back to “Lean Journeys – […]

To start ’07 I’m conducting a LOC (Laugh Of Customer) and if you are a regular visitor to this Blog site I’d like to know if you have a favorite Cox-Box cartoon you’ve appreciated, and if so which one it is. If you’re so inclined,if you wouldinclude why it is your favorite that would be […]

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

’Twas the night before Report-Out, and all through the House of Quality, Not a creature was stirring, (no Six Sigma frivolity!); The Standard Work Combination Forms were hung in the gemba with care, In hopes that some measurements soon would be there; The team members were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of […]

On the first day of Sigma, my Black Belt gave to me: Something called a VOC. On the second day of Sigma, my Black Belt gave to me: 2 CTQs, and something called a VOC. On the third day of Sigma, my Black Belt gave to me: 3 CAP tools, 2 CTQs, and something called […]

Last year for the holidays I wrote about Amazon and their Six Sigma efforts. This year let me introduceyou to a much smaller store, yet still striving for Six Sigma. The Christmas Decorations & Gifts Store endeavorsto spread Christmas cheer and customer delight to their patrons by practicing Six Sigma. From their website: “We are […]

The ghost of Christmas past pointed me to this interview with no other than the man himself – Santa Claus. Rod Morgan of e-Zsigma was fortunate enough to meet Santa and ask him all the details surrounding Six Sigma at the North Pole. Below is an excerpt where Santa describes how Six Sigma was brought […]

Now we have the tools. Supervisors are watching the process, identifying muda, re-work and redundant processes. Front line staff are meeting production goals within acceptable standards. Our work-in-progress is flowing with less wait time, a focus on pull of resources and just-in-time customer service. We are sustaining production within dictated standards. What is next? A […]

Believe it or not, naysayers all over the world are frantically writing letters to Santa. So what are they asking for? Here’s the top 10 list: Number 10: Two dozen “Just Say No” buttons. Number 9: Ten pounds of stinky cheese to go with their ‘whine.’ Number 8: A “Harry Potter” invisibility cloak to help […]

To better acquaint their employees with Six Sigma, the Y-12 National Security Complex published the following story in their January 2002 employee newsletter. Bechtel Shares a Six Sigma Parable You may have heard about the most recent process improvement initiative, Six Sigma, which is taking off like wild fire around America. Corporate giants like Motorola, […]

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

Consider a Lean Six Sigma programme with a number of projects in-flight. It’s a good mix of projects with varying delivery-timescales and range of benefits. Projects are run by dedicated black belts who manage the DMAIC phases in the waterfall approach. Its what you might call the “standard” approach to delivery. The customer couldn’t care […]

Our help desk decided this semester to start a project where we would create a cookbook of our processes and procedures. This cookbook would be in the form of a manual that would be in print and electronic formats and would serve as a basis for choosing Six Sigma projects and for training our staff […]

One of the main reasons I signed-up to Lean Six Sigma was because I had discovered a great set of tools to help me deliver change quicker & better. Through my training I wondered how I had survived so long without sampling & confidence intervals, SPC’s, regression and FMEA. Being able to look at a […]

When I’m looking at a process, it often seems like there’s more than one way to approach aproblem – without a clear-cut “right” or “best” solution.One of the issues that seems to be a frequent”let’s-flip-a-coin issue”is centralization vs decentralization, specifically related to decision-making. In some projects, a particular process has been decentralized – the rationale […]

We’’ve all been to the post office and waited in line for what seems like eternity…. At the post office, it’s first in, first out. One postal worker for each transaction. With the holidays upon us, I’’m sure we’ll all have the experience again soon. The following story didn’t happen in a post office. This […]

I have been wrestling lately with the question of when a Six Sigma project should be considered “done”. From the perspective of the organization, it’s common to say that done means finished through the control phase or it’s equivalent, including process changes or other implemented solutions. From the financial perspective it’s tempting to say that […]

It’s the holiday season and that means one thing: shopping! This is the one time of year where I will seriously shop, making my seasonal impulsive buys and spending money on items such as clothing, candy, electronics, etc. that I rarely buy throughout any other time of the year. Evidently, I am not alone in […]

I read a very cool article in BusinessWeek yesterday called The Making of…a LEGO. (Brought to my attention via Slashdot.) While the article doesn’t actually talk about Six Sigma it does tell us a little about the manufacturing process of the LEGO bricks: “The bricks are so meticulously made that the company claims that out […]

Reading Gianna Clark’s latest blogmade me thing about all the “sayisms” that I’ve developed over the past three years of my Lean-Six Sigma journey. I have added lots of acronyms, sayings, and jargon in my daily speech – and I keep forgetting that not everybody is familiar with these terms (yet) – including my husband […]

Nayism 37: Six Sigma touts a lot of benefits for the company but what’s in it for me? The answer to this question could be the turning point for this individual. Can you give them the right answer to their WIFM (What’s In It For Me?). Where do you begin? Here’s what I say . . […]

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

I was up late practicing one of my favorite hobbies, web surfing, and after a chain of clicks on tonight’s topic of interest, optimization, I stumbled upon something I thought I’d share. I’ve been a practitioner/advocate of simulation for some time now and recently I’ve decided to educate myself beyond what the typical software packages […]

Dilbert and his pointy haired boss tackled two topics that are near and dear to my heart: Six Sigma and innovation. In one fell swooop, he reduced both topics to buzz words and hype. While I’m sure there are many people who may agree with Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, I’m hoping this site […]

Seth Godin points us to a positive customer service story regarding a flat tire. I’d like to tell you my story…the exact opposite experience at my local big chaintire shop. My tire went flat while I was out. Luckily I happened to be next to a gas station. I managed to fill it up enough […]

Our organization is starting to have a very constructive discussion about rewards and recognition for Black Belts. (Green Belts, hold on, you’re next.) We canvassed our current Black Belts and- as you might guess – the variation was wider than the mean! Ideas started fromcertificates, pins, and belts… through public recognition at organization-wide events… through […]

Last year to celebrate Six Sigma and Thanksgiving, I directed you to a couple of Thanksgiving DOEs. This year let’s talk apple pie. The Bama Companies make a mean apple pie. In fact they make millions of them each year. Not quite the same as the apple pie that my wife bakes for Thanksgiving, but […]

Is it related to design for Six Sigma? Is it TRIZ? Is it that guy in the corner cube who has 50 patents and tons of papers piled on his desk high enough to obscure anybody’s view as they walk by?

What a great way to return Six Sigma savings back into growing the business: Fund innovation projects. It’s also a nice synergy between Six Sigma and Innovation.

I recently took a long train journey to Wales to attend a user group for a software package that defines Enterprise Architecture (Zachman et al). More details in a future IT blog. But what caught my eye was an article in The Times newspaper: Tax staff told to clear their desk Being told to clear […]

The 30 Rock Six Sigma reference got me thinking about Six Sigma at NBC Universal… not much searching later I found a Six Sigma educational video produced by the quality team at NBCU and narrated by Linda Hildebrandt, a Master Black Belt on the quality team. The self-made video is professional quality (would you expect […]

Okay, time to pick up where I left off last month. You may or may not remember my post about assessing organizational maturity in order to discern the appropriate scope and/or starting point for continuous improvement efforts so I’ll refresh your memory with a quote from the post: “Our target end state for an organization […]

“Are quality and change one of the same thing, can you have one without the other or are they inextricably linked?” What is Quality ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality Quality can refer to a. a specific characteristic of an object (the qualities of ice – i.e. its properties). b. the achievement or excellence of an object (good quality […]

My mother-in-law (we call her TiVo) said she was watching 30 Rocklast week…(just one of the many, many showsshe records, hence the name TiVo) and told me about a scene where Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) explains Six Sigma to his staff writers. Well, I went a looking for it and thanks to YouTube here’s the […]

I am trying to make Six Sigma meetings at my project in the UK fun and a little ‘different’ than the normal meetings there. I am gathering up fun exercises and video clips to play in between facilitation of the DMAIC tools. I will share with you one GREAT team exercise (I got from my […]

In my previous two posts, I talked about the fugue and the symphony as metaphors for Six Sigma deployment. A fugue is a musical form in which a single theme is repeated or imitated successively by different instruments until eventually the entire orchestra is involved. This strategy isn’t a bad one for Six Sigma deployment, […]

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

I spent the afternoon with the North West Quality Forum (NWQF). Today’s meeting took place on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, just North East of Seattle. It was my first time to Redmond, besides my house-hunting trip to the Seattle area a couple of years ago. The NWQF is a group of Seattle-based deployment […]