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Here’s a gem of a post buried in an old thread I’ve been following that saw some activity today. Thanks for the laughs Linus. Re: Six Sigma Companies by Linus Barrymore Three one-sigma companies board a train in Cleveland traveling southwest at92 mph. At the same time, six two-sigma companies board another train in Cincinnati […]

Our latest podcast is ready to download. This podcast features an interview with Gianna Clark,Managing Director of Six Sigma at Dominion, and our very own iSixSigma Blogger. Gianna has been blogging with iSixSigma since September, 2005. She has developed a continuous theme to her blog… the “nayisms”. In this podcast I talkwith Gianna abouther nayisms […]

The following is The Last Word from the March/April 2006 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, entitled “Getting Ahead in Business with Six Sigma.” Operational excellence does not come easy, whether in America’s heartland or on the streets of New York City. It takes leaders who are willing to make changes. Despite the breakthrough improvements made by […]

Some recent conversations with BBs and MBBs from other companies has given me pause regarding the leadership issue as it relates to Six Sigma. The frustration I hear from others, which I’ve also experienced, relates to the lack of continuity between word and deed. Not that it’s necessarily intentional, I mean surely executives don’t intend […]

Xerox is working with the Houston Public Library to improve services with Lean Six Sigma. As part of the Xerox Global Services consulting offering, they have deployed a team of Lean Six Sigma experts to search through library operations and find areas for improvement. “Lean Six Sigma is typically used by large enterprises to eliminate […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 23: I can’t put a production worker on a team.I need them out in the field working – not attending a meeting. Production quotas and productivity are frequently used as […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

As a tribute to St. Patrick’s Day here are a few examples of green Six Sigma projects. Now, I’m not talking about projects that have saved a lot of “green” but projects that are good for the environment.

Notes from the Deployment Front There are just three things leaders need to get right. First is to act like leaders. That is to say when you are involved in this be clear about your commitment. Any leader that talks about this and then talks about more important priorities is not a leader. People hear […]

A person trained in 6 Sigma is given a set of tools to solve problems. When you have been practising 6 Sigma for a while as I have (3 years as a Black Belt), the tools become part of your everyday life. In ‘Performance Based Leadership’ terms I have become unconsciously competent on the tools […]

Notes from the Deployment Front Sorry for the long delay in posting here. I’ve been working on taking a failed deployment and turning it around. It’s tedious work with a lot of sleepless nights trying to get a very successful company to understand how to become even better. The good news is that it’s going […]

When Jack and the lads (and ladies I’m sure) started putting together Six Sigma they got together in many rooms over many months and slowly designed an effective and data based project management and process control structure. For many years now it has worked effectively in businesses across the globe from manufacturing to finance and […]

According to an article in the Belvoir Eagle, the U.S. Army received orders this week to advance the implementation of Lean Six Sigma Army-wide. “‘This is the largest deployment of management science since the beginning of the science,’ said Mike Kirby, deputy undersecretary of the Army for business transformation. This position was created to oversee […]

There are 8 wastes associated with a Lean Six Sigma process that are vital to the success of the implementation. The 8 wastes are: over production, excessive processing, non-productive inventory, excessive motion, unnecessary transportation, non-standard work, waiting, and intellectual capital. Eliminating these 8 wastes will add more value to the processes, and increase customer satisfaction. […]

In the 4th century, the Roman emperor Constantine built the Hippodrome in what is now Istanbul, Turkey. The Hippodrome was the Daytona Super Speedway of chariot racing. An amazing example of architectural genius, the Hippodrome had 1/4 mile straight-aways andheld over 100 thousand spectators. Believe it or not, the facility even had luxury boxes and […]

This month, Surface Mount Technology (SMT) published an article written by Evelyn Baldwin, a sales manager for 3M Electronics. 3M has been taking Six Sigma to their customers for years and Evelyn’s knowledge of the subject shines through in this article, which reads like a perfect blog entry. She offers some solid advice for helping […]

Here is a very unique application of Six Sigma from Bank of America. Ray Bednar, BofA’s new sports sponsorship executive, will use the methodology to improve the banks sports sponsorship process: “Now Bednar says his job is to make sure the bank is getting the most out of its sports deals using ’Six Sigma’ techniques […]

Since my staff in my department is entirely composed of students I have many advantages and disadvantages when creating teams and working on projects.The advantages of a student staff include the high turnover rates and those who see their time with us as just another job to kill time and get a paycheck. Some of […]

Sometimes operational people from my organisation approach me with “the” 1000-Euro-question: “Six Sigma guy, can you please help me analyze this set of data.” Asking me to help, they usually have an issue they really can’t resolve themselves. Perceiving Lean Six Sigma too far away from daily operations they turn in despair to the Six […]

In a business process improvement project, a critical factor is documenting the standard work or the “least waste way.” One of the issues I have been dealing with recently is ensuring that documentation is in place and up to date. Unfortunately as the saying goes, “the only constant is change…” and as outside factors change […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

After spinning our wheels for the last two months, myself and the other two Continuous Improvement Specialists went out to lunch with the Plant Manager and the Engineering Director, both of whom are very experienced in manufacturing management, and both very well versed in lean manufacturing and continuous improvement methods. What they told us really […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 22: In lieu of an enterprise-wide Six Sigma deployment, let’s start with a couple of departments and see how it works. On the surface, this may seem like a reasonable […]

Lex Vehicle Leasing, one of the UK’s premier company car suppliers, published a press release today touting their fifth successive year of growth. Lex has been using the Six Sigma methodology for the past four years. They call it Q6 internally and it has produced substantial results: “Contributing to this outstanding year were £4 million […]

So here I am in the iSixSigma blogosphere. Let me tell you, it’s big in here! Thanks for dropping in, by the way. Much appreciated. An important note before we get going – If you’re looking for lengthy articles on the merits of DoE or my hypothesis on topics such as Lean Vs Six Sigma […]

For a sneak peak into the third annual iSixSigma Global Six Sigma Salary Survey, published in the March/April 2006 issue of iSixSigma Magazine, read today’s press release: No Change in Six Sigma Salaries Worldwide, Survey Shows; Certification Apparently Not a Factor.

A couple of MeadWestvaco’s Six Sigma Safety Projects are featured in Compliance Magazine’s 2006 Safety Industry Forecast. James E. Roughton, a Safety Health and Environmental Manager and Six Sigma Black Belt at MeadWestVaco shares several project examples in “Closing the Safety ‘Gap’ Through Six Sigma.” “Six Sigma projects at MeadWestVaco have already provided valuable learning. […]

The thing that sets apart “Great Leaders” from “Good Leaders” is the ability to care about others. Great Leaders do not have the luxury of acting on their fight or flight response mechanism. They must constantly be ready to fight at a moments notice, and how they choose to fight can mean the difference in […]

Six Sigma started in our department slowly.There were many factors that played into this, but mostly staffing issues: 1. I only have a staff of student employees (from 8-16 per year).2. This staff is in a constant state of change.3. Students come with various skills, many with no math or business or technical background.4. Knowledge […]

As a sophomore and junior in college I heard about Six Sigma in my statistical analysis class. I despised the class, but was intrigued by applying its principles to business practice. Outside of class I read a few articles online and even picked up Peter Pande’s “What Is Six Sigma?” I breezed through the easy […]

I was recently reading a book on John Locke (1632-1704), a British philosopher considered by many to be the primary intellectual inspiration of Thomas Jefferson. I thought I’d share what he had to say about new ideas and achieving agreement because the parallels to modern change management are uncanny considering this was written over 300 […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 21: If a Black Belt likes what he or she does, why rotate them back into the organization? Why not let Black Belt positions be permanent positions instead of just […]

SixSigmaCompanies.com celebrates its first birthday today. I made my first poston this day last year. To celebrate I’d like to pay tribute to the short list of Six Sigma blogs and podcasts out there. There are only a handful of good Six Sigma blogs outside the iSixSigma Blogosphere. My definition of “good” is, written by […]

We’re at it again. Our latest podcast is ready to download. This podcast features an interview with Steve Walter,Global Talent Director for Ingersoll Rand, andmight I dare say the Seinfeld of Six Sigma. He emceed the Six Sigma Excellence Awards in Miami last month and brought some serious laughter to the Six Sigma crowd. I […]

This blog entry is brief. This week I met and communicated with a new Lean Practitioner, Jon Miller, at Gemba.com. He has a great blog site at: http://www.gembapantarei.com/lean_government/ that is tracking Lean government initiatives around the world. This week he tracked activity in Scotland. There is documentation of initiatives in Iowa, US Dept of Commerce […]

Here is a Valentine’s Day Design of Experiments that is sure to make lovely conversation over dinner with your loved one. Written by Ravindra Khare, Three Romeos And A Juliet, is a story about the quest of three young men in search of the meaning behind the wink and the smile of a beautiful woman… […]

Benchmarking results consistently identify examples of Six Sigma success. Even so, getting “naysayers” on board is a continuous challenge. What do you tell them? Nayism 20: Why are black belts getting monetary rewards? The rest of us are working just as hard. Why should they be treated “special?” The topic of monetary incentives and rewards […]

The article Six Sigma, the Baxter Way at PharmaManufacturing.com features an interview with Allen Harmon, the director of operations at Baxter’s Biologics facility in Hayward, California. The question/answer session reveals details on how this Baxter facility is using Six Sigma and Lean in their operational excellence program. Noted in the interview, Harmon states that Baxter […]

Lean and Six Sigma applications are different between service industries and manufacturing industries. Is that statement really true? There is no straightforward answer. The answer is ambiguous. It can be: no, there is no difference. But it can be: they are the same to certain extend. The answer can also be: yes, the application is […]

Applying the Principles of Lean and Public Value to Reshape a Government Agency In the fall of 2003, the Maine Department of Labor began a tailored change initiative to fundamentally alter the culture and work of the agency. Combining time-tested “lean” principles from the manufacturing sector with the emerging public sector strategy of “public value,”* […]

Lean Six Sigma’s application to healthcare has been slow at best. One reason for this is that healthcare professionals view manufacturing as an industry that deals with the simple process of making inanimate objects. Healthcare, on the other hand, deals with complex processes that improve and prolong the functionality of the human anatomy. Consequently, healthcare […]

Have you ever been sitting in a meeting listening to a discussion on a topic and wondered if you were in some sort of parallel universe where real issues are always subordinate to the trifling matters of the moment? Or maybe sat through a strategy session which ultimately added no value because of turf struggles […]

  The business of higher education today is just that—a business. It focuses more today on the bottom line and it is important to stay on the competitive edge for all of its customers—from the students and their parents to the faculty, staff, and donors, as well. The business of education also has a greater […]

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2005 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights ReservedReproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

It’s that time of the year again. The time of year when we all do a reality check on the job market — or more specifically — on the salaries ofSix Sigma Black Belts, Master Black Belts, Champions and Deployment Leaders. With now being the time of year when yearly bonus checks are being distributed […]

We just released the second iSixSigma Magazine podcast. This episode reveals a few of our findings from the “Knowing the Customer” research in the January/February issue. Visit http://www.isixsigma-magazine.com/podcast/to download or subscribe to the iTunes feed for automatic updates.

Most healthcare organizations have experienced some type of quality improvement program in the past. Unfortunately, many of these programs are implemented with little thought, planning, or expectations for success. These programs have created cynicism among many organizational leaders, which have caused these leaders to dispute the value of other quality initiatives. However, it is not […]

Philosophy has been my passion since I completed an undergraduate degree in the subject 15 years ago. Thankfully I had other skills so I was able to avoid the “do you want to super-size that value meal” world many humanities majors nervously joke about as graduation approaches, but I didn’t have much of a plan […]

Rudolf Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, spoke to a large audienceof Six Sigma professionals on Wednesday, January 25 at the IQPC 7th Annual Six Sigma Summit in Miami, Florida. He gave the groupsound advice for developing leadership skills through six principles, each explained through stories from his own experiences. I’ve summarized a few […]