Tag Archives: Six sigma

Management Improvement Carnival #33

Posted on April 15, 2008 by John Hunter

Shaun Sayers is hosting Management Improvement Carnival #33 on the Capable blog, some of the highlights include Lean and six sigma at Amazon (by Peter Abilla) a tiny peek inside the quality philosophy of this highly successful but intensely secretive corporate beast Thinking outside the wooden pallet (by Mark Wroblewski) a critical examination of the role traditional materials management methods on efficiency and work flow Lean six sigma for health care (by Sue Kozlowski) a short and timely guide to … Continue reading →

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Lean Six Sigma Case Studies

Posted on February 27, 2008 by John Hunter

ValuMetrix Services provides some really nice lean six sigma case studies. Simple short but still with enough detail to actually provide some sense of what is going on. While on the topic of online case studies let me plug the Curious Cat management improvement library. I think it is one of the more valuable resources for management improvement offered on the Curious Cat sites. Library shelves: health care articles, lean manufacturing articles, six sigma articles, newly added articles… via: Daily … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Six Sigma Outdated? No.

Posted on June 1, 2007 by John Hunter

Here is another of those articles that promotes the idea that oversimplifies six sigma and then declares that mindset is outdated because innovation is needed nowadays – Six Sigma: So Yesterday? [the link Business Week broke was removed]. The discipline was developed as a systematic way to improve quality, but the reason it caught fire was its effectiveness in cutting costs and improving profitability. That makes it a powerful tool—if those are a company’s goals. But as innovation becomes the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Six sigma | Tagged | 1 Comment

Six Sigma at Cummins

Posted on May 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Six Sigma winning supply-chain converts [the broken link was removed] “More and more of our decisions are made after data is collected and analysis done. It’s less of a gut feel and more data-based.” On any given day, Cummins has 2,500 active Six Sigma projects involving 10,000 of its 34,000 employees, Strodtbeck said. Next year, senior managers at Cummins will be required to have Six Sigma certification before they can switch jobs or be promoted. “Six Sigma is headed toward … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged | 1 Comment

Six Sigma City Government

Posted on February 28, 2007 by John Hunter

A recent report from the Brookings Institution, Reconnecting Massachusetts Gateway Cities [the broken link was removed], has some good words on the efforts of Fort Wayne, Indiana: In a short time, the city reduced water main replacement costs by 18 percent, cut pothole response time by 86 percent, and slashed the waiting time for building permits from 51 days to 12 days. And because the Six Sigma process permeates all functions of the city’s government, these productivity enhancements have piled … Continue reading →

Posted in Public Sector, Six sigma | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Lean Six Sigma Efforts

Posted on February 10, 2007 by John Hunter

Lean/Six Sigma: The quest for efficiency in manufacturing [the broken link was removed]: After years of working with lean and Six Sigma principles, many companies realize that, to continue improving, they need to get suppliers and even customers involved — such as happened with Toyota. Good idea, but there is no good reason a six sigma effort didn’t do that from the start. Rather than laying off factory staff as processes have become more efficient, the firm has expanded its … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

3M CEO on Six Sigma

Posted on February 8, 2007 by John Hunter

3M in building spree to end capacity constraints 3M should complete the first of an 18-factory build-out in the third quarter, said its chief executive late Tuesday, as it makes up for years of underinvestment on the factory floor – even in its well-known household products. “Our major challenge will be getting all these plants launched,” said 3M CEO George Buckley at a Lehman Brothers conference. Buckley, who joined the St. Paul, Minn. company just over a year ago, has … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Manufacturing, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Investing in Six Sigma

Posted on November 5, 2006 by John Hunter

Bank of America: Investing in Six Sigma [the broken link was removed] by Thomas Hoffman: To help the bank’s IT organization align more strategically with its businesses, Desoer has challenged her IT staff to learn more about the bank’s external customers and their needs. “The voice of the customer is what you start with when you embark on a Six Sigma piece of work,” she says. I think in reality there are several things needed at the starting block but … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Six sigma, Software Development | Tagged ,

Army Lean Six Sigma

Posted on July 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Six Sigma eases fiscal constraint challenges [the broken link was removed] by Beth Reece, Army News Service: During fiscal 2005, the Army Material Command saw $110 million in savings and cost avoidance by implementing Lean Six Sigma practices. By removing waste and better controlling output, for example, Letterkenny Army Depot, Pa., reduced costs by $11.9 million in Patriot air defense missile system recapitalization. And Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark., reduced repair cycle time by 90 percent and increased its production … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Public Sector, Six sigma | Tagged , , ,

Six Sigma Theory?

Posted on July 2, 2006 by John Hunter

Can we develop theory around Six Sigma? Should we care? [the broken link was removed] by Suzanne de Treville, Norman M. Edelson, Anilkumar N. Kharkar and Benjamin Avanzi. An interesting paper exploring what six sigma means and what it mean that what it means depends on who you ask. The ideas explored provide good information for most management improvement programs as most share common tools and concepts but vary significantly between implementations. Why examine the question of six sigma theory? … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged

Lean Beyond the Factory Floor

Posted on June 7, 2006 by John Hunter

Spreading the lean tonic [the broken link was removed]: One problem, says Michele Bonfiglioli, chief executive of Italian manufacturing consultancy firm Bonfiglioli Consulting, is that many manufacturers have a ‘blind spot’ when it comes to understanding just how non-lean and inefficient their administrative functions are. “Manufacturing is full of metrics: takt times, OEE and a host of others – but no one measures what goes on in the offices,” he observes. The focus on the whole organization is increasing moving … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , ,

Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines

Posted on June 3, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean, mean, Six Sigma machines [the broken link was removed] by Tam Harbert: Without exception, each company is healthier now than it was five years ago. Three of them have turned profitable, and the fourth – Celestica – is close to turning the corner… The question is how much credit for their progress goes to Lean Six [Sigma]. Yes that is indeed a good question. What management claims as the reason for results is not necessarily actually the reason (and … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged ,

Six Sigma and Process Drift

Posted on May 8, 2006 by John Hunter

Quality Quandaries: Six Sigma, Process Drift, Capability Indices, and Feedback Adjustment by George Box and Alberto Luceno. This article is for the more statistically inclined. The Six Sigma specification makes an allowance of 1.5 standard deviations for process drift. Simple ways in which a major part of such drift can be removed are given. These employ feedback adjustment methods specifically designed for SPC applications. Feedback adjustment can be dangerous: tampering. In fact, I would say attempting it is likely to … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , ,

Seduce Them With Six Sigma Success

Posted on April 6, 2006 by John Hunter

Seduce Them With Success [the broken link was removed – sadly ASQ continues to increase their impeding of the access to material on quality management, in direct conflict with their professed mission] by Jay Arthur: Instead the change agents are going around talking to operational managers, learning their problems and offering to help solve them. Then, using the tools of Six Sigma, they find remarkable, unexpected solutions that reduce costs and increase speed and profitability. Oddly enough, the people on … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged

Using Design of Experiments

Posted on March 17, 2006 by John Hunter

How to Institute DOE in Your Company (link broken – removed) by Davis Balestracci: DOE works, but I don’t need to sell that to the readers of this newsletter. But as certain as we all are, no one can deny that design of experiments faces resistance even in environments where it is a proven tool. Every research scientist or engineer who has had a major success from DOE can tell you story after story of how management still wanted problems … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Quality tools, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Six Sigma Won’t Fix Bad Management?

Posted on March 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Re: Six Sigma won’t cure bad management [the broken link was removed 🙁 ] I believe Six Sigma can be an effective management improvement strategy. It is not the most effective, in my opinion, but still effective. In my opinion, if Six Sigma isn’t making a significant impact on fixing bad management then it isn’t a very effective six sigma effort. Like most management concepts how it is applied varies tremendously. If one just uses some tools that are part … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Six sigma | Tagged | 5 Comments