Are you accomplishing your goals for your team? Have you designed an organizational structure with unnecessary competition and red tape? If you feel like your wheels are spinning fast, but you are still moving in slow motion then take time to consider what you can do to breakthrough and encourage technical service excellence.
[Audio clip: view [...]
When evaluating your current enterprise strategies, do you consider your custom product more of a hassle than a goldmine? Are you have trouble going from maybe on time to just in time? Stay the course and consider the inherent value that your made to order products deliver to your customers?
In the midst of economic opportunities, [...]
Breaking News! John Traveler of EightHourJourney.com wants you to travel light. He’s giving away an Apple Macbook Air!
Don’t miss out on your opportunity to win this ultra-light, super-sleek Apple laptop. I’m entered to win. . .Are you entered?
Well, you have no time to waste - Contest ends June 30th, 2009 at Midnight EST
Winner will be announced July [...]
Sharing online can be the source of tremendous rewards for many businesses and organizations. A blog is an excellent way to connect with people outside your facility, location, department, or division. Whether you decide to share via the internet or intranet, there is no better way to chisel away the walls of communication.
Here are four [...]
If you are following me on Twitter, you might remember that Monday I sent out a series of tweets expressing why I feel the term “efficient” is often misused and abused in regard to business process performance.
This morning the most recent entry in my Lean Six Sigma news feed was the following Spokesman Review story:
City adds job [...]
Are struggling to figure out how Twitter fits into your business model? Have you read or heard that twittering is good for your business, but you are frustrated because you are not getting the results you want?
Well, if you have had this experience I would invite you to reflect back on the reason why you joined Twitter.
Why [...]
As a change agent, we lead groups of cross functional teams from all levels of the organization. Soft skills training is invaluable to effective leadership. This training will enable you to direct the change adoption process. For every change there is usually some form of resistance. CAVE dweller will seem to be lurking in the shadows [...]
If your company is planning to start a Six Sigma or Lean project for business process improvement, chances are that some form of process maps will need to be created. And a crucial variable leading to the success or failure of the team involved in that effort is the effectiveness of the team facilitator.
What if [...]
Process Mapping
as a tool for creating business success has been around in one form or another for quite a long time. The earliest forms of flowcharts were developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s as part of industrial engineering. Since then, highly sophisticated Process Mapping tools and techniques have been developed. Helping to drive the development [...]
A Process Flow Chart
is a visual diagram describing a process, and it is one of the oldest process improvement tools still in general use. As such, it sounds simple but can be more challenging than you might think to create one.
The Process Flow Chart shows inputs, outputs, and all activities in between. The chart must [...]
Process Capability
is a measure of how well your process performs — that is, the proportion of in-specification items that is produced by the process — when it is in statistical control.
Note that this is not a measure of your process’s actual current performance on producing items in-spec. (That’s batch performance.) It is possible that your [...]
Q: When you start a project of business process improvement, what’s one of your most useful and versatile tools?
A: Value Stream Mapping.
Value Stream Mapping
is a tool of Lean Thinking which enables you to identify the activities of a business process and their associated costs. VSM is a great way to create and communicate process changes, [...]
The Fishbone Diagram
, also called the Ishikawa Diagram, was developed by quality management pioneer Kaoru Ishikawa. It is also sometimes referred to as the Cause-&-Effect Diagram — because that’s what it focuses on.
This is a tool used in brainstorming sessions during a Lean Six Sigma project. It can be used in either the Analyze or [...]
How is Lean Management distinct from Lean Manufacturing and Lean Office? If you have Lean Manufacturing, don’t you automatically have Lean Management? If Lean is all about cutting out wasted time, then shouldn’t Lean Managers act quickly and decisively? The faster a decision, the better — and more Lean — it must be, right?
Well, not [...]
Okay, you get the whole Lean Manufacturing thing. But what the heck is Lean Office?
The Lean Office Concept
Lean Manufacturing is starting to make sense to you. Though a part of you really wants to hang onto that safety margin of inventory “just in case,” your data-driven brain accepts that Inventory Equals Waste. Fine. You understand [...]
What is Lean Manufacturing all about? (We’ll get to the closet later.)
Lean Manufacturing
is one of several related terms that describe similar systems. Just-In-Time, World Class Manufacturing, Stockless Production, and Demand Flow Technology are a few of these other terms. Broadly, all of these concepts focus on doing the bare minimum necessary to produce the product [...]
Have you ever wondered what exactly a Master Black Belt does? And how that differs from what a regular Six Sigma Black Belt does?
I’ve got a really simple visual here to help make it clear:
Think Yoda.
Master Black Belt vs Master Yoda
The Six Sigma Master Black Belt trains Black Belts. Often, he or she selects candidates [...]
The Value of Lean Thinking
What does the “Lean” in “Lean Six Sigma” stand for? And what is “Lean Thinking”?
Both Lean and Six Sigma have their roots in manufacturing process improvement. Over the past decade or so, they have been integrated into a combined approach that has been applied to the full range of business processes, [...]
Lean and Six Sigma
Most people in business today have heard the term “Six Sigma.” Over the past few years, though, we’ve also begun to see the term “Lean Six Sigma.” You may be wondering, “What exactly is Lean Six Sigma? Is it different from “regular” Six Sigma?”
Originally, Lean and Six Sigma were seen as competing [...]
The biggest issue that causes a stir in the lean six sigma world is CULTURE. How to develop the culture and manage the change to new lean initiatives. Sustaining improvements and avoiding the flavor of the month syndrome has been the topic of books, seminars, and forum discussions around the world. As Lean Six Sigma [...]
