Root Cause Analysis is an invaluable skill to have in your Six Sigma toolkit. But how do we use Root Cause Analysis to the best effect? What tool is most helpful for this task? That would be the Decision Tree. This method involves branching between causes and outcomes to illustrate the consequences of your choices. […]
Complacency is an epidemic. It kills productivity and can negatively affect your performance. Studies have shown that complacency comes from a lack of engagement, and affects up to 70% of the US working population. This means around three-quarters of American employees are not fully committed to their everyday workplace tasks! As an employer, this should […]
Six Sigma, Kaizen, and Lean. You might have heard of them. People throw these terms around a lot nowadays, often interchangeably. But what do they mean? What makes them different? And are they so similar? Remember, each tool solves specific, specialized problems. This article will help you get to the bottom of this mystery so you […]
Is your company using Six Sigma to improve efficiency, eliminate waste, and minimize variation? Six Sigma has been a proven success for many businesses around the world dealing with similar problems. But where do these issues come from? How do they arise? And most importantly why? Six Sigma DMAIC teaches you to Define, Measure, Analyze, […]
This article is the third in our three-part series to help you achieve the best results using Six Sigma. You can read the previous two articles here. Now, go! You’ve made your plans and assembled your team, but what comes next is not always as easy (or as difficult!) as it may first appear. The […]
Introduction With technological advancements and innovation in business processes, there came Six Sigma a systematic methodology to defeat defects and failures. Six Sigma is described as an engineering approach to minimize defects, counter failures and minimize waste in production system. It comprehensively deals flaws of a service system. Starting from automotive industry, Six Sigma entered […]
If we are to understand the basics of Lean process improvement let’s start with a review of the definition of Lean. We can define Lean as a system for developing process improvement that is continuous and has a focus on reducing and eliminating waste. Toyota developed the concept to help with their production operation and […]
If you’re ready to improve your business’ performance, it’s hard not to recommend TQM. However, if you’re unfamiliar with this business methodology, the following will help. What Is TQM? Let’s cover the basics quickly. TQM stands for total quality management. This structured approach offers a comprehensive method for organizational management that focuses on improving the […]
Are you prepared to advocate and fully support Lean Six Sigma? If yes, how do you know? If no, how you reach that stage? These questions can be tiresome and their answers difficult to pin down. We’re here to make things easy for you. Today we will help you get ready for Lean Six Sigma (or recognize […]
We look now at the Lean method of Value Stream Mapping (VSM). This is a method where you analyze a current state and design a future state where you look at events from the very beginning of the process to the very end with delivery to the customer. This can involve a product or service. […]
This article is the second in our three-part series to help you achieve the best results using Six Sigma. You can read the whole article series here. Now, get set… Our three-part guide will act as the perfect primer on all the important Six Sigma project facts. Today we discuss how to assemble and prepare […]
This article is the first in our three-part series to help you achieve the best results using Six Sigma. Today we focus on planning a successful Six Sigma project. You can read parts 2 and 3 here. Now, on your marks . . . If you’re new to Six Sigma, or just want to […]
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy that strives to achieve the best possible results by centering all business activities and processes on customer satisfaction. Proper TQM implementation involves constant improvement and all members of the particular organization and expected to take part in the process. The main idea behind this approach is that […]
When talking about big business in the context of efficiency, people’s minds often jump to economies of scale. But those are only attainable after all processes have been truly optimized. Unfortunately, the larger the scale, the more managerial manpower a company needs to make sure things run smoothly and margins stay as large as possible. […]
Companies think of growth as an end in itself. Rather growth should be a mean towards a larger goal: that of serving the society. With such a noble goal in mind how can companies ignore the slice of society that works for them – their employees? Advocators of change harp on the bliss of information […]
When people that don’t fully grasp process optimization systems think about the topic, they often mistakenly pay the most attention to cutting out the unneeded parts. Obviously this is a gross oversimplification, when it comes to methodologies like Lean Six Sigma, and it places the emphasis on the wrong indicator. The most important goal of […]
This article is the fourth part in our series on the principles of Six Sigma, focusing on Improve within the DMAIC framework. You can find the rest of our series here. Day four now sees us approaching the end of our DMAIC in focus series. Today, we will be looking at how to improve ourselves, and our projects, […]
What makes us love our jobs? For the amount of time we spend at work and actually doing our job, it really does make it easier if we were to love what we do. In a Gallup report performed in 2013, State of the American Workplace, only 30% out of 150,000 full and part-time employees surveyed said […]
Peter F Drucker, the father of modern management said, ‘‘everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that is like death and taxes. It should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are […]
Companies think of growth as an end in itself. Rather growth should be a mean towards a larger goal: that of serving the society. With such a noble goal in mind how can companies ignore the slice of society that works for them – their employees? Advocators of change harp on the bliss of information […]
