What’s good for the geese is good for the gander. Or better, what’s good for the private sector is good for the public sector. Our Six Sigma focus now turns to the United States Army. The generals have reason to be proud. That pride is expressed in US dollars. How does a savings of $110 million in 2005 sound? In […]
Even the powerful need to lose some fat. Close to two years ago, a report was published online about an award that was given at Hanscom Air Force Base to a Mr. Harvey Dershin, Vice President of Aon/Rath & Strong. Presenting the award was Major General Arthur J. Rooney, Vice Commander of the Electronic Systems Center […]
We’ll clarify that: it’s transformation through Lean Six Sigma (LSS). No less than the Secretary of the US Navy has initiated a three-year LSS action plan. This piece of news comes straight from the Pentagon and was published today, May 8, 2008. Serving as a backdrop to this initiative, we have: Fact # 1: the US Navy […]
Taking a Peek into the Public Sector One might be tempted to ask, “Does the public sector really need to integrate Lean Six Sigma into their training requirements considering that they’re a non-profit service-oriented outfit?” While that’s a legitimate question, a more appropriate question should be, “How can the public sector use Lean Six Sigma […]
Lean is no longer the propriety process and quality management mantra for manufacturing units. The success of Lean management in manufacturing units was bound to percolate to non-manufacturing processes sooner or later. Needless to add, success stories about Lean Office abound with many organizations proactively adapting this technique to cut down wastage (also referred to […]
Your company need not be in the automotive industry to benefit from the principles of the Toyota Production System. Whether you’re running a critical care unit, overseeing cross-country trucking operations or opening an art school, you can learn valuable lessons from the Toyota Production System. We’ll apply TPS in certain situations to bring some principles into […]
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is the application of Six Sigma principles to the design of products and their manufacturing and support processes. Whereas Six Sigma by definition focuses on the production phase of a product, DFSS focuses on research, design, and development phases. DFSS combines many of the tools that are used to improve […]
5s is another well known business process management principles and quality control certification and has got extensive support in the manufacturing sector. 5S works mostly towards removal of wasteful processes and products within an organization, and has been derived from the Japanese words seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. 5S has also found a lot […]
Six-Sigma provides a methodical, disciplined, quantitative approach to continuous process improvement. Through applying statistical thinking, Six Sigma uncovers the nature of business variation and its affect on waste, operating cost, cycle time, profitability, and customer satisfaction. The term “Six Sigma” is defined as a statistical measure of quality, specifically, a level of 3.4 defects per […]
Piggly Wiggly…muri…mura…muda… No, they’re not your typical cheerleading blurbs, although with Toyota hugging the limelight these days as one of the world’s major car producers with stellar growth rates and “can’t-be-beat” performance, everyone might as well be cheerleading for the Japanese auto maker. The praises are richly deserved. The story began when Toyota owners visited […]
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a proven tool. Well suited for a broad range of industries and processes, VSM is ideal for creating positive organizational changes, developing efficient future states, and producing system-wide benefits in cost, quality, and flexibility. In short, it helps eliminate waste. But like any tool, VSM must be applied properly. That […]
Introduction You browse through a handful of Six Sigma books hoping to find a definition for leadership. Chances are you’d be hard pressed to find one unifying definition. Instead, you’ll get a garden variety of definitions that will help you zero in on the true essence of leadership. Given evolving business and manufacturing trends and […]
Lean Six Sigma combines the quality improvements that come from using Six Sigma with the speed improvements that come from using Lean manufacturing principles. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. Lean manufacturing focuses on improving the speed […]
The key to efficiency in any business or organization is its processes. By processes, we mean the steps and actions that must occur for a particular outcome to be achieved. When those processes go wrong, occur too slowly, or simply don’t work, the business or organization does not succeed. Just as processes are the heart […]
Lean enterprise and business process improvement, business optimization, cost cutting TQM, quality, Six Sigma, business reengineering and other such-like initiatives, falls within the cadre of business process management. It forms the cradle, feeding ground and impetus for making sense of, improving and capitalizing on the intricacies, dynamic elements and events that occur in our planning, […]
Business Process Management argues that management by common sense cannot be exemplified as management at all!! Analysis and objective study tends to bring balance to this equation, as well as our business practice and endeavor. Both BPM and Six Sigma deals with the dynamics of systematic, data-based experience and information, assisting us in our execution […]
Business corporations are now facing one of the most competitive eras ever. With globalization and technology, businesses need to identify various areas for improvement in order to stay relevant. Although increasing revenue and profits year on year are essential, rising costs and escalating customer demands have developed a need for corporations to improve internal processes, […]
The concept of Six Sigma was first developed by Motorola Corporation as an approach to address the high defect rates within the company’s manufacturing processes. With the success of Six Sigma, Motorola has registered the Six Sigma brand name to the corporation. The concept of Six Sigma advocates that data be collected from processes to […]
Companies are just discovering the benefits of combining BPM and Six Sigma. Ideal for enhancing the long-term performance of business processes, the BPM/Six Sigma union helps companies better characterize, understand, and manage entire value chains. It also helps companies improve control and predictability of corporate business processes and generate sustainable enterprise improvements in performance levels. […]
Business Processes are a group of activities which are recurring in nature and contribute significantly to the growth and development of the business. Managing these activities efficiently so that maximum business benefit can be captured is better known as Business Process Management. If you think that Business Process Management deals with mundane tasks, you are […]
