Articles

nurse caring for patient

As Six Sigma Heals Healthcare, We Must Keep Patient Care in First Place

Six Sigma continues to inject health into the healthcare system. More than ever, hospitals are seeing the need to engage with a Six Sigma program. These programs are providing significant improvements in quality and reductions in operating costs. Of course, the best results from a healthcare perspective have been improvements in patient satisfaction. The problem […]

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Six Sigma - Manufacturing Sector DFSS

The Lean Six Sigma Influence in Manufacturing

The influence of Lean and Six Sigma continues be show robust growth and influence across all segments of the manufacturing sector during 2015. According to a recent industry survey, 71% of the participants are utilizing the 5S methodology, which is the highest rate reported in five years. The significance of these results cannot be overstated, […]

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army lean six sigma

Go Army! Earns 10 Lean Six Sigma Excellence Awards

Nothing could speak higher of a nation or a process like this achievement! Ten units of the US Army earned awards for excellence in Lean Six Sigma programs. The units were recognized for excellence in streamlining business operations and saving the service millions of dollars. You may ask yourself why the Army even needs Six […]

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LEAN Day at the Hospital

A LEAN Day at the Hospital

A dozen people gather for their early morning meeting. The noise of the hustle and bustle of the normal hospital operations fade as the door closes and they settle in to the task at hand. The gathered group represents all specialties of service within the hospital (nurses, nursing assistants, housekeepers, and maintenance and support staff). […]

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Six Sigma Training - Benefit for Sales and Marketing

Can Your Sales and Marketing Benefit from Six Sigma?

The benefits of Lean and Six Sigma are well established across most business platforms. Six Sigma is a methodology used to improve business processes by utilizing statistical analysis rather than guesswork. This proven approach has been implemented within a myriad of industries to achieve hard and soft money savings, while increasing customer satisfaction. While Six […]

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Value of Lean Six Sigma in Manufacturing

What is the Value of Lean Six Sigma in Manufacturing?

Do we really understand the value of these two methodologies? Two methodologies? Really? Yes, Lean and Six Sigma are two separate methodologies. They are commonly combined in discussion, and the roles are not clearly differentiated. Each methodology has tremendous value alone, but combined, they can be a powerful tool in any business setting. Let’s talk […]

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Lean Six Sigma Healthcare

Is Lean Six Sigma Changing Healthcare?

At one point about 20 years ago, there were no books, conferences or curriculum dedicated to Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare. Now, the tools abound and seem to be flourishing. We are now seeing that the methodology is alive and well in healthcare, which is a significant change from when it was first introduced two […]

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Lean Six Sigma: Strengthen Your Business with Confidence

How long have you been trying to find a way to improve the processes that you use to operate your business? As a CEO, you have been trying to eliminate the non-value added work, which wastes time and productivity. You thought you found a solution and “fixed” a problem or process, just to find you […]

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Five Reasons to Implement Kaizen in Non-Manufacturing

Kaizen is a proven performance improvement tool. Adopted from modern Japanese manufacturers, like Toyota, Kaizen generates breakthrough improvements quickly, without huge capital investments and/or extensive commitments of employ time. Kaizen is an efficient, effective technique for producing change in manufacturing operations. Kaizen improves performance in non-manufacturing situations as well. Ideal for a wide variety of […]

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Promising Careers in Lean Six Sigma

If you’re looking for a job – any job – in the Six Sigma field, stop and look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a career – a real Six Sigma career – then by all means aim high! When you do find a position that will enable you to apply Lean Six Sigma principles and be part of […]

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Kaizen Events: Are They Any Good for the Non-manufacturing Sector?

Kaizen is a Japanese management tradition that roughly translates to ‘becoming better through change’. It’s a management philosophy that believes in continuous vigilance regarding all the aspects of a production system, and making changes based on this observation so that the system always remains at the peak of its productive efficiency. And one most effective […]

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Map Your Value Stream: Cut out Waste Visually

Value Stream Mapping is a visual imaging technique developed by the Toyota version of Lean Manufacturing. It is a paper and pencil tool that helps to visualize and figure out the flow of materials and information as a product or service courses through the value stream. It helps to understand and improve work processes using […]

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Good Housekeeping with 5S Implementation

If your business needs a good house cleaning, then consider 5S Implementation. This Lean Office concept originated in Japan and is a method by which a business can get organized and stay organized. The 5S’s are: Seiri – this is a general sorting of the business processes, throwing away what does not work and keeping what […]

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What is Six Sigma Deployment

In the implementation of Six Sigma, an effective infrastructure lays the foundation for success. An effective infrastructure for your Six Sigma or Lean Flow change initiative in an organization requires a clear strategy and comprehensive planning. Strategizing and Planning The planning stage of a Six Sigma deployment is where you can gain valuable traction. A […]

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Shedding off the Fat

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 […]

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Military Order of the Day: Transformation

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 […]

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How the Public Sector Benefits from Lean Six Sigma

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 […]

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Benefits of a Lean Office: Is it for you?

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 […]

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Bringing Toyota Close to Home

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 […]

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Design for Six Sigma

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 […]

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