Cummins Attributes Q4 2009 Earnings to Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 8 February 2010 | 11:20 pm
Cummins Incorporated recently held an earnings conference call and they attribute their Q4 2009 earnings to Six Sigma.
We also continue to make heavy use of Six Sigma to drive quality improvements and lower our costs across the company. Our Six Sigma savings in 2009 were nearly $500 million well above our target and all our business units exceeded their goals for the year.
Read the full transcript of the conference call.
Filed under: Manufacturing, Cummins, Six Sigma
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How Lean Banking Goes
Posted by: meikah | 8 February 2010 | 9:17 pm
An article on iSixSigma shows what really goes on with Lean banking. That it is not always a single piece-flow process is true.
Filed under: Finance, iSixSigma, Lean, Six Sigma
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The SixSig Roundup
Posted by: meikah | 8 February 2010 | 7:54 pm
It’s time again for some link-loving and see what other blogs are saying about Six Sigma, Lean, Lean Six Sigma and other quality improvement processes.
The Business Organizational blog says that Six Sigma is important in business because it takes values much higher than other techniques to improve quality, such as TQM. Read on…
Over at Sigma blog, there is a good discussion about Six Sigma assessment. The assessment of Six Sigma is necessary, especially if new attempts by companies to improve the plans show that the trip will belong and difficult. Read on…
Recruitment blog discusses Six Sigma projects in the Human Resources department. The article says that the HR department is suited for Six Sigma projects: on implementation of a project in the HR activities and the involvement of the HR department in carrying out some of the activities in the execution of Six Sigma project at the organizational level. Read on…
Pharma Business Intelligence blog asks this question about what is happening at Toyota these days: did Six Sigma fail or did people fail? The article is saying that processes don’t produce results, people do. It takes people to engage in a process – for better or for worse – to produce something. Read on…
The Scratching Post blog features a Lean Six Sigma movie. It is about convincing management to go into Lean Six Sigma. It’s an interesting one, actually. View the movie here.
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Human Resource, Six Sigma, Business Improvement
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What Caused Toyota’s Troubles?
Posted by: meikah | 3 February 2010 | 9:10 pm
Some say Toyota’s troubles started with fixation on growth. The company wanted to outgrow the competition as fast as possible.
Read a good discussion about it here: Toyota’s Troubles Started with Fixation on Growth
To be fair to Toyota, I believe the company worked with the best intentions. They were leading for years, and they wanted to see how far they could go. I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s a risk. But they were willing to take it.
And knowing Toyota, I know they will learn from this and come out whole. 
Filed under: Toyota, Quality, Six Sigma
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iSixSigma’s Best Place to Work: Starwood Hotels and Resorts
Posted by: meikah | 3 February 2010 | 8:53 pm
In the recently concluded iSixSigma Live! Summit, Starwood Hotels and Resorts landed on the No. 1 spot of iSixSigma’s Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals.
Jessica Harper, editor of iSixSigma, who presented the award to Brian McGuire, senior director of Hotel Operations and Six Sigma for Starwood’s North America Division said, “Starwood’s commitment to providing challenging cross-departmental opportunities for continuous improvement personnel, along with its policy of promoting Black Belts from within, truly makes it one of the premier companies for Six Sigma practitioners.”
On the Top 10 list are:
- Starwood Hotels and Resorts (North America Division)
- McKesson Corp.
- Xerox Corp.
- Ecolab Inc.
- Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.
- Pfizer Inc.
- Merck & Co. Inc.
- Piramal Healthcare Ltd.
- Cardinal Health Inc.
- Computacenter AG & Co. oHG
Filed under: iSixSigma, Hotels, Six Sigma
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iSixSigma Lists the Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Programs and Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects
Posted by: meikah | 3 February 2010 | 8:41 pm
In a press release, iSixSigma congratulates the winner of the Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Programs and Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects.
They are:
Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up Program
Winner: EMCON Technologies
Finalists: Akron Children’s Hospital; Erie County Government of New York State; U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) G-3/5/7 Distributed Learning DirectorateMost Successful Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program
Winner: Hertel
Finalist: Department of the Army, Program Executive Office (PEO), Missiles and SpaceLargest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects
Customer Service Winner: Sutherland Global Services – “Reduction of Critical Error Rate”
Finalists: Betfair; Sutherland Global Services; U.S. Army Test and Evaluation CommandSupply Chain Winner: Vought Aircraft Industries – “C-17 Lead Time Reduction”
Finalists: General Electric Co., ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
Transactional Winner: Sutherland Global Services – “Reduction in Abandonment Rate %”
Finalists: Sutherland Global Services; Syntel Inc.
Manufacturing Honorable Mention: U.S. Navy, Naval Surface Warfare Center – “Submarine Valve Regulated Lead Acid Battery DMAIC Project”
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma
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Medco Incorporated Six Sigma Into their Business Model
Posted by: meikah | 1 February 2010 | 9:55 pm
The Wall Street Transcript features the interview with David B. Snow, Jr. CEO And Chairman Of The Board Of MedcoHealth Solutions (MHS).
A part of the transcript says:
TWST: How has your business model changed since the 1980s to expand and cover the increased scope of products and services you offer?
Mr. Snow: It really couldn’t be more different, it would be like comparing a biplane to the space shuttle. We started in the 1980s as a claims processor for pharmacy claims and management of pharmacy benefits. Later we created and then perfected mail-order pharmacy, using proprietary robotics in tandem with technologies guided by six sigma disciplines that set a new standard for dispensing accuracy - and in pharmacy that means greater patient safety. That technology and innovation liberated our pharmacists to focus on patients. Our clinical model revolves around pharmacists who are specialized by therapeutic condition to counsel patients and coordinate care, computer-assisted, evidence-based protocols to identify gaps in care that should be closed, and tools and incentives that encourage members to make better choices, and make it easier for them to follow their doctors’ instructions. We are also taking a leadership role in the exciting field of personalized medicine. That’s where doctors are guided by a patient’s unique genetic profile to select the right medicine at the right dose, optimized for that individual.
Filed under: Six Sigma, MedcoHealth Solutions
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Six Sigma for Hardware Inventory at IBM
Posted by: meikah | 1 February 2010 | 8:46 pm
Technology is in a roll these days. A newly launched product today is obsolete the next day. So manufacturing companies of technology products often deal with inventory.
IBM serves a global market and thus you can imagine how they manage the supply chain and inventory. Due to fast depreciation in technology products, machines go to the inventory are not worth as much as they age. So, IBM conducted a Six Sigma project to reduce their hardware inventory.
The steps:
- determine the issue
- perform a root cause analysis
- find the solution
- establishing the results of the project
- learn from the whole process
Filed under: Inventory, Technology, IBM, Six Sigma, Supply Chain
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Achieving ROI with Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 1 February 2010 | 7:48 pm
Six Sigma Zone shares a presentation by Abbott on how the company achieved a return of investment (ROI) through Lean Six Sigma.
One of the insights in the presentation is:
For most production operations, only a small fraction of the total time and effort actually adds value for the end customer.
By clearly defining “value” for a specific product or service from the end customer’s perspective, all the non-value activities — or waste — can be targeted for removal step by step.
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, ROI, Abbott Labs
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Lean at the Operating Room
Posted by: meikah | 27 January 2010 | 9:09 pm
Lean has been associated with manufacturing and its use in the factory floor. But people discover that Lean can also be used in the service industry.
An article on iSixSigma Healthcare shows us how Lean can be used in the operating room, for example. Here’s an excerpt of the article.
Recently one healthcare organization had a goal to decrease its turnover time in the operating room. The use of Lean tools eliminated waste, idle time and efforts that added no value from the patients’ or physicians’ perspective. Additionally, visual indicators were put in place to help reduce errors and rework. The team for this project was able to immediately reduce the turnover time by 50 percent – with minimal investment and without any changes to the hospital or departmental IT systems.
Lean Tools Have Healthcare Applications
In a Lean organization, processes and value streams associated with services, products and patient care are continually evaluated for waste. Such waste is then attacked with a vengeance using a number of industry-proven tools, such as:
- Pull systems and “flow” to improve throughput in areas such as labs and other places with paperwork-intensive processes.
- SMED techniques applied to changeover time improvements in operating rooms. (SMED comes from the manufacturing industry and stands for “single minute exchange of die.”)
- Poka-Yoke, aimed at reducing the opportunity for errors and omissions.
- 5-S, used to rearrange/reorganize nursing stations and other healthcare workplaces for greater efficiency.
