Who was the first Lean Six Sigma practitioner in history ? My vote goes to Adam Smith in 1776. Adam Smith owned a factory in Scotland that made pins. He introduced ‘Division of Labor’ in his pin factory in 1770 and developed a ‘work cell’ process that involved 10 separate workers in 18 separate activities.He documented the process flow and recognised the …
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I was recently asked about my opinion of a new process improvement concept called ‘Customer Experience Management’ or CEM. This has been promoted in the last couple of years as the next step in the ‘evolution’ of Business Process Improvement in the light of the rapidly changing way the customers make choices and interact with …
Yokoten is a Japanese term that can be roughly translated as “across everywhere.” In a Lean company it is used to mean “best practice sharing”. This is an essential tool for implementation of the Lean principle of Standardized Work. This is sometime called ‘The One Best Way’ to do an activity or task, and it …
‘What is Hypothesis Testing ?’ in less than 500 words
Someone recently challenged me to write the short version to the question ‘What is Hypothesis Testing ?’ so it can be used by someone in a practical way. Don’t get too caught up in the definition of the word ‘Hypothesis’ … I think we all know a Hypothesis when we see one ! It is …
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Viewsonics go #EXTREMESIXSIGMA crazy with their new monitors. Zero defective pixels allowed out of a total of 4 million / monitor. Their website explains how each of their 18″ SXGA LCD monitors that they produce has nearly 4 million sub-pixels. Their return ( warranty ) policy will allow you to return a monitor in the first …
Thoughts on ISO 13053 standard for Six Sigma (2011)
A few thoughts on the ISO 13053 standard for Six Sigma which was published in 2011: Yes, “Standardization” is one of the key tools of Lean and Six Sigma….however… 1. When international bodies get involved their motivation is sometimes only to acquiring more authority and leverage in the commercial marketplace. 2. It is important to …
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One of the 5 foundations of Lean Six Sigma is a concept called ‘Flow’ …when a process moves in a steady, balanced and sustainable rate of throughput which matches as close as possible the customer demand, without stress or overburdening of the resources ( workers or machinery). The concept of Flow also applies to a …
I am adding a new Lean concept to my training material that is called “Collaborative Consumption”. It is the concept the 2 or more different businesses or departments with businesses collaborate to make maximum use of resources. Outsourcing is an example of this however there are other examples such as shared use of receptionists for …
While teaching the ‘Design of Experiments” (DOE) section of the Green and Black Belt exam syllabus I am often asked by students about the relevance of DOE to the service industry. Most students can see the obvious application of DOE to the Manufacturing sector however using DOE in service industries such as Banks, Call-Centre, …
