Latest Thinking
Lean Six Sigma
Lean Implementation in Continuous Process Manufacturing
By Mark Price and Kevin Simonin
Lean has achieved widespread adoption in the world of discrete manufacturing. In continuous process manufacturing (such as metals, fiberglass, chemicals, food/beverage, pharmaceuticals, paper and packaging, adhesive application), implementing Lean creates a number of challenges not present in discrete manufacturing. PDF File Link
An Application of Lean Six Sigma Principles in Healthcare
by Karen Rago, R.N, M.P.A and Mike George
Stanford Hospitals and Clinics has implemented an operations improvement process including Lean and Six Sigma principles across many of its key functions. This paper focuses on process improvment of the cardiac surgery unit where the cost of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery was reduced by nearly 40% and mortality rates by 3.4%. PDF File Link
Articles
Use of Conjoint Analysis for the Design of New Website By Ken Feldman iSixSigma Financial Services
A Marketing Team that was tasked with creating a website to support a new product offering used a statistical technique called Design of Experiments (DOE) in which they wanted to quantify both “main effects” and “interactions.” They used a specific DOE technique called conjoint analysis and were able to determine the three main effects and two interactions that had an impact on the customer’s choice.
Digging for Data: Insurance Companies Strive to Improve
By Mike Sullivan iSixSigma Financial Services
Insurance companies find that one of the biggest profitability drivers is the expense incurred in staffing and settling claims. By defining and addressing the three common challenges that most project teams deal with to improve their overall claims settlement process at the outset, some consultants have seen teams reduce their cycle time of critical process steps by as much as fifty percent and cut costs per claim by at least ten to twenty percent.
Middle-Out Change is Difficult - But Doable
By Eric Carter iSixSigma Financial Services
Although top-down change has more success stories written about it, middle-out change is a viable option if top-down support is unavailable. With a strong infrastructure, a well developed training program and engaged leadership, a middle-out change is achievable.
Lean Six Sigma Improves New Hire Reimbursement Process
By William Englehaupt
A government agency used Lean Six Sigma to streamline a cumbersome reimbursement process for new hire relocation expenses. The changes eliminate the reimbursement bureaucracy for new hires and save the company $185,000 a year. iSixSigma Financial Services
Voice of the Business, Customer, Process and Employee
By Michael Sullivan
The untapped value of the voice of the business, customer, process and employee have an impact on project selection. Staying in tune with their collective voice can help companies create a more profitable future. iSixSigma Financial Services
Using Lean Six Sigma to Improve Call Center Operations
By Robert Gettys
A call center client was so disappointed in the call center service that it was considering canceling the contract. With the help of a Lean Six Sigma expert, the call center improved its performance and the client renewed its contract. iSixSigma Financial Services
Streamlining Coast Guard's Accounts Payable Process
By Mike Donnelly
Coast Guard Finance Center fix for over-stressed accounts payable process: An experienced Lean Six Sigma consultant with a finance background to lead a project team, break through the complexity, and design a Lean, effective and scaleable process. iSixSigma Financial Services
Rush to Enact Solutions Sabotages a DMAIC Project
By Leah Lutz
A small and relatively young technology company attempting to implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act finds that rushing to solutions before finishing its own Six Sigma DMAIC project can cost time and money. But the example does provide lessons for others. iSixSigma Financial Services
Applying Lean Six Sigma Tools to an Internal Audit
By Leah Lutz
An internal audit by a team using Lean Six Sigma tools solved the mystery of what happened to about $1 million of a liquid chemical "misplaced" at a global chemical company. Case study shows how the team used a Kaizen event and DMAIC methodology. iSixSigma Financial Services
Goldilocks Dilemma: Getting Project Scope ‘Just Right’
By Malcolm Upton
The best scoped project is one that can be completed in three to four months and that will contribute towards achieving an important strategic goal. How to set that scope? There are several simple tricks of the trade that can help. iSixSigma Financial Services
Five Big Levers for Long Term Success of Lean Six Sigma
By Mark George
Many factors can play a role in corporate initiatives that succeed over the long haul and those that fail. But, five factors appear to have the biggest leverage in determining whether a company can achieve long-term success with Lean Six Sigma. iSixSigma Financial Services
Basic Strategies for Avoiding and Overcoming Resistance
By Mike George Jr
Every company runs into resistance that can slow down, or even rail, a new Lean Six Sigma initiative. That is why part of every executive's repertoire needs to be the knowledge, skills and tools to minimize the occurrence and impact of resistance. iSixSigma Financial Services
Course Correction-Tips for Doing a Deployment Review
By Mike George Jr
Sometimes the results from a Lean Six Sigma deployment are not as good as what a company hoped or expected. What often helps in that situation is a formal deployment review, much like a tollgate review on an individual project. iSixSigma Financial Services
Involve Finance in Project Selection, Not Just Validation
By Darrel Whiteley
Most companies using Six Sigma are used to including financial staff at the back-end of projects to validate results. But the savviest organizations are getting their finance departments involved in what projects to work on in the first place. iSixSigma Financial Services
Value Stream Map Without All the Data Still Offers Gains
By Craig Ladner
A value stream map can look daunting, especially for anyone who has not worked much with flowcharts. But, alot can be gained from starting a value stream map, even if there is not enough data to do the perfect map the first time through. iSixSigma Financial Services
Using Blended Optimization to Quantify the Qualitative
By Dennis McInerney
Some large U.S. financial institutions have sought in recent years to develop risk-rating scorecards to help them become much more quantitative in how they evaluate and assign risks. Six Sigma can provide that path to better risk-rating scorecards. iSixSigma Financial Services
Black Belts Can Help Allay Panic from Sarbanes Oxley
By Darrel Whiteley
Six Sigma can be used to solve process problems of every magnitude -- including overwhleming concerns such as those that might come from federal legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley. Here's how one Master Black Belt helped address her company's worries. iSixSigma Financial Services
Improving Debt Collection Rate, or How to Gain $865,000
By Allison Stahl
A collection agency was not only able to retain a complaining client's business thanks to a Lean Six Sigma project, but used the capability improvements it gained from the project as a selling point with both current clients and prospective ones. iSixSigma Financial Services
Slashing Product Development Time in Financial Services
By Dennis McInerney
Once it is clear that there is a financial justification for increasing the speed of a process, take the time to develop a good value stream map. Making changes may be the easy part. Figuring out what changes to make takes the time and discipline. iSixSigma Financial Services
Tips for How Black Belts Can Handle Resource Conflicts
By John Kessler
For many Black Belts, the biggest challenge is not learning the data tools - it is learning the managerial skills needed to run an effective team. And one of the most difficult of skills is dealing with commitment conflicts that team members face. iSixSigma Financial Services
Using DFLSS to Evaluate a New Loan Referral Process
By Dennis McInerney
A business can save time and effort by being able to evaluate the feasibility of an idea early on. And that is exactly the capability provided by the use of Design for Lean Six Sigma (DFLSS) to, among other things, evaluate alternative solutions. iSixSigma Financial Services
Making Use of DFLSS to Cultivate a Shared Compute Farm
By Dennis McInerney
One approach to providing fast responses even with highly complex computations is distributed computing, or creating a shared compute farm. Making this work is a matter of integrating hardware, software and people resources. And DFLSS can help. iSixSigma Financial Services
When Does a Difference Matter-Using ANOVA to Tell
By Lisa Custer
Much of the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology is concerned with finding differences. But often it ends up being more important to learn "does the difference really matter?" ANOVA is an hypothesis testing tool that can be used to help answer that question. iSixSigma Financial Services
Lessons from TMITE-The Most Ineffective Team Ever
By Max Isaac and Kevin Carson
Effective teamwork does not happen by magic. Becoming a better Six Sigma project team - no matter what the starting point - only takes a little discipline and a lot of practice. Here are some principles help provide the needed structure iSixSigma Financial Services
Bank Uses QFD to Increase Its Share of Equity Loans
By Chuck Cox
Bank of the Southwest decided it was not getting its fair share of the equity loan business. A project team used QFD to design a new, much faster loan process. The result was an amazing 80 percent increase in bank customer equity loans. iSixSigma Financial Services
Process Owners-Unsung Heroes of Improvement
By Kimberly Watson-Hemphill and Mark George
Everyone in Lean Six Sigma companies recognize the value of Green, Black and Master Black Belts and Champions, but companies which sustain their process gains have unsung individuals who are doing an exceptional job. They are the process owners. iSixSigma Financial Services
Fast and Intense-Kaizen Approach to Problem Solving
By Tim Williams and Mark Price
Kaizens are improvement events where a group completes most or all of a DMAIC cycle on a narrowly targeted high-priority issue in just a matter of days. The model has been so successful that it has been adapted for a wide variety of uses. iSixSigma Financial Services
Manager's Guide-Fostering Success with LSS
By Bill Kastle and Mark George
Managers play a key role in building a successful Lean Six Sigma organization. They must create and foster an environment that sets the stage for employee success. Six essential factors can guide managers towards a thriving Lean Six Sigma program. iSixSigma Financial Services
Warning Signals of a Failing Six Sigma Program
By Max Isaac and Anton McBurnie
If an organization's Six Sigma program is beginning to fail, there are warning signals. Those signals can be as simple as gut feelings, but many can be compiled into a list of specifics which indicate a disconnection from the core business. iSixSigma Financial Services
Eight Lessons for Success in Lean Six Sigma Deployment
By Bruno Ternon and Bill Zeeb
Among the many companies that have embarked on the Six Sigma journey, some have achieved spectacular success while others have failed. What makes the difference? Here are eight lessons learned from some of those successes and failures. iSixSigma Financial Services
Role for Design of Experiments in Financial Operations
By Kimberly Watson-Hemphill and Bill Kastle
The underused DOE tool can be valuable to financial services businesses when they realize the reason it is a favorite in general business environments: It is an extremely efficient way of identifying what matters in a process and what does not. iSixSigma Financial Services
VOC Advances-Helping Make Better Design Decisions
By Anthony Curtis and Kimberly Watson-Hemphill
Companies which have advanced voice of the customer (VOC) methods are getting a deeper understanding of customer needs, by exploring and utilizing two ideas -- rapid prototyping, and tools for making design trade-off decisions. iSixSigma Financial Services
VOC Advances-Complementary Innovation for Growth
By Anthony Curtis
Many companies are creating new growth and value by addressing their customers' hassles and issues with the organizations' existing product/service rather than by improving the original offerings. The idea is called "complementary innovation." iSixSigma Financial Services
VOC Advances-New Paths to Understanding Customers
By Anthony Curtis
Competing businesses usually have the same customers and the same market information. The company that best understands those customers will end up with the edge. Enter ethnography, the next step beyond the traditional VOC collection methods. iSixSigma Financial Services
Turning Judgment Calls into Reliable Data with Gage R&R
By Michael Mueller
One of the biggest challenges in making improvements in transactional processes is getting data which can be relied upon. An often-overlooked tool in the Lean Six Sigma toolbox, Gage R&R, can be of immeasurable help in improving data reliability. iSixSigma Financial Services
Minimizing Risks-How to Apply FMEA in Services
By Tim Williams
FMEA, which has become widespread among Six Sigma practitioners, is a system for analyzing the design of a product or service system to identify potential failures, then taking steps to counteract or at least minimize the risks from those failures. iSixSigma Financial Services
Why a Team Cannot Afford to Overlook the C in DMAIC
By Tim Williams
The initial results of a new quality improvement effort at a Midwest lockbox operation were disappointing - the error rate seemed to be increasing. When the SixSigma team got to the Control phase it began solving the problem of excessive errors. iSixSigma Financial Services
Reducing Delays in Service Processes with Rapid Setup
By Mark George
Job processes that include non-value-added work which increase delays and extend work in progress are common in service functions. They usually are accepted as "the way work is done." But a rapid setup method can help streamline those processes. iSixSigma Financial Services
Using 'Preferred Roles' to Assure Best Team Performance
By Max Isaac and James Works
Considering "preferred roles" and "allowable weaknesses" when planning a Six Sigma project and selecting members of the project team makes sense. It provides a more scientific approach to helping assure better team performance and project success. iSixSigma Financial Services
Pull System Speeds Up Work Flow and Project Cycle Time
By Kevin Simonin and Mark Price
A "pull system," in which work enters a process at the same rate it exits. The result is a faster work flow and faster project cycle times. And with the "exit rate" controlled by customer demand, the customers' needs are always met. iSixSigma Financial Services
Salvaging a Call Center's Big Software Investment
By Tim Williams
The call center handled technical problems and policy issues for a financial institution's branches across the country But complaints and cost overruns indicated problems. New software did not help. The company found the answer is a Six Sigma project. iSixSigma Financial Services
Learning to Recognize Process Waste in Financial Services
By Bill Kastle
To help Six Sigma practitioners in financial services begin developing a “waste-sensing” ability, here is a description of seven specific types of process waste that someone is doing somewhere in virtually every company right now. iSixSigma Financial Services
Fast Start Collecting Data on Financial Service Process
By Kevin Simonin
In any financial service process that is being studied for the first time, it's common for Six Sigma teams to spend one-third to one-half of their project time on data collection alone. Here are three tips that may help teams get a fast started. iSixSigma Financial Services
Balancing Roles and Responsibilities in Six Sigma
By Mark Price and James Works
One simple way for a company to assign and balance Six Sigma roles and responsibilities is to use RACI analysis. RACI can help track what responsibility those with each different role in a process improvement project should have in each decision. iSixSigma Financial Services
Using Interviews to Shape a Six Sigma Deployment
By Bill Kastle and Max Isaac
Conducting interviews with the CEO and those who report directly to the CEO, as well as other key influencers is a great way to identify critical elements of success for the business as a whole and for the Six Sigma initiative itself. iSixSigma Financial Services
Check Imaging Improvements with Lean Six Sigma
By Stephen Wilson, Tony Kneisley and Eric Castaline
A case study in which Lean Six Sigma was used by a bank as the method of insuring a huge opportunity for reduced costs and happier customers via its check imaging process, while avoiding the potential headaches and any legal liabilities. iSixSigma Financial Services
Designing Financial Services with DMEDI
By Kimberly Watson-Hemphill
The basic toolkit associated with Six Sigma does not provide the rigor needed when a company wants to invent a new product or service (or completely overhaul an existing process). The Six Sigma methodology powerful enough to handle the task is DMEDI. iSixSigma Financial Services
Using Triage to Manage Process Workloads in Services
By Mark George
Finding ways to manage workflow and minimize congestion, and the delays it causes, is a common challenge in service businesses. One of the most effective tools for dealing with congestion is triage. iSixSigma Financial Services |
