• Lean Six Sigma Lives On After It Disappears

    A while ago I was asked by a colleague to recommend a Lean Six Sigma benchmark partner for a large aerospace firm that had been using Six Sigma for quite some time. Upon calling some of my favorite clients I learned that their Lean Six Sigma initiatives had been phased out. I was dismayed to…

  • SAS Software Billionaire John Sall on Six Sigma

    SAS software billionaire Sall on Six Sigma and the economic recovery: Big Brain Week continues – Burns on Business. You would expect John Sall of SAS Institute to embrace the statistical approach. But he goes beyond merely giving a nod to the quality movement and Six Sigma. “The quality movement really changed the world…because of…

  • 10 Reasons Why Six Sigma is Fading

    The only acceptable reason for not using Six Sigma to improve operations is one that I don’t think is true, at least not yet: A better way to achieve process excellence has been discovered. If there is a better approach to achieving operational excellence, I don’t know what it might be. If you have any…

  • How to Run a Meeting

    In today’s business world people spend a lot of time in meetings.  As time goes by, it is likely that even more time will be spent in meetings.  Meetings can be made more productive by following a few simple rules:

  • How to Give a Great Presentation

    The Purpose of a Presentation Unlike a meeting where all in attendance are expected to contribute and participate, a presentation involves a speaker who is trying to communicate with an audience. There are two common reasons why a person might want to address an audience: An old saw on speaking states that there are three…

  • American Kaizen

    In the 1980s it was much in fashion to compare America to Japan. One of the key differences between the two nation’s approaches was that Japanese were much more likely to embrace a strategy of gradual, continuous improvement. Americans more-or-less lurched forward. We would start out with a sizable lead in some area, then wait…

  • American Kaizen

    Kaizen means “improvement” in Japanese. In Japan businesses view Kaizen as a way to engage everyone in improvement without spending much money. Improvements are usually small, and overall improvement is gradual. Americans have little patience for such an approach. This podcast describes the American version of Japan’s successful approach to improving products and processes.

  • Getting Your First Six Sigma Gig

    Since I started teaching students online a year ago I’ve encountered something new: students trying to get into Six Sigma for the first time. This obviously wasn’t a problem when I was training clients whose employers were getting them trained specifically to use the approach in their organizations. I write this for those of you…

  • Jumping to Statistical Conclusions

    Have you attributed your results to the right base data? It may come as a surprise that the biggest challenge facing black belts and master black belts is usually not in selecting the best statistical technique for analyzing a particular data set. Most statistical techniques work fairly well even if the underlying assumptions are not…

  • Project Selection – Getting a good one!

    Project selection is critical to project success.  To insure you have the right project let me give you nine areas that you should think about and if any you do not have then I’d find another that has all nine as they ALL are important. Well I hope that is help. Good luck! Let us…

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