Mon, 11/26/2012 - 10:28
Confucius, also known as Kong Zi, was an ancient Chinese philosopher who believed that trust—or shin—enables people to contribute to society. He believed that, for a leader, earning trust was essential. In addition, according to Confucius, to…
Thu, 11/01/2012 - 11:28
Many people argue that lean Six Sigma projects—particularly Six Sigma—are not sustained within the organization. Because they are not sustained, over time people may go back to their old ways of doing things. This should not happen if the lean Six…
Fri, 10/05/2012 - 15:57
I have seen organizational lean or lean Six Sigma job requirements stating that any level of certification from almost any institution is acceptable, at least according to the recruiter. But guess what? Taking a four-hour online course on lean, lean…
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 16:07
In a Harvard Business Review article Tom Davenport writes, “I hope that when companies start getting excited again about process improvement, they resist one method for doing so. A hybrid, combined approach is really the only approach that makes any…
Thu, 09/06/2012 - 10:51
Another transformation initiative has been announced in your organization and you think to yourself, “How much change are we expected to undertake?” In a lean Six Sigma engagement, it is imperative to take into consideration the number of ongoing…
Thu, 08/23/2012 - 11:10
A s you may be aware, causality is critical in strategy execution. Without causality, it is nearly impossible to measure the impact of various strategic initiatives of a company’s overall goals; therefore, it would be difficult to tell if you were…
Fri, 08/17/2012 - 12:36
Whenever I write about continuous improvement and lean Six Sigma, without fail I get a comment about Toyota and its quality issues. So I decided to investigate this matter further, present the facts, and let the data be the voice of reason. I do…
Wed, 07/25/2012 - 10:58
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “We don’t have the data for this. I guess we’ll need to make an educated guess.” In the lean Six Sigma engagements I work on, my response to this is, “Let’s create the data.” Without fail, I get the deer-…