All Features
Praveen Gupta
Between 1987 and 1992, the most successful implementation of Six Sigma didn’t require Black Belts or Green Belts. Instead, Six Sigma initiates received training in problem solving, team work, basic quality tools, and statistical tools. However, sense of urgency, dramatic improvement, and teamwork…
Steven Ouellette
I seem to be thinking about the measurement phase a lot recently. I suppose it’s because I’ve seen some teams working hard on problems that turned out to be nothing more than problems with measurement. Let me give you an example.Once upon a time, I was responsible for a product that was frequently…
Praveen Gupta
Six Sigma is being implemented at more and more corporations. After a significant investment in training, corporations initiate projects. Six Sigma Champions have told me that some companies have several thousand projects in the pipeline. Managing that many projects is a major task. How many…
Steven Ouellette
There is something that will get you into trouble if you don’t know about it, and which in my experience very few Black Belts or even Master Black Belts know about. It’s only in the mind of the person doing the research, and no software program will know about it. This mysterious property is “…
Steven Ouellette
There is something that will get you into trouble if you don’t know about it, and which in my experience very few Black Belts or even Master Black Belts know about. It’s only in the mind of the person doing the research, and no software program will know about it. This mysterious property is “…
V. Viswanathan
For quite some time a major question has been cropping up in my mind: Is Six Sigma’s application in software development as effective as it is in the manufacturing industry?The answer is “No.” The savings and benefits that occur in the software industry due to Six Sigma and other process-…
Praveen Gupta
As I teach Six Sigma in my classes, I try to create projects for myself, and often it’s the same project over and over. This time, my project was to use Six Sigma to reduce my extra weight.In 1986 one of my clients distributed a “heart for life” goodie bag on Christmas. In the bag was a measuring…
Steven Ouellette
I spent my June and July articles beating up on the “sigma” index commonly associated with Six Sigma (and continue to do so over in my discussion board.) Let me sum up by saying that, while not wrong, “sigma” isn’t an efficient metric for accomplishing what we are trying to do in today’s business…
Praveen Gupta
Six Sigma was Bill Smith’s vision for excellence in everything. Prior to Six Sigma, companies were implementing total quality management, statistical process control, pre-control, cost of poor quality, and other techniques with minimal effect. Quality became a promise of “motherhood and apple pie…
Steven Ouellette
Last month I talked about the “sigma” index and how it can be used. So what could be bad about the “sigma” index?Never forget that metrics drive behavior and that people are very, very good at finding a way to succeed when given a goal. It just may not be the thing you wanted them to do. If “sigma…
Praveen Gupta
I’m surprised how quickly we blame a methodology for a business’s lack of performance. We’re always looking for some silver bullet to cure all ills. In contrast, Six Sigma integrates many methodologies to achieve sustained profitable results. When Motorola practiced Six Sigma under the leadership…
Steven Ouellette
Now that we have talked about defining Six Sigma and 10 stupid Six Sigma tricks, I’ll move on to the measure phase and discuss some things that work and don’t work in measuring the effect of Six Sigma. The new metric that Six Sigma brought to us was the sigma index, so let’s start…
Steve Wise
The manager of a local grocery store is having dinner with his statistician friend. The store manager tells his friend about a certain cashier who is stealing from the company.
The manager is frustrated because he thinks he knows who the thief is, but can’t fire the miscreant because the employee…
Praveen Gupta
It’s easier to start a Six Sigma project than to close it successfully. Green Belts and Black Belts are expected to be working on projects constantly, so they work on projects to meet the existing expectations. Some of these projects are unlikely to yield significant improvement due to lack of…
Steven Ouellette
Repent of your wicked ways O fellow Six Sigma Heretics, or surely you shall be smitten (smoted? smited? smartied?) and turned into a pillar of out-of-spec material! The End (of the Top Ten Stupid Six Sigma Tricks countdown, anyway) is here! What could possibly be the No. 1 reason that Six…
There’s a certain manufacturer makes carbon-based friction material in the form of a disk. A press and die are used in the final manufacturing operation to cure the carbon material into a functioning friction pad. Peak temperature uniformity is a critical characteristic during the cure…
Praveen Gupta
I first read about training in listening skills about 25 years ago. I didn’t really understand the difference between hearing and listening. I thought people had hearing problems. Now I get it.Everybody talks I see people talking loudly on cellular phones at airports, in shopping malls…
There’s a certain manufacturer that makes carbon-based friction material in the form of a disk. A press and die are used in the final manufacturing operation to cure the carbon material into a functioning friction pad. Peak temperature uniformity is a critical characteristic during the…
Some folks like to use control charts to analyze gauge study results. When using a control chart in this manner, one can assume that the chart should represent a series of gauge studies conducted over a period of time. In this example, let’s say that each morning a gauge is verified by…
Steven Ouellette
The end is near! Well, at least the end of the Top Ten Stupid Six Sigma Tricks (SSST) countdown. The Heretic soldiers on until his appointment with the stake. This month, we arrive at Stupid Six Sigma Trick #2: Neglecting Daily Management. In this SSST, companies get so starry-eyed over the fancy…
Steve Wise
Some folks like to use control charts to analyze gauge study results. When using a control chart in this manner, one can assume that the chart should represent a series of gauge studies conducted over a period of time. In this example, let’s say that each morning a gauge is verified by recording…
Praveen Gupta
Most of us spend our time being busy. We expect a lot, compare our belongings with those of others and feel miserable about the miss-outs. We complain about the way life treats us. While thinking about my New Year’s resolution for 2007, I looked for an opportunity for self-improvement.I…
Steven Ouellette
I had a lot of feedback from interested readers in regards to Stupid Six Sigma Tricks #5, which I jokingly called “Pop Stars Without Clothing,” and which was about the frequent misuse of statistics in the Six Sigma world. Taking heart from this response to what might have been viewed as dusty old…
For the last Brain Teaser, in an interesting spin, sample size was defined as a time window. A is the correct response. The underlying data type falls into the category of defect counts (complaints) within a constant area of opportunity (one hour). These data, of course, follow the…
Praveen Gupta
Businesses have lately been focusing on profit and process improvement. However, profit improvement at any cost to make the upcoming quarter look bright has a price. It appears that most improvement effort leads with efficiency measured by head-count reduction. Improvement shouldn’t be measured by…
