News

Oklahoma partners for Six Sigma best practices

3/10/2010 1:25:42 PM

Oklahoma looks to develop its base of small to medium size businesses with strategies such as lean and Six Sigma. ...... "Whether a company conducts improvement initiatives under Baldridge, Six Sigma, or Lean Manufacturing, quality represents a key yardstick that businesses and customers use to measure success. All of these programs aim to streamline, integrate, and improve operating

Creative strategy for situations beyond control

3/9/2010 9:13:39 PM

Branson's Virgin America develops talent that can adapt and respond to abnormal situations. ... "Employees must also develop their own creative strategies for dealing with customers, especially during flight delays and other situations beyond their control." http://bit.ly/bIPnnA

Lean Six Sigma Project Execution Improvement

3/9/2010 11:58:10 AM

Erie county solicits proposals for lean six sigma professionals to drive implementation, culture change, and project execution through training. ...... "The County seeks professional training and consultation services to assist in the implementation of Lean Six Sigma Methodologies and Culture Change Program in a performance based system envisioned by the County Executive. The Lean Six Sigma

Global talent development includes Six Sigma perspective

3/8/2010 8:55:57 AM

In order to satisfy growth in emerging economies, investment in talent development is needed to sustain operations: "Motorola University China, for instance, has 203 instructors who deliver 130 courses across subjects including Six Sigma business improvement and supply chain management." http://bit.ly/aNqZi3

Toyota Problem Tracking

3/7/2010 3:56:31 PM

Problem tracking processes enable insights into unanticipated use cases, errors, and flaws. ...... "If you put a lot of parts together to form a complex electromechanical machine and make it talk to itself via software, it can behave, sometimes, in ways you cannot anticipate. " ...Via washingtonpost: Toyota

ITT Six Sigma Process Efficiency Focus

3/6/2010 5:50:49 PM

ITT CEO perspective on economy, hiring, and efficiency via WSJ: "We are not expecting the economic restoration in 2010 to give us at-capacity rates in all of our businesses," he says. He's also using the Six Sigma quality-improvement process to improve efficiency." http://bit.ly/a65PWB

Lean production assessment kickstarts Volvo truck manufacturing implementation

3/5/2010 2:58:52 PM

Lean manufacturing is implemented at Volvo Truck production facility in Australia. The plants implementation strategy includes understanding the baseline performance: "In order to become more productive and efficient, Volvo has decided to implement the Japanese production philosophy Lean Production. With consideration to this, Volvo wanted a comprehensive investigation of the current situation

Integrate Kaizen and Six Sigma to

3/4/2010 9:24:03 PM

... improve the repair process. Indy uses kaizen and Six Sigma to accelerate pothole repairs using the: "Chuckhole Kaizen Response, implemented with the assistance of Eli Lilly Six Sigma black belts ... " http://bit.ly/c2BhQh

Cooper Tire Profitable Lean Six Sigma

3/3/2010 9:41:25 AM

Cooper Tire returns to profitability and according to the CEO: "Armes said the company had benefited from low raw material costs and implementation of Lean Six Sigma, a business quality management strategy. " Via Medill Reports: http://bit.ly/b3p7Tq

Lean Initiatives Toyota Impact

3/2/2010 7:25:00 PM

The current Toyota quality debacle should cause pause, when pitching new lean initiatives to executives. However, be prepared to discuss Toyota's deviation from the methods and principles in the context of global growth and scale. ...... "the company has fallen below its traditional high standards, rather than tarnishing the validity of Lean principles and practices. Lean is now bigger than

Green Lean

3/1/2010 6:48:34 PM

Successful manufacturers integrate their initiatives for maximum effect. ...... "Companies that are both green and lean are seeking to reduce their environmental impact while simultaneously increasing their efficiency, productivity, and profitability. An example of this is reduced water consumption that helps to reduce work-in-process costs, increase productivity and quality, and increase

Flowserve Six Sigma Margin Improvement Hundred Basis Points

2/28/2010 3:09:37 PM

Flowserve is served by its lean and Six Sigma strategy as margins improve. ...... "Sales in the valve division of 1.2 billion in 2009 were down $179 million or 12.9% versus 2008, and down 8.9% on a constant currency basis. Gross margin was 37% versus 36%, an increase of 100 basis points as our pricing, low-cost sourcing, lean manufacture, six sigma, and material strategies continued to perform

Product Quality is the Differentiator

2/27/2010 11:33:05 AM

Product quality may be the key brand differentiation as we move forward. ... ... "The price and the sales of your product are not a function of your brand name - they are a function of the quality, utility and reliability of the product - its value to the consumer. " ...Via Evolving Excellence: New Manufacturing Age

Real Time Data System Tracks Wind Energy

2/26/2010 12:33:40 PM

OSIsoft's PI system will collect real-time data for wind farm research. ...... "Officials at the college noted that many wind farms utilize complex advanced data monitoring systems, making their PI System an ideal educational tool. The PI System at NAWRTC collects information from 500 data points, including the temperature, wind speed, current and voltage output, mechanical, electrical, and

Kaizen Procurement Process Reduces Steps and Delays

2/26/2010 6:44:00 AM

Procurement organization applies kaizen methods to achieve process improvements. ...... "DAS Procurement Services received NASPO recognition by finishing fourth among all state procurement operations for its efforts to improve Iowa’s procurement process by utilizing the Kaizen method. This initiative reduced the steps of the bid process by 42 percent; reduced delays in the process from 33-35

Walmart Green Supply Chain Will Target Manufacturing and Raw Materials

2/25/2010 3:34:39 PM

to drive goal eliminating 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain. Walmart will implement a program to drive action in the supply chain processes. ...... "Action -- For a project to be included as part of this goal, it must reduce GHGs from a product in either the sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, customer use or end-of-life

Goodrich Lean Supply Chain Optimizes Material Flow

2/25/2010 11:05:34 AM

Airgas supports Goodrich supply chain optimization strategy with strategic supply arrangement. ...... "Goodrich is committed to lean manufacturing principles, and looks for supplier relationships that help us optimize the flow of materials to the operation in the most efficient manner. Airgas’ products and services are helping us move closer to this goal, said Dan Pleshko, Chief Supply Chain

DOE Nuclear Six Sigma Management Applications

2/25/2010 6:36:00 AM

Department of Energy mentions management experiences with Six Sigma at Nuclear Deterrence Summit. ...... "The federal site manager and the contractor are working well together, clearly understand their respective roles and missions, apply Six Sigma management techniques, use the same data base to manage and oversee the contract, have streamlined safety directives, developed a new NNSA-wide

Bloom energy production and installation

2/24/2010 2:56:47 PM

Bloom Energy launches its solid oxide fuel cell which has a modular, scalable design. ...... "Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100 kilowatts (kW) of power in roughly the footprint of a parking space. Each system generates enough power to meet the needs of approximately 100 average U.S. homes or a small office building. For more power, customers simply deploy multiple Energy Servers side by

NASA Lean Six Sigma Experiences

2/24/2010 6:30:00 AM

NASA is challenged to to realize higher efficiency within its internal processes and is applying Lean Six Sigma as the method of choice to streamline. http://bit.ly/dpaFwr (PDF).

LSS Kaizen Event exceeds expectations for CFO

2/23/2010 6:27:58 PM

Office of CFO provides insights into the application of Lean Six Sigma into the GSA continuous improvement processes. ... ... "We first applied LSS when presented with a major problem – too many worksheet adjustments outside of our financial system of record and the potential for endangering our clean opinion. As CFO, this made me stop in my pumps – we needed to solve this problem immediately.

Lean drives controllable objectives for Tennant

2/23/2010 9:56:23 AM

Margins, earnings and cash continue to improve for Tennant Company as it reports 2009 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results. ...... "Consistent with its guiding principles, Tennant adjusted to 2009's low growth economy, without sacrificing the company's long-term potential; prudently allocated scarce resources to initiatives that position the company to deliver against controllable objectives,

Complaint Business Process Requires Listening Skills

2/22/2010 8:43:01 AM

Follow these steps to making the customer complaints process more efficient and effective. Enhance this customer experience to retain and grow your base of revenue. ...... "Even if you know the resolution immediately, let the customer finish before you say anything. " ...Via BusinessBrief: Turn complaints into opportunities

Tobyhanna Lean Six Sigma Targets Turnaround Time

2/21/2010 6:33:35 PM

Tobyhanna Depot attacks cycle times with lean techniques. ...... "As glitches in the process have been aggressively identified and addressed, the turnaround time has been cut in half to 145 days, and the line pushed out 18 units in 2008. " ...Army Lean

Women in Manufacturing

2/20/2010 11:17:24 AM