SIPOC Leads to Process Mapping and Project Selection

Often when companies introduce Lean Six Sigma as a way of executing process improvement in its organization, they get excited about all the statistical tools and are enamored with the idea of training Green Belts and Black Belts. An experienced Six Sigma deployment leader will rein-in that enthusiasm...

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How to overcome the risks of shifting to agile

Once primarily adopted by the tech industry, agile practices are now being embraced by a whole host of industries. It is a huge global movement. Just as digitalisation has touched almost every business, so too has the need to become more agile. A snapshot of the benefits Agile...

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Project Selection Options

Six Sigma is accomplished one project at a time. The billions of dollars saved by companies around the world is the cumulative effect of properly selecting and defining business issues that can be assigned to Green Belts and Black Belts for solution. As you may have read last...

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The Fundamentals of Cause-and-effect (aka Fishbone) Diagrams

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A popular means for identifying the causes of a particular problem, or effect, is the aptly named cause-and-effect diagram. As the completed graphic resembles the bones of a fish, it is also commonly referred to as a “fishbone” diagram (Figure 1). Figure 1: A Fishbone Diagram The head...

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Goldilocks Dilemma: Getting Project Scope ‘Just Right’

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One of the hardest decisions teams and their sponsors make is picking the right scope for a project. Those who choose easy, bite-sized projects often have a high success rate – but the impact sometimes is so small that the general reaction is “so what” or “is that...

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Case Study: Meeting Customers’ Welding Flux Demands

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Submerged arc welding (SAW) flux has many applications in the fabrication of oil, gas and water pipelines; gas cylinders; ship building; and surfacing of worn-out mining and material handling equipment. The following case study tracks a project to meet customer demand by fine-tuning the upper and lower control...

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Using SQDCM Boards the Right Way for Effective Gemba Walks

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Based on a request that stemmed from a discussion earlier in the year, I spent three days at a company’s plant to help them finetune their Gemba walks. Several of their floor leaders had attended a training session and approached me with questions. The training highlighted a problem...

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5 Ways Project Software is Changing

Increasing demands in the project profession are putting new demands on the capabilities of project software. In order to keep up, project management software must continually develop. Here we take a look at five of the key changes and innovations we are seeing as part of the evolution...

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Get Your Green Belt: IASSC Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification

IASSC Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Lean Six Sigma has appeared as a popular business management strategy employed for projects globally. It eases a company to achieve process excellence initiatives, expedite product delivery, improve product quality, and drive increased profits to an organization. Lean Six Sigma emphasizes the...

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PRINCE2 2017 is renamed PRINCE2 6th Edition

As of 1 January 2020, AXELOS has renamed PRINCE2® 2017 (the most recent updates to the PRINCE2 certification) to PRINCE2 6th Edition. This name change is not an update in itself — PRINCE2 6th Edition is a rebrand and doesn’t come with any changes to the PRINCE2 2017...

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Avoid the “Bloom and Doom” Cycle

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Over the past decade, the success of Lean Six Sigma has been highly publicized. The widespread adoption of the process improvement methodology across many different business sectors is one indicator of success. However, little is written about companies that fail in their Six Sigma deployments, or at least...

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Before Deployment: “Minding Your Ps to Get Your Q”

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Change agents involved in an effort to introduce Lean Six Sigma into an organization go through a honeymoon stage where there is consensus on the following: ◉ There is a need to become a quality-focused organization. ◉ The Six Sigma path to quality is all about customers’ needs...

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