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Building Demand for Black Belts

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Because our deployment strategy has focused on developing bottom-up support for Continuous Process Improvement, we have been very deliberate about making gradual training investments. Initially, we focused on yellow belt and champion training with the role of "belt" for improvement projects supported from CPI program resources. As our trained population of yellow belts and champions grew, we began training green belts and broadening the base of belt leadership for projects. After three years of building, we felt it was finally time to invest in black belt training to expand the leadership team for the CPI program. This photo represents the first group to complete the 160 hour black belt training curriculum using our own instructors.

The Concept of "Process Entitlement" Drives Record Performance

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During Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt training, we introduce the concept of "process entitlement" as a way to drive record performance. Using a simple process simulation with building blocks to make pyramids, we lead a class discussion on what level of performance would be possible if the process was perfect. Perfect is defined as no waste, no variation, no constraints, etc. Collectively, we arrive at a general consensus of the natural physical limits of the process -- the maximum number of pyramids that could be constructed in a 5 minute production period. Then we steer the discussion toward the topic of, "What would have to be different to produce at a rate equivalent to the natural physical limit?" At some point during this discussion, we challenge the students with concepts such as Takt time and process metrics. Then, we reveal the current world record and set production goals somewhere above the current record and below the maximum number possible. The record see

Trained With An Expectation of Project Work

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In November, we added 26 newly trained green belts to the program. All students entered the training with the expectation that they would follow through and complete two green belt projects to complete green belt certification. In theory, that should mean that 52 green belt projects will flow out of this one green belt class. In reality, only about 40 percent of the students (10 of the 26, in this case) historically follow through to complete projects. Some of the reason for the project deficit are (1) the rotational nature of our workforce (i.e., green belts move on to new assignments before completing projects), (2) our "bottom up" deployment strategy that relies on green belts to generate project areas, and (3) our strategy of conducting projects with collateral duty green belts (i.e., project work is voluntary extra duty).

MAES Workshop at the 40th Annual Symposium

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I recently presented an overview of Lean Six Sigma to a group of engineering professionals and students at the 40th Annual MAES Symposium in San Diego. Our Creative shop put together a nice posterboard to put on the eisel outside the event. The idea was to promote attendance at the event by the symposium attendees.

When to Take Credit for Improvements?

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From August of 2012 through August of 2014, we initiated 50 projects in our relatively modest Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) program. Some of those projects resulted in significant improvements and big financial savings. Some resulted in marginal improvements. And a few had no impact, were never completed, or were cancelled. However, every single one of the 50 projects had collateral benefits and training value to the organization. By collateral benefits, I mean three types of improvements that are not typically attributed to a CPI program. 1. The first type of improvements are undocumented changes that result from focus on a problem. Whenever I initiate a project and start asking questions about data availability, the process changes for the better. It happens every time. Scrutiny of a process leads to undocumented process improvements. 2. The second type of improvements are documented changes that are not called CPI. These improvements would not have happened if the C

What's In A Record?: Improved Statapult Performance

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We had a stellar Green Belt class last week. We set a new world record for accurate ping pong balls shot with a catapult in 5 minutes. Team Cinco Amigos (pictured here) hit 210 of 233 shots, breaking the old record of 198 hits. However, the overall profit title went to Team Bombs-R-Us, and the overall yield title went to Team Acme Missiles with 98.4 percent accuracy (3.7 Sigma quality). Team Dead Eye was a honorable mention for also breaking the old world record with 201 of 212 shots. Everyone got A's for the day. Although Cinco Amigos produced the most hits, they also produced 10% waste and finished behind some of the other teams in other performance areas. The cross-team comparison made me rethink how I emphasize the various instructional points in the curriculum. Because I used the idea of breaking the old world record to introduce the concept of process entitlement, I think I may have encouraged the teams to focus exclusively on productivity measures to the exclusion of qual

Lean Six Sigma Is A Knowledge Management Technique

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Building Organizational Intelligence by Jay Liebowitz My rating: 2 of 5 stars View all my reviews "Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating value from an organization's intangible assets" - Jay Liebowitz "Knowledge is information with a process applied to it" - Jay Liebowitz "Many organizations are drowning in information and starving for knowledge" - Jay Liebowitz I never thought of lean six sigma as a knowledge management technique until know. After reading Liebowitz's introductory chapters, I have a little insight into the overlap and connections between the allied disciplines. I didn't really enjoy the book -- I thought it was light on useful content -- but it definitely made me think.