Category: Organization
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Lean Six Sigma Training for Continuous Improvement
Have you provided Lean Six Sigma (LSS) training to your employees? What was your goal? How effective was it? Over 15 years ago, I received my LSS Black Belt (BB) training sponsored by my employer. It was three weeks of classroom training delivered over three months by external consultants. It kick-started my Continuous Improvement (CI)…
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Projects on Schedule
Are your projects on schedule, delivering on time? Project delays are common. I heard many executives concerned or frustrated with projects missing critical dates. Many organizations train project leaders in project management (PM) or even hire professional project managers to ensure that projects will meet the milestones. Project management certifications, such as Project Management Professional®…
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Revisiting the DMAIC Stage-Gate Process
The DMAIC framework, with its Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control phases, is the most common method used in Six Sigma projects. Most Green Belts (GBs) and Black Belts (BBs) are trained to execute Six Sigma projects using this framework. Following the DMAIC steps, the project team can think rigorously and approach the problem…
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Back to the Basics
What is quality? What does it mean to you and your organization? No matter your definition of quality, the result is a satisfied customer. As a management consultant specializing in quality and continuous improvement, I see opportunities everywhere to improve customer satisfaction. Most of them don’t require significant resources or efforts. Despite the rhetoric about…
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The First Six Sigma Project
Recently I have been coaching some newly trained Green Belts (GBs) doing DMAIC projects and observed very similar struggles many organizations experience. For example, Making little progress because of no time or resources Stuck in the Define phase two months after the project start Confused by the tools and their applicability in the project Overwhelmed…
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What Types of Waste Do You See?
Value is one of the fundamental concepts in Lean. When analyzing the process from a customer’s perspective, Lean practitioners separate value-added activities from non-value added ones, which are muda or waste. By relentlessly removing waste, Lean organizations are able to deliver value to their customers fast and at the lowest costs. Many people are familiar…
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An Indispensable Competency in an Agile Organization
One of the most common reasons for project trouble or failure is an unsuitably large project scope. The problem is not necessarily unrealistic goals or inadequate resources. When the large scope extends the project timeline far into the future, it risks becoming irrelevant before meaningful impact is achieved. External circumstances simply change and invalidate the…
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Project Managers are Managers
Project management is often misunderstood. Despite recognition of its importance, many organizations have low project management maturity. Few have established proper project management governance, structure, processes, roles & responsibilities in the normal business operations. As a result, project managers have to navigate in an environment where project sponsors, teams, and other stakeholders have little experience…
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Making Employee Training Effective
How often do you provide training to your teams? What kinds of training are most effective? As an employee, I was fortunate to receive various technical and managerial training throughout my career. The knowledge, skills, and experience I gained allowed me to grow continually. As a manager, I planned and sponsored training for my teams. …
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Lean: Impact on Organizations
I came across a few photos capturing the “before” stage of a Lean Lab initiative I led more than a dozen years ago. It was a valuable learning experience. Today, many opportunities still exist. Have you implemented Lean in an R&D or laboratory environment? What benefits did you see? While Lean implementation is often associated…