Six Sigma People Post here

epictetus2009

Any green or black belts on boards?
Do you work in call centres or manufacturing?
Maybe keep specifics out of it but might be good to post any useful sites and/or tips for six sigma methodologies. In this time of concentrated change this is something companies are becoming more in tune with i think.

nogoodnamesleft

Hope your right about companies wanting to concentrate on Quality as I have a Postgrad in Quality Managment and have deferred a research Masters as I would like to do a worthwhile project within industry rather than a mickey mouse thesis!

Anyways your best bet is to read books by Edward W Deming particularly "Out of the Crisis", and SPC (Statistical Process Control), knowing different normalisation graphs etc. Also quality control is not limited to a manufacturing enviroment can and has been applied in many areas such as telecoms, customer service, training etc.

Some good websites are:

http://www.army.mil/ArmyBTKC/focus/cpi/tools3.htm#d

http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/six-sigma/overview/overview.html

Whats your interest in quality management?

Show_me_Safety

im looking into this at the moment, it really interests me. we have one in our place.

Rex Manning

I haven't worked anywhere that has implemented/used it - it's ITIL for me. I've got course notes on the green belt - is it possible to study on my own and try get the yellow belt? If so, what's involved? From talking to people, green belt is peer review pretty much - is yellow the same?

epictetus2009

six sigma you can learn it yourself but like everything unless you get the chance at local or global level to lead as a black belt or participate as green belt then its just knowledge with no application. i will have more insight into it past end of jan/feb on the training side.

epictetus2009

Whats your interest in quality management?[/quote]

thanks for the info! will review this evening the sites.
im particularly interested in quality in a customer service environment.

Twin-go

I have what we call here an Advanced Green Belt. Half-way between Green and Black Belt. Hope to get Black Belt in next year or so on a Global project.

I don't know if they do but, if the Government implimented Six Sigma processes in the public sector I think we would see many many millions of Euro saved.

Anybody know if they do this?

TripleAce

I am Green Belt - work in Project Management.....nothing that useful IMO. I found a lot of the tools/process were applicable only on specific types of business.

epictetus2009

I agree that in theory six sigma has a good possibility of working for any process, people or product chaotic problem which the HSE is.. also for Transport. Luas would have been one line for sure and buses would have the stops listed in them clearly for tourists and culchies

smiler26

I'm a Black Belt... and love it !

UK government has already adopted Lean 6S initiatives, and I truly believe it's only a matter of time before we do the same.

My impression is that the public sector should actually start ny just thinking Lean and incorporating Kaizen etc..... but my fear is that they'll just launch 6 Sigma and end up waiting a long time for results....

If I were Taoiseach (lol), I'd be going for a combination of both...

smiler26

smiler26 wrote: »

I'm a Black Belt... and love it !

UK government has already adopted Lean 6S initiatives, and I truly believe it's only a matter of time before we do the same.

My impression is that the public sector should actually start ny just thinking Lean and incorporating Kaizen etc..... but my fear is that they'll just launch 6 Sigma and end up waiting a long time for results....

If I were Taoiseach (lol), I'd be going for a combination of both...

BTW I'm in a customer service environment, so PM me if you need more info

dixiefly

smiler26 wrote: »

I'm a Black Belt... and love it !

UK government has already adopted Lean 6S initiatives, and I truly believe it's only a matter of time before we do the same.

My impression is that the public sector should actually start ny just thinking Lean and incorporating Kaizen etc..... but my fear is that they'll just launch 6 Sigma and end up waiting a long time for results....

If I were Taoiseach (lol), I'd be going for a combination of both...

There are enough low lying apples around the public sector area such as HSE etc that you dont need six sigma to find them.
Six sigma on it's own is not the issue - you can have all the initiatives in the world but if there is not a management and employee committment then you are going nowhere and spending even more money on consultants.

I have been on both sides including working as a black belt in manufacturing. I do not have experience of Lean but I would believe that, once again, management committment / employee willingness to change is paramount.

I found many of the statistical tools excellent in six sigma, especially Design Of Experiments - in my opinion there is huge scope to optimise high value added processes using this technique.

As for public sector reform, a set of well managed organised, committed teams with management support and an openness from the employeeswould work wonders - no need to put six sigma or other hats on it.

doolox

The corporate body in Intel were just getting into Lean mnfg and 6 sigma methods when I left last Nov 07. As mentioned before if you havn't got worker support or willingness to change it will be difficult to work.
The upside with it is that it gave us an avenue to get rid of unecessary tasks or wastes as every task was questioned and streamlined out of the process if found to be not needed.
Others found that the task of finding improvements for each meeting got harder as time went by and led to some ridiculous suggestions just to fulfill the obligation to find a suggestion. Each person had to find some new idea each week even if none existed in their area. This heavy handed approach does not lead to good worker acceptance but there is a case for starting out with some compulsion in the process especially among senior technicians who increasing serve as exemplars and role models to the other workers in an organisation.
Looking back on it the managment had a hard time selling the idea to some of the people on the floor. The redundancy clearout may have helped in this regard, by getting rid of people who were no longer interested in working in Intel..............

epictetus2009

sounds like they mixed ideation management with process which is off and also culture issue. roll out seems off.

epictetus2009

Any green belts here?

artful_codger

jobs become unbearable when this kind of bull**** is forced upon people from useless managers who love buzz words and the latest codology...er i mean methodology.
ISO, CMM, Six Sigma, it's all the same abstract horse sh*t, just let me get on with my job and stop annoying me with Visio diagrams and Powerpoint Slides. Try the 'Common sense' methodology - zero buzzwords, worker satisfaction, great results, minimum paperwork, increases productivity by not having to listen to project managers contradict themselves and try to sound relevant.

nogoodnamesleft

artful_codger wrote: »

jobs become unbearable when this kind of bull**** is forced upon people from useless managers who love buzz words and the latest codology...er i mean methodology.
ISO, CMM, Six Sigma, it's all the same abstract horse sh*t, just let me get on with my job and stop annoying me with Visio diagrams and Powerpoint Slides. Try the 'Common sense' methodology - zero buzzwords, worker satisfaction, great results, minimum paperwork, increases productivity by not having to listen to project managers contradict themselves and try to sound relevant.

It is common in many work enviroments that managers jump on the band wagon to try and get different certifications whch look good on paper. there is little though on what is actually involved and the benefits if the theory is implemented properly. From your post it obvious that the quality improvements steps that have been taken in the past have done nothing. Why dont you sit down with your common sense approach and apply it to their methodology to come to a practical approach? In any quality improvement programe feedback is one of the most common elements and any quality engineer worth his salt would want to listen to your concerns.

artful_codger

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

Why dont you sit down with your common sense approach and apply it to their methodology to come to a practical approach?

because managers don't like you telling them what is best or pissing on their baby projects which make them look like innovators. They will talk about how they want feedback, to cover their backs, but in the end their egos won't allow them to come to the decision that a methodology like Six Sigma is useless, they'll instead just quietly sweep it under the carpet when the next codology comes along. Imagine a manager being so enlightened to stop in his tracks and announce to senior management "sorry, this is crap and we've wasted our time, it's not practical and it's overly bureaucratic" No they'd be too afraid that their boss would think they just don't understand it. Cynicism is an ugly word in large companies but it shouldn't be, and that's why we have economic bubbles. Rejecting the likes of Six Sigma is not how large organisations work, and nobody would have the balls to stick their head out and say the emperor has no clothes. Instead they'd just prefer to run to a standstill.

/rant

nogoodnamesleft

it seems from your post that the problem lies with senior management and the lack of action by your quality dept. One of the most fundamental requirements for a quality improvement project to be successful is that change needs to occur throughout the whole of the organisation. Looks like the organisation you are working for have lost sight of one of the key elements and IMO they might as well piss there money down the drain as ultimately it is going to fail if this isnt addressed. Are your quality department suitably qualified or have studied any quality improvement processes or are they chancing their arm to have a new buzz word "quality" to talk about in meetings?

misterm

I did the green belt training about 4 or 5 years ago. The whole company was into it at the time as iy was been pushed by head office.
The course I did was fantastic and really explained what it all was and how to apply to realworld.
Unfortunately I never really used it much, I did do some projects, but they never really required many 6sigma tools.

Then the 6Sigma guy in headquarters was moved, and it all went by the wayside. A pitty really as it was very useful and saved millions for the company.

I started in a new company then and they had 6Sigma, never saw it allplied as well there, as it had been the company I trained up on it.

dixiefly

Hacksaw_Harry wrote: »

If lean six sigma is applied to almost any process, the results can be outstanding. I've been in operational roles for over 20 years and have spent the last three working with companies to apply lean and six sigma thinking. With the right focus, they are a set of tools and methodology to deliver customer requirements, reduce costs and grow the business.
I've seen green belt projects return six figure savings in six months. The savings opportunities will depend on the size of the business and the maturity of the lean six sigma programme.
It is a difficult task to tackle as an individual. If the business is ready to embrace six sigma, I would recommend setting some goals and tackling these via a structured project programme.
As introductory reading try "The Goal", "The Machine That Changed The World" and "Lean thinking" and on six sigma try "Jack Welch & The G.E. Way" and "Six Sigma Memory Jogger II: A Pocket Guide".

Implementing Six Sigma by Forest Breyfogle is probably the best book for SS tools. I found "Adhocracy" good for a brief outline of management of change. Six Sigma Forum for good examples.

Anyone have any recommendaions for texts with examples of applications in transactional areas and large organisations / public bodies?