A New Year’s Resolution for Business Success
As we prepare for the move from 2016 into 2017, many people make resolutions about the ways they plan to change their lives for the better in the coming year. The goal might be to lose weight, get more exercise, read the latest self-help best seller, or ski the most challenging slopes in Italy. Just as in our private lives, most businesses invest time late in the calendar year planning their strategy for the next year. Leaders may set standard corporate goals, such as financial ROI, production, and safety. There may also be stretch goals, such as a projected increase in sales or expansion into new territories. As we make plans for the new year, let’s not forget about setting goals for continuous improvements. Just as an individual sets a goal to lose weight or a company makes plans to increase sales, a business also needs to set goals for its continuous improvement (CI) program. By developing a strong set of CI goals for the year and sharing them with everyone in the company, a business can help to ensure the success of their other corporate goals. Wishing you a prosperous 2017! How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive...
Read MoreSanta’s Secret: Lean Six Sigma
Have you ever wondered how Santa manages to deliver ALL those presents, to the right children who asked for them, at the right time, at the right house – every single Christmas? There’s only one plausible explanation. To accomplish this monumental task each year, Old Saint Nick MUST run a very Lean organization! In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he uses Lean Six Sigma processes to eliminate waste in inventory management, transportation and materials, as he and his elves assemble millions of toys and flawlessly distribute them worldwide. This fun holiday blog by Six Sigma green belt Jared Munk got me to thinking. Who has a more demanding and impatient customer base than Santa? And he has one chance to get it right. To get input from his customers, he collects data from parents and Santa’s helpers around the world. They help him understand who has been naughty or nice, as well as what special gift each child would love to have. Of course, there’s only one Santa….but he has a lot of look-alike assistants at the malls, doesn’t he? No double Santa uses data from NORAD’s Santa Tracker to improve the precision of his delivery logistics, as their scientific instruments map his delivery route across the sky. He probably employs just-in-time manufacturing techniques to keep down inventory and ensure that the hottest gifts – like this year’s Hatchimals – are available when needed. Spreading Christmas joy to children worldwide is a complex undertaking. Santa must use Design for Six Sigma to coordinate all the intricate processes so that everything works together smoothly. So if your son or daughter begins to doubt if Santa is really real and asks you this holiday season, “How does he do it?,” you can reply with a smile – “Six Sigma, my child.” Happy holidays to you all! How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive...
Read MoreThinking Outside the Classroom
For many school districts, training can be a barrier to using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) into improve how their schools run. Even though leaders recognize the benefits of LSS methods, it boils down to a cost, time and staff resource issue. With limited resources at their disposal, districts simply can’t afford to take staff out of the classroom to attend weeks of training. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Sometimes you just need to think outside the box – or in this case, outside the classroom. Marion City Schools in Marion, Ohio, for example, partnered with a local university to get the training job done and improve their operations. First, Superintendent Gary Barber and school leaders met with the district’s 700 staff to pinpoint key areas for improvement. They narrowed the list to four processes they knew could be better, and would make an impact on the district’s overall operations: 1) purchase orders; 2) facility use 3) professional development and 4) busing. Take busing, for example. The district has grown rapidly, with the addition of six new elementary schools throughout the city in a few short years. That growth complicated the busing system, with 2,300 students being transported every day. Coupled with a shortage of bus drivers and students’ varied schedules, they knew they had to get creative and use Lean Six Sigma tools to be more efficient. At this point, many organizations would bring in a consultant to teach Lean Six Sigma over the course of many months. For school districts, however, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to have teachers, staff and administrators out of the office for a week or more to attend training. Instead, Marion Schools partnered with the Alber Enterprise Center at The Ohio State University at Marion to allow staff to complete the majority of their training online. Staff participated in webinars and online learning and discussion, plus met with a LSS black belt Norma Simons, President of Performance Innovation LLC and an Alber educator partner, to apply the LSS tools to the four projects identified by the district. Check out this case study about the district’s efforts and successes, as well as Alber Enterprise Center’s web-based training options. If you are a school district or a small not-for-profit, I encourage you to “think outside the classroom” too, and consider whether online training can help you gain the tools needed to make your workplace better. How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive...
Read MoreTrust, But Verify
In the mid-1980s President Ronald Reagan worked with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to develop an arms control treaty. During the negotiations, President Reagan was said to have used an old Russian proverb “Doveryai, no proveryai,” which can be translated as “Trust, but Verify” in English. He learned the quote in the Russian language and used the phrase frequently as he and President Gorbachev worked to prevent the threat of mutually assured destruction if the two superpowers failed to get along during that era. Although President Reagan had assurances from his Soviet counterpart, Reagan also knew that additional confirmation was required to ensure that the terms of the arms treaty were being followed. While most of us do not deal with international relations, the same principle can be used in our continuous improvement (CI) efforts. Whether one uses DMAIC (define-measure-analyze-improve-control) or PDCA (plan-do-check-act), it is very important that the gains made through the CI improvements can be proven. This can be done in a number of ways, including control charts to show reduced error rates, verification of new (to be) state process maps showing reduced non-value added steps, and validated financial savings. One or more of these methods will allow the CI team to demonstrate the effectiveness of the project and give further proof of the utility of CI. Validation should be an integrated part of any CI project. The team, along with management and key stakeholders, should agree on a time frame (usually 3-6 months from the completion of the project), to evaluate the projects outcome(s) and any modifications that were necessary during this time. A strong CI program is built on its successes. A project can only be deemed successful if the gains can be quantified and shared with everyone involved. Tangible results demonstrate a job well done. How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive...
Read MoreLessons Learned: Using Six Sigma to Improve College Graduation Rates
How to increase graduation rates is a constant challenge at most universities. Typically, about half of the students who start a four-year degree program graduate within six years. I know…there were many days during my years in college that I thought I might become one of those statistics! An article in the September issue of ISE Magazine presents an interesting case study about how Indiana-based Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, one of the top ranked engineering colleges in the nation, used Six Sigma tools to improve student retention. They did it by using Six Sigma, a set of tools often used in manufacturing, and successfully adapting it to their academic setting. Director of Institutional Research Timothy Chow and Engineering Management Department Head Craig Downing describe how, about six years ago, Rose-Hulman administrators noticed a slight increase in the number of its first-year students dropping out. They took a proactive approach. A project team conducted a study to find out why these students were leaving. Leaders hoped the study would uncover cost-effective ways to reverse this trend. The team used Six Sigma’s standardized define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) process for the project. This approach gave the team a structured framework to document its work, organize information, review current processes, and summarize and share process improvement activities and operational results. The team used data analysis to identify potential root causes for students dropping out. They identified three groups of first-year students with increased risk of attrition. The first group was identified according to their mathematics background and preparation for college. The second group was identified based on students’ academic probation status during their first college year. The third group was identified through observers, such as coaches and instructors, who had frequent contact with the students and could report any observed at-risk behaviors. Targeted interventions were carried out for each of the three at-risk student groups. While the overall student attrition rate dropped only slightly at first, from 8.57% to 8.52%, it was enough to spur the team’s efforts. With the successful pilot results for determining attrition risk factors, new processes were established to help identify potentially at-risk students early and offer tailored interventions according to their needs. What’s the lesson learned here? Six Sigma isn’t just for manufacturing. By adapting Six Sigma to their needs, universities and other service organizations can reap benefits of the data-driven, process-oriented framework to improve their processes. Give it a try! How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive workplace. ...
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