Replicating your projects: Why reinvent the wheel?
There’s nothing better than the feeling of a job well done. And that is particularly true with a Business Improvement project. Completing a project is [...]
What makes a bad Lean Six Sigma project?
A freshly-trained Green Belt will be keen to get started on their first project so they can practise (and maybe even show off) their new [...]
Can Lean Six Sigma really help improve Sales and Marketing?
When I was first offered the chance to become a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt I was a Marketing Manager at a Fortune 500 chemical [...]
Officeworkers: Are you batching unnecessarily?
I’ve been writing a new online course on how to apply Lean concepts to service processes, and in my reading up on the subject I [...]
Special Cause Variation is meant to be Special!
One of the situations I often encounter while coaching newly-trained Belts (and the more experienced ones too) is disillusion about the value of Control Charts [...]
Using Lean Six Sigma to unblock managed stage-gate innovation
Many companies use stage-gate processes to manage their innovation pipelines. Although these vary between industries and companies, at the core of all these processes is [...]
Quality by Design or Accident?
Most quality professionals would agree with the statement that you can’t inspect quality into a product: If a product fails to consistently meet the customer [...]
Lean Six Sigma versus Christmas Movies
When I read a novel or watch a film at Christmas, I am horrified at how little attention is paid to the 8 Lean Wastes. [...]
Understanding Process Capability and Sigma Shift
One of the most common confusions for student belts, and even many experienced Lean Six Sigma professionals, is the calculation of process capability using Sigma [...]
Why do I need a SIPOC?
This is one of the most common questions I am asked by newly-training Green and Black Belts. These two LSS tools appear very similar. So [...]