Articles

As a Black Belt, have you ever worked on projects where data quality was a major contributor to your defect? Diana Hernandez shares ideas on how you can "mistake-proof" your data. Read more

The principles of lean manufacturing can - by their very nature - shake businesses to their very core, with full integration of Six Sigma working practices invariably requiring firms to completely re-evaluate the way they look at output and efficiency. But the fundamentals of lean production hold immense potential for companies to lower their costs, improve control and boost efficiency through waste reduction and heightened productivity. And companies in Asia are rediscovering its transformative power. Read more

It has been a difficult couple of years for financial services companies and banks are again shedding staff by the truck loads. But don't associate those layoffs with Lean process improvement. Here's why. Read more

Customer Centricity is not a one-time effort, carried out by a small project team and quickly filed away and forgotten, writes Elena Mircoli Marietti. Here’s how to embed customer centricity within your Six Sigma approach. Read more

Is excess inventory the root of all evil? In this article, Melissa Connolly explains how excess inventory weakens a business’ competitiveness by increasing operating cost and decreasing margin. Read more

Performance management is a key activity for business success - don't leave it just to your HR department. Here's why it's key to operational excellence. Read more

Change is critical to the survival of organizations, says contributor John W. Moran. Unfortunately all organizations have “antibodies” that resist change. Here’s how PDCA can help you if you're leading change. Read more

When it comes to making the best decisions about process management, it is important that business leaders are armed with the facts and figures they need to make an informed decision. Here's what you should know about business intelligence and data management. Read more

Box-and-whisker diagrams are useful when you've got a relatively small amount of quantitative data, especially if you need compare the output of two processes creating the same characteristic or to track improvement in a single process. Steve Bonacorsi explains how to use and interpret them. Read more

Businesses are facing an uncertain future across the eurozone with tighter budgets, while many decision-makers find themselves under greater pressure to demonstrate return on investment. In this context, the stakes are higher when it comes to process management decisions and failure to get it right could have substantial repercussions for business survival. Read more

Slower growth in the telecommunications industry means that there is increasing pressure on profit margins, says Mark Zirbser, Head of Process Excellence at global telecommunications company Cable & Wireless, so improving process efficiency to drive growth has become a critical role of process improvement in the industry. Read more