LSS Kaizen Event exceeds expectations for CFO

Office of CFO provides insights into the application of Lean Six Sigma into the GSA continuous improvement processes. ...

... "We first applied LSS when presented with a major problem – too many worksheet adjustments outside of our financial system of record and the potential for endangering our clean opinion. As CFO, this made me stop in my pumps – we needed to solve this problem immediately. We introduced LSS to a group of GSA’s accountants and asked them to conduct a kaizen event to determine how to reduce the number and dollar volume of adjustments to our financial statements conducted outside of our financial system of record. The worksheet adjustment team exceeded my expectations and identified several significant actions we could take to ensure adjustments were made earlier in the workflow. Most importantly, we achieved our overall goal – retaining our GSA FY 2009 clean opinion. " ...

http://bit.ly/9x9IJg

Manufacturing Data Mining

Food industry application of data mining and analytics ...

Enterprise Lean Initiatives

JDA Software sees lean thinking as a model for transformation of the manufacturing enterprise and shares next-generation supply chain strategies to position for success. ...

... "Commit to Lean on an Enterprise-wide Basis: The primary goals of traditional lean manufacturing – drive out inefficiencies, reduce costs and waste, increase value and decrease variability – remain the same today. Only now these goals need to be embraced across the extended enterprise – both internally and externally with supply chain partners. In today’s dynamic business environment, virtually all operation processes are interrelated and disruptions along the extended supply chain need to be responded to quickly and in real-time. Confining lean to a single manufacturing facility or production area is not sufficient. Lean initiatives cannot work if done in isolation because changes made in siloed functional areas, such as manufacturing, distribution or transportation – or even at the local, regional or country level – can have unintended consequences that can lead to problems or increased costs in other areas. The most effective lean initiatives focus on the extended supply chain. For this reason, companies are deploying advanced modeling tools that can consider all costs and provide optimized strategies across a comprehensive supply chain network of distribution centers, plants, contract manufacturing partners, sourcing options and logistical lanes. " ...

Via JDA Software: Supply Chain Strategies to Improve Business Performance

Louisiana-Pacific Lean Six Sigma

Louisiana-Pacific sees success from its Lean Six Sigma teams, with stellar returns. ...

... "Worth mentioning as well was the continued contribution of our lean six sigma teams which achieved for the year over five to one returns against a goal of three to one returns. " ...

Via Seeking Alpha: Louisiana-Pacific Q4 2008

Kaizen Success Approach

Toyota's relentless drive for continuous improvement through kaizen is discussed. ...

... "The answer has a lot to do with another distinctive element of Toyota's approach: defining innovation as an incremental process, in which the goal is not to make huge, sudden leaps but, rather, to make things better on a daily basis. " ...

Via The New Yorker: Secret of Success

SixSigma IT Methods

Maximizing IT goals using Six Sigma will be explored in this discussion. ...

... "During Tom's presentation the potential and risks for applying Six Sigma to IT management will be discussed starting with the basic foundations from Motorola's original ideas and bringing the topic to today's need to apply it outside of manufacturing applications. Several examples from the real world of IT will be presented as good and bad applications of the method. A modification of Six Sigma will be developed to bring it more in tune with IT goals. " ...

Via Association of Information Technology Professionals: IT Methodology

Lean Enterprise: Workforce Motivation

Kaiser builds strong workforce relationships with lean enterprise principles. ...

... "Union members also are invited to take part in teams that identify and implement ways to bring the plant closer to its lean manufacturing goals. " ...

Via Newark Advocate: Lean Plan Strengthens Workforce Relations