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The Sixth Sigma: Achieve Breakthrough Performance Using Six Sigma

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Motorola Six Sigma Weakness

Motorola may have lost its focus in the phone market as it emphasized efficiency over innovation and differentiation. ...

... "The real question is: is it possible for a company to become so engrossed in its process improvements that it fails to notice some vital trends in the marketplace? This may well have been the case with Motorola. " ...


Via domain-b: Motorola Six Sigma

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Sunday, July 08, 2007

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

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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Motorola SixSigma Leader Speaks This Week

Motorola Six Sigma program manager to speak this week. ...

... "Burford will explain how the company improved the new product demand to order conversion with Six Sigma methods. " ...


Via Racine Journal Times: Six Sigma Meeting This Thursday

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Saturday, May 12, 2007

BobGalvin SixSigma Creator Keynotes

Insights on the convergence of IT and buildings. ...

... "Bob Galvin, the legendary former Chairman & CEO of Motorola, and creator of Six Sigma will Keynote at BuilConn. Bob joins Todd Hawthorne (Cisco), Peter Kelly-Detwiler (Constellation) and Anto Budiardjo (Clasma) to provide an inspiring view of the changes and possibilities at the intersection of buildings, IT & energy. " ...


Via Automated Buildings: Bob Galvin Keynotes BuilConn Chicago

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Friday, April 06, 2007

Moto Malaysia Recognized Six Sigma Knowledge Work

Motorola Technology Sdn Bhd is awarded the Penang Chief Minister's K-ICT Award 2007 for best practices in developing knowledge workers at its manufacturing operations. The Malaysian site has built its workforce on a foundation of Six Sigma quality principles, enabling its employees to transform into knowledge work. ...

Motorola recognized for Six Sigma initiative in its Malasian workforce

... "Through the Knowledge Worker Development Award, Motorola was recognized for its initiatives in promoting effective use of ICT as a tool for its communications and training programmes so as to accomplish key organizational action plans and needs, and develop its employees' potential to achieve the company's objectives. Motorola was able to clinch the prestigious award based on its successful implementation of the Motorola Digital Six Sigma / Quality IQ initiative from 2001 - 2006. Some of the significant results achieved by the implementation of the Motorola Digital Six Sigma/Quality program were the strengthening of its competitiveness, improvements to the overall quality of its business operations, and the transformation of manual labor to become a more knowledge based workforce. In addition, Motorola recorded savings of approximately USD30 million over 230 engineering based projects implemented since 2001. The implementation of Motorola Digital Six Sigma/Quality program has also progressively increased the number of its knowledge workers at various levels from 20% to 46% and generated over 2,300 internal engineering patent submissions that were solutions made in Malaysia.
" ...


Via Motorola Malaysia: Motorola Receives the Prestigious Penang Chief Minister K-ICT Award 2007

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Six Sigma Moto Legacy

Motorola builds Six Sigma quality into its Razr mobile phones
Motorola has been able to integrate Six Sigma into its culture while accelerating its innovation engine. ...

... "the company's more lasting contribution to the world is something decidedly more wonkish: the quality-improvement process called Six Sigma. " ...


Via Business Week: Link

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Sunday, July 23, 2006

Lean Army Management Initiative ...

Army increases its efficiency with Lean Six Sigma ...

Baumholder Army Lean Program ...

... "The new Army management initiative is Lean Six Sigma, said Holzinger and other Baumholder officials. Under Lean Six Sigma — two programs borrowed from corporate giants such as Motorola and Toyota – all employees are charged with thinking of ways to increase efficiency and cut costs. " ...

Lean Army Management Initiative: Via Stars & Stripes: Baumholder seeks ways to trim costs, increase efficiency ...

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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Xerox Lean SixSigma Services Create Innovative Solutions ...

Xerox provides Lean Six Sigma services to create innovative solutions for library. ...

... "Xerox deployed a team of specialized Lean Six Sigma consultants to the library to analyze and measure operations -- ranging from computer reservations to circulation -- at four Branch Library locations that represented a service population sampling for the system. Following the collaborative assessment process, Xerox presented the Houston Public Library earlier this month with a report that offered some innovative solutions and recommendations for efficiency gains to best service their customers. Lean Six Sigma is a rigorous, data-driven, results-oriented approach to process improvement. It combines two industry-recognized management methodologies evolved by companies like General Electric Co., Toyota Motor Corp., and Motorola Corp. By integrating the tools of Lean and Six Sigma, Xerox is helping customers improve quality, efficiency and speed in every aspect of their business. " ...

Xerox Lean SixSigma Services Create Innovative Solutions: Via Xerox: Xerox Services Help Houston Library Solve Staffing Issues: Xerox consulting services put to work to help library improve productivity ...

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Saturday, December 17, 2005

Public Sector Six Sigma ...

In governments around the world, there is acknowledgement of the need to be more efficient, especially with enabling citizen services. Many governments are adopting e-government technology to solve their problem. This may be necessary, but not sufficient in streamlining processes for speed, eliminating waste, and delivering the best performance at the appropriate cost. Six Sigma is a methodology that can be truly transformative in improvement of public sector business processes. Andre Pope proposes an invigorating approach to improving performance in the public sector, leveraging Six Sigma methodology. ...

... "I am proposing the establishment of a National Public Corporation Commission with the objective of helping the various public corporations achieve financial and operational excellence through the introduction of Six Sigma methodologies and programs. Six Sigma, which is outlined with some specificity later in this paper, is a process or methodology that has and continues to be used by some of the largest and more innovative private companies across the globe, particularly in North America, Europe and Asia, to achieve breakthrough results. " ...

Public Sector Six Sigma: Via The Perspective: Using Six Sigma to Reinvigorate Public Corporations

Relevant resources on Six Sigma experiences in the public sector:

Quality Digest Magazine: "Six Sigma has proven its worth to the manufacturing industry, causing the education, health care and service industries to sit up and take note. Governments, though, have been slower to respond to the methodology's potential. This is understandable. Governments, whether local or federal, have huge and entrenched bureaucracies, and they lack the all-important market incentive for change. "

Challenge: "Following a pilot project where seven public sector agencies applied Six Sigma to selected work areas, the August forum, organised by the MFE office, was a good opportunity to showcase the findings and success stories. "

QW: Public sector? So what?: "What about six sigma in the public sector? Well, the term itself is potentially misleading, because the high-frequency operations that make this statistic meaningful (eg 3.4 defects per million opportunities) are rare in public sector organisations. QW published an article (in January 2001) on six sigma in a courts service although the piece admitted that in this instance achievement of just 2.8 sigma was the main target. "

Ministry Of Finance: "Six Sigma, a management tool which has made significant impact in private sector companies worldwide such as Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Motorola and 3M, is now being applied in the Singapore Public Sector. The use of Six Sigma by public sector organisations has started to offer significant improvements in service quality and reductions in cost."

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Friday, December 09, 2005

GE Six Sigma Leader Becomes Nortel Exec ...

GE leader with Six Sigma experience joins Nortel as executive for supply chain and quality management ...

... "Hackney has a world-class background in general management, supply chain, leadership skills, and Six Sigma expertise. He has more than 14 years of global leadership experience at GE working for a wide variety of the GE family of businesses including GE Lighting (North America and Europe), GE Aircraft Engines, GE Power Systems, GE Investments, and GE Mergers and Acquisitions, and his leadership roles have spanned audit, supply chain, operations, product management, and general management. " ...


GE Six Sigma Leader Becomes Nortel Exec: Via Nortel: Nortel Appoints New Global Supply Chain and Quality Leader

GE Six Sigma leader joins Nortel ...

Implementing Six Sigma, Executive Strategy, Methodology, experience and results: "Six Sigma has become a small cottage industry. This industry is overpopulated with trainers. It is amazing how all the providers claim to have implemented Six Sigma at Allied Signal, GE, Bombardier, Sony, and etc. The truth is anyone who was a Black Belt for 6-months, scheduled a conference room, or made a presentation takes the liberty to claim responsibility."

Vai domain-B : The Six Sigma Primer: "Interestingly, GE proved that Six Sigma was not just for manufacturing, also applying it with success to GE Capital. In the first year, Six Sigma saved GE $170 million for a $200 million investment; in year two savings were $700 million for a $400 million investment."

Business Leader: Best Practices: Mastering Six Sigma Excellence: "Six Sigma is a sophisticated quality program created by Motorola in the 1980's and perfected by General Electric (GE) during the past five years. The initiative is a highly involved measurement device of production defects per one million operations. While it was originally intended to serve as a manufacturing process, several top companies have transitioned its role to focus on virtually all service-related transactions."

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Serving both service provider and enterprise customers, Nortel delivers innovative technology solutions encompassing end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications, and wireless broadband designed to help people solve the world's greatest challenges. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries.

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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Six Sigma Motorola University

Ian Grayson explores internal training programs, such as the Motorola Six Sigma effort ...

Six Sigma Motorola University: Via CNN.com: Do-it-yourself approach growing ...

... "U.S.-based communications equipment company Motorola, credited with developing the popular Six Sigma approach to quality improvement, has been running the Motorola University for more than 18 years. " ...

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Monday, October 03, 2005

DFMA Design For Manufacture

Via American Society of Mechanical Engineers: DFMA to RP, ASAP

Mastering DFMA, or design for manufacturing and assembly, can accelerate time to market and lower the total life cycle costs of new products and their facilities. Here are background and references on DFMA ...

... "The concept of DFMA was developed in 1980 by Geoffrey Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst, professors of industrial and manufacturing engineering at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. The following year, they founded Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc. to market proprietary DFMA packages. " ...


Via ACC: Acquisition Community Connection: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly ...

... "DFMA is a systematic analysis of the design of an assembly or subassembly to reduce product cost by simplifying its design, assembly, and manufacturing without impacting performance. The analysis allows you to determine the theoretical minimum number of parts that must be in the design for the product to function as required. As you identify and eliminate unnecessary parts, you eliminate unnecessary manufacturing and assembly costs. " ...


Via Army Logistics Management College: Smart Simple Design

... "The Smart Simple Design initiative encompasses two processes. The first step is using Design for Manufacture, Design for Assembly, and Design for Service (DFMAS) software in the early stages of the design process to achieve significant benefits from reducing costs and logistics support requirements. The second step of the Smart Simple Design initiative is assembling a design oversight and comparison process team to reduce the number of needed parts and standardize parts across different product lines. " ...


Via American Machinist: Technologies to reduce production costs ...

... "Companies can slash costs by improving the design process at its beginning. Design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) software includes a design-formanufacture module, with which engineers obtain early cost estimates on parts or products, and a design-for-assembly module, which they employ to determine the best methods to manufacture products. " ...


DFMA consists of complementary Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM) software. Engineers use DFA software to reduce the cost of a product by consolidating parts into elegant and multifunctional designs. DFM software then helps engineers quickly judge the cost of producing the individual components of the new design. Used together, DFM and DFA software give engineers an early cost profile of product designs, providing a basis for planning and decision making. When performed in the earliest stages of concept design, DFMA analysis has the potential to dramatically reduce manufacturing and other product life-cycle costs before they are locked in. DFMA software operates in MicrosoftÒ Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., is a winner of the 1991 National Medal of Technology Award, presented by President George H. Bush. Other recipients of the award have included William Gates of Microsoft Corp. and Robert Galvin of Motorola Inc. Boothroyd Dewhurst is dedicated to continually developing the DFMA knowledge base through its integrated software programs, workshops, consulting services and international conferences. For more information, contact Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., 138 Main Street, Wakefield, R.I. 02879, USA. Tel.

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Thursday, September 22, 2005

Six Sigma Definition ...

Six Sigma Definition: Via Open Door Policy:The Open Source Work Relationship: Six Sigma

... "Six Sigma is a quality management program to achieve six sigma levels of quality. It was pioneered by Motorola in the mid-1980s by Bob Galvin, who succeeded his father and the founder of Motorola as head of the company, Paul Galvin, and by Motorola engineer Bill Smith. It has since spread to many other manufacturing companies ..." ...

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Six Sigma Transformation: Galvin Electricity Initiative

Six Sigma Transformation: Galvin Electricity Initiative: Landmark effort to create blueprint for 21st century electric infrastructure and service ...

... "The Galvin Electricity Initiative officially announced its mission to create an actionable blueprint for transforming the U.S. electricity supply and service infrastructure into a resilient and adaptable system that can perfectly meet the needs of the rapidly evolving digital economy and society. The fundamental principle guiding this Initiative is that raising the quality of the nation's electricity supply system will create substantial cost savings for all consumers and society at large. The Initiative is sponsored by the Galvin Project, Inc., which is led by Bob Galvin, former CEO of Motorola and a key figure in establishing the internationally recognized Six Sigma quality control process. " ...

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

Six Sigma Business Improvement Campaign ...

Six Sigma Business Improvement Campaign: Via Motorola University: Six Sigma Dictionary

... "Business Improvement Campaign: A leadership initiative to improve the big Ys that determine an organization's success. Six Sigma Business Improvement Campaign elements include scorecards, Team Charters, improvement teams, and integrated business reviews. " ...

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Monday, July 18, 2005

Six Sigma Management Philosophy Recommendations ...

Six Sigma Management Philosophy Recommendations: Management Practices Recommendations

... "Six Sigma is a management philosophy that has improving customer satisfaction to near perfection as its overriding philosophy. Six Sigma attempts to achieve greater levels of customer satisfaction through a reliance on facts and data to focus and manage the processes of an organization. From its beginnings at Motorola through its most well known implementation at General Electric, Six Sigma has proven to be a successful management practice in the private sector when implemented with strong leadership from the top of an organization and the willingness to apply the sizeable financial and human resources required. " ...

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Thursday, July 14, 2005

Balanced Scorecard: Organizational and Individual

Balanced Scorecard: Organizational and Individual: Indorama Group Selects pbviews as its Performance Management Solution ...

... "With the assistance of performancesoft's Indonesian business partner PT Organisasi Transformasi Internasional, Indorama will implement pbviews to introduce an organizational Balanced Scorecard and Individual Performance Management system. Already a performance leader in Indonesia, Indorama has grown rapidly since going public in 1990, and is one of the only companies in the country to publish its financial statements in US dollars. " ...


The Indorama Group first started as a spinning mill in 1976 and has since grown into one of Indonesia’s largest producers of polyester-based raw materials for the textiles and packaging industries. The company was first listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 1990, and today produces 260,000 tons of polyester annually.

Founded in 1993, performancesoft is the acknowledged leader in the Performance Management and Balanced Scorecard categories, with the richest, most intuitive, and easiest to use product, and the largest number of successful deployments worldwide. Its state of the art software, practical expertise and unparalleled customer support make pbviews the solution of choice for today’s performance driven manufacturing organizations, which include: Motorola, General Motors, Honeywell, Siemens, and many more.

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Monday, June 13, 2005

Six Sigma Product Standards ...

Six Sigma Product Standards: Motorola and ViaStar Energy to Provide Remote Meter Reading Solution for Residential Water Customers: Wireless Automation to Help Control Costs for Utilities ...

Motorola partners to deliver wireless meter reading product that meets rigorous Six Sigma quality manufacturing standards ...

... "Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced today it has selected ViaStar Energy, Inc. as the master distributor for its Motorola® Remote Meter Reading Solution for North American residential water market customers. The wireless Automated Meter Reading (AMR) solution, which enables utilities to remotely read meters multiple times per day and access other important daily interval data from a distance, was developed to help utilities control costs and decrease operating expenses. ... A completely scalable, end-to-end solution for utilities, the system components offer a superb level of quality and reliability, including: Designed to Six Sigma manufacturing standard; Operation in urban and rural environments of all sizes; Compatible with Motorola and other existing networks; Rates competitive with drive-by metering technology; Two-year warranty on all hardware " ...


ViaStar Energy, Inc. is a privately held utility management company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. ViaStar’s business is focused upon implementing meters and metering technology for utilities. ViaStar provides a complete spectrum of services from technology provisioning, implementation and back office read, billing and customer care.

Motorola is a Fortune 100 global communications leader that provides seamless mobility products and solutions across broadband, embedded systems and wireless networks. In your home, auto, workplace and all spaces in between, seamless mobility means you can reach the people, things and information you need, anywhere, anytime. Seamless mobility harnesses the power of technology convergence and enables smarter, faster, cost-effective and flexible communication. Motorola had sales of US $31.3 billion in 2004.

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Sunday, May 08, 2005

Six Sigma Continuous Improvement ...

Patient Safety: Instilling Hospitals with a Culture of Continuous Improvement ...

... "There are numerous process improvement tools that hospitals can use to evaluate processes and identify solutions. Examples include process mapping and analysis software, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), root cause analysis, design of experiments and comprehensive six sigma programs. Six sigma has set a new standard for organizations in a variety of industries that are reducing errors to only 3.4 per million opportunities. Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee utilizes the six sigma methodology extensively to reduce process variation. Successes include improving outcomes with high-risk medication and reducing the variability of PCA infusion pumps, cycle times in analyzing lab specimens and patient falls. " ...


To reduce medical errors and improve operational efficiency, Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin was an early adapter of the disciplined productivity improvement methodology known as "Six Sigma." Developed and trademarked by Motorola and popularized by GE, Six Sigma has shown itself to be the most sophisticated quality system available. In 1999, Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin formed a consortium with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the National Patient Safety Foundation to use Six Sigma to reduce medical errors and improve operating efficiency.

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Sunday, March 20, 2005

Motorola Six Sigma For Software ...

Nancy Eickelmann, Accelerating Change in Your Organization Using Six Sigma ...

... Dr. Nancy Eickelmann is currently a research scientist for Motorola Labs and is leading the Motorola Six Sigma for software and systems measurement and evaluation research initiative. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and provides a leadership role in the development of Six Sigma tools and technologies. Prior to joining Motorola she was a member of the research staff at the NASA/WVU Software Research Laboratory, located at the NASA Independent Verification and Validation research facility. Her research focused on integrating core metrics into the NASA context to provide a measurement framework for software test technology improvements. ...

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Sunday, March 06, 2005

Five Six Sigma Competencies ...

TEACHING TOMORROW'S SKILLS ...

... "The educators and the business and labor representatives think it is important for workers to understand the bigger system in which they are operating and the actions needed to improve it. Take Motorola for example. It is one of the few American companies to win an increased market share in the Japanese pager, cellular phone and semiconductor markets and a Malcolm Baldridge Award for excellent quality. Motorola uses the five competencies to drive its Six Sigma Quality Program and is committed to not more than three parts per million defects in products or service to its customers. " ...

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Six Sigma Statistical Sciences

D-1: Statistical Sciences

... "Six Sigma originated at Motorola Corporation in the early 1980's. In 1988, Motorola became one of the first companies to win the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. The innovation and the implementation of Motorola's 'Six Sigma' initiative began to get national attention. Then, in 1994, Allied Signal adopted Motorola's Six Sigma initiative and by 1998, claimed to have saved $1.2 billion due to the implementation of Six Sigma. Consultants who were experts in Total Quality Management, soon became experts in Six Sigma. " ...

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Six Sigma Management Practices Recommendations

Management Practices Recommendations

... "Six Sigma is a management philosophy that has improving customer satisfaction to near perfection as its overriding philosophy. Six Sigma attempts to achieve greater levels of customer satisfaction through a reliance on facts and data to focus and manage the processes of an organization. From its beginnings at Motorola through its most well known implementation at General Electric, Six Sigma has proven to be a successful management practice in the private sector when implemented with strong leadership from the top of an organization and the willingness to apply the sizeable financial and human resources required. Without these ingredients though, Six Sigma has not performed well in the private sector." ...

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Sunday, February 20, 2005

Six Sigma Healthcare Success Story ...

Reducing Medical Errors: A Review of Innovative Strategies to Improve Patient Safety

From Prepared Witness Testimony: Mr. Ken Freeman, Chairman & CEO, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, One Malcolm Avenue, Teterboro, NJ, 07608 ...

... "we have incorporated these concepts into our own Six Sigma initiative to help take us to the next level in improving quality and safety. The Six Sigma approach has paid dividends for countless manufacturing companies during the past twenty or more years, including General Electric, Texas Instruments, and Motorola. We are the first major company in healthcare services to pursue Six Sigma, and have been underway for more than two years. Six Sigma is already changing Quest Diagnostics, and I am absolutely convinced that it will ultimately change the world of healthcare quality and safety for the better, forever. During today's hearing, you will learn about many fascinating and important technology solutions that will reduce errors and improve safety. But technology can only be as effective as the processes that employ it. The Six Sigma approach is a philosophy and a type of analytic thinking that can permeate an organization and drive behavioral change. Quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency go hand-in-hand. Improving quality and safety is not only a moral imperative for us, it also makes solid business sense. We have made a significant investment to provide foundation training for virtually all of our employees, and we have extensively trained almost 200 Six Sigma experts called Black Belts. These experts are leading more than 200 distinct defect-reduction projects, with several dozen having been completed. Six Sigma is a statistical measure representing virtual perfection, defined as 99.9997% quality, or no more than 3.4 errors per million opportunities. Our pursuit of Six Sigma quality is in its early stages and we also have much more to achieve. But we are making great progress." ...

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Six Sigma Historical Perspective ...

D-1: Statistical Sciences

... "Six Sigma originated at Motorola Corporation in the early 1980's. In 1988, Motorola became one of the first companies to win the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award http://www.quality.nist.gov/. The innovation and the implementation of Motorola's 'Six Sigma' initiative began to get national attention. Then, in 1994, Allied Signal adopted Motorola's Six Sigma initiative and by 1998, claimed to have saved $1.2 billion due to the implementation of Six Sigma. Consultants who were experts in Total Quality Management, soon became experts in Six Sigma. Six Sigma may be considered a modern version of Total Quality Management. There are no new analytical tools with Six Sigma that were not applied in the 1980's with TQM. Six Sigma does have some standard methodology and organizational guidelines that are unique. Six Sigma's standard framework methodology is called DMAIC (de-may-ic): Define, Measure, Analysis, Improve, and Control." ...

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Six Sigma Patient Safety: Reduce Medical Errors and Their Impact

Doing What Counts for Patient Safety: Federal Actions to Reduce Medical Errors and Their Impact ...

... "In 1986, Motorola instituted a strategy called Six-Sigma Quality, whose name refers to the Greek letter used to represent standard deviation from the mean of any normally distributed curve. A company which has six-sigma quality experiences only 3.4 defects or errors per million products or events. This is the equivalent of seeing only one misspelled word in about six typical mystery novels or one fumble in 1,600 football games. Through the six-sigma quality strategy, Motorola, General Electric, and others have substantially reduced their error rates. These companies have systems in place to monitor and report errors and defects so that proper action can be taken, and it is no surprise that these companies are the leaders in their respective industries. Although originally devised for reducing defects in manufacturing plants, the application of the six-sigma quality approach has provided benefits to service industries as well" ...

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Six Sigma Healthcare Quality Levels ...

Is health care ready for Six Sigma quality?

From Milbank Q, Chassin MR writes ...

... "Serious, widespread problems exist in the quality of U.S. health care: too many patients are exposed to the risks of unnecessary services; opportunities to use effective care are missed; and preventable errors lead to injuries. Advanced practitioners of industrial quality management, like Motorola and General Electric, have committed themselves to reducing the frequency of defects in their business processes to fewer than 3.4 per million, a strategy known as Six Sigma Quality. In health care, quality problems frequently occur at rates of 20 to 50 percent, or 200,000 to 500,000 per million. In order to approach Six Sigma levels of quality, the health care sector must address the underlying causes of error and make important changes: adopting new educational models; devising strategies to increase consumer awareness; and encouraging public and private investment in quality improvement." ...

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Monday, February 14, 2005

Upcoming Six Sigma Events ...

MASET, LLC: Upcoming Events: Seminar titled "Achieving Customer Focus through Six Sigma" will be held on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sewall Center for Leadership, Robert Morris University, Moon Township, PA 15108. Achieving Customer Focus Through Six Sigma for the Small and Midsize Business is a full-day Seminar that delivers an understanding of how the principles of Six Sigma, now in use by more than 80% of Fortune 500 corporations, can be applied to medium and small businesses.

MASET was formed by Charles Loew in 2000 to help organizations apply the tools developed and taught by Motorola University to organizations throughout the world. Charles spent 10 years with the consulting and training services team of Motorola University in applying these tools in many organizations.

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Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Six Sigma Product Development Career ...

Six Sigma Product Development Career: Align Technology Appoints Rok Sribar, Ph.D., as Vice President ...

From Yahoo News (press release) ... "His experience at GE in research and Six Sigma product development, along with his Product Lifecycle Management expertise from Sun and Symbol, will be ...

... Align Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALGN), the inventor of Invisalign(R), a proprietary method of straightening teeth without wires and brackets, has named Rok Sribar, Ph.D., as Vice President, Research & Development, reporting directly to Align President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas M. Prescott. ...


Align Technology designs, manufactures and markets Invisalign, a proprietary method for treating malocclusion, or the misalignment of teeth. Invisalign corrects malocclusion using a series of clear, nearly invisible, removable appliances that gently move teeth to a desired final position. Because it does not rely on the use of metal or ceramic brackets and wires, Invisalign significantly reduces the aesthetic and other limitations associated with braces. Invisalign is appropriate for treating adults and older teens. Align Technology was founded in March 1997 and received FDA clearance to market Invisalign in 1998.

Additional resources on Six Sigma product development ...

DMADV / DFSS / New Product & Service Introduction: Journal. Six Sigma and the Evolution of Quality in Product Development The evolution of Six Sigma parallels that of quality methods. ...

Design for Six Sigma - Product Development Support: Design for Six Sigma is a comprehensive approach to product development that links business and consumer needs to critical product attributes to product ...

DFSS for Product: Six Sigma Programs: DFSS for Product Development. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a methodology for driving breakthrough performance in new product development. ...

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Sunday, January 16, 2005

Inventory Stock-Outs Decreased Using Six Sigma DMAIC Process ...

Inventory Stock-Out Six Sigma DMAIC Process ...

From Decisioneering, Inc ...

... In this case study, the Six Sigma DMAIC process is augmented with powerful optimization tool, CrystalBall, to decrease the number of inventory stock-outs while minimizing inventory costs for a company that sold perishable inventory. The Six Sigma project team resolved this problem and lowered the defect rate for stock-outs. The use of a stochastic solution, such as CrystalBall, in the DMAIC process resulted in lower costs than other methods. Also, the optimization model is run dynamically in the control phase of the DMAIC process to incorporate the latest demand and delivery information to determine if the improvement in defect rate can be sustained.

Crystal Ball is a suite of Excel add-ins that help turn your existing engineering and process spreadsheet models into dynamic forecasting tools. Today, Crystal Ball is the tool chosen by more than 85% of the Fortune 500. Companies like GE, Motorola, Honeywell, Seagate, Black & Decker, and Osram Sylvania all rely on Crystal Ball to manage risk, reduce variability, and make more informed business and strategic decisions. Crystal Ball is for anyone who uses spreadsheets and needs to forecast uncertain results. Six Sigma Black Belts, Master Black Belts, Green Belts, and other practitioners in nearly every industry, from manufacturing to software to pharmaceuticals to consulting, all rely on Crystal Ball to improve the quality of their Six Sigma analyses. In addition to Monte Carlo simulation, key Crystal Ball features include distribution fitting to historic data, correlation of distributions, sensitivity analysis, precision control of simulations, and forecast filtering. ...

The use of a stochastic solution, such as CrystalBall, in the DMAIC process resulted in lower costs than other methods

Since 1986, Decisioneering, Inc. has been providing decision analysis software and solutions that empower individuals and organizations to make better decisions. Trust the leader in risk-analysis software to deliver better outcomes by defining risk and uncertainty. In October 2004, Decisioneering, Inc. was ranked on the Deloitte & Touche Colorado Technology Fast 50 list of fastest-growing technology companies in Colorado. This is the seventh year in a row that Decisioneering has made the list, which is based on five-year percentage revenue growth.

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Friday, November 26, 2004

Six Sigma: Statistical Sciences

From Los Alamos National Laboratory ...

... "Six Sigma originated at Motorola Corporation in the early 1980's. In 1988, Motorola became one of the first companies to win the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (http://www.quality.nist.gov/. The innovation and the implementation of Motorola's Six Sigma initiative began to get national attention. Then, in 1994, Allied Signal adopted Motorola's Six Sigma initiative and by 1998, claimed to have saved $1.2 billion due to the implementation of Six Sigma. Consultants who were experts in Total Quality Management, soon became experts in Six Sigma. " ...

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Six Sigma Defense Logistics: Future Naval Leaders Conference-- The Revolution in Business Affairs ...

From US Dept of Defense, Speeches ...

... "how many of you are familiar with this latest trend in business management called Six Sigma. How many of you have heard of Six Sigma? [Members of audience raise hands.] Oh, a lot of you. Okay. As you know, it really started when Motorola bought it to build a pager that would never break down in its lifetime. And, of course, they did. It's a remarkable piece of equipment. Whose pager stopped? I mean, these are really remarkably reliable pieces of equipment. And Six Sigma refers to those numbers of items where there is a failure. So if one out of ten million or a hundred million would fail, you are Six Sigma company. It's extraordinarily high quality, exceptionally high quality." ...

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Monday, November 08, 2004

Lean Manufacturing Software Solutions: Eyelit Wins Significant Deal with Large European MEMS Manufacturer

From Business Wire (press release), CA ... and coordination of the supply chain, Eyelit is the best choice for manufacturers with multiple sites looking to adopt lean manufacturing, improve supply chain ...

Lean manufacturing is supported through the implementation of collaborative production management systems, which provide production control and coordination. Eyelit is a supplier of software solutions, focused on lean software, in the electronic manufacturing and life sciences space ...

... Eyelit, Inc., the leader in Collaborative Production Management (CPM) solutions for visibility, control and coordination of manufacturing operations for the electronics, life sciences, and semiconductor industries, announced today it had won a order for their VISUAL*eyes(TM) enterprise manufacturing suite, at a large automotive MEMS component supplier in Europe. This marks the fifth MEMS manufacturer to select Eyelit's products to improve process control and operational efficiency. ...


Eyelit is the leader in Collaborative Production Management (CPM) solutions for visibility, control and coordination of manufacturing operations for the electronics, life sciences, and semiconductor industries. Eyelit uniquely delivers a broad set of manufacturing solutions including product costing, asset management, manufacturing execution, quality management and business process management that enable our customers to cost-effectively optimize production and company processes. With exceptional customer service, Eyelit has time and again proven superior innovative technology can deliver quicker time to value. More than 30 leading companies, including Motorola, Analog Devices, Corning, Kodak, Sony, Vishay, and Tower Semiconductor, rely on Eyelit as a trusted software partner.

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