Dassault Systemes Six Sigma Design

Dassault Systemes launches new release of Isight which has embedded workflows to enable efficient simulations for design optimization. ...

... "Isight users can use the workflows to run hundreds or thousands of simulations without manual intervention. Using optimization methods such as Design of Experiments, Approximations, and Design for Six Sigma, engineers are able to explore the complete design space to identify optimal performance parameters. " ...

Via Dassault Systemes: Isight 4.0 for Simulation Automation and Design Optimization

Six Sigma Portfolio Management

Buhler AG will monitor the execution of its Lean Six Sigma program in a key division using Instantis' project portfolio management software, EnterpriseTrack. ...

... "EnterpriseTrack was selected by Buhler AG to manage and track the execution of its Lean Six Sigma program in its Engineered Products Division across all business functions. With corporate headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, and a presence in 40 countries around the globe, Buhler is a technology group and global market leader in food processing, chemical process engineering, and die casting. Buhler's objective is to improve its customers' performance and competitiveness by applying Lean Six Sigma methodologies and tools to its customer-facing business processes. " ...

Via Instantis: EnterpriseTrack for Lean Six Sigma Project Portfolio Management

Department of Defense Lean Six Sigma Software Enabler

The U.S. military standardizes on Minitab statistical software to support its implementation of quality improvement methods using Lean Six Sigma. ...

... "Since the U.S. Army deployed Lean Six Sigma in 2005, nearly 2,000 personnel have been trained, more than 1,000 projects have been completed, and more than 1,600 remain active. The Army credits these projects with achieving nearly $2 billion in savings so far. The Department of the Navy has trained more than 5,000 sailors and Marines as Six Sigma green or black belts since 2006. The Navy estimates savings from its projects for 2006 and 2007 to be $450 million, a 4-to-1 return on investment. The U.S. Air Force has trained more than 500 Six Sigma belts, and its Air Logistics Centers received two Shingo Prizes for quality improvement last year. The Air Force has committed to a 40,000-manpower reduction without impairing its operational capabilities due in part to efficiencies gained from its initiatives. " ...

Via Minitab: Minitab quality improvement software

Lean Six Sigma Program Tool Wanted

Requirements for DOD's lean six sigma program tool are described ...

... "The DoD LSS Program Office is seeking market capability statements, no longer than 15 pages in length, which provide insight into commercial capabilities to enable visibility and alignment of improvement efforts across the DoD enterprise using web-based tools. Areas of focus are the ability of product(s) to address: (1) strategic linkages between organizational objectives and improvement projects; (2) organization management via a strategic value hierarchy; (3) executive visibility of status, benefits, risks, savings and top-down driven metrics; (4) manageable and configurable templates based on best practice methodologies (.e.g Lean Six Sigma, Business Process Re-engineering, Business Genetics and Theory of Constraints, to name a few); (5) ability to set and track metrics for both financial and operational factors that portray our enterprise key performance indicators to effectively measure outcomes; " ...

Via Federal Business Opportunities: Lean Six Sigma Program Tool - Follow-up RFI

Predictive Equipment Maintenance

Sikorsky Aircraft, leader in design and manufacture of advanced helicopters, will use SPSS Predictive Analytics software to predict maintenance needs driving customer satisfaction and aircraft safety in its helicopter fleets. ...

... "Sikorsky offers customers various maintenance assurance programs to help improve aircraft availability and operate their fleet at a known cost. Included in this offering is the Total Assurance Program (TAP), covering up to 98 percent of costs related to parts and services. The organization sought a software solution to help identify and predict equipment maintenance for helicopter customers, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. Sikorsky selected SPSS Predictive Analytics text mining and data mining software and its Predictive Analytics enterprise-wide enabling platform to analyze helicopter and pilot data collected by the aircraft health and usage monitoring system and flight maintenance log records. " ...

Via SPSS: Predictive Analytics

UPDATE 4/28/2008: Here's another example of company that uses service innovation to drive customer differentiation: Rolls Royce. ...

Service Innovation: "Spohrer says he was told at a meeting, don't buy the engines. Instead, they buy a service level agreement and a service, so that every time a plane lands Rolls Royce technicians work to improve the engine's performance from a command centre that knows where all the engines are and at what altitude."

SAP cProjects Six Sigma Project Support

SAP implements functional enhancements to its latest version of cProjects, V 4.5. ...

... "With cProjects 4.5, Six Sigma improvement projects can also be mapped efficiently. For this, the solution offers the corresponding project roles and the option of flexibly defining project key figures and tracking these in reporting. " ...

Via SAP INFO: cProjects 4.5

Minitab Recognized For Six Sigma in Manufacturing

Minitab is recognized by Frost and Sullivan with its Award for Customer Value Leadership of the Year in the quality compliance, manufacturing productivity and statistical process control market. ...

... "Using the Minitab packages, customers have been able to achieve a greater degree of standardization in their quality improvement projects, which in turn has made these projects easy to supervise and manage. This has minimized the amount of resources required to complete individual projects and saved companies time and money at the overall project level. In addition to reducing costs, Minitab software has enabled project leaders to easily access more information at various crucial stages of a project, allowing them to make more informed decisions. Minitab's wide set of customer services and allied support activities are other competitive advantages that differentiate it from other participants. The company boasts of a strong technical support suite that provides free assistance to its users and helps identify customers' most recent requirements, thereby obtaining their confidence. Minitab's recently released Minitab(R) 15 Statistical Software includes very useful enhancements, such as probability distribution plots, broader Gage R&R capabilities, the ability to attach formulas to columns in the worksheet and the latest reliability methods for forecasting future warranty claims. " ...

Via Frost & Sullivan: Frost & Sullivan Extols Minitab Inc. for Its Ability in Assisting Customers to Make Optimum Utilization of their Resources

Quality Execution System Integrates into ERP

Apriso Corporation improves the functionality of their FlexNet Quality application – with a Quality program capable of performing purely as an execution application, or as a Quality Execution System. ...

... "This application enhancement provides manufacturers a viable alternative to purchasing third party Quality Management Systems (QMS), which can often be challenging to integrate with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications because of overlapping business processes, incompatible quality plans and data collection activities. Apriso's FlexNet QES was designed instead to complement existing functionality within ERP systems provided by vendors such as SAP, Microsoft, Oracle or Infor Global Solutions. Few will argue the importance of an effective quality assurance program to achieve global manufacturing excellence - the challenge lies in how to effectively design, execute and administer such a program. One approach has been to purchase a third party QMS to provide planning, execution and reporting on overall product quality. The problem with this approach is that many existing quality management functions within ERP systems already perform most of these tasks, so any benefits from a QMS implementation are reduced through a duplication of efforts and data reconciliation issues.

Quality Execution Systems recognize that ERP applications are designed as centralized data repositories, providing a global view of corporate performance, customer interactions, and order status while supporting Quality Assurance (QA) planning efforts best performed at the corporate level. Best-in-class manufacturers have demonstrated that quality execution is best performed as an embedded process - not as loosely linked activities - within production, maintenance and warehouse operations. " ...

Via Apriso: Quality Execution System

iGrafx Software For Six Sigma Business Process Improvement

iGrafx releases 2007 version of its solutions for process excellence, that enhances modeling, simulation, mapping, and Lean Six Sigma support. ...

... "Improved Lean and Six Sigma Support: iGrafx 2007 offers great new features for Lean users including the ability to create Extended Value Stream Maps to obtain a lean view that crosses plant, divisional, and company boundaries. Six Sigma enthusiasts, on the other hand, will use the new Prioritization and Failure Mode Spreadsheets to spotlight improvement opportunities and mitigate failure mode effects faster. Users will also be able to define and scope Six Sigma projects, and identify progress towards process goals with the use of iGrafx Process Central repository. " ...

Via iGrafx: iGrafx 2007 Product Suite Enables Enterprise Business Process Improvement