All organizations experience change. Change occurs when a company expands into new territory or manufactures a new brand or product. Change happens when new clients jump on board and the old way of doing things doesn’t deliver exactly what they need. Change is the order of the day when two companies merge or when a new CEO is appointed.

Change is inevitable when a company continues to grow and needs new and better ways to exploit opportunity. Outstanding companies embrace change and put a premium on change management.

In a nutshell, the role of change management is to successfully manage change. Change management is primarily concerned with three basic elements:

1. The Nature of Change
Naturally, it all begins and ends with change. The key to successful change management is to understand clearly what change involves and to implement the correct plan on how to deal with it.

To deal with change, an organization must ask the right questions. What is the nature of the change that it requires to be managed? What are the goals of this change and what is necessary to achieve them? What are the key departments involved and how many of their people will be affected? Who is the sponsor of change and who will be in charge of change management?

The organization must mobilize a team to address change. The team may include project leaders within the company or external specialists who are more familiar with the technical side of the change. This team can either be under Human Resources or assigned under the department where most of the change takes place. The sponsor of the change must create a team structure that best addresses change management.

2. The Repercussions of Change
Change management has two perspectives: the organization and the people. The repercussions of change are usually strongest in the rank and file. They manifest themselves in two areas: technical and behavioral.

In the technical area, change management is concerned with whether the skills of employees are sufficient to deal with changes in their deliverables and whether the company’s systems and processes adequately support the attainment of these deliverables. Is additional training necessary? Will the company have to hire specialists and new project leaders? Does the company have to tweak or drastically alter its systems and processes? These are the questions that change management must address.

In the behavioral area, change management is concerned with how people deal with change and whether this affects their behavior and performance on the job. Is there resistance to the new way of doing things? Are employees stressed or depressed and does this affect their productivity? Is there resentment, disloyalty, mistrust, envy? The behavioral area of change management can sometimes be the most difficult to manage.

3. Addressing the Imperatives of Change
Based on the first two elements, the organization must now determine strategy and draw up a plan of action to address the imperatives of change.

This plan should include a roadmap that gives a step-by-step account of what the organization must do to manage change properly. The plan should have provisions for training employees to develop new skills, coaching them as they use these new skills and motivating them to fully adapt to the new way of doing things. The plan should also anticipate resistance and how to deal with it.

The change management team should also plan how to communicate change to employees in a manner that emphasizes its benefits, addresses resistance and prompts them to embrace change.

In closing, the plan should ensure that employees have successfully adapted to change and that the desired levels of efficiency and productivity are achieved on a consistent basis.

Learn more information about 6Sigma.com’s Lean Six Sigma training coursework, available as classroom, onsite, or online options.

The post Elements of Change Management appeared first on 6sigma.

One tip we recommend you try why finding the right Six Sigma practitioner is to request testimonials. These can be from past or current students, or even companies who employ personnel from this particular course. Regardless, testimonials will offer needed insight into your practitioner. Though, practicing this tip can face numerous obstacles. In today’s article, we will outline our three-step approach to asking for testimonials from your online practitioner.

The Approach

Never begin asking for testimonials without a clear mission in mind. First, what type of practitioner are you considering? Do they offer certification, training, or only certificate examinations? Next, decide what information you want to receive. Do you want to read only testimonials from current students or should you request ones from certified Six Sigma employees as well? Once you have compiled your fundamental goal for using your practitioner, contact them

This step will provide you with the first indication of how official your practitioner in question is. If basic contact information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, or a physical address are hard to find, chances are you should find a new provider. If you do have contact information, first begin by sending an email. Briefly, explain that you’re interested in their program (specify which one if there are multiple). Then, ask for a list of testimonials from past or current students. Additionally, you can also request contact information for people who have taken the course, like references on a resume. 

The Response

How and when your Six Sigma provider responds will be your next indication of their program. If you have to wait more than two working days to receive a response via email, look for a new provider. Not only is this unprofessional, but it also indicates the level of attention you can expect to receive from staff if you enroll in the course.

If you get a response back but without any testimonials, this is another warning sign that you should consider a new recruiter. While the practitioner may be caught off guard by your response, providing feedback, positive or negative, on the course is not out of the question. Furthermore, if you received a reply but an answer as to why testimonials would not be provided, try giving them a call. This is also an opportunity to ask questions about the program directly to the provider and to feel out how they will interact with you.

The Conclusion

The end goal of this process is to receive testimonials from your potential Six Sigma practitioner. Now at the final step, your job is to form a conclusion. To help, here are some basic guidelines you can follow to decide if your practitioner is worth your time.

If you receive testimonials without hassle, move forward with said provider. Likewise, if they also provide positive and negative reviews about the course, it’s a safe bet you can trust the information given. However, if you do not receive testimonials, have difficulty communicating with the provider, or face a prolonged delay in contact, walk away. Of course, it can be irritating to have wasted time on an ill-repute practitioner. However, it’s better to waste an email, phone call, and a few days than weeks of partaking in a program, only to not receive what you expected.

Following this simple, three-step guide to asking for testimonials will put you on track to finding the right Six Sigma provider!

The post How to Ask for Testimonials from an Online Six Sigma Provider appeared first on 6sigma.

Certificate, Certification, and Training

The first, and simplest form of due diligence to practice is clarifying what exactly you need. When searching for a practitioner, it can be easy to click on the first few links that show up. However, keep in mind that programs’ orders correlate to their amount of paid advertising. Furthermore, multiple practitioners will attempt to blur the lines of what their programs offer. This is where due diligence comes into play!

If you have years of experience practicing the Six Sigma methodology, a practitioner who provides a formal certificate after passing an online course is the best option for you. Likewise, if you’re new to Six Sigma and need a basic understanding of the process, a training practitioner is the better option. Lastly, a certification program is ideal for those who want to combine the training and certification test process under one practitioner. While this is usually the most expensive option, it does provide the most experience and formal understanding of Six Sigma. 

Where Does the Accreditation Come From?

While it’s important to understand what type of program your practitioner offers, it’s even more so to recognize where accreditation will come from. Is your practitioner offering a training course through a university or an online program? Does the Better Business Bureau support the program’s accreditation? Have industry leading corporations used a particular certificate exam to test their employees? These questions and more are an easy way to not only assess the legitimacy of your course but to also clarify where your accreditation comes from. A Six Sigma certification is only worth as much as the provider!

Quality vs. Quantity of Content

Lastly, finding a reputable practitioner can be done by assessing the quality and quantity of the course’s content. For example, most classroom Black Belt certification courses take between four to six weeks to complete. If you find a practitioner online who offers a similar course, does their curriculum take the same amount of time? Likewise, the quality of the course work provided should help you determine whether your practitioner is the right fit or not. Most legitimate certification courses require you to complete a Six Sigma project to receive feedback on your process improvement skills. If you practitioner offers no hands-on experience, they may be lacking in content quality. Additionally, another due diligence tip is to analyze the platforms on which these courses run. Is a practitioner using an up-to-date software for their projects? Is your practitioner providing the correct examples for you to practice; i.e. service industry versus manufacturing?

Slightly questioning and researching Six Sigma practitioners can easily determine if they are the right fit for your needs. Remember, Six Sigma is a business process improvement method that requires discipline, structure, and most importantly, due diligence!

The post Identifying a Good Practitioner: Introduction to Due Diligence appeared first on 6sigma.

This doesn’t just apply to food. Many of us park in the same spot at work if it is available; we wear a certain style of clothing for most of our lives (given a slight change to keep up with the times), and even the songs we like are the same ones we liked as a child.

With that said, all of us humans have a core Six Sigma quality built into us — the desire to reduce variation. It seems to have been built into our DNA so that we didn’t even notice. In the Six Sigma methodology, variation is undesirable because it creates ambivalence and does not allow for consistent results or outcomes.

Routines and Habits 

We spend a lifetime creating those routines and habits because they work for us. It makes us more efficient because we remember what we have to do next. For people who keep misplacing their keys, one of the first solutions that the experts tell you is to always keep your keys in the same place. That way you know where your keys are.

Routine keeps us efficient so everything gets done at the same time, in the best way possible. If mac & cheese is a favorite food and it makes you happy, then by all means it would be a good practice to make sure you have it. Your inner child will thank you.

What this indicates is having a routine makes us efficient. Being a creature of habit seems to make us happy on some level, otherwise we wouldn’t keep doing it, and being happy improves the quality of our life.

Reducing variation and constantly improving quality — Six Sigma is in our DNA! Who knew.

Interested in learning more about Six Sigma for your organization or business? Learn more about our Six Sigma courses and services today.

The post Reducing Variation: Is Six Sigma in our DNA? appeared first on 6sigma.

First – Ask Questions

If you believe your Six Sigma certification is not authentic, chances are, someone else in your program feels the same. Depending on your course’s structure, the first tip is to talk with our students about the program. Does everyone feel cheated out on authentic Six Sigma training? Were there any major indications of foul practice by the instructor? Remember, there is power in numbers. If a collective of participants believe the training is illegitimate, there may be actions you can take against said program. While legal actions may be difficult and expensive to entertain, you can always bring the attention of the falsely advertised program to the Six Sigma community. Word of mouth travels farther than most think!

Second – Assess Your Losses & Gains

Of course, it’s discouraging when you have spent countless hours reviewing material and projects only for your work not to be formally recognized. However, you will not loose all knowledge. Imagine failing an exam in high school. The grade alone does not reflect every detailed of knowledge and experience you gained through the course. For Six Sigma, it’s the same situation. While the quality of education concerning the business process may lack compared to other programs, there is still substance on what you did learn. Accepting being take advantage of can be difficult, but it’s important not to undermine what experiences you gain through each endeavor in life.

Third – Damage Control

Hopefully, you will recognize a reputable practitioner early on in your Six Sigma certification journey. However, if you have not been aware of the illegitimate practice and have invested countless hours and money into a program, the best thing to do is damage control. Assess exactly how much time, energy, and work you have invested in the program and what your losses are. Just like some business deals will fall through, not all Six Sigma training programs will truthfully advertise their program. If you believe you have fallen victim to gaining a fake Six Sigma certificate, your best option is to leave the program immediately. Then, consult other Six Sigma professionals you know well and discuss your situation. Whether these are work colleagues, managers, or counterparts, it’s important to discuss what has happened and clarify what experiences are worth keeping.

The post Hacked: What to Do If You Have Bought a Fake Certificate appeared first on 6sigma.

Experience

When interviewing for a new position, you are sure to be asked about your past work experiences. What projects you managed, how you tackled difficult situations, and more, will all be assessed by your interviewer. Likewise, when searching for a Six Sigma accreditor, first look at what experiences you will gain. If a training program is only a few weeks long and offers no hands-on experience, chances are, they are a poor accreditor. Additionally, further warning signs of poor training would be a lack of communication with other students, reluctance to critique your work and progress, and no availability to work on certified Six Sigma projects.

Course Work

Whenever applying to a new course or training program, it’s important to see exactly the institute plans to teach you. Whether you’re seeking a Black Belt certification or just beginning as a White Belt, it’s vital to know what your course covers. Likewise, if you have access to the training program’s content, compare it to other programs. This allows you to assess their similarities and differences. This tip is a easy was to see if you’re facing a poor accreditor based on the lack of relevant content. Remember, the goal of a Six Sigma training program should focus on exposing you to the methodology, not just taking your money.

Past Users

When you shop online, it’s commonplace to read reviews of products you might wish to purchase. Likewise, search for reviews of past individuals who have taken the Six Sigma training course(s) you’re interested in. Are past students now senior managers at well-known corporations? Do they run their own consulting firm? Or have they become stagnant in their progress? Furthermore, if you’re interested in gaining a higher Six Sigma certification, sometimes the best method to find the right training program is to just ask your manager. Chances are, your employer has a list of preferred programs that they trust and send their colleagues to.

Your Next Steps

At the end of the day, finding the perfect Six Sigma training course depends on three things. They are your time limitations, your budget, and most importantly, your own preference. Six Sigma certification is an invaluable asset that will progress you within your career faster than most other certifications. Take the time to carefully find the right program for you and always be on the watch for poor accreditors!

The post Protect Your Reputation with a Recognized Six Sigma Certificate appeared first on 6sigma.

Working towards a mutual goal and obtaining it will contribute to your overall work satisfaction, and ultimately happiness.

Employers Take Heed: Your Employee’s Happiness Is Your Business

A happy work environment:

• Has fewer absentees
• Less employee turnover
• Establishes company loyalty
• Increases productivity up to 31% higher

We speak about happiness and we know when we feel it, yet we can’t define happiness. We can use the metaphor of a cat’s purr — we know when it happens, but we don’t know what exactly makes a cat purr or what causes it. But at best we can all agree, different things can bring on the feeling of what we call happiness.

Even with all of the technological advances we have made, we aren’t any closer to predicting a person’s mindset, which would tell us a person’s happiness level. Ultimately all human beings like being affirmed at a job that they will have worked approximately 100,000 hours of their lifetime.

As many of you know, in Six Sigma every role and the deployment of those roles are important in their own right. So, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of said business is the overall reason for implementing Six Sigma.

Every team member (employee) is uniquely responsible for the success of the company. Information is shared with other team members so everyone is part of the ongoing communications and are on the same page. This standard of communication is kept up throughout the entire company.

As a result, if every company that existed held Six Sigma standards and kept this united front, company loyalty would be at an all time high. In addition, stress levels would be at an all time low!

Learn about our Six Sigma training courses. Learn about our Green Belt courses coming up this spring!

The post Six Sigma Is the Template for Company Happiness appeared first on 6sigma.

Now you are here, let us get the introductions out of the way. What is Lean Six Sigma? It is a uniquely customer-focused strategy for process improvement. It uses management techniques specifically designed to reduce the probability of error and defect, while improving business performance. Why do we like it? Because it’s lean.

Lean Six Sigma combines Lean manufacturing and enterprise with Six Sigma. The objective is eliminating the eight kinds of waste (also known as Muda) that plague businesses. Let’s quickly recap what the Muda are:

Muda

• Inventory;
• Waiting;
• Transportation;
• Motion;
• Over-production;
• Over-processing;
• defects;
• Skills.

Lean Six Sigma is a relies on team-based effort to improve a business’s performance, systematically eliminating waste in addition to implementing innovative measures for process improvement.

Collaborate!

Lean Six Sigma relies on collaboration to be truly beneficial. There are several tiers of awareness and training, called Belts, for you to consider for your staff. Each Belt has its own skillset and focuses on particular elements of Lean manufacturing, enterprise, and Six Sigma.

Belts?

What are the belts? They follow a system similar (but not the same) as Karate. The idea is that flexing your Six Sigma skill set makes you, consequently, proficient in the martial arts of process improvement!

Basic training gets you a Yellow Belt, while Green Belts will be also trained to focus on tools usage, DMAIC, and Lean principles application. Black Belts are more experienced and generally act as full-time project leaders. They often have several years’ experience and most likely have contributed to many projects. Finally, the highest tier, MBB (or Master Black Belt, to the uninitiated), is a Black Belt with several years’ experience in addition to being qualified to teach Six Sigma.

You can learn more about training options here if you are interested.

Get Started!

How do you get started? Firstly, you need to have a valid reason to use Lean Six Sigma methodology when working with a business to improve their production processes. You need a Burning Platform, which establishes the necessity for using Lean principles. This is your reason (or ‘why’) for which something is done, and it should, therefore, represent the goals you have set.

An example of a valid reason would be if your company were suffering high-profit losses on account of defective products as a result of variation in the components used to make those products. Rather than relying on ‘gut feelings’, you can systematically correct this by identifying problem areas and resolving them.

Get Organised!

Remember to organise your resources properly and use them effectively. We recommend training one or more staff members in Six Sigma strategy. Remember, the more you invest, the better your outcome, because by investing in staff training you will have your own dedicated practitioners. This approach ensures your business maintains current success and continues to achieve more in the future.

You may be aware of the individual benefits of Lean and Six Sigma methodologies but when combined their rewards are multiplied. Most of all, it adds value to any business. Lean Six Sigma is the answer you and many companies around the world have been searching for to aid process improvement and help you deliver excellent services for your customers.

The post Let’s Get Lean: An Lean Introduction Six Sigma appeared first on 6sigma.

It’s back to basics today as we discover (or rediscover) DMAIC. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. These 5 concepts make up a potent data-driven improvement cycle to direct and drive Six Sigma projects, with the aim of improving production measures within businesses.

It’s not just a concept though, as you can follow these procedural steps to make sure you are applying proper project governance within the Six Sigma framework. If you prefer a more in-depth look at each DMAIC facet, you can head over to 6Sigma.us which has a great series on this here.

Define

You must clearly articulate the problem(s) your business is suffering from. Start with the problem, consider the customers – how does it affect them? – and the critical process outputs – voice-of-the-customer and critical-to-quality. You need to have a clear understanding and statement of your business goals, as well as any potential resources you may have.

You should also know the scope of the project, and a high-level timeline are essential. Pool your current knowledge, write everything down, and work from there. Then you can set goals, and create your dream project team to take charge of things.

Measure

This step allows you to take an objective standpoint when viewing your business’s progress. It’s necessary if you are to establish current baselines that will inform any improvements you wish to make.

Measure, as the name implies, involves the collection and collation of data. Here, you you can establish metric baselines for process improvement. These baselines must be viewed against the concluding performance metrics once the project has been completed, to find objective data on potential improvements that have or have not been made.

Once this is determined, your project team can then decide on the areas to be measured as well as criteria and methodology required. This can involve a lot of effort to assess the viability of the proposed systems for measurement, but it is ultimately rewarding, as good data allows you make the best decisions.

Analyze

Analyze focuses on a few things. You should locate, identify, validate and select the root causes of problems that need to be eliminated. Businesses conducting examinations and improvement implementation will neglect to discover or correct the root cause of production problems. Often, you’ll find this is due to lack of resources (such as time), and will eliminate only the surface symptoms. You need to look deeper and investigate the latent causes.

You will find that root causes vary greatly and any number of potential origins can stem the same problems. Data collection plans are useful as they enable you to validate the root causes and rule out irrelevant issues.

Improve

Improvements should be identified and tested before being implementation. Creativity is a great asset here, so don’t overlook brainstorming or free association to get your solution-engine going. Follow these steps:

• Create;
• Select simplest solutions;
• Test using PDCA cycle;
• Anticipate avoidable risks (based on results using FMEA);
• Create implementation plan;
• Implement solution(s)!

Control

The final stage involves monitoring and maintaining your improvements to ensure continued, sustainable success. You’ll need a control plan, and any documents will need to be updated as appropriate. Your control chart assesses the stability of the improvements made. This helps to ensure relapses do not occur, and your hard-won changes stick around.

The post DMAIC: Principles to (Live and) Work By appeared first on 6sigma.

Many believe that cutting costs within healthcare means the quality of service will go down. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even on a basic level, Six Sigma would lower costs while improving patient service and overall outcomes. This process is at the core of Six Sigma.

Cigna is the Example

One health insurance company that has been using Six Sigma effectively is Cigna. They have eliminated the restriction of information among fellow departments, and it has brought about a number of benefits.

Cigna has their teams meet and share information of lessons learned. With all teams in the know, rates of customer satisfaction have been significantly increasing.

Imagine having a question about your insurance claim. So you login to your insurance company’s website, and are welcomed with easy to read information that answers your questions.

If you call Cigna with a question, the representatives are knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. By the time you hang up, your question is answered and you feel like they have your back.

Cigna leads its national competitors for the 4^th year in a row, in a majority of preventive and chronic care measures:

• 4,390 more diabetics were treated to acceptable blood glucose levels
• 1,755 more children received immunizations
• 10,933 more members were screened for colorectal cancer
• 3,998 more mothers received timely prenatal or postpartum care

Learn why companies like Cigna have turned to us for their Six Sigma training needs. We have several upcoming Green Belt classes open for enrollment – check our schedule for more info!

The post Six Sigma Keeps the Healthcare Industry Healthy appeared first on 6sigma.

Here’s an example: your employee asks for a day off for a personal event he wants to attend. You say, “Of course you can. You are such a wonderful employee that we want to make you happy.” Then you proceed to give him the day off, so he can attend his event.

Since your employee got what he wanted by asking you, he might ask you for something again in the future.

Here’s an example of negative reinforcement: Your employee asks you for a day off to attend a personal event. You say, “No, now I told you if you need time off, it has to be in writing and at least 2 weeks in advance.” Then you don’t give him what he wants, which is a day off for him to attend his event.

Since your employee did not get what he wanted by asking, the likelihood of him asking again for a day off without advance notice is slim to none.

In Leadership

Whether you own a small business or a large company, being in charge and having the cooperation of your staff is the core of being successful.

A leader has to be respected by his staff; a human being needs to be liked by his peers. Since a supervisor or boss is also human, there is a mindset you need to have in place.

Keep this in mind, behaviors are reinforced, not people.

If you are friendly with your staff, keep in mind that your mindset at the time you are leading is what will set the tone. Both you and your staff are together to give the company breath and life so that it can progress. If the company doesn’t have what it needs from the leader and the staff, the company will die.

When both the supervisor and staff have what is best for the company and customers mindset, respect is created between boss and staff, very much like a surgeon and his team of doctors who all do their part to save the patient’s life.

For information on our Six Sigma courses or services please visit 6sigma.com. Be sure to check out our upcoming Master Black Belt classes for 2017!

The post Leadership is a Positive Behavior appeared first on 6sigma.

As Six Sigma has become pervasive among major corporations, the financial benefits for these companies become more and more evident. With that said, our classes fill up fast! There are very few training offerings where you can actually see the financial benefits shortly after you take the course.

As a way of celebrating in the New Year, taking one of our popular courses would a great idea for yourself as well as your business.

Go to 6sigma.com and check all the classes we are offering. Whatever your need is, we offer a class just for you.  All certifications offered are trusted and accepted certifications. No matter where you live in the world, we have a class for you.

We offer expert training and certifications in Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Lean Six Sigma expert training and certification.

The training and knowledge you will receive will help you organize your time not only in your company, but can also be applied in your everyday life. That is the beauty of Six Sigma: it is versatile. Once you understand how it works, you will have more time for productive activities that bring more financial benefits.

We have courses that are one day commitments or some that are a few days, depending on the course. All our instructors have used Six Sigma methodology in the real world, so our instructors are the real deal. For more information call us at 855.674.4622 or go to 6sigma.com. 

Happy New Year from the staff at 6Sigma.com! 

The post Bring on the New Year with 6Sigma.com appeared first on 6sigma.

Change Management methodologies, such as Lean Six Sigma, utilize a systematic approach to cultural transformation. Often initiatives are launched via an introductory workshop which flags up the new organizational vision and facilitates team members to articulate the cultural changes that they consider will be necessary to achieve it. Handing over responsibility for defining such changes to team members increases the team’s sense of ownership of the change process.
In order for a change initiative to succeed, there must be “buy in,” to the new way of being by the entire organization. Change agents must be savvy enough to identify likely project saboteurs and skilled enough to turn them round before they negate the team effort. Often, a good way of doing this is to leverage the influence of those known to be respected by would be saboteurs, in order to turn them around. A skilled change agent also understands how to get individual team members on board by linking the cultural change with ultimate fulfillment of individual needs.

Seasoned change consultants are skilled at sensing, “the way the wind is blowing,” within an organization. However, the fuller picture, gained from a cultural analysis questionnaire, is of inestimable value in revealing important cultural issues that may be blind spots for change agents.
Such a questionnaire should to elicit relevant information from all organizational stakeholders and should aim to illuminate trends.

For instance, the questionnaire might seek to determine whether the management team’s actions support the new working methods and whether managers lead by example. A determination of whether people are working together cross functionally to make sure that changes happen, would also be of value. Such a questionnaire is also an excellent tool for determining whether it is perceived that formal training has been put in place to close the capability gap for individuals. Further, in probing whether program objectives have been most profitably linked to personal objectives, Likert scale type questions always prove invaluable.

Following on from an analysis of the trends revealed by the cultural analysis questionnaire, a recommendations list can be compiled. After this goals must be set for cultural change at an organisational, team and individual level. The subsequent evaluation of goal attainment progress must be ongoing as no effective change process can afford to be static.
Change agents invariably face resistance to the strategy they are charged with implementing. It is not easy for attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of a lifetime to be consigned to the garbage heap in favor of what are considered to be questionable alternatives.

As such, change agents must be competent at:
• Communicating and influencing appropriately in different situations
• Recognizing saboteurs and turning them round
• Recognizing pioneers and enlisting their help
• Setting up situations where small early wins are possible
• Being open to innovation
• Diffusing potentially explosive situations
• Facilitating solution finding
• Coaching and mentoring others through identity crisis
• Confronting denials and betrayals

A top change agent must have the skills and knowledge but mostly the attitude, to persevere. However at the deepest level, in order to achieve cultural transformation, a change agent must be able to facilitate relationships in order that they compliment the change process. For example a seasoned change agent might use a person they suspect is respected by an unwilling team member to exert appropriate influence and if they do not know such a person, they will recognize that they need to do some research in order to find one.

A good change agent is constantly seeking out intra and cross-team links that serve to strengthen the change process and skilfully pitching the gains that will accrue from such alliances to those concerned. This together with the systematic approach, described, is the perfect recipe for desirable cultural change and the resultant project success that accompanies it.

Get more information on our courses or services, or visit your nearest training center.

The post A Systematic Approach to Cultural Transformation appeared first on 6sigma.

Six Sigma draws its strength in success, by understanding that leadership in creating a solution has to be in increments. In other words, when getting a team together for a project solution, everyone has their particular strength in the contribution to the total solution.

3 Very Important Six Sigma Leadership Qualities:

• A leader understands firsthand what is needed and can unify the vision with his or her teammates.
• Inspires teammates to contribute to the solution.
• Maintains focus, and when dealing with conflict must deflect the situation, while being respectful and unifying the team.  

 
The ability to lead is both an inherited characteristic and a learned quality.  You can teach someone what it takes to be a leader, but after Leadership 101, some will have to keep reading to maintain their knowledge, while others’ natural talent will kick in. They will take it to another level that can’t be taught, but is more of an “arrival.”

Nature or Nurture… Who Cares

Good leaders, whether the skillset comes by naturally or nurtured, are important in order for success to be achieved in any establishment, as long as the leadership unites and conquers in keeping the vision alive. The goal is to deliver the best possible product, in record time, 99.99966% free of defects.

With Six Sigma, leadership unites and doesn’t divide, which is the reason Six Sigma has been so successful when implemented. If you would like more information on our courses or services, please visit 6sigma.com.

The post Leadership Six Sigma Style appeared first on 6sigma.

These non-manufacturing areas are all co-dependent components of the Six Sigma system and ignoring any of these elements may induce failure in attaining the level of achievement enjoyed by Toyota. Yet this is more effective than other complex methodologies. At times, people like to follow shortcuts and they succeed too by following them. All these are business tricks coming with various risk factors.

Many people witnessed the mixed outcomes of TQM (Total Quality Management) in the year 1980s and 1990s. Several sources advocate a success rate of not more than 25% to 30% among firms, which have tried TQM over Six Sigma systems.

Recently, in the US, numerous entrepreneurs are emphasizing more on the principles of Six Sigma on manufacturing areas and are overlooking supply chain, engineering, customer service, and distribution elements.

This is mainly due to the misconceptions that, these manufacturing areas only bring desired returns, but applying Six Sigma strategies to marketing, engineering, and customer services are likely to bring more productive outcomes than manufacturing areas do.

Lean Tools for Non-Manufacturing Areas:

Often, non-manufacturing organizations dealing mainly in retail or office-based operations may desire to expand their business operations. However, due to lack of knowledge and necessary tools they find it difficult to do. Hence, it is advisable to consider lean non-manufacturing Six Sigma tools and techniques to achieve efficiency in business operations.

For instance, TPS considered this below discussed Lean Six Sigma tools for improving their non-manufacturing areas:

1. 5S: This tool helped them to create a clean, efficient, and well-organized work environment. It provided them with a quick and visible achievement, while training the labor forces for other highly developed improvement efforts.

2. Self-Managed Teams: With the natural progression of Lean work settings, employees of TPS started to work as interdependent teams to accomplish company’s goals. When this started, TPS found that this is the ideal time to support and transform their manpower into a self-managed workforce capable of managing their areas individually with reduced supervision and oversights. Often, self-managed teams interact voluntarily with internal suppliers and customers to advance area effectiveness and tackle with area problems.

3. Six Sigma: It is a widely popular and quality Lean tool used in non-manufacturing areas. In GE (General Electric), the approach of Six Sigma has widened to include program and project management rules and tools, all these are complementary tools to lean manufacturing.

How TPS Enhanced Through Six Sigma Principles?

TPS applied its principles of Six Sigma in a systematic way. Initially, TPS targeted customer values. TPS know that customer itself may only define the value of the goods appropriately. Generally, it is expressed when customers find a product or service attractive.

At the basic level, there is no much reliability, availability and maintainability, but at the higher level, the value may certainly increase leading to multiple streams of income and good potential customers.

After the success of getting reputation and popularity, TPS followed other necessary steps to get greater exposure among the global prospects.

These important management steps included below mentioned tasks:

1. Customer Service: With complete product design and engineering, TPS has helped the customers to get full satisfaction once they use the product.
2. Information Management: TPS team members also play a vital role to inform customers about the marketed products and services. From order taking, to thorough scheduling to delivery, they are very effective.

Non-manufacturing work varies only where work product is often invisible. Nonetheless, non-manufacturing activities provide even more possible benefits than manufacturing activities.

Don’t forget to check out our schedule for 2017! If you would like more information on our courses or services please visit 6sigma.com.

The post Toyota Production System (TPS) Applies Six Sigma in Non-Manufacturing Areas appeared first on 6sigma.