articles
Creativity and Innovation
Driving Operational Innovation Using Lean Six Sigma: CEOs today face mounting pressures to innovate; yet finding ways to actually enable innovation remains a challenge for many. Lean Six Sigma, as it turns out can do more than improve processes, it can help discover innovation opportunties... by George Byrne, Dave Lubowe and Amy Blitz, IBM Institute for Business Value, 2007.
Managing Creativity for Project Success (PDF): Creativity has a reputation for wild, uncontrolled generation of new ideas. TRIZ is a problem solving method that accelerates a project team's ability to solve risk-creating problems and leads to project success... by Ellen Domb.
Using TRIZ in a Six Sigma Environment (PDF): Use TRIZ for real breakthrough problem solving in your Six Sigma efforts. The tools of TRIZ are applicable in both DMAIC and DFSS... by Ellen Domb.
- Dentist Drills Down to the Root Causes of Office Waste: The story of how a Jacksonville, FL dentist applied lean tools to his office.
Getting Lean Everywhere & Every Day: Of all of the practitioners of lean that we've ever encountered, Plymouth, Michigan-based Freudenberg-NOK continues to be an exemplar of what can be done through dedication to doing things in a better way. Here are some of the new things we've learned about this muda-eliminating firm ... Automotive Design and Production
Learning Lean: How I used "common sense" to manufacture widgets for TI Automotive. Automotive Design and Production
The Journey to World Class: This article is the first in a series of reports by Cauhorn documenting J W Harris' continuous-improvement efforts. In this initial report, Cauhorn provides a broad overview of the company's plans and progress in becoming lean. IndustryWeek, 2001.
This is One Fast Factory: The igus manufacturing plant in Cologne, Germany can shrink or expand at a moment's notice. Its flexible design keeps it up to speed with an unpredictable, fast-changing market. FastCompany.com 2001.
Turning Japanese: During the first week of August 2000, a TRW Chassis Systems plant held a Kaizen event. Management brought in a sensei. They pulled people off the production floor and out of the offices to create action teams. A mandate was issued0 solve some of the plant's most pressing problems in just five days, without stopping production. It's harder-and easier-than you might think... Automotive Design and Production
When Couches Fly: Rowe Furniture Inc. vows not to fall to imports. All it needs is a faster way to make sofas and chairs. FastCompany.com, 2004.
- Best Practices - Design For Six Sigma says, 'Let's build in quality from the start.' Industry Week, 2002.
Engines of Democracy: The General Electric plant in Durham, North Carolina builds some of the world1s most powerful jet engines. But the plant1s real power lies in the lessons that it teaches about the future of work and about workplace democracy. Fast Company.com, 1999.
Quality Is Not Just a Buzzword Or Fad, It's Required For Success: Motorola, Honeywell, Kodak and General Electric all have embraced Six Sigma quality programs as a way to achieve operating and supply-chain excellence. SupplyChainBrain.com, 2000.
Six Sigma Improvement Models: Two Paths to Success: Defining DMAIC vs DFSS/DMADV, by Diane Ritter and Michael Brassard, excerpted from Sailing Through Six Sigma, 2002.
The Journey to World Class: This article is the first in a series of reports by Cauhorn documenting J W Harris' continuous-improvement efforts. In this initial report, Cauhorn provides a broad overview of the company's plans and progress in becoming lean. IndustryWeek, 2001.
- Growing Your Customer Base ... From "Whoa" to "Wow": an introduction to Kano's 3-arrow diagram and four key concepts to understand the different levels of customer satisfaction in preparation to doing a Kano survey analysis, by Diane Ritter and Michael Brassard, 2007.
Kano's Methods for Understanding Customer-defined Quality (PDF): a special issue by The Center for Quality Management (Boston) on understanding Kano's methods for creating and analyzing customer-focused questions.