A Pop-Culture “PDCA” Cycle?
A few random thoughts from being on the couch all day Sunday, catching up on work and watching a bit of NFL football. One, a thought about Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and the “PDCA” cycle, the other about a pizza…
Tag Six Sigma
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Hospital Looking for a “Sensi”??
A year or two ago, I saw a hospital job posting for a Lean implementer. This hospital wanted every certification under the sun, including “Design for Six Sigma” (DFSS) certification. For what purpose, at a hospital, I have no idea.…
What is Lean Sigma? Video from Johns Hopkins
Here is a short video from Johns Hopkins Medicine, a member of the Healthcare Value Network, an effort I help facilitate through the Lean Enterprise Institute. This video is from the Johns Hopkins Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care.
LeanBlog Podcast #73 – Doug Burgess, Xerox
Episode #73 is a conversation with Doug Burgess, Senior VP of Corporate Lean Six Sigma for Xerox. We talk about the Lean Six Sigma approach at Xerox, how they’ve used it internally and how they have used it to help…
Lean is Not Sustainable, Except When It Is
What top-performing EDs do – Hospitals & Health Networks I was really, Really, REALLY puzzled by the first line in this article, that read: “Lean, Six Sigma and Toyota Production System applications have simply not proven sustainable in health care.…
Does Toyota Use Six Sigma? (And No, Six Sigma Didn’t Start at Toyota)
No. Toyota’s factories do not run a formal Six Sigma program, and they do not hand out belts. What Toyota does teach, broadly and without much ceremony, is basic quality control and statistical thinking, the kind of tools that predate…
Lean Healthcare in Ohio
I found a few articles lately about Lean being implemented in some Ohio hospitals, so I’ll share two of them here. Crescent-News.com – Hospitals headed to the ER? This first article focuses more on the problems faced by Ohio hospitals…
Lame Survey about Lean in Healthcare?
Hospitals See Benefits of Lean and Six Sigma Regular readers know I often write about what I termed “L.A.M.E.” — Lean as Misguidedly Executed. The ASQ (American Society for Quality) survey that I linked to at the top probably just…
Demand for Lean Talent Outpaces Six Sigma in Down Economy?
I’ve known Tim Noble for a few years now, so I’m going to basically print his press release as a guest post here. We chatted on the phone the other day and he threw out an acronym that made me…
"Black Belt for Sale"
Black Belt for Sale | Quality Digest – Mike Micklewright You might remember Mike from his Dr. Deming podcast and impersonation. Not that I’m trying to fuel any “Lean vs. Six Sigma” hooey, but Mike has a provocative (don’t read…
Three Formal Efforts Tie Lean and Green Together
By Jason Turgeon: It looks like the Lean + Green movement is gathering steam. In the last week, I’ve seen three pretty big efforts that formalize the relationship. This is great news for members of both camps, as Lean management…
"If you didn’t do it in Six Sigma, then it didn’t happen."
Guest Columnist – Quality Digest Wow, this is pretty bad… allegedly about GE. Granted, any dysfunctional Lean company could end up with similar dynamics. So none of this is knock on Six Sigma… it’s about human nature and organizational dynamics.…
