Articles

Make that Lean and Mean!

It Takes a Leader When you hear the words “lean manufacturing”, what springs to mind? That you’re getting an inferior product because cost reduction efforts take precedence over customer satisfaction? That a manufacturing facility is ill-equipped or else has obsolete machinery that no longer meet today’s standards? That the product you just purchased came out […]

View More

Bench Warming or Benchmarking?

Introduction Benchmarking seems such a high-falluting word, another business concept that has been used ad nauseam. There’s a justification for that, we’re sure. But what’s the simplest way to describe benchmarking so even a high school student can understand it? Our research on benchmarking in process improvement revealed that the concept can be compared to […]

View More

Go Army, Go Six Sigma!

What’s good for the geese is good for the gander. Or better, what’s good for the private sector is good for the public sector. Our Six Sigma focus now turns to the United States Army. The generals have reason to be proud. That pride is expressed in US dollars. How does a savings of $110 million in 2005 sound? In […]

View More

Shedding off the Fat

Even the powerful need to lose some fat. Close to two years ago, a report was published online about an award that was given at Hanscom Air Force Base to a Mr. Harvey Dershin, Vice President of Aon/Rath & Strong. Presenting the award was Major General Arthur J. Rooney, Vice Commander of the Electronic Systems Center […]

View More

Military Order of the Day: Transformation

We’ll clarify that: it’s transformation through Lean Six Sigma (LSS). No less than the Secretary of the US Navy has initiated a three-year LSS action plan. This piece of news comes straight from the Pentagon and was published today, May 8, 2008. Serving as a backdrop to this initiative, we have: Fact # 1: the US Navy […]

View More