Six Sigma
The Center for Corporate and Professional Development
There is a lot of discussion in the industrial arena about Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma. Many times, it appears that authors promote their focus on one of these best practice approaches, and discuss the other as if it were a competing or opposing view. If we take a deeper look, however, we should see there is great synergy and value in ap...
The Center for Corporate and Professional Development
Written by Kent State Facilitators John Novak and John Potkalitsky An effective continual improvement program needs to include involvement from everyone in the organization. Achieving this level of cultural awareness takes time and must be nurtured employee by employee. One of the first questions that employees ask is, “What do you want m...
The Center for Corporate and Professional Development
Written by Kent State Facilitators John Novak and John Potkalitsky Continual Improvement Roadmaps In the previous article, “Lean or Six Sigma: Which One?”, we talked about selecting a Roadmap. We mentioned DMAIC and PDCA as being two popular roadmaps used in the Lean Six Sigma communities. Remember, the Roadmap articulates the process we...
The Center for Corporate and Professional Development
Written by Kent State Facilitators John Novak and John Potkalitsky The Need for Continual Improvement Today more than ever, organizations are faced with the challenge to reduce costs and increase capacities while delivering increasingly better products and services. Facing global competition in the marketplace, organizations are struggli...
The Center for Corporate and Professional Development
Have you ever noticed how many different recipes there are to make chocolate chip cookies? There are as many ways to bake cookies as there are good and clever home cooks. What makes one better than another? Why do some use baking powder and some use baking soda? Why do some use water, while most use eggs, yet a smaller handful just require...