The wombat is a muscular Australian marsupial that burrows and eats plants. It's also an acronym that stands for Waste Of Money, Brains And Time. The language of Lean Six Sigma includes... Read more

Over 150 years ago William Thompson said, “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind.” A... Read more

Does anyone else find it ironic that Lean Six Sigma—a successful methodology with a history of almost 25 years—still has no widely accepted independent standards to guide professional certification? In the Define phase, we teach the need to turn customer... Read more

We are all seeing the articles and survey data highlighting the rise in employee engagement levels. Some say it's due to employees hunkering down, working hard and making sure they keep their heads below the log so they don't get hit during the next round of layoffs. Some say that... Read more

How many times has this happened to you? You’re leading a Six Sigma project on a transactional process of some kind, something not directly tied to manufacturing or measurement of product quality. You get to the Measure phase of your Six Sigma project and struggle to figure out how to... Read more

It has become common knowledge that the best way to advance in your career or find the right person for the job is by networking. There is no better way to meet people, expand your Rolodex, and get your foot in the door. However, does this same theory apply to networking through social... Read more

Happy employees are productive employees. But how do you know if your employees are actually pleased with your organization, or if their job is just, well, a job? Surveys are an excellent way to assess how your employees feel, and they allow employees to be anonymous (and therefore honest)... Read more

The effectiveness of leadership is seen by his or her ability to rock the boat, which means that the leader never becomes complacent at any level of achievement or accepts the status quo. In fact, a leader should foresee the trouble the organization will face in the coming years and initiate... Read more

One of my clients, a wireless B2B telecom company, was experiencing a significant problem in their call center. They were absolutely inundated with calls—most of them problems. They were spending a significant amount of money trying to manage the call center—adding new call... Read more

What Is Root Cause Analysis and Why Is It So Critical? Quality is equivalent to the ratio of good parts to total parts. A defect is a criterion that makes a part non-conforming. The defect type could be dimensional, visual, cosmetic, performance-oriented, etc.... Read more