Financial Management

Out of the Crisis, W. Edwards Deming, 1982 Chapters 1-2, 6-9, 11 and 16 provide a good introduction to the science of variability and quality.  The author’s unique personality makes this a memorable work, even though some content is repeated and some of the author’s personal views must be ignored or discounted.   The Goal, [...]

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Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a term which describes a complementary set of tools and insights used to improve business processes.  It is based upon the statistical understanding of variation and the sequence of steps in a process.  It provides a comprehensive approach to setting business goals, improving processes and delivering results.  It builds upon [...]

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A Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approach to operations management delivers many benefits: A comprehensive operations management system, processes and staff aligned with organizational priorities through a balanced scorecard. Engaged staff who understand what actions deliver customer satisfaction and increase long-term profits. An improved root cause oriented decision-making process that includes all functional perspectives. A system [...]

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The operations best practices collectively termed Lean Six Sigma (LSS) fill several textbooks and form the basis for a professional certification.  They were developed by academics and industry practitioners across 80 years.  Looking back, the key results proceed logically from just two statistical insights!  First, repeated activities have variable results which can be described by [...]

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A Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approach to operations excellence is inherently challenging.  The core ideas (the impacts of statistical variation and sequential events) are abstract and subtle.  They are not emphasized in secondary education or easily acquired through experience.  Implementation requires some training in theory and significant experience applying the ideas.  Lean Six Sigma applies [...]

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Organizations often find that the benefits of implementing a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) program with their suppliers are the same order of magnitude as their own implementation.  Organizational progress is inherently limited by the capabilities of key suppliers.  Suppliers can consider these new insights and tools, implement them quickly and amortize the implementation costs across [...]

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Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is the name given to the set of best practices for achieving operations excellence. Six Sigma refers to six standard deviations away from the mean of an observed outcome.  Six Sigma became a term denoting a process where the defect rate is beyond six standard deviations, roughly one defect in every [...]

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With 40 years of hard-earned experience and wisdom, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) initiatives should have a high success rate.  Wise practitioners will avoid seven pitfalls. Don’t fail to take the content seriously.  Lean Six Sigma ideas, tools and practices can be learned by nearly anyone.  But, they are not simple or obvious.  Students need context [...]

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