Here are our top picks for Lean Six Sigma news from around the web for the week of September 29, 2014.

How To Prioritize Your Innovation Budget

Bloggers Brad Power and Steve Stanton recently asked a CEO, “How much is your organization spending on innovation?” The CEO shared with the bloggers that not even half of what is dedicated to innovation is being used due to operational turbulence. To help the operational turbulence, Brad and Steve came up with four high-level buckets into which money can be poured. One of these buckets includes Lean and Six Sigma projects.

Lean Innovation At Amazon

“Amazon is a natural place that applies lean principles.” Since the day that Amazon was created by Jeff Bezos, Lean has always been part of the business culture and spirit. In this article, Geovanny Romero shares with readers that, Amazon has more people working in the fulfillment centers and customer-service centers than it does computer-science engineers. In addition, Kaizen is the center philosophy in the fulfillment center.

Women Hope To Expand STEM Presence

A recent sampling of women in so-called STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math – finds several emerging leaders. Of the three highlighted emerging leaders, Sue Lancaster stands out in the Lean Six Sigma crowd. As a child and young adult, Lancaster grew up with interests in science and biology. She then went on to earn her master’s degree in biomedical engineering. Lancaster is currently working on more ways to lead by example and has set a goal to obtain her Black Belt in Six Sigma by the age of 30.