Chef Scott saw Elisabeth, the Bistro’s Black Belt, approaching and called to her eager to share the progress made by their improvement team. Scott: Good, thanks. I want to show you what we have been working on. A couple of weeks ago, you will remember our staff meeting report showed…
Having worked in Continuous Improvement for over 30 years, I have seen “Improve Customer Satisfaction” proposed as a project goal on numerous occasions and there are some problems with that. Choosing an improvement project can be difficult for individuals and companies that are new to Continuous Improvement. Finding the “right”…
It’s interesting to look for examples of continuous improvement ideas on display in our daily lives. A headline from NBC News on May 29th, 2018 provided provided a good example. The headline read: Hurricane Maria death toll in Puerto Rico is thousands higher than official count, study estimates. On September…
GoLeanSixSigma.com Green Belt John Pettit's project is a great example of how effective Lean Six Sigma can be in helping all sizes and types of organizations. John volunteered his time and experience to help a local nonprofit organization remove waste in their process thereby allowing them to increase the overall…
With over 30 years in continuous improvement, I have had the opportunity to hear from and study with a number of truly learned people. In the early 80’s, I was part of what was essentially a Deming User’s group. Through conferences and meetings, I got to meet and learn from…
Paul Simon wrote a song in 1975 called “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” but, when dealing with process improvement, there are really only “5 Ways to Improve a Process.” It is all about reducing variation; whether it’s variation in time to serve a customer at the Bahama Bistro, variation…
The Lean Six Sigma toolset makes use of a variety of process maps. Each of these diagrams aids in understanding the flow and making it clear how the process works. Although detailed mapping is key to good process improvement, I would venture that properly constructing a high-level map first, can…
The Cause & Effect Diagram is a popular tool and it appears in most continuous improvement projects. But in reviewing the project examples and publications, I am amazed at how many different ways this tool is utilized. No one can say there is only one correct way to use any…