Continuous Improvement Tools

Howdy SaferPakers,

Seasoned Quality Professionals such as you and I have witnessed a myriad of continuous improvement tools, techniques and methodologies over the years, all have come, some have gone and some remain. New approaches arrive in a blaze of hype and publicity, profess uniqueness, report amazing results and declare all other approaches impotent [obviously improvement tools can't talk but consultants can]. Get this I heard the term "e-lean" from a consultant the other day - no I didn't want to know either.

We all like new things though, they stimulate us, and however much it pains me to say, when I first hear of a new quality improvement tool [excepting that is e-lean] I get rather excited…sad isn't it. I'm not the only one though…new and exciting quality improvement tools have the ability to pickpocket corporate dollars with gentlemanly ease. Consultants know this and that's why the merest sniff of a new CI tool is enough to spawn an army of implementers, trainers, experts and gurus who appear [quite literally] overnight and a new industry is born or should I say reborn. The believers run the panacea flag up the flagpole swear undying allegiance to the newest and greatest methodology before switching on the cash registers. The non-believers are branded old hat.

A search on google for any of the well known continuous improvement tools returns tens of thousands of relevant results - try any from TQM, TPM, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, World Class Manufacturing, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Business Excellence or ISO 9000.

For example a google search for six sigma returns 1,200,000 results - my god it's bigger than most religions…well not quite I typed in Christianity and it yielded 3,780,000 results, but you get the picture. Incidentally how does google do that in fractions of a second?

http://www.google.co...F-8&hl=en&meta=

At least a dozen of the web sites are dedicated solely to the subject of six sigma, add to this the six sigma trainers, six sigma consultants, six sigma books, six sigma software and you can clearly see the popularity of the 'six sigma movement'. By the way did you spot the 'lean six sigma'?

Obviously the likes of Motorola and General Electric have had well documented successes with six sigma but what I'd like to know is have you? And which, if any of the other continuous improvement methodologies have you dabbled with over the years? What have been your major successes and failures? Are you still using any of them? If not how do you drive improvement in your organisation today? Or don't you? Lot's of questions…

I almost forgot I'd like us to think of a brand new Continuous Improvement Methodology ©

Equal shares I promise.

p.s. Is this the record for emoticons?

Simon

:)

what is Six Sigma



dont get meh

i u all

:) <_<

Hey Six Sigma - welcome to the forum.

With a name like that I would have thought you'd know a little about the subject. You can find a brief introduction to six sigma and some articles at the following link.

http://www.saferpak.com/six_sigma.htm

Regards,
Simon

Here's an attachment I made some time ago. It's a kinda elevator conversational piece, as long as the elevator is stuck between floors.
Wallace.