Management Articles

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Tuesday, 25th November 2008 @ 2:08 PM

Six Sigma is a data-driven process re-engineering methodology resulting in paradigm shifts in the way a company behaves, treats its customers, and produces its products. It has been used for over 15 years in a number of companies including General Electric, Allied Signal and Texas Instruments. Why has six sigma been so effective? Lean strategies find errors and defects in the process before they become a major issues, saving significant money and time. Six Sigma performance implies a leve... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Tuesday, 25th November 2008 @ 11:45 AM

We are in a very competitive business. Six Sigma is the proven strategy which will make it possible for our Company to break through the wall between the average and world-class. The only way to make money is by satisfying needs. Six Sigma is a powerful tool to improve our processes. Many major companies have proven the efficiency of the Six Sigma approach in improving their process capability from the average to world-class. The Lean Strategy targets the reduction of process variation, ... more...

Business » Management | By David Poulos @ Saturday, 22nd November 2008 @ 7:20 PM

Fragmentations, Extensions, Subs and Spin-Offs - Brand Yoga Can Save Your Business A Company\'s brand is one of its largest, most important assets, one that takes years to develop, one that must be nurtured, massaged, cultured and maintained. For broad-based product and service companies, sometimes putting your brand through some yoga-like exercises can lead to tighter targeting, enhanced revenue and improved profitability. The creation of brand extensions, brand fragments... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Saturday, 22nd November 2008 @ 2:39 AM

Probably the biggest single difference between a true Six Sigma company and those companies that are stuck permanently at Four Sigma, is the mindset. The under-achieving companies are complacent, unaware and unable to accept the idea that they must make quantum leaps in process quality if they are to gain, and keep, their competitive advantage. The benefits of achieving Six Sigma are clear and obvious, both from the company\'s standpoint, and more importantly, from their customer\'s st... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Saturday, 22nd November 2008 @ 2:26 AM

Focusing on the customer is essential to the success of any business. We all recognize this idea. But do we really internalize this idea? Do we really believe that such a focus has the potential to drive business growth and improve the quality of our day-to-day work as well as improve the chance that our business, and hence our jobs, will flourish? Business growth depends on how well we meet customer expectations in terms of quality, price, and delivery. In turn, our ability to satisfy th... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Saturday, 22nd November 2008 @ 2:23 AM

Unless we can measure something, we cannot improve our performance. Sigma is a unit of measure that gives us a way of measuring variation and the capability of our processes to meet customer expectations consistently. We will discuss Sigma in more detail as the course progresses.What is a Sigma? It is a Greek letter that represents a measure of variation. It could be inches, volts, pounds. How do you measure variation, such as product variation? This is where we can use Sigma. In the same way th... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Saturday, 22nd November 2008 @ 2:02 AM

One of the more confusing aspects of learning Six Sigma, is the relationship between process Standard Deviation, which is denoted by the Greek letter sigma and the process Sigma value, known as Z. When output data of a process is collected and analyzed, two of the first statistics to be calculated are the Mean and the Standard Deviation. The Mean, or average value, is compared to the process target, to see how accurately the process is actually performing. The Standard Deviation determine... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Saturday, 22nd November 2008 @ 2:01 AM

One of the most important tools for achieving Six Sigma process capability is Process Benchmarking. This powerful tool is used to compare processes or products within the industry, between industries, or even between geographical areas or countries. A tool called Benchmarking Chart is a powerful way to \"baseline\" various processes or products so they may be meaningfully compared. Companies embarking on the road to Six Sigma adopt a Roadmap which is a four-step process to charact... more...

Business » Management | By Hani Masgidi @ Thursday, 20th November 2008 @ 10:51 AM

There is no question that the automotive industry has become one of the most important commercial sectors in the world today. However, many people fail to realize all the specific elements that make up this sector. From manufacturing to consumers, there are many important steps a vehicle must travel through. In fact, one of the most important, if often overlooked, components of the automotive industry are dealerships. Dealerships serve as the essential middleman between an automobile m... more...

Business » Management | By Jacquelyn Donner @ Tuesday, 18th November 2008 @ 2:27 PM

Six Sigma is a data-driven process re-engineering methodology resulting in paradigm shifts in the way a company behaves, treats its customers, and produces its products. It has been used for over 15 years in a number of companies including General Electric, Allied Signal and Texas Instruments. Six Sigma performance implies a level of process and product performance of no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Five lean, in turn, is 233 per million, Four Sigma is 6,210 per millio... more...