Project Management Articles

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Thursday, 24th July 2008 @ 1:55 PM

Six Sigma Benchmarking projects are structured and systematic, concentrating on superior performance at the end of the project. The success of each benchmarking project is dependent on the participation of all the parties involved. The involvement and the commitment of senior management are necessary for projects to achieve their objectives. Six Sigma project efforts are bound to fail if teams do not understand the areas of concern for internal processes, or management does not s... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Thursday, 17th July 2008 @ 1:42 PM

The first thing that comes to the mind when you are referring to the practice of Six Sigma is the DMAIC methodology, which is used for improving an existing product that is not meeting a customer\'s specifications. It is universally recognized and defined as involving the phases of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. The use of these phases may differ from one organization to another. Its need arises because of the heavy costs on resources being incurred by the processes. ... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Thursday, 17th July 2008 @ 1:39 PM

Successful deployment is when acceptable ROI is realized. When a Six Sigma deployment fails, it may mean the failure to attain the return on investment necessary by the company to make any other investment. There may be failures when the program fails to deliver on the promised savings. They are often the result of over-enthusiastic salesmanship. Though it cannot be defined, the failure can be in any form in any program The Master Black Belts, Black Belts and the Green Belts may s... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Thursday, 17th July 2008 @ 1:36 PM

The most effective way to sustain change is by repeating it from successful experiences. Successful Black Belt and Green Belt projects will help drive change in the company\'s culture. Change is not an overnight process. It happens when you drive results through Six Sigma projects. When the Six Sigma project shows results, everyone involved in the project or related to the project will realize Six Sigma as a disciplined problem-solving technique which is data driven in decision makin... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Tuesday, 15th July 2008 @ 5:44 AM

Employee engagement has been a strong contributor to the success of the businesses. However, Six Sigma initiatives are at a risk of losing on the efforts made due to downsizing in the last few months. Companies are facing the challenges of sustaining the energy and the resources to get the benefits of Six Sigma projects. Additionally, Six Sigma initiatives are also losing the willingness of the people to work over and above the minimum efforts needed to keep their jobs. The intellectual c... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Tuesday, 15th July 2008 @ 5:40 AM

These people will have to work as change agents and will be responsible for the overall success of the organization\'s change attempt. Black Belts are generally referred to as Change Agents. So what is it that Black Belts need to have to make good change agents? The characteristics of good change agents are listed below: -The Right Attitude The candidates for change agents have to have the right attitude to carry out the project, even in adverse and difficult si... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Tuesday, 15th July 2008 @ 5:36 AM

Spend On Six Sigma Training To earn money, you have to spend some. The same holds true for Six Sigma projects. Only when you spend on Six Sigma online training, classroom training, organizational infrastructure and the cultural evolution, will you find the returns and savings due to reduction in defects. The financial gains are the inspiration to spend some good amounts in the various phases of the project. Will you be able to sustain the Six Sigma initiative by hiring a Black Belt... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Tuesday, 15th July 2008 @ 5:25 AM

The basics of all these tools are changing the way business is carried out for the better. All these tools are very effective and can give good results if you are successful in implementing them perfectly. The change process is of high importance and can have an effect on the final successful implementation. There are some areas that need to be handled carefully to facilitate better change deployment processes. Support Structure The need of a solid foundation in the process... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Tuesday, 15th July 2008 @ 5:23 AM

Additionally slow implementation, Six Sigma training and over-training, and marginalizing non-belt performance improvement activities after months of Six Sigma deployments are causes of concern. As an option, using Workout combined with Six Sigma focuses on providing the know how to those groups of employees who are least exposed to the Six Sigma tools and concept, but are the base of that process. Under Jack Welsh at GE, Workout as a business improvement methodology was born. The differe... more...

Business » Project Management | By Tony Jacowski @ Sunday, 13th July 2008 @ 6:10 PM

You have to concentrate on the organization\'s strategy - and it market leadership and value establishment, then the voice of the customer is of utmost importance. Any improvement to the existing system is worthwhile only when the returns are in the form of satisfied customers. The need for continuous innovation is the result of growing customer demands and technological challenges. Determine the Customer The important point that arises here is which customer to listen... more...