Webinar: Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results

Published on: 09/25/2024
Presented on: 09/12/2024

Abstract:
The economy has changed dramatically since Motorola launched Six Sigma over 30 years ago. The pace of change has also accelerated which means that quality improvement needs to accelerate to keep up. Applying the principles of Agile software development (which were borrowed from Lean) can accelerate the learning and application of Lean Six Sigma. Over the last couple of years, presentations at quality conferences have offered a fresh approach to implementing Six Sigma. Companies such as Christus Health, Novartis and Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) have demonstrated that with as little as one day of training, employees can generate measurable results. This is a radical change from the two-to-four week Green and Black Belt trainings followed by months and even years for Six Sigma projects to deliver results. This is an approach that I’ve advocated for over a decade. I call it Agile Lean Six Sigma. As an added benefit, it helps screen participants for Green and Black Belt training to avoid the dreaded "one and done" projects so often associated with LSS training. Over the last few years, the Harvard Business Review has published many articles about the power of Agile. Unfortunately, Lean Six Sigma is anything but Agile. “Six Sigma is too complex and time-consuming to fit into a regular workday,” says author, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg. “We need tools that don’t require the entire organization to undergo weeks-long training programs.”
Bio:
Jay Arthur is the founder and president of Know Ware International Inc. created in 1997 in Denver, CO. He is the only resultant who teaches people how to solve operational problems in one day using Excel and the Magnificent Seven Tools of Lean Six Sigma. He was trained in the Deming Award Winning Florida Power, and Light improvement process. He has worked as both a quality and process manager within a Fortune 50 company, and on his own as a Six Sigma resultant. He is the author of Lean Six Sigma Demystified, McGraw Hill, and six other books on Lean and Six Sigma. He is also the creator of the QI Macros for Excel, an SPC software package that leverages the power of Microsoft Excel to draw all of the charts and graphs needed for Lean Six Sigma and SPC. He is also a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He is the author of How to Motivate Everyone and the co-author of The Motivation Profile. He holds a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona.