Creating Motivation Through Discovery

I am often asked by business analysts, consultants, supervisors, managers and leaders, how do you motivate people? My responses are often similar. Motivation is an endless process. People, teams and organizations are motivated for different reasons. Your job as business analysts, supervisors, managers and leaders is to leverage your own leadership attributes to understand what motivates the people around you. The reality is people are motivated because they are motivated. Not because you just rewarded them a date night movie pass for 2, popcorn and coke included. One size does not fit all.

Innovation - Transferring Know How

This is intended to be an outline of a system that will allow Innovation know-how such as knowledge, behaviours and cultural attributes to be transferred from a standalone or bolt on Innovation project and disseminated throughout the host organisation. Knowledge can be thrown like a stone into a pond and the ripples will then spread at their own speed across the pond. Organisations are not as fluid as our metaphorical pond but it is possible for knowledge to spread through the creation of Innovation Action groups that are not dissimilar to quality circles and action learning groups. They do, however, have some fundamental differences.

Delivering Profit With Value Stream Mapping

All businesses set out to deliver profits but unfortunately all businesses attract costs that eat into these profits. Costs can come in various shapes and sizes from wages for staff to inventory costs - minimizing these operating costs are a key activity for most businesses. While there are a variety of tools and techniques for attacking costs, much can be learned from lean tools that measure the value stream. The value stream is the flow of the product throughout its production attracting value that is of benefit to the end customer. One such tool is Value Stream Mapping - a technique for mapping the flow of information and material flows through a production process.

The Successful Practice of 5S

Wastage could be loss of time, loss of interest, loss of materials required and so on. A good solution to this can be achieved from the practical approach that 5S provides. Lean Six Sigma practitioners have faith in it as a culture that aims at continuous improvement of the working environment and the work conditions. The philosophy is applicable to any aspect of life. 5S refers to the five structured principles of seire, seiton, seison, seiketsu and shitsuke. Translated, they mean sort, systematize, sweep (shine), standardize and self-discipline. All these terms are self-explanatory.

Cutting-Edge Methods Help Target Call Center Waste

Ancillary call center processes have been perfect opportunities to implement Lean Six Sigma. However, some additional effort is needed on the main process of the call center - the call handling process. With some software systems it is possible to bring about Lean culture and the elimination of waste. Waste in Call Center Scenario The agents in call centers will have to be considered as the processes, as they are ones who deal with customer calls. There will typically be a few types of calls received at the call center, but they may be responded to differently each time, as the person on the other end may react differently.

Lean and Creative Six Sigma to Solve Real-Life Issues

There are times when Six Sigma proves an excellent methodology for the elimination of defects. Sometimes defects are understood from VOC or VOS. These may be relevant from the point of view of the business, but there may be some defects that may not be noticed. For example, if there are delays within a process, then by speeding up the process, the defect may be eliminated. However, this may be at the cost of quality if it is not given consideration. Here is where Lean can be useful by using the seven wastes theory. Additionally, defects will be reduced when the problem is solved. The Six Sigma DMAIC method relies on the analysis of the problem and may not be able to provide solutions to real life problems.

Lean Six Sigma Training Options

Six Sigma training has to be goal-based to improve performance. Training should help the organization deal with problems such as the elimination of strategies that do not produce the expected results, improvement initiatives with no long-term gains and metrics that are meaningless. Six Sigma Training methods In this age of high-tech methods, various options are available for effective training. Popular ones are classroom training and Six Sigma online training. A combination of the two also can achieve good results, if applied using relevant and meaningful scope to achieve realistic goals. The training of the candidates includes sessions on guidelines to provide the best Six Sigma and Lean tools, usage of theory testing and other training based on the needs of the particular industry.

Lean - Six Steps With Review Points

Value provision is the starting point which leads towards providing the product according to the customer's requirements. The value definition is based on the customer needs and not the non-value added activities. The customer pays for a product that matches their requirements - they won't and pay for waste. Value Value includes the qualities as seen by the customer, who wants to buy the right product and at the right price. Each step, from designing and manufacturing to delivery has to be error free. Lean efforts strive to make the processes leaner by eliminating waste. Review points are the problems that affect the customer, the importance of the project, acceptance by the stakeholders and whether or not the customer's needs are correctly identified.

Six Easy Steps to Keeping the Six Sigma Project Pipeline Full

A project that is a 'just-do-it' type of project will not reap any benefits or show any returns on investment. A system to develop a project pipeline is in line with the efforts for continuous improvement. A six-step process to keep the project pipeline full will enable the Master Black Belts and the Champions to find the right projects and select the appropriate one necessary at the given moment. The steps in the process are as given below. 1. Understanding the Issue: The Champions and Master Black Belts should meet with senior managers to discover the problems they face concerning their departments.

Sponsorship and Chartering Are Keys to Project Success

For such implementation, it becomes necessary for the project to start on the strong footing of well-thought out charter that covers all the problem areas of the organization - and an equally solid project sponsorship. These two components are necessary to ensure the health of the project and achieve quality results. Sponsorship Scenarios Consider the example of an initiative undertaken by an accounts department director to improve collections and account retention. In this case, the Six Sigma team studies and finds out that customer follow up and retention responsibility needs 40% support of the sales team for the success of the project.