There’s a definite honor in being “award-winning.” I experienced this firsthand last year when iSixSigma Magazine received editorial excellence honors. The awards provided an opportunity for us to pause and recognize the work that goes into our editorial efforts and to celebrate the accomplishments. But, as I said in my Editor’s Notes following the announcement, entering a competition is more than just a pat on the back. It also reinforces what you want to do tomorrow and the next day and the day after.

Recognition and reinforcement are just a couple of the reasons to enter the iSixSigma Live! Awards. Here are a few more reasons:

1. Just being nominated is a boost for an individual or team
2. Finalist and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in South Beach, Fla., Feb. 3, in iSixSigma Magazine, and on iSixSigma.com.
3. This year, the awards ceremony will be accompanied by music. Think YouTube sensation, wedding entrance dance. (OK, maybe not exactly like that, but there will be fun music.)
4. The ceremony is held in conjunction with the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards, Feb. 1-4. You won’t want to miss the great program lineup, networking opportunities, and sunshine of South Beach.

Award categories include:

* iSixSigma's Six Sigma Hall of Fame
* Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects (Categories: Transactional, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Customer Service)
* Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program

Get more details on the awards categories and learn how to submit. The deadline for your chance to be “award-winning” is Nov. 30.

But don’t wait until then. The first step of the submission process is a simple form, followed by submission of a storyboard or other support materials, depending on award category. So complete the first step now, and work on your materials over the coming weeks. Good luck!

You may have seen the cover of the September/October issue of iSixSigma Magazine, featuring J.D. Sicilia and “The DoD Roundup.” The western theme continued into the DoD Breakthrough Convention, Oct. 14 to 16.

Here’s a sneak peak of the fun: Jeannine Hall, director of events, taking a hand at roping a bull. Yes, this may look like a bale of hay with plastic horns, but use your imagination, as we did, and you’ll soon be envisioning City Slickers – in suits. Note: This is not a professional photograph, but some iPhone handiwork by Mike Cyger.

Imagination was just one of the topics at the second annual event. More than 350 process improvement leaders from across the U.S. Department of Defense gathered in Lansdowne, Va., at the National Conference Center. One of my favorite facts about the DoD is that it is larger than the top five Fortune 500 companies combined. In an organization that large, building a continuous process improvement culture enterprise wide is, needless to say, no small feat.

The Breakthrough Convention is one of the ways that the Defense Department is continuing to unite its Lean Six Sigma initiative under a common vision. Presenters hailed from several of the DoD services and agencies, as well as from other federal organizations, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

You can get a glimpse of the photos of the presentations and networking receptions here. (And more roping photos here.)

And find out more about the DoD’s performance improvement efforts by reading “The DoD Roundup” on the iSixSigma Military Channel.

The scoring is complete and the 2009 Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals is out.

Here is the Top 10 List in alphabetical order: I repeat, alphabetical order.

Cardinal Health Inc.

Computacenter AG & Co. oHG

Ecolab Inc.

McKesson Corp.

Merck & Co., Inc.

Pfizer Inc.

Piramal Healthcare Ltd.

Starwood Hotels, North America Operation

Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.

Xerox Corp.

The numbered order of this list will be revealed at an Awards ceremony and breakfast, February 3, 2010 during the iSixSigma Live! Summit and Awards in Miami. Congratulations to these companies as well as all those that participated.

There is still plenty of time to submit projects for consideration in other iSixSigma Live! Award categories:

* Best Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized program

* Largest Breakthrough Improvement Projects

* Six Sigma Hall of Fame

Visit the Cox-Box Store for 2009 Calendars and Mugs

The Cox-Box is Copyright © 2000-2009 iSixSigma LLC and Gary P. Cox – All Rights Reserved
Reproduction Without Permission Is Prohibited – Request Permission

Today’s world seems to have us all going 90 miles an hour, multi-tasking and stretching ourselves to the limit to get things done. Finding time for home, work, school, kids, parents, church, volunteering etc. has become one of our biggest challenges. Time has become a precious commodity for everyone. No one has it to waste and no one wants to wait. So what does all this have to do with W.O.W.? Everything.

What’s Needed – On Time – With Value . . . Save time for your customers by enabling efficient transactions and watch your WOW-O-Meter go off scale. How? Reduce the time waiting in line, reduce the time holding on the phone, reduce the time a customer has to wait for a delivery, and enable transactions when your customer has time. It’s all about the process. Cut out bottlenecks and things will keep moving. Eliminate defects and you won’t have to stop to fix them. Remove unneeded steps or hand-offs and you’ll be one step closer to ‘lean time’. Best of all, enable efficient transactions at a time that’s convenient to your customer and increase customer delight.

So, don’t keep your customers waiting for W.O.W. Act now!

Next month (yes, I’m giving you early notice so you can put this in your calendar) TRIZ expert, Ellen Domb, will once again be on air with Steve Wilson of Quality Conversations, discussing practical applications of TRIZ.

Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, 11 AM Pacific. Be there.

Ellen is also speaking at the iSixSigma Live Summit & Awards in Miami next year. If you are looking for a reason to attend, Ellen’s TRIZ workshop would be reason enough - it’s fantastic.

I’m going to go out on a limb and open up a discussion on the "Ultimate Organization" here. In my last two posts, I talked a little bit about integrating the 6S culture in an organization (vs keeping it at a specialist level only) and organizational fear. I figured a logical progression of the overall discussion would be to open up a thread to talk about what the ultimate organization would look like.

Take a minute to reflect on your experiences (good and bad) on your involvement in 6S. Then, if you can find the best scenario for success, fast forward a few years to the end game. What does it look like (from president to the front line)?

There are a few motivations behind why I’m asking the question. The main one is that a lot of times we talk about what doesn’t work, or challenges that we face, but in the grand scheme, I have yet to see a discussion around what "utopia" looks like from a 6S standpoint. Based on the varying experiences and industry affiliations of the readership here, I am really looking forward to the diverse possibilities of answers, as well as some great dialog.

Happy daydreaming!

-K

I had a very nice phone call today, from a colleague who had chatted with me earlier about a current project. She called to say thanks for allowing her to bounce ideas around, which helped her clarify some things about her approach to the process.

Naturally I felt good to receive this feedback, and it made me think about my many associates who are in the process improvement community with me. Sometimes it feels like skiing downhill, but sometimes it feels like I'm trying to go uphill without the ski lift. It's during the tough times that I really rely on my fellow improvers to help me see a clear direction.

My colleague said that she had felt lost in the trees and confused about the path out of the forest. I know I've felt like that sometimes too, and I told her that I'd probably be calling her soon so she could return the favor!

And, it reminded me to say a heartfelt "thanks" to the many people who have helped me to see more clearly when my own path seemed confused.

And also to say a sincere "thank you" to those of you who have read, and contributed to, this blog over the past three years. It's hard to believe that this will be my 100th post, which milestone I would not have reached without your continuing support and responses! I hope that you will keep on giving me your feedback - your conversations have been spirited, inspiring, generous, truthful, and above all educational!

With thanks for your time, your sharing of feedback with the iSixSigma blogosphere, and your efforts on behalf of your customers,

Sue K.

"One of all and all for one!"

Or, in the original French, "Tous pour un, un pour tous!"

In the story by Alexandre Dumas (1844), the three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, were joined by the musketeer-wannabee D'Artagnan, without whom the first three would have led very boring lives.

I was reminded of this the other day, when discussing the elements of a successful process improvement deployment. You will recognize the top three that were mentioned: focus on the customer; front-line engagement; structured methodology. I'm going to submit to you that the concept of the Three Musketeers can serve as a metaphor for those three. And, then, add the fourth (which you have already thought of anyway), which is committed leadership - without which, you will not be having many grand adventures in improvement.

So in your improvement experience, how many times have you gone into a project doing an assessment for these four issues - whether the organization knows how to focus on the customer effectively, or not? Whether they treat their front-line workers as knowledge resources and Subject Matter Experts, or not? Whether they have, or are willing to adopt, a structured methodology and all that is implied? And, perhaps most importantly, whether the leadership is truly engaged and committed to process improvement as a way of life - or whether they just think it's the next best thing to try? And, are these four elements integrated so that they can proclaim "One for all, and all for one?"

Please share your thoughts on this. How many Musketeers do you have, where you work???

The latest iSixSigma Magazine research is about to be released in the upcoming November/December issue.

For this research we surveyed over 800 Six Sigma practitioners and asked them all about the tools they use, the tools they don’t use, and what tools they think are misused…

The chart at the left is the top 10 tools that practitioners said are commonly misused. (Click for larger view.) FMEA clearly stands out, but the remaining 9 tools each bring in a fairly steady 4-5 percent of the vote.

For the full results, including the top 10 “most used,” top 10 “least used,” and the top 10 “never heard of that tool,” see the November/December issue of iSixSigma Magazine.