Six Sigma

34 Articles

Process Improvement Across Industries

By John Knotts - March 15th, 2024

In the realm of business and organizational efficiency, understanding the nuances of process improvement across various industries is not merely an exercise in intellectual curiosity but a necessity. With 34 years of experience in this

Finding Process Improvement Opportunities

By John Knotts - March 17th, 2023

Large organizations that employ process improvement departments and teams often have a list of process improvement projects (typically called the “1 to n list”). These potential projects are prioritized, and practitioners simply ha

Quick Way To Time A Process

By John Knotts - December 16th, 2022

Understanding and measuring process time is one of the most important aspects of process improvement. Much of the waste (muda) in a process causes a process to take longer than it should. When a process takes longer, customers are wait

Going To The Electronic Gemba

By John Knotts - November 18th, 2022

Going to Gemba — where the work is done — is a pretty simple concept. Go where the work is being performed and watch what is happening. What happens when the process is all online?  Where everything that is happening, is o

How The Project Charter Evolves

By John Knotts - September 16th, 2022

A Project Charter is a contract that clearly explains what the process improvement project is all about, while also clearly stating when the team intends to accomplish the objectives of the project. The Project Charter should be carefu

Three Most Important Metrics in a Continuous Improvement Culture

By John Knotts - June 17th, 2022

How many things do you measure in order to tell you how you are doing in business?  I have seen organizations that measure everything and anything.  Many times, what is being measured is not something the business can do anything abo

Engaging Partners and Suppliers on Your CI Journey

By John Knotts - April 15th, 2022

In my first blog on the subject of Continuous Improvement, I highlighted the proverb, “many hands, make light work.”  The concept of a culture of continuous improvement is to orient everyone in the organization toward one common g

online lean six sigma training

Platforms for Online Lean and Six Sigma Training

By Kevin Meyer - August 28th, 2020

Over the last decade, Gemba Academy’s online library has grown to nearly 2,000 lean and six sigma training videos.  These are organized into three general categories: the School of Lean, School of Six Sigma, and our unique Gemba

New Videos: Practical Problem Solving in Spanish

By Kevin Meyer - May 10th, 2017

We just released our fifth course in the School of Lean in Spanish, Practical Problem Solving. Going beyond Spanish subtitles, which are already available on all School of Lean and School of Six Sigma courses, these new courses use n

Discovering the Value of People

By Kevin Meyer - September 11th, 2015

By Kevin Meyer Big news in the business world: Wal-Mart is famous for keeping costs down, including employee-related costs. In Joplin, the company is testing a new approach: investing in workers through higher wages and training, on th

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