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Lean Six Sigma in Plain English - Part
1 of a four-part series.
by Stanley Cherkasky
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The stark reality is that Six Sigma has
been around for about twenty-five years, and many business leaders still
don’t really understand this incredibly powerful body of knowledge. This
four-part article is intended to demystify Lean Six Sigma (LSS), and to
answer the most frequently asked questions of our firm. Simply put,
large or small, manufacturing, service or public sector, all can benefit
financially from LSS.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Lean Six Sigma in Plain English - Part
2 of a four-part series.
by Stanley Cherkasky
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What do accelerated ROI and net income
improvement; improved valuation; increased customer loyalty;
breakthrough top-and bottom-line results; and significant gains in
quality performance have in common? Lean Six Sigma delivers these, and
more. In fact, analysts will often increase stock ratings for those
public companies that announce that they have embraced Lean Six Sigma as
a business strategy.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Lean Six Sigma in Plain English - Part
3 of a four-part series.
by Stanley Cherkasky
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Some of the questions that were answered
in Parts 1 & 2 are: What is Lean Six Sigma? What does the term Sigma
refer to? What is the history of Six Sigma? Where are most companies
operating today in terms of sigma performance? Parts 3 & 4 will answer:
Is “operational excellence” the primary focus for Lean Six Sigma? What
are the roles of Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and Green
Belts? What steps are there in a typical Six Sigma deployment approach?
Download
the entire article (PDF).
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Lean Six Sigma in Plain English - Part
4 of a four-part series.
by Stanley Cherkasky
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What steps are there in a typical Lean
Six Sigma deployment approach? Many factors must be considered—the size
and structure of the organization, the alignment of business strategy
with market needs, the availability of current information from
customers, and change inclination.
Download
the entire article (PDF).
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Tips for Managing Conflict
by
Debra Hamilton
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Learn seven helpful ways to handle
personnel conflict in the work environment.
Download the entire article (PDF). |
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You Can’t Lead if You’re Not Trusted -
Seven Ways to Build Trust
by Stanley Cherkasky
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There is a close correlation between
trust and productivity, and your ability to achieve business results. In
fact, trust is so important, that we believe leaders need to make that a
top priority. So, what should you do now to rebuild trust? Here are
seven easy ways to get started.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Leading with Feeling -
The Four Keys of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
by
Debra Hamilton
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In this article, we explain "Emotional Intelligence," a
term used in the previous article "Leadership Communication during
Uncertain Times." Learn the four keys of emotionally intelligent
leadership, and how they can be used to motivate your organization.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Keeping Meetings on Track - Two Tools
of the Trade
by Stanley Cherkasky
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In this third article on meetings, we address how
to make them more effective. Our readers have said "We spend more
time in meetings than we do outside of meetings," and others have asked
"Are there any tools that will improve our stressful meetings?" The
answer is yes! The two best tools are the "Meeting Activity Report" and
the "Meeting Effectiveness Critique." We provide both here free for your
use.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Leadership Communication during
Uncertain Times
by
Debra Hamilton |
Change is all around us. Effective
leadership communication during times of change creates stability and
trust. Leaders at all levels must communicate change and share
information as soon as possible. Here are tips for a communication-rich
culture.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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The Power of Staff Meetings
by Stanley Cherkasky
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In this article, we highlight Staff Meetings—the
secret to engage your employees’ hearts and minds. There is no better
way to keep your staff connected, focused and motivated than a well-run
staff meeting. Most organizations, however, don’t hold company-wide,
regularly scheduled staff meetings, and those that do—do it poorly.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Think "Small" About Giving Feedback
by
Debra Hamilton
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Everyone wants to be appreciated. Appreciation often
comes in the form of recognition and praise. This type of feedback can
be exchanged from manager to employee, as well as employee to employee.
Feedback does not need to be a big event. To the contrary, feedback
should be delivered in small doses.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Making Meetings More Productive
by Stanley Cherkasky |
Leaders tend to take meetings for
granted, and don't spend enough time planning or developing the
leadership skills that are needed to run a meeting effectively. We have
found that senior managers rarely take a critical look at their own
performance at meetings. Consequently, most never spend the effort to
improve as "meeting leaders."
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Motivate Your Team - Five Ways to
Stimulate Productivity and Enthusiasm
by
Debra Hamilton |
A team member’s performance is a product of both the
ability to do the work and the motivation to do it. People are motivated
from both internal and external sources. A proactive team leader will
routinely assess the team dynamics, engage the team, and create synergy
that would otherwise not be possible. Here are five easy ways to get
started.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Total Quality for a Sustainable
Competitive Advantage - Back to Basics
by Stanley Cherkasky
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Over the last couple of decades there has been an
explosion of articles on the latest Quality trends. These include: Lean
Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma, reengineering, balanced scorecards,
multi-model process improvement frameworks, CMMI and ISO initiatives.
The list goes on and on. Sometimes, however, it pays to go back to the
basics—to the roots that enabled America to compete with the Japanese in
the 80’s.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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The Impact of Nonverbal Communication
by
Debra Hamilton |
Actions speak louder than words. This statement is
more than a cliché, it’s a fact. We are always communicating. Our smile,
gestures, voice, and handshake all send out messages to those around us.
Nonverbal cues indicate what is really being said. In fact, repeated
studies show that more than 90% of your message’s meaning is transmitted
nonverbally. Even as we sit in silence, we are sending messages. There
is no such thing as “not communicating.”
Download the entire article (PDF).
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How to Delegate for Improved
Productivity
by Stanley Cherkasky |
We estimate that fewer than forty percent of
managers know how to successfully delegate. In fact, delegation is one
of the most underutilized management skills. There are many reasons why
we don’t hone this essential skill. But the fact is that in order to
increase productivity for any business—delegation is essential. Learn
the eight steps of successful delegation.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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The Abuse of Email and Its Impact on
Work Relationships
by
Debra Hamilton
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Email use continues to exponentially grow with nearly 100 billion email
messages being sent per day worldwide. The convenience and expediency of
email has resulted in abuse and overuse of the tool, impacting work
relationships.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Train in Tough Times
by Stanley Cherkasky |
In any economic downturn, it can be easy to
postpone training programs—or even cut training altogether. Visionary
leaders, however, realize that training should not be an expendable line
budget item. Great companies realize the value of their staffs, and tend
to focus—even more—on staff development in tough economic times. Trained
employees will be more confident, productive and resilient.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Choosing your ISO Consultant
by Stanley Cherkasky
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How should you go about selecting an ISO
consultant to facilitate your registration? Here are some useful
guidelines for choosing your quality business partner.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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AS9100:2009 Carries an Impressive Payload
by Stanley Cherkasky
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Appears in June 2009 Issue of Quality
Digest magazine. At the beginning of 2009, the International
Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) released revision C to AS9100, the
quality management system (QMS) standard for the aviation, space, and
defense industries. Unlike the recent release of ISO 9001:2008 (which
was more of an amended version), AS9100:2009 will have considerably more
modifications. Its benefits, however, are most definitely worth the
endeavors of implementation.
Read the complete article in
Quality Digest.
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by Stanley Cherkasky
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Companies
of all sizes can benefit from a variety of local, state and federal
funding assistance programs to improve their quality management systems
and upgrade employee skills. This broad definition covers ISO, Six
Sigma, Lean, change management, leadership and basic skills training.
Some of these programs offer matching funds while others provide tax
credits. A few even bestow outright grants. However, gaining access
to—and understanding—these funding programs can be a daunting task.
That's why it pays to select a management consulting firm that knows how
to navigate these often bewildering waters.
Read the
complete article in the
SGS Newsletter.
Download
the entire article (PDF)
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The Third Dimension of Quality Leadership
by John Leach |
The third dimension of quality leaders is to create
an ethical and principle-centered organization of people. Dick
DeVos, President of Amway, observes: "Putting principle above matter can
mean short-term losses or letting an opportunity slip by." Yet, he
believes that, "...in the the long run, the principle-centered
organization not only builds a good reputation, it reaps greater
profits."
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Is your Consulting Firm your ISO Business
Partner?
by Stanley Cherkasky |
There are
significant benefits of ISO registration, and marketing it is the key to
accelerating short and long-term growth of sales. Your marketing effort
can be streamlined and inexpensive - just by following a few tried and
proven guidelines. First, this article focuses on the benefits of
registration; second it explores a number of creative actions you can
take to promote your ISO registration.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Lessons Learned from Integrated
Management Systems by
Sanford Liebesman, Ph.D. |
In September 2005, Quality Progress published my
standards column
describing the relationship between ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and the
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) basic internal control tool, the COSO guidance
document.
COSO is used to satisfy the key requirement in section 404 of SOX that
the
organization have an effective system of internal control. In March
2006, Quality Progress published my standards column describing feedback
from 8 case studies conducted by the SOX Team.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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How ISO 9001 and 14001 Support
Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
by Sanford Liebesman, Ph.D. |
SOX mandates a system of internal controls to
manage risk in the organization. A system published by the COSO
Committee in 1992 provides the basis for internal controls used by many
organizations. This system is the foundation for good governance which
preceded SOX.
There are five components of the COSO internal controls:
Control environment: Information and Communication; Risk Management;
Monitoring; and Control Activities.
Let us compare these components of COSO internal controls with
requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Invest in ISO during a Struggling
Economy? |
Discusses the reasons for investing in ISO
registration during a troubled economy, examining the major benefits for
doing so.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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ISO 9001:2008—Hidden Business
Opportunities
An opportunity to reenergize your QMS
and to outperform your competition
by Stanley Cherkasky
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This fourth ISO version is more an amended version
of the previous release, rather than a complete revision. The changes
are largely interpretive, and focus on terminology clarifications, and
better alignment with ISO 14001:2004, the environmental standard. But
don’t be too quick to dismiss its relevance. There is potential danger
and hidden opportunities. This is the ideal time to be proactive, and to
re-energize your quality (business) management system.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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The Launch of AS9100 Rev C will Make
Firms More Competitive
The aerospace, aviation and defense
business sectors are poised
by Stanley Cherkasky |
The International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG)
released a revision to AS9100, the quality management system (QMS) for
the aviation, space and defense industries. But, unlike the recent
release of ISO 9001:2008 (which was more of an amended version),
Revision C will have considerably more impact. Its benefits, however,
far outweigh the impact of implementation. The new requirements are
intended to make significant improvements in quality and reductions in
cost—throughout the value stream.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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The Baldrige National Quality Program
Criteria have been Improved
by Stanley Cherkasky |
The Criteria for Performance Excellence have
evolved over the 21-year history of the Baldrige National Quality
Program. And over these two decades, the Baldrige Criteria have become
the gold standard—to becoming a strategy-driven, high-performing
world-class organization. Although the year-to-year changes have been
evolutionary, over the years, the changes to the Criteria have been far
reaching.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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Improving Business Results Through
Process Management
by Stanley Cherkasky
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Unfortunately, line and staff departments have
become too myopic or insular. Process management is imperative in order
to manage and improve cross-functional business processes. And the more
process-centric an organization is—the more performance-driven it will
be. If you think you can be customer-centric, without being
process-centric—think again. Processes must put the customer first.
Download the entire article (PDF).
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