Blog Layout

Effective Six Sigma Green Belt

Not getting the results you need for customers and shareholders? Set your team up for success!

Don’t listen to people who discourage you from using Six Sigma DMAIC as your structured problem solving processes. Done right, it works! (To be fair, many companies have botched the rollout or deployment, leading to a lot of misunderstanding about the intent and core concepts of Six Sigma, and contributing to a backlash – but this is not the fault of the methodology or toolkit themselves.) 

We know how to roll out and support Six Sigma right. We've done it successfully, and we’re eager to help others with their implementations.

Many companies have tried to deploy Six Sigma by quickly graduating hundreds of Black Belts, but they had few meaningful results to show for it. Done properly, you won’t be counting belts as your measure of success – you’ll be solving your company’s toughest problems and measuring the defect rate improvements and bottom-line dollars saved. 

Structured problem solving is only worth adopting if it will deliver a big return on investment. Our goal is to make the most effective practice the normal practice for your teams. Take advantage of our Effective Six Sigma Green Belt course and implementation advice to learn the right way to deploy and use the DMAIC toolkit. Effective deployment & use includes:

 Effective Deployment of Six Sigma:
  • Understanding your problem area and goals
  • Creating a master plan for the deployment
  • Making structured problem solving part of the company culture
  • Creating the mechanisms to reward real results, not belts

 Effective Use of Six Sigma DMAIC:
  • Understanding the DMAIC thought process and toolkit (and adopting the most effective tools from “competing” problem-solving paradigms)
  • Scoping high payback projects
  • Leveraging critical thinking to ask the right questions
  • Right tool at the right time to get the desired outcome
  • Real-time project coaching by expert practitioners
Dangers lurking in New product development
October 11, 2024
Danger is lurking around every corner in a new product development / new product introduction project. Avoidable risks wind up blindsiding teams, always at the worst possible moment. Risks blow up into problems because teams misjudge their nature and origin, and lack the right tools and processes to effectively identify, assess, and mitigate them. Let CAEDENCE introduce you to a systematic approach and toolkit for managing and reducing risk in new product development and introduction
Caution - the NPD / NPI processes carry a lot of risk
October 9, 2024
There are dozens of tools for reducing risk in new product development and introduction. We know because we've used them to successfully launch dozens of new products in highly demanding industries like automotive and aerospace. Let CAEDENCE show you a few of our favorite tools that you can use immediately to dramatically reduce the chances of disaster on your next NPD/NPI project.
Taking risks is part of business - do it with your eyes wide open
October 7, 2024
Risk is inherent in new product development and introduction. Regardless of your personal risk tolerance, it's critical to understand that unmanaged risk could ruin your business. We're not saying "don't take risks". We're saying "take risks with your eyes open". Let CAEDENCE introduce you to a systematic approach and toolkit for managing and reducing risk in new product development and introduction.
Dangers in NPD / NPI projects and top 5 risk areas
October 4, 2024
Many risks in NPD & NPI are visible. New process steps that must be implemented with caution and back-up plans. Unique product features that are challenging to accomplish. But there are other risks lurking. Things that can derail your project before you even realize. A bit nervous now? You should be! But, don't worry. Let CAEDENCE introduce you to a systematic approach and toolkit for managing and reducing risk in new product development and introduction.
Balancing deliverables in NPD / NPI projects and reducing risks
October 4, 2024
Successful new product development and introduction projects require carefully balancing dozens of critical parameters, any one of which could sink the ship. At the end of the day, each of those dozens of NPD/NPI success measures relates to an aspect of just 4 main stakeholder care-abouts: Launch timing, Project budget, Product margin performance, Quality / delivery (customer experience). Learn the systematic method to reduce risks in your new product developments.
Infographic showing CAEDENCE' effective teaching and workshop philosophy
July 27, 2024
CAEDENCE has decoded decades of business experience to reveal the intuition and practices of top performing teams and individuals to radically accelerate people and teams toward excellence. We know the theory, but we've also lived everything we teach and honed best practices for decades. This arms us with tons of real-world examples to engage students and clarify techniques. We often help clients out of crisis situations, but our passion is preventing crises from occurring in the first place. This means (a) establishing robust systems, (b) empowering leaders, and (c) upskilling teams.
20WQ game to depict binary decision making for problem solving
July 18, 2024
We challenge our problem solving classes to play “20 questions” – can we guess a randomly selected word using just 20 yes/no questions? Engineers often say it’s impossible. But, 99 out of 100 times, we find the word! How? There’s no magic: what’s on display is the power of binary decision making, what we call “splitting the dictionary”. And you can apply it to all sorts of real-world problem-solving scenarios. “Splitting the dictionary” is a problem scoping technique of asking the right questions to eliminate as many incorrect possibilities as you can, thus focusing your root cause search in the right area. Effective scoping is key to efficient problem-solving. Once the problem is clearly defined, think of the root cause as a needle in a haystack. Before you start examining hay, first ask “Am I on the right farm?”, then, “Which haystack should I search?”, then “Which portion of the chosen haystack is most likely to contain the needle?” Scoping out the possibilities with a simple tool or test can radically acc
Where teams go astray in 8D process
July 9, 2024
Many teams and companies struggle to get the most out of structured problem solving methodologies because they make one or more of the common mistakes shown, and they don’t even realize they’re doing it! (We’ve shown the 8D process here, but whether your company uses 8D, Six Sigma DMAIC, PDCA, A3, or another paradigm doesn’t matter.) The issue is HOW any of those methodologies are used by real teams in real time in the real world.
Image of chicken or pig on a plate
June 28, 2024
“The people we nominate to help in this situation are either going to be the chicken or the pig.” The room went silent. The “chicken or pig” comment came specifically in response to resistance someone had to sending some people to the remote site. After a pause, the executive went on to explain “when you are making breakfast, the chicken contributes, but the pig is committed”. We weren’t going to resolve this problem with remote and part-time help. To get the job done, we would have to send people truly committed to working hands-on and to staying abroad for weeks until the job was done. “chicken or pig” became team shorthand for level of commitment. Next time your team is faced with a big challenge, I strongly encourage you to reflect - are you and your team sufficiently committed for the team to succeed? Are you going to be chickens or pigs?
Business process image post
June 18, 2024
When trying to improve or optimize a business or manufacturing process, there is one main rule: your actual process is never what you think it is. You need to "walk the process" (literally follow and watch every step of the process) to understand every step and detail. This will reveal steps and activities that are non-value added or causing significant pain. In addition, when working with teams, if people see that you’re really listening to them, they will be open to listening to you.
Show More
Share by: