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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
Ideas are cheap graphic
January 27, 2025
Why are ideas cheap? Supply and demand – there are lots of ideas out there – everyone fancies themself an innovator, the supply far outstrips the demand. BUT, coming up with a good idea is only 1% of the success of a business. The hard part remains…. Why does execution matter more? Once an idea is created, there are hundreds of steps needed to turn it into a viable product backed by a viable business model. Driving rigor at speed through the product development, marketing and sales, pre-launch, and production ramp processes is what will make your business successful.
Methods of communication and their impact
January 21, 2025
If you've got a favorite way of communicating (perhaps by text, email, or in-person) that you use most of the time, you are undermining the effectiveness of your communication! If you've ever been frustrated that your team or manager isn't taking action on what you've told them must be done – this post & infographic is for you. Not all modes of communication are created equal. The way you communicate should be selected based on 3 situational factors: who you're communicating with, the gravity of your message, the outcome you're trying to achieve. Choosing the the mode appropriate to your purpose will greatly enhance the impact of your messaging. Choosing the wrong mode can undermine what you're trying to accomplish by communicating.
Visual 8D image problem solving
December 3, 2024
CAEDENCE has developed a novel improvement to overcome the communication-based shortfalls in existing methods. Applicable to all structured problem-solving approaches, Visual 8D™ enables teams to execute the familiar problem-solving steps (with no additional effort), while capturing plans and progress in easy-to-follow diagrams. Visual 8D™ puts teams in the position of providing answers to management and customer questions before being asked, resulting in improved control of the situation and minimizing time wasted on extraneous actions.
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
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