Comments by Chris Alcock,  Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma

I see from this article in The Guardian ( link below ) that The Isle of Wight are reducing wastes in their Health care system using Lean principles and in doing so are being hailed as 'Health Care Pioneers.

Fewer delays, better interfaces, fewer misunderstandings (defects), less motion etc

all by the teams being in closer proximity to each other.

Breaking up the silos and creating smaller higher performing teams ( HPTs ) .

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/20/nhs-isle-of-wight-hub-leading-way-integrated-healthcare

So why wouldn't it work in other UK communities?

Instead of scaling emergency and social services up (perceived economies of scale) why not scale down and treat each town / city holistically?

Students of Lean Six Sigma will be interested to see a practical demonstration of the central limit theorem and  normal distribution. The demonstration was invented by Francis Galton ( University of London ) in 1894 . The demonstration consists of a vertical board with rows of pins. Balls are dropped from the top, and bounce left and right as they hit the pins. Eventually, they are collected into one-ball-wide bins at the bottom. The heights of ball columns in the bins after hundreds of balls are dropped will approximate a normal distribution curve ( bell curve).   This is an excellent practical demonstration of how random variation in the inputs to business and manufacturing processes will cause values of the outputs of the processes to vary around the mean average values in a distribution that follows close to normal distribution.   Very good Youtube video showing the Galton Machine and the dropping balls here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m4bxse2JEQ

Positive feedback from fellow professionals is always nice to hear !

My sincere thanks to Mehdi Kootiarab, MBA, MCIPS  of Saudi Aramco for his most generous posting on Trustpilot.com concerning the Lean Six Sigma class that I presented to him in London in December together with my colleague Chris Alcock.  We do strive to provide the very highest quality of Lean Six Sigma training and it is very rewarding for us to obtain such positive feedback as this from our students.   Thank you Mehdi !

Green Belt or Black Belt in 2016 with our new Hybrid class - Online AND Classroom combined

Is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt in your New Year resolution for 2016 ? If so we can help you. With our Hybrid courses we combine Online and Classroom training for the most efficient way to learn the material and pass the certification exam. 1) 60 online Videos 2) 800 page online work book 3) Downloadable .pdf workbook 3) Case Studies 4) Online proctored Exam 5) Certification by the Internationally recognized 6SigmaStudy, the world's largest online Six Sigma examination board.
We are give 30 pdu's for Green and 55 pdu's for Black Belt ( for the PMIs among you ). The best part is that we provide 1 day of classroom training included in the price, which can be taken anytime in 2016 in either our North East UK training centre, or in Zurich. The price is less than a quarter of what you pay for the full classroom version, and you also don't need to take time off work or pay for hotels !! 

Coming soon ! ISO Certification in Lean Six Sigma

Potentially a huge boost to the the spread and use of Lean Six Sigma !  The December 1st 2015 release of a new ISO Standard :  ISO 18404 ; 2015

ISO 18404 : Competencies for key personnel and their organizations in relation to Six Sigma and Lean implementation

The principle improvements made in this standard over the previous standards    ( ISO 13053 part 1 and part 2 ) are  :

1)   It recognizes both Lean and Six  Sigma  and how they compliment each other

2 ) It is designed to an AUDITABLE standard in which an organization ( and potentially individuals) can be CERTIFIED by ISO Registered Certification Bodies ( RCBs ).

The standard refers to 'Lean and Six Sigma'  instead of simply 'Lean Six Sigma'. The details of the mechanisms for becoming a 'Certified ISO 18404' organization will be similar to ISO 9000 / 9001 certifications.  A Registered Certification Body  (RCB ) will be required to audit the company processes to ensure compliance with the standard.    There may also be a certification process introduced for Black Belts and Green Belts to the standard described in the document,  however the details of this procedure have not yet been released.

Lean Six Sigma Training Ltd will be active and at the forefront of any new Lean Six Sigma certifications that are offered by ISO.   Stay tuned here for latest news !

Everyday, Everybody, Everywhere ...definition of Kaizen

I recently came across the work of  Masaaki Imai the highly respected Japanese operations management consultant and theorist.
He first reminded me that the Japanese translation of KAIZEN is actually ' Change For the Better'   and not Continuous Improvement as people usually translate it today.   He also made the incredibly insightful suggestion that the a new English definition for KAIZEN should be the following:
EVERYDAY, EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE.   I think this is an excellent additional twist on the concept of KAIZEN.   Change for the better...Everyday, Everybody, Everywhere !

                                                                      Masaaki Imai

Little’s Law can help you reduce Customer waiting time

Lean Six Sigma Black Belts use Little’s Law to help reduce Customer waiting time ( Lead time). Little's Law tells us that we must reduce our WORK-IN-PROCESS ( WIP) and also increase our rate of THROUGHPUT.

Average Lead time = Average WIP / Average Throughput

Improving the FLOW of the process and PULL ( Just-in-time) helps reduce WIP , increase throughput and hence reduce lead time.

For example
WIP = Average 20 customer inquires that a call centre has started but not finished
Throughput rate = Average 40 customers we complete per hour we finish processing
Average Lead time (time per customer) = 30 minutes

NOTE: John D.C. Little’s original law was concerned with number of customers entering and leaving a market ( shop ) L = λ W
Where L = average number of customers in the store λ = average arrival rate W = average time that a customer spends in the store