Lean Six Sigma eliminates waste of physical resources, time, effort and talent, while assuring quality in production and organizational processes. Research has shown that firms that successfully implement Six Sigma perform better in virtually every business category, including return on sales, return on investment, employment growth, and share price increase.

To know more, read the following article at isixsigma.com, which lists out 8 steps that should be followed to implement “Lean Six Sigma” in an organization:

http://www.isixsigma.com/implementation/success-factors/8-steps-successful-lean-six-sigma-implementation/

According to Saritha Rai (Contributor), e-commerce companies like Amazon, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Flipkart etc. find innovative solutions to timely delivery of their products by collaborating with Kirana stores, Dabbawallas in Mumbai, post office for reaching especially in rural areas and gas stations in Delhi and Mumbai. In a Morgan Stanley Report, Indian e-commerce market is expected to boom up to $100 billion in revenue by 2020. Timely delivery in the cities of India is a big challenge for e-commerce firms as roads are congested, streets are not numbered sequentially and customers many times don’t write zip codes or landmarks.  Finding these innovative solutions will not only benefit the e-commerce firms but it will also benefit local sources. To know more about these innovative solution read at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/04/15/from-dabbawallas-to-kirana-stores-five-unique-ecommerce-delivery-innovations-in-india/

According to Larry Fast (president of Pathways to Manufacturing Excellence), inventory remains a key area where we want to improve processes and eliminate waste. In the manufacturing industry, we basically have three types of inventory (raw material, WIP and finished goods). If we have an excess inventory it means that processing issues are hidden. CI (continuous improvement) strategy in an organization generally reduces their average cycle time by 70.4%, reduce scrap by 50%. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/ask-expert-lean-leadership/are-you-overlooking-inventory-focus-process-improvement-and-waste-reducti

Lean Thinking is a form of structured thinking that aims to provide a new way to think about organizing processes to deliver benefits to the organization while eliminating waste. Understanding this concept forms a base for deciding what actions to take, what to change, what to do. 

Pascal Dennis, in his book Getting the Right Things Done, has easily explained lean thinking in 10 words:

· “What should be happening?”

· “What is actually happening?”

· “Please explain.”

      To know more, read this article by Mark Rosenthal: http://theleanthinker.com/2015/02/13/lean-thinking-in-10-words/

Stephen Covey, the renowned management thinker, said, “Start with the end in mind.” Every organization aims at meeting few common ends i.e. safe workplace, save money, save space, save time in launching new processes, and increase flexibility. The means to achieving these ends is designing the process in such a way that it is lean as well as waste is minimized. If done at the starting stage, this will be more useful in cost reduction as per the Rule of 10.Robert H. Simonis, senior consultant, KCE Consulting LLC in his article in IndustryWeek, talks about how reducing different types of wastes bring benefits to the organizations. 

Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/lean-six-sigma/design-out-waste-and-build-lean

Technologies are changing how things are designed, made, and serviced around the globe and they have the potential for disruptive change. They can create value by connecting individuals and machines in a new "digital thread" across the value chain. Digitizing the value chain facilitates innovation and can directly improve the top line. Digital manufacturing is already proving its potential. For example: Coca-Cola applied a flexible packaging process in its "Share a Coke" campaign, which helped to increase the company's soft-drink volumes across world markets. Read more at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/manufacturing/digitizing_the_value_chain

According to some renowned pharmacy technicians, the application of LSS techniques in the inpatient pharmacy department at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals brought in a great deal of improvement. Kaizen ("improvement") events were conducted by the UNC inpatient pharmacy to progress work flow and customer service to patients and nurses. Overall, these improvements have refined work flow and improved employee and customer satisfaction. With LSS as a tool, UNC is constantly striving to promote the culture of continuous quality improvement. To know more read the article by Jami Mann, PharmD, MBA ( PGY1 health system pharmacy administration resident at UNC Healthcare), Allison Dipper, PharmD candidate (pharmacy technician at the Central Inpatient Pharmacy at UNC Healthcare), Erinn Rowe, PharmD, MS (clinical manager at UNC Healthcare)and Chad Hatfield, PharmD, MHA, BCPS (assistant director of operations at UNC Healthcare) at: http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/health-system-edition/2014/September2014/Lean-Six-Sigma-in-the-Pharmacy-Department

Six Sigma improves quality and efficiency by identifying and treating the causes of errors and defects and minimizes variability in manufacturing and business processes. The Lean Six Sigma principles- define, measure, analyze, improve and control, were applied to a rural Indian hospital to improve quality and care for patients. The approach was also able to identify other administrative issues. The successful implementation of this approach surprised the management and eventually brought about a cultural change within the organization. This could be a significant step towards improved healthcare for rural communities in the developing world. Read more at: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140813/Six-Sigma-approach-in-manufacturing-industries-can-improve-healthcare-for-rural-communities.aspx

According to Sorcha Corcoran(Managing Editor at Whitespace Publishing Group), around eight years ago a division within Irish Life in Dublin decided to embrace Six Sigma which turned out to be a key driver of innovation. Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools required for process improvement.The company found Six Sigma training useful because they came up with loads of fresh ideas.  Opportunities and problems are then picked up by the innovation team. This combined with market and customer research has helped them to drive specific innovations. Read more at: http://www.isixsigma.com/share.php?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessandleadership.com%2Fleadership%2Fitem%2F47367-six-sigma-driving%2F

Continuous Improvement is the prevalent effort to improve services, products and processes by making incremental improvements within a business. This process must be a continual so that the opportunities for development can be highlighted, measured and evaluated

• Leadership that walks the talk- Leaders must exhibit certain distinct behaviors that not only describe support for the initiative but also the behavioral pattern that they wish all employees to emulate. 

• A major focus on “fire prevention” rather than “firefighting”- The problems that require fixing are generating a series of “fires” that on a constant basis distract managers from solving the main cause of their problems.

• Constancy of purpose- Successful continuous improvement programs includes that improvement is not only a management initiative but also a long-term practice that needs to incorporate everything an organization does.

• Shift from short term to long term mind-set- The company needs to have at look at the long-term result of the work it is doing.

Read more at:

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/articles/continuous-improvement-4-factors-that-make-a-conti/

Continuous Improvement includes different methodologies and disciplines  including Business Process Management, Performance Management,  Compliance, Quality Management, Lean, Six Sigma and more. In spite of all the different terms,  methods and techniques  available, there are commonalities between these different approaches -all of them seek to continuously improve business processes to improve business results. But often companies are their own worst enemies when it comes to process improvement. Here are the main barriers to continuous improvement:

• Difficult to foster collaboration among multiple stakeholders

• Difficult to recognise which processes to prioritize improvement efforts on

• tooling of ill-suited Process Management

        Process Management tooling is inadequate

        Process Management tooling is too complicated

• Governing change to meet compliance obligations

• Lack of employee engagement

Read more at: 

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/lean-six-sigma-business-transformation/articles/five-barriers-to-continuous-improvement-vote-for-t/

Six Sigma has been the key driver for performance improvement for many companies. One of the structured innovation techniques that can be used for tactical innovation within the DMAIC cycles is the TRIZ methodology. One necessary aspect of the definition of innovation from our point of view is that it must result in a significant improvement for customers or some segment of society. One thing is certain, and that is the repeatable, reliable and predictable application of innovation is going to require putting some structure around it.  For an organization or company to be competitively excellent, innovation will be required of all and the only way to make that happen is to put structure into the innovation process. And of course, structure connotes Six Sigma. There's that cycle again-one leading to or needing the other.  According to Mikel Harry, a legitimate founder of Six Sigma, Six Sigma was designed and introduced to generate breakthrough improvement. And that is going to require innovation. Clearly, a balance is needed, for Six Sigma may not have been implemented as it should have been, or maybe the necessary structure for the realization of repeatable and reliable innovation has not yet been established. Nonetheless, it is both clear and proven that Six Sigma needs innovation and that innovation needs Six Sigma, and when they are united, innovation and Six Sigma are an unbeatable force. Read more at: 

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/articles/six-sigma-and-innovation/

Business leaders understand the strengthg and usefulness of managing the improvement of business results through process improvement teams. There is no better approach to process improvement than the application of Six Sigma tools and methods. Moreover, the disciplines of project management and Six Sigma are substitutes but they are complementary. The similarities between project management and Six Sigma include:

• Utilization of established project management techniques to efficiently manage a project and project teams.

• Necessity of proactive project sponsors or champions to help ensure project success.

• Life cycle and phases.

• Need for a well-experienced project facilitator to lead the effort.

Six Sigma adds additional dimensions to project management: 

• Powerful set of process improvement tools.

• Statistical and process thinking to understand and improve results.

• Understanding of variation, to eliminate knee-jerk reactions.

• Quantitative analysis for base decisions on facts and data.

Read more at: 

http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/gb/six-sigma.aspx

From a napkin to a 3D model every product development starts with an idea. Time, money and expertise is required to bring that idea to a marketable product. With the fantastic renaissance of innovation creating professional looking design with a little help is now easier and cheaper. Knowing your product inside out is very necessary. Putting initial pieces together gives you an idea about manufacturing details and also about speaking with professionals’ investors. It takes a little time to build and master the software but costs are less than that of a development firm. 

A number of companies have spawned and acquired hacker collectives as well. Thingiverse.com  even feature their homemade designs on their site which includes toy cars to salt and pepper shakers to robotic arms, with more ease and collaboration DIY modelling today acts almost as a natural prelude to prototyping. To know more about this aspect, follow this link:  http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/how-to-develop-a-prototype.html

5S is a methodology used initially to organize workplaces to be more efficient and streamlined thereby consistently striving for more outputs, lower costs and less waste. So in essence, as this is what Continuous Improvement is mostly about, 5S is one of the commonly used Continuous Improvement tools. 5S is widely believed to have originated or least initially widely used in Japan and the term 5S is derived from 5 Japanese words- seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke which loosely translated into English stand for: sort, simplify, shine, standardize and sustain. The principle activities taking place at each of the stages are: Sort - All unnecessary items, parts, files, supplies are removed from the area

Simplify – (or Set in Order) – A place is created for everything and everything is stored in its place

Shine – (Sweep) – Clean up the area

Standardize – Apply the same standard throughout (to other similar areas)

Sustain – Maintain the new standard and avoid slipping back to old habits

To know about practical recommendations to make 5S a key part of the Continuous Improvement machinery, regardless of the type of business visit:http://smallbizkaizen.com/index.php/2010/08/5s-business-benefit

The service sector constitutes 62% of the world’s total GDP. It has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades. The service sector employs around 40% of the global labour force. The four unique features of services are Intangibility, Inseparability, Perishability and Variability. Service operations are often labour intensive and susceptible to variations. These variations often lead to complexities and customer dissatisfaction. The big challenge is to deliver consistent quality of services across all platforms.  Demand Planning is another big challenge. Services are dynamic and perishable in nature and this can often lead to instances of idle capacity or opportunity loss. Further, the quality in service environment is an experience and not just a measurement against specification so defect definition can tricky. To overcome these challenges, as in other industries, the service industry needs to innovate and continuously improve its processes. Here are four suggested process improvement techniques for services industries:

• Develop a Process Manual

• Automate Processes

• Reduce Failure Demand

• Conduct a Service Blueprinting exercise

To know more about the four suggested process improvement techniques visit:

 http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/articles/four-key-process-improvement-techniques-for-servic/

Continually changing markets affect all industries; sooner or later the world will move on. Any product or service will eventually become obsolete if it is not refined to keep up with these ever-changing market demands. Staying still is not an option. A good Continuous Improvement process will deliver rapid evolution into any business. If one can improve faster than their competitors then they will be able to secure more of the market in future. The four basic requirements needed to develop a flourishing Continuous Improvement culture are stating your intention to improve, harvesting opportunity ideas i.e. initiating a continual improvement process, empowering the workforce i.e. deploying a continuous improvement culture, which is easy where the staffs are empowered to improve and measuring the improvement culture by the number of identified success and celebrating the success. To know more about these four requirements go to:

http://adaptivebms.com/How_to_establish_a_Continuous_Improvement_Process/

Unless one puts in the effort of being beside their customers they can never receive helpful word of mouth. In times of crisis if employees want to protect the company's reputation, they should instil a customer service culture, then empower staffs for making decisions, and perform properly in case of a problem. In times of crisis a briefing should be done to the frontline staffs about the crisis, which is a part of the crisis communication plan. This approach helps protecting one's reputation. Words of support from the directly affected people provides opportunity to enhance one's reputation further. There is no formula for gaining goodwill and loads of satisfied tweets and Facebook posts from customers. Frontline staffs as brand ambassadors and crisis communicators and hard work only pleases customers and satisfies them. Read more at:http://managementhelp.org/blogs/crisis-management/2010/12/13/crisis-management-customer-service/ 

Construction managers are looking for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. In a construction company there is a need for good project management software for contractors to cut costs on some areas and make products affordable. But, there are so many packages that it is difficult to choose. In this article, Jenifer Whitmire (a professional web content writer) writes how to choose good project management software for contractors. Please go through the link for more details: http://www.manufacturing.net/articles/2012/04/wrongly-doing-design-for-six-sigma

To transform the customer experience from traditional methods to better and newer methods, business authorities are relying on agile technology development. When Capital One started using agile development in 2011, Rudy Wolfs, Senior VP of Card IT at Capital One said, it amounted to only 1% of software that was delivered. Today, 85% of softwares are delivered by the agile development method. Also with agile, Capital One now also releases approximately 400 products a month, which has reduced the delivery times to three to six months while "cutting costs significantly," and finds 95% of products meet expectations on the first release. Presently, Capital One has more than 3,000 developers and business users trained on the agile methodology to get a better product. To know more kindly refer to the below mentioned link: http://www.banktech.com/channels/capital-one-delivers-85-of-software-thro/240166887?_mc=MP_IW_EDT_STUB