Who is Malcolm Baldrige?
Malcolm Baldrige was US Secretary of Commerce (1981-1987) and a leader in quality management. He helped create the US Quality Improvement Act of 1987 and in his honour the annual award is named after...
View ArticleHistorical Perspective of Lean
This note from Jim Womack at the Lean Institute provides an excellent historical perspective of lean manufacturing. It is reprinted here with permission. Stephen, I’ve been reflecting on today’s...
View ArticleSad News for the Six Sigma Community
Paula Parmeter, a Six Sigma advocate and pioneer, recently passed away. Everyone that knew Paula is tremendously saddened. Below is a tribute, written by Ilona Kirzhner. iSixSigma has been nice...
View ArticleJoseph M. Juran 1904-2008
Many of you have recently heard about the tremendous loss to the Quality profession. There is a press release from Juran Institute and a forum discussion. I had an email forwarded to me from the...
View ArticleSimplicity
I was recently perusing Time magazines “Top 100” list for 2008, and came across this entry for Peter Pronovost. I had never heard of Pronovost. Here’s part of what profiler Kathleen Kingsbury had to...
View ArticleThe Lean Six Sigma All-Star Game
As you may know, if you’re a baseball fan, Major League Baseball is holding its All-Star Game on July 15 at Yankee Stadium. You may also know that you can create your own “fantasy” baseball team,...
View ArticleIn His 100th Year, Juran Still an Advocate for Quality
Dateline: Stamford, Connecticut (USA), May 6, 2004 The man whose ideas led to corporations adopting Six Sigma and other quality management strategies warns that U.S. companies are moving too slowly in...
View ArticleThe History of Six Sigma
The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard can be traced back to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) who introduced the concept of the normal curve. Six Sigma as a measurement standard in product...
View ArticleSix Sigma Evolution Clarified – Letter To The Editor
On behalf of Six Sigma Academy, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the evolution of six sigma since this seems to be a lively topic of conversation among many practitioners (even...
View ArticleRemembering Bill Smith, Father of Six Sigma
Bill Smith spent years convincing higher-ups that he really had invented a better mousetrap. Then he spent the rest of his life spreading the word to business professionals, government leaders and...
View ArticleHistory of the Six Sigma Black Belt Naming Convention
Motorola, the company that holds the Six Sigma trademark, says the data-driven defect-reduction process has saved the company more than $16 billion over the past 15 years. Six Sigma has generated...
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