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Six Sigma for Small Business – Book Review
One of the common complaints I hear about Six Sigma is that it is only for big businesses who can afford to invest in getting started. They hear stories about the cost to train a Green or Black Belt,...
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Myths about Toyota and why this is the improvement book you must read!
Toyota Kata is one of the most popular books in the process improvement community right now (summer of 2014). I’ve heard it mentioned many times in the past few weeks, so I decided to see what all the...
View ArticleWhat does golfing have to do with Six Sigma?
Here at BPI, we are always looking for ways to make Lean and Six Sigma concepts easier to understand for those getting started. We will be creating a series of videos with examples that might resonate...
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Don’t waste time on a full Gage R&R study until the data says you are ready
We support a lot of small volume manufacturing facilities (delivering low rate, high complexity products), which presents different challenges for implementing Six Sigma. When you only produce one...
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Split testing website marketing messages with Minitab’s Chi-Square %...
Six sigma techniques have expanded beyond traditional manufacturing companies, into healthcare, movie industry, government and now online marketing. Split testing (also called A/B testing) is one of...
View ArticleCombining DMAIC and lean events to maximize process improvements
The DMAIC approach for process improvement is the foundation for Six Sigma, and I have grown to appreciate it more each time I use it. However, DMAIC projects can take a while to complete. Lean events...
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Employee engagement that will make you jealous!
One of the most difficult things for business owners and managers is to engage their employees in continuous improvements every day. Even the most advanced companies have struggled with this. The...
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Which lean event type should I do first, Value Stream Mapping or Kaizen Burst?
What type of lean event should we do first, Value Stream Mapping (VSM) or Kaizen Burst? Before we can answer this question, let’s first define these two popular event types Value Stream Mapping (VSM)...
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How to use candy to teach or learn Six Sigma
During our Yellow Belt (beginner Six Sigma) class, we have found lots of success teach statistical concepts using candy. It is a fun way to make statistics less “scary” for those who don’t have a...
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Use capability analysis to see if you are sleeping enough
My wife says I don’t sleep enough, and she is right. I tried to argue with her for years, saying that I don’t feel tired, and I have too much going on, but deep down I knew she was right. Like any good...
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Calculating Confidence Intervals for Proportions in Minitab
A common question I get asked is: how accurate are my defect rate predictions? If you are inspecting a sample of items, and there are some defects or errors, you can easily calculate the defect rate by...
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BPI is a Certified B Corporation! So what does that mean?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Portland, Oregon, 2/3/2018 – Business Performance Improvement (BPI), a Lean and Six Sigma consulting firm focused on sustainability, has become a Certified B Corporation. BPI...
View Article2017 Annual Benefit Report Available
On March 29, 2018, to meet our requirements for our Certified B Corporation status, we updated our Articles of Organization with the State of Oregon, and became a Benefit company. The requirement to...
View ArticleIntroducing My Summer Intern, Teagen
From mid-May through July, I will be having a summer intern helping me out. Teagen Stalte is a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, studying Supply Chain and...
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Business Performance Improvement Announces Membership with 1% for the Planet...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Portland, Oregon, 7/6/18 Business Performance Improvement (BPI) has joined 1% for the Planet, pledging to donate 1% of annual sales to support nonprofit organizations focused on...
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Using Six Sigma to Improve B Corporation Assessment Scores
For Teagen’s internship project, I asked him to use the Six Sigma DMAIC framework to help me improve my B Corporation assessment score for my next review. The minimum score to achieve certification is...
View ArticleWhy I like using the Ideal State Mapping approach
During Value Stream Mapping or Process Mapping events, I facilitate a team through the current state map of the process, to understand the problems, wastes and opportunities in the process. Next, we...
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Which lean event type should I do first, Value Stream Mapping or Kaizen Burst?
What type of lean event should we do first, Value Stream Mapping (VSM) or Kaizen Burst? Before we can answer this question, let’s first define these two popular event types Value Stream Mapping (VSM)...
View Article5S and the KonMari method
Back in late 2016, I was introduced to Marie Kondo and her methods (called “KonMari”) for home organization. I listened to her book, called “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of...
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Our Placekicker Is Out of Control!
The following article I wrote was published in Quality Progress (ASQ) in July 2005. One correction, the use of Pp and Ppk was not common, so my data is calculated using the overall standard deviation,...
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