Process and Quality Excellence Pointers

What does it take to be an effective Six Sigma Black Belt? This two-part podcast tackles this question. In Part II Tom discusses an approach to problem solving that has served him well for 40 years.

What does it take to be an effective Six Sigma Black Belt? This two-part podcast tackles this question. In Part I Tom discusses the role of the Black Belt, motivating others, working with teams as a Black Belt, management's responsibilities to teams, proper team structure, how to get the voice of the process, and problem solving.

Can the Six Sigma approach help us approach the issue of global warming? What would one do in the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control phases of a hypothetical Six Sigma project on global warming?

Six Sigma has done well for large companies, but can it work for small businesses too? And if so, what adjustments should be made? This is the topic of an interview in the Business Under Fire interview series with Tom Pyzdek by Carol Dickson-Carr of Power Ed Solutions and Managing Personal Resources and Bea Fields of Five Star Leader. This podcast features that interview.

Control charts are an important tool commonly used in Six Sigma. But what do control charts tell you? How can we determine what to plot on the control chart? How should we determine the sample size and sampling frequency? What do control limits mean? How do we use control charts? These questions and more are answered in this podcast.

There's no such thing as a Six Sigma project without obstacles to overcome. In this Podcast Tom Pyzdek discusses a couple of very common problems and how to overcome them.

Net Promoter is the latest, greatest way to measure the way your customers feel about you. This podcast discusses how NP is calculated and used in Six Sigma.

If you don't know for sure what your customers are looking for from your organization, chances are you're not giving it to them. Chances are you are wasting money and maybe even putting your very survival at risk.
This podcast tells you how to obtain the "Voice of the Customer," or VOC. It walks you step-by-step through a process of building a model of customer requirements using the Critical Incident Technique. A model of customer requirements is the starting point for Six Sigma.

The mean is an attempt to summarize a lot of data with a single number that represents a "typical" value. Tom discusses the pros and cons of several commonly used statistics. He also presents a quickie mean that can be computed in a pinch without a computer or calculator.

Here are 9 critical criteria for the Black Belt to consider when deciding if a project is worth pursuing.