Category Archives: Improvement, Continuous or Not

Learning about improvment projects

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 2 – A Step by Step Guide

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

When you’re ready to start a project you need to create a Project Charter. In our last Blog we went over the consequences of not having a charter. Today, we’re going to cover the steps you need to take to … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, corporations, Improve, Measure, Projects, Quality, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 1 – Do We Need Charters?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If you were to take everything in the very large Six Sigma toolkit and try to identify the top ten most important tools, the Project Charter is near the top. A charter is just a very good description of what you … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, Improve, Projects, Quality, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

The Regulators: Round 2 – Are Your Costs In Line With The Market… Which Market?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we spoke a bit about the rise of “Regulators” in Fortune 500 Firms. In the past service managers would periodically see directives for firm-wide budget controls, freezes for new hires, or (during especially difficult economic times) special committees that … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Common Sense Contracting, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged Build vs. Buy, change, Costs, Improve, Measure, outsource, Quality, Quantify, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, Track, transform | 1 Comment

The Regulators : Who Are They And Why Are They Interested In You?

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Most signs for the economy are looking up, and the pressure to reduce costs has reduced. However, as business is rising and new income producing staff is being hired, the new pressure for Corporate Services is to support these new … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Common Sense Contracting, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged Improve, Measure, Metrics, outsource, Quality, Quantify, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

The 4th Sigma: Analysis Paralysis… More Options Don’t Always Help

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Any good management book or management system provides you with more than a few tools or the steps for a process. The best books remind that you are applying these systems to people, people with preferences and limitations. Some people … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Unique Ideas | Tagged 4th Sigma, change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Projects, Quantify, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, Track, transform | Leave a comment

The 4th Sigma: Is It Time to Rethink Six Sigma?

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Over the past few months, I have been using this blog to collect information from different operational managers, especially IT managers because of the wide range of services they run. The subject has been, “How are you dealing with the … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Unique Ideas | Tagged change, Hiring, Improve, IT, Measure, Metrics, outsource, Projects, Quality, Quantify, Reporting, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, tips, Track, transform | 5 Comments

100%, Guaranteed On-Time… Sort Of!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

When I have discussions with my peers about the metrics they collect to run their operations, or at least measure how well their operations perform, the most confused and controversial metric is… On-Time-Delivery (OTD). Many operations feel that they have … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, On Time Delivery, Projects, Quantify, Reporting, Satisfaction, Track, transform | Leave a comment

Variations On A Theme: Why Do I Need All This Math?

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

When you read about the different quality systems out there, you quickly hit the wall when they start throwing statistics at you. Once you move into the heavy math, the interesting idea start to look like a very complicated and … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Predict, Projects, Quantify, Reporting, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

Pipe Dreams: Pursuit Of The Right Quality Metric

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Quality can mean different things, often many things, to any individual. The term “quality”, by itself doesn’t necessarily clearly spell out what you mean. Identifying what quality means (in the context of a specific project) is vital to any improvement … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development | Tagged change, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Quality, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, transform, Voice of the Client | Leave a comment

The Mind Muddle Of Multi-Tasking

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Multi-Tasking. We’ve all used this term for doing more than one thing at a time. As in, “Look at me Ma… I’m doing the laundry and watching TV… I’m Multi-Tasking!” Most of us have even been told to do more … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Unique Ideas | Tagged Efficiency, Improve, Measure, Multi-Task, Quality, Quantify, Staffing, Studies, transform | 2 Comments