Archive for the ‘Podcast’ Category

Six Sigma and Global Warming

Monday, April 6th, 2009

September 11, 2007

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? 16:04.

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Six Sigma in Small Business

Monday, April 6th, 2009

May 19, 2007

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. 34:48.

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What Control Charts Tell You

Monday, April 6th, 2009

May 13, 2007

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. 11:32.

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Keeping Your Project Moving

Monday, April 6th, 2009

April 8, 2007

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. 9:59.

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Voice of the Customer Part II

Monday, April 6th, 2009

March 2, 2007

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. 10:45.

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Voice of the Customer Part I

Monday, April 6th, 2009

February 7, 2007

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. You are probably 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. 12:11.

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What Does the Mean Mean?

Monday, April 6th, 2009

January 21, 2007

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. 9:51.

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Black Belt Project Selection Pointers

Monday, April 6th, 2009

January 9, 2007

Nine critical criteria that a Six Sigma Black Belt should consider when deciding which project to pursue. 9:33.

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Collinearity

Monday, April 6th, 2009

December 29, 2006

You’ve gathered the data and ran the regression analysis. Strangely, the biggest regression weights have insignificant p-values. Some weights even have the wrong sign! What the heck is going on here? Listen to this podcast to find out. 17:48.

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Dilbert got it wrong

Monday, April 6th, 2009

December 7, 2006

Is Six Sigma a fad? Has it been widely discredited? Is it incompatible with innovation? These are claims made in the Sunday, November 26, 2006 Dilbert comic strip. Tom Pyzdek discusses each of these claims in depth. 14:38.

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Resources for Six Sigma


Introduction to Six Sigma
Six Sigma Projects
Six Sigma Tools
Six Sigma Statistics
Six Sigma Videos (Requires QuickTime)
Leading Six Sigma
Healthcare Quality
Process Excellence Podcasts
Other Useful Links
Good books on Six Sigma and other topics

What is Six Sigma?

By Thomas Pyzdek, Author of The Six Sigma Handbook

For Motorola, the originator of Six Sigma, the answer to the question "Why Six Sigma?" was simple: survival. Motorola came to Six Sigma because it was being consistently beaten in the competitive marketplace by foreign firms that were able to produce higher quality products at a lower cost. When a Japanese firm took over a Motorola factory that manufactured Quasar television sets in the United States in the 1970s, they promptly set about making drastic changes in the way the factory operated. Under Japanese management, the factory was soon producing TV sets with 1/20th the number of defects they had produced under Motorola management. They did this using the same workforce, technology, and designs, making it clear that the problem was Motorola's management. Eventually, even Motorola's own executives had to admit "our quality stinks." Read More...