Globalization has led to worldwide economic growth, shared resources and shared business functions. Some countries dominate manufacturing, others software or the service industry.

So far, we’ve discussed Stupid Six Sigma Tricks #10: Conflating systems, methods and tools and #9: Confus

In a repetitive manufacturing environment, Six Sigma’s quantification is much easier than in the engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturing environment, where no two products are identical.

In the last InsideSixSigma issue, we published a

Lean and Six Sigma have been implemented for many years and organizations have benefited from both methodologies. With Six Sigma, corporations have reaped benefits in the billions of dollars.

In a certain operation, a part is subject to a high-temperature curing cycle. The ideal curing scan is illustrated in the chart below.

This month let’s examine another common mistake that some people (not my loyal, intelligent, heretical and, let’s face it, downright attractive readers) make when

Editor’s note: This is an attempt to use DMAIC methodology to resolve conflicts, in concert with the approach presented in an article titled “Feds may unleash Six Sigma on terrorism” by Del Jones in USA Today, October 30, 2002.

As I said in my premier Heretic column, “Dogma and Definition,” I’m interested in examining our assumptions and premises about Six Sigma so we can discard the dross and refine the potential benefits in impl