An Assessment of Leadership Traits and the Success of Six Sigma Projects

In this chapter, more effective green belt leaders rated themselves higher than less effective green belt leaders on the following traits: articulate, perceptive, self-confident, self-assured, and determined. In addition, the more effective green belt leaders reported stronger upper management support than did less effective green belt leaders. In this chapter, more effective black belt leaders rated themselves higher than less effective black belt leaders on the following traits: articulate, perceptive, self-confident, self-assured, determined, dependable, and friendly. The more effective black belt leaders also reported stronger upper management support and project experience than did less effective black belt leaders. Clearly, in times of economic uncertainty and increasing global competiveness, managers need to be able to recognize the individuals who possess the needed traits to make their companies profitable.

An Assessment of Lean Communication at a Nuclear Power Plant

Communication is the sharing of information between individuals or groups to reach common understanding or goals. Ensuring effective and efficient communication is important when dealing with complex structures such as a nuclear power generation environment. This calls for a need for partnership and dialogue between major stakeholders in government, industry, employees, and the public at large. Even though communication can alarm people to seek safety, it can be used to calm employees as well as generate a sense of urgency. This chapter uses a survey to investigate the relationship between communication and 13 critical factors of lean management principles in an organization where safety is the fundamental component of the process. Data was collected and analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and regression analysis. The results show that friendliness, willingness, guarantee, criticism, self-esteem, and acceptance are positive predictors of a lean communication while responsibility is negative.

A Framework for Nondestructive Evaluation Application in Supply Chain Management

This chapter introduces a general framework for Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) application in Supply Chain Management (SCM). With the support of emerging and existing technologies related to supply chain implementation, nondestructive evaluation provides an enabling platform to analyze the design, planning, and operational decisions within the upper and downstream ends of the supply chain system. This clarifies supply chain goals, supports making of efficient decisions without constraints, identifies managerial strategies that improve overall supply chain performance, competitive advantage, and profitability. Unfortunately, the desired attention has not been paid to how the numerous nondestructive evaluation technologies can be applied to supply chain management and implementation. This chapter, therefore, considers both technical and business perspectives of this application. It is from these viewpoints that an application framework is proposed. It covers the various nondestructive evaluation methods, operational scenarios for each method, and application issues and challenges within the supply chain.

Enterprise Resource Planning and Lean Six Sigma

Over the last two decades, two of the hottest topics in business have been Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Lean Six Sigma. Companies have spent millions of dollars implementing both of these, and the resulting benefits have been mixed. In this chapter, the authors examine the basic foundation of ERP and what drives organizations to implement ERP systems that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The chapter also explores the history of ERP and who was and are the major players in the marketplace.

Total Quality Management Practices in Multinational Corporations

This chapter introduces the practices of Total Quality Management (TQM) in multinational corporations, thus explaining the history, overview, concept, and the various components of TQM. TQM practices and organizational culture, TQM practices and organizational performance (in terms of quality data and reporting, supplier quality management, product and service design, and process management), and the practical application of total quality management in service and manufacturing sectors are discussed. This calls for a change on the part of organization stakeholders to adopt these new practices through an effective in-service training for managers and staff to adequately put these principles into practice and by adopting an effective utilization of human resources to initialize and maintain the attempts to create a dynamic quality system. The chapter argues that applying total quality management practices in multinational corporations will significantly enhance organizational performance and achieve business goals in the global business environment.

Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare

The chapter clarifies emerging aspects and trends of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in healthcare through the systematic examination of 162 peer-reviewed articles in business, management, and healthcare disciplines that have been published over a ten-year period from 2004 to January 2014. Every article is analyzed using a scheme of six distinct dimensions including year of publication, journal, applications areas, tools and techniques, benefits and improvements, and research type. The chapter provides significant insights into the state of the art of LSS in healthcare research and clarifies confusion in the literature as to what constitutes LSS role in improving healthcare context.

Improving Supply Chain Delivery Performance Using Lean Six Sigma

Models for evaluating and improving delivery performance play an important role in the management of supply chains. A review of supply chain delivery models that use Six Sigma methodologies indicate that the models are limited to only make-to-order supply chains where improvement in delivery performance occurs at a fixed (static) point in time. In this chapter, the authors present a generalized delivery performance model that overcomes these limitations. The model presented here can be used to measure delivery performance in both make-to-order and make-to-stock supply chains and supports improvement in delivery performance over a planned time horizon with definable milestones for attaining targeted levels of improvement. Numerical illustrations of the model are presented.

Manufacturing Production Companies Can Gain Strategic Global Advantage Using Lean Six Sigma

How the implementation of Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing production companies in the global environment can positively affect innovation, quality, education, productivity, standard of living, and ethics is discussed in this chapter. Examples by notables like Dr. W. Edwards Deming and the Chegg Study point out a serious misalignment between what is actually needed in manufacturing production worker skill sets and what is available. The chapter demonstrates the interconnectivity of, and responsibility for, the welfare of citizens of the world. It shows how Lean Six Sigma implementation can influence Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product, which in turn determine quality of life for a nation's citizens. The chapter offers solutions like fostering industry, academics, and government relationships for the abatement of problems such as less government funding for public education and equipping college students with the right skill sets for more complex jobs in manufacturing production industries.

Data Fusion Aiding Tool (DAFAT) Design for Emergency Command and Control Using Lean Principles

Disaster events, such as September 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, and the Southeast Asian Tsunami, have taught America and the world the importance of preparing for emergency response to a disaster that may arise from natural disasters or man-made disasters. Decisions regarding emergency response often rely on incomplete information and imprecise data, whereas responsive measures to disasters must be efficient in time and effective in accuracy to minimize possible loss of lives and properties. The domain of emergency response requires the interaction and collaboration of multiple stakeholders with different standard operating procedures. Excluding lean principles in the design of the emergency management information system can be as devastating as the disaster itself. This chapter analyzes the impacts of lean principles in the understanding of command and control, its nature, and the characteristics of an emergency domain, providing better insight into the problems associated with information processing during emergency response planning.

Lean Continuous Improvement Builds Excellence and Engagement

The current management literature is replete with advocates for employee engagement. Not many would argue that engendering ownership and responsibility along with the reported organizational benefits are worth aspiring to achieve. However, the actual results of workplace surveys report disengagement appears to be more the norm in spite of management best efforts. As organizational success and growth come, things start falling apart, resulting in missed deliveries, waste, worker frustration, dissatisfied customers, and lower profit margins. Lean best practices, heralded by many marketplace leaders, demonstrate results-oriented and proven ways of gaining employee engagement from extraordinary process performance to everyone's satisfaction (customers, owners, employees, community). This chapter is a cataloguing of the employee engagement characteristics matched to prevalent Lean processing principles. Lean is promoted in this work as providing a mature and proven system for advancing engagement even while improving processes.