All entries for January 2006

25.01.2006

Day started with a discussion about the team exercise on glider construction, on the strengths, areas of improvements, learning and why is it important. We the team had a discussion for few mins and I presented our understanding. I tried to reduce the speed at which I presented…but could not resist in a few places. But i was conscious abou the fact that I have to improve upon the presentation, compared to the last one. Both team presentations were more or less bringing out the same issues, the other team focussed mainly on the game and its outcomes. May be thats how I felt. Thought of puttig a word with Jan Gillet about adding SoPK and humanfactors in those e learning modules… didnt do it. Greame discussed about most of the day to day charts being used inside our company. Afternoon Allan from BT came down for a presentation about his findings on Six Sigma and then we had an exercise on discussing the Six sigma implementation differences between a service industry and manufacturing industry. Mostly there wasnt and shouldnt be any difference was the overall view. Greame had brought a cute child to the class… expected that he would introduce her. Evening went for a shopping and going to bed. Good night.

: 25 Jan 2006 22:20 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

24.01.2006

Most of the day went on planning for improving the process of flight builder game, was able to really feel the chaos goind in a group of 15…then consider the chaos created by several 1000s. Its really tough managing projects in the multiscale levels. I was in the logistics team, most of the time we spent on following through the steps invovlved and we were discussing about trivial things….which were never useful. How to avoid it…. Will have to learn that quickly. Few stumbles here and there… team logistics & team process….came up with a new ideas which got implemented at the last minute.

: 24 Jan 2006 22:57 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

23.01.2006

PIUSS moduel started with an introduction, followed by a long discussion & presentation by john gillet on the project management aspect. Sounds good to focus more on project focus & commonsense approaches which are normally missing in working conditions. Performance declining as the time passes was a typical phenomenon which was noticed in my co, I thought it was the age factor but no… thats a universal factor I think. Most of the discussion was focussed on Success factors for projects. Something which ive learnt good today…stabilised prcess is achieved by the relentless effort in eliminating variation over years….Entropy is a measure of chaos ( I was not knowing that entropy is this simple). Spent few mins on change management. Started with the flight building game….as an operator….found to be very interesting at the same time able to appreciate the criticality & skill required in such a simple job. After few hiccups team managed to cope up with processes.

: 24 Jan 2006 22:53 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

20.01.2006

Eventhough Alex was about to present, Vlad had made some modifications to the assignment and presented it very well. Applauds. Almost the three teams presented the same perspective with different collection & stuff of material. After the presentation, it was time for Jan gilet to discuss with us on a six sigma programme. One ability which I am improving on day by day basis is the critical analysis. Whatever be given to you critically analyse before accepting it. I thought I knew something about integrated flow chart….but what i knew was little. Good exposure to what is integrated flow chart. Application of SoPK in aspects like finding what is so good & bad about the six sigma programme integrated flow chart was tried. Most of the discussion went ahead with plan B discussion…what is the programme fails. Afternoon let free, but the LE assignment tied me in the chair. Still working…not sure how long will it go…how long will it take to finish…

: 20 Jan 2006 19:08 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

19.01.2006

Morning seminar session on Variation was cancelled due to the reason that most of the students were not able to access the PMI website. We were let free so that we can work on tomorrow's presesntation – SoPK & Six sigma. Had our team meeting in learning grid, started at 3pm. As we were discussing there was a proposal…why not team 1 and two club together and make a presentation…. but somehow did not materialise. We decided that we will part off study some materials / stuff, then comeback and decide on further course of action.After 1.5hrs of study within learning grid itself, we the team (ashok,vlad,alex and bettychen) met again to discuss on what to present. Several ideas which rose are….. SS is not something new, its TQM with a different skin….Too much hype created might be to make money…..doesnot consider human factor…..what will happen if best practices like SoPK,hoshinkanri,SS,EFQM are done in an organisation after modficiations in their system…will the organisation survive or succeed. Based on the various ideas generated finally decided on the flow to be….definition of excellent organisation….six sigma…..SoPK….try to fit & see SS fitting in SoPK using a fourquadrant method… conculsion. Presentation came well, but most of us were not confident on the volume of material collected. After much of debate and disucssion…alex came foward to make the presentaiton. As I reached the room it was 9pm, had two hours time to spend on LE assignment. End of day.

: 20 Jan 2006 19:01 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

18.01.2006

Today went to sports facility for an hours play… but extended and grabbed a lot of time from me. I have spent a huge amount of time today on the PMI material..knowledge on variation… felt a bit easier as I had exposure to most of those stuff…DMAIC again reminded me of the QCStory. Amidst of enough research material colleced on LE assignment, the words are not freely flowing in the assignment. Predict the weekend to be very tough.

: 18 Jan 2006 21:41 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

17.01.2006

Day was as usual. Had a team meeting & presentation material preparation went on till afternoon. In the afternoon, teams presented on various topics, (human factors in ss initiatives, projects & blackbelts). A good exposure, but as such the basic philosophy remains same in almost all the initiatives. Have an overall picture, drive through organisation, deploy, resist resistance….bla bla.Few questions which rose in my mind which i desisted…. how can a non-expert in certain areas successfully lead a team in problem solving… should have a real leadership capabilities I suppose….Got reminded of Vijay shrinivas in TVSM, who has been doing a great job of BB manager, Is green belt a prerequisite for black belt training….. Is there any certified body which provides black belt….or lot individual orgs like PMI do it… if so which one is best…. I would like to be a BB in the next few years. Had a few moments to share with the team, team came with a decent selfassessment score of ~70, yet to get a feedback from Greame Knowles. Eventhough had a tough time working on with the assignments & the day was interesting.

: 18 Jan 2006 21:37 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

PIUSS – Study week

Happy new year !!!

Had started the pre work module for PIUSS, with a crisp introduction by Greame Knowles and Jan Gillet. Few of the important points which arised during the discussions / lecture were 6sigma is a problem solving methodology, 6 sigma is understood & explained by different people in different ways, either we call it six sigma or qc story or lean or …. all of them are towards problem solvng ( they are common sense approach to problem solving with a tint of spc here and there in varying proportions ). One statistic provided by Jan – 158 tools were forced on the black belt trainers within a period of 4 weeks – Really doubt the recollection and effective usage of the appropriate tools and techniques. SOPK relevance to the same was briefly provided. There has been a plan shift in the timetable, we have been asked to make a presentation on change initiatives by tuesday…instead of on Thursday….unanticipated software bugs were the reason. Dont we have a contingency plan for the same, can we use SOPK or six sigma or qc story to avoid such issues in the future…may be this can be taken up as a case study or classroom exercise even. Had referred a book on sixsigma and the isixsigma site for collecting material required for the presentaitons tomorrow. Our team met in the Learning grid and decided that Alex would present and all of us would add up ideas to the already collected material…. Should have added up few more…. But I had a dinner party arranged by Satheesh and need to work on LE PMA. Hopefully I will be able to add few more points during the team meeting planned tomorrow morning.

: 16 Jan 2006 23:38 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem