All entries for March 2009

PIUSS PMA the last one

This evening is the last day to doing PIUSS PMA, hope every one goes well...

Today, i have mainly focus on the second part about how to bring Lean and Six Sigma together. From my research, I think we have to understand the implementation of Lean Six Sigma revolves around three phases. this processes wraps the best of Lean and around a Six Sigma infrastructure and sets the roadmap for the long term. Moreover, when an organization wants to develop an intergration program that cooperate with Lean and Six Sigma tools, it is required to set up an efficiency strategy to response to the differences between Lean and Six Sigma, not only just training Lean Expert as Black Belts and put Lean principles in a Six Sigma curriculum. The improvement process of DMAIC shows the interplay of Lean and Six Sigma, it is the tool to combine theri benefit together to improve process. in addition, some crucial factors also improtant on integrating Lean with Six Sigma that is considered by an organizaiton. For example, the five Lean tools and princples to integrate into Six Sigma that includes value stream mapping, takt time, cause-and-effect diagram and 5 whys, load balancing, and mistake proofing, all of them are the important factors to help orgnaizaiton birng Lean and Six Sigma together.

After today, the module is totally finished. But i think the study for it will not be stop. Lean and Six Sigma are the most and popular methdologies, they are not only valued in manufacture, also they are good for any business.

: 15 Mar 2009 22:29 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

PIUSS PMA

I have near finished the first part of the PIUSS assignment. During the period, I have tried to understand what is Lean and Six Sigma in deeply. In order to answer the first question about whether Lean and Six Sigma can be compatible. Firstly, I researched their differences and similarities, and then think about why their need to combined, becausethis is the foregoing stage to think about whether they can be compatible. Through the focal research, the difference between Lean and Six Sigma likes they have different tools and techniques; the goal of Leanand Six Sigma is different; Lean is an improved process flow, but Six Sigma related to reduce process variation, Lean can influence the whole organization as it can change organizaiton culture because it covers all system, but Six Sigma just a particular team, when the project finish, the followers are fading out; six sigma plays change management that tends on focus on cost, quality and schedule, but Lean is transformatinal change that concern to busienss strategy, orgnaizaitonal design, structure, culture and process of the enter value stream. However, lots of similarities appear among them.  For example, both lean and six sigma are management philosopies associated with continuing improvement, requrie and encourage the engagement of management of key leaders within the organizaiton to make sure that the prioritized project are executed as part of way of doing busines, stress empowerment and involvement, etc.

I have researched lots of paper about Lean VS Six Sigma, some paper presents the difference of them is higher than the similarties, but others just shows the opposite. whatever, several typical examples as GE, Toyota, Motorola gave the impressive result using either Lean or Six Sigma.

why they need to be combined. From my research, i know they are not matually exclusive, i have divided into two fileds to analysis. Firstly it is from single system development. According real statistic shows any specific programs as Lean/TOC/6 sigma all have their specific peak time, but the result of Limited Factor of Implementation presents any program create successful only in small percentage of cases. so in order to survive, system need to be envolved.  secondly, because they are not matually exclusive, so the any one of them can be like a complement in order to enhance their benefits.

Michael L. George in his book shows the fusion of Lean and Six Sigma is required because:

* Lean can not bring a process under statistical control

* Six Sigma alone can not dramatically improve process speed or reduce invested capital.

this is a resource to help me understand how can Lean and Six Sigma to be combined, and whether they can be compitable.

The second part of the question is about how to bring Lean and Six Sigma together successful. Today, i have research some papers about integration of them, includes success factors to integrating them, and tools and princples of Lean to integrate into six sigma. by reading them, i know their features plays important rols on integration, it likes both lean and six sigma methodologies requires real data from customer to careful assessment, so the success facotor jsut may include cusotmer focus. ....

I m keep on reading and understanding, try to put more  reflective information asap....

: 14 Mar 2009 21:25 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

KM & IS

Keep doing the research for Kowledge Management. Todday, I want to conclude my research about Is it good to use and rely on IS to manage all kinds of knowledge. why i would like to think about the question is about organization need Knowledge Management strategies to create more unified and integrated knowledge sharing netwrok, formalise and systematise knowledge capture, and build a supportive culture for knowledge sharing that promote knowledge transfering and reuse. Nonetheless, KM can not achieve it alone, it have to rely on a way to support it that is information technology and information system.  Information system can defiend technically as "a set of interrelated components that collect, process store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization "(Laudon, K&Laudon, J, 2007)..

From my research I got, before we use IS to support KM, managers have to understand the type of knowledge firstly. as knowledge is divided into tacit and explicit knowledge, the definition about them was mentioned in previous blog. For explicit knowledge, it involves a systematic approach to organize inormation, make it available and disseminate it. so IS definitelyh is the major helper for improving the efficiency, accurancy and effectiveness of knowledge transferring.

As i mentioned before, using tacit knowledge, we have to convert it to explicit knowledge. There are two complementary KM approaches to deal with the challenges that are codification and personalization approaches. Codification is trying covert tacit knowledge to a more explicit form and adopt the systematic approach again to organizing, storing, and disseminating it. in this approach, IS are also used to translator, storage and electronic dictionary to transfer the tacit knowledge to explicit one, process and disseminate it. Personalization that refers to " the sharing of ideas and tacit knowledge in informal settings" (Alazmi, M, 2003). in this approach, IS mainly plays role on communication.

.......continuing ....

: 08 Mar 2009 16:46 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

KBAM

In this week, we have mainly focused on our mini project. on our group, everyone was allocated to research information about different part of  knowledge based management. My role now is researching about how knowledge can be defined, and how to representing knowledge. By doing that, I understand what is tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, including its concept and their difference, and the different format to representing knowledge. To share tacit knowledge, firstly have to covert it to explicit knowlege. Louis Kang gave a good illustration about them on his blog. The sharing is very useful to understand them.

Today, we have talked about seminar topics. During our discussion, we have mentioned the difference between innovation and invention. Invetntion is the first occurence of an idea for a new product or process while innovation is the first attempt to carry it out into practice (Gurel. O, 2007)

For example, iPod, the product is really not very inventive. Since MP3 players have been launched for several years, and the device of iPod is designed with the unique hardware and software aspects. the mainly contribution to the iPod innovation was its combination of aesthetic designm elegant ergonomics and ease of use. In addition, the creation of iTunes software made iPod truly innovative.

I am going to give a good link to undersand Innovation VS Invention by WILLIAM Buxton, which will help our to know more about them. the mainn point of the article is Innovation is far more about prospecting, mining, refining, and add value than it is about pure invention. Examples on it are Apple and Dell.

http://www.billbuxton.com/innovationIvention.pdf

: 06 Mar 2009 22:23 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

PIUSS pma

PMA seems never stop. I just submitted FACS on the monday, then have to move to PIUSS. Life is struggle and tough. In PIUSS project, lots of topics can be chosen, I am interested in the Lean and Six Sigma.

In the two days, i have read some articles about Lean and Six Sigma. simply understand their aspects and key contrubution to improving quality within less time. we have known what is Six Sigma in the PIUSS lecture, and understand Six Sigma does not directly address process speed during our game.

From literature review, Lean means speed. the aim of it is to eliminate wasted time, effort, and material, to provide customers with make-to-order products, and to reduce cost while improving quality. However, it can not bring a process under statistical control. Therefore, in the first part of the quesion that is whether the tools can indeed compatible, the solution is they  can be cooperated indeedly.  since the concept of Lean Six Sigma is defined a methodology that can achieve the fasted rate of improvement in customer satisifaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital. But they can not reach the achievement if doing separately.

More about Lean Six Sigma I have got from research is that Lean Six Sigma works not by speeding up the workers or the machines, but by reducing unneeded wait time between value-added steps. Actually, this concept has represented very good on our building a small-scale plan game, which is why we got a good result on the game. Unlike intuition that tell us the faster we go, the more mistake we make.

: 05 Mar 2009 00:06 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem