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Robert Thompson over at Qualitas has written a short article explaining how the 8 Disciplines approach can be mapped onto the DMAIC framework of Six Sigma. This article has helped me see some of the strengths of the 8 Disciplines approach. Too many times I’ve seen the 8 Disciplines form used just as a form to complete and not as an effective problem solving tool. Now that I can see it mapped onto the DMAIC framework, I can see where we can improve our problem solving and how to integrate tools such as Ishikawa diagrams, control charts and the other basic quality tools. I have 4 open issues that I am currently working on and I’m sure this knowledge will give me better results.

In October I did my first annual physical inventory. I’ve worked on them before in previous jobs but only as a member of the count team. This time, I was a member of the organizing team and responsible for the results. What were they? It took 35 people 4 days to count our inventory. We had a net variance of about $45k. This is one of the better results for the plant I work in. I was very disappointed with the gross variance. It was almost 15 times the net variance. It means we either have offsetting systemic errors or just dumb luck. I’ve already come up with a goal for next year of a net variance of $36k and a gross variance of better than $520k. I’d love to do better but it’s not my full time area of focus. I’ll continue to post updates as I progress through the year.

Having moved into a new job related to quality, I’ve been trying to learn as fast as I can. One of the most popular ideas in quality right now is Six Sigma. Wanting to learn the basics I picked up Six Sigma for Dummies and wasn’t disappointed! This book goes through all the basics of Six Sigma in common terms. The statistics are there, but the math is not complicated by jargon or techno speak.

While this book is not what I would call enjoyable bedtime reading, for someone looking to learn the basics of the current quality movement, Six Sigma for Dummies is a great place to start.

Books mentioned in this post: