My 2007 Last Working Day

Today (31/12/07) is my last working day for the year of 2007. Many peoples ask me why I am not taking a day off on the new year eve for new year celebration. Further more, most of the colleagues are off for holiday.

OK, let me tell you my reason to be present at the first and last day of a year. I insist to do so unless I have no choice.

No special reason actually, I just want to have a good opening at the beginning of the year and a wonderful ending at the end of the year.

As usual, I don’t plan any activities for today. I just keep the time for myself to clear off my back log, tidy up my desk and clean up my mail box.

Today can be an easy day for me, since nobody in the office; no one will disturb me for job related issue. Anyway, today is a new year eve, I work with my holiday mood.

I will clock out 5:30PM sharp.

Special Task Force

OMG!! special task force again

Receive a note from my manager, ask to joint as a team member of a special task force. Of course, formation of a special task force is not for fun, it mean there are something critical need urgent attention.

As usual, I m only playing the role as team member, since only manager level can be the task force leader. Don’t ask me why, it is a top down direction.

I don’t like to be in the task force mainly because I don’t like the way the task force handle problem;

Without proper problem statement establishment

Without proper study of failure mechanism

Without proper study of root cause and

Straight they go for solution / improvement implementation.

As a team member, I m among the pity guy who have to execute the potential solution result from the brainstorming, monitor and report the solution effectiveness.

Now you know why only manager can be the task force leader.

The result of the task force usually not meeting the target, mainly because potential solution listed are the brainstorming result of a group of technical specialist, without proper study of the root cause.

I always argue, all solution listed is just part of trial and error solution if no body can explain how the problem happen. I prefer to spend 80% of the time to understand the problem (Gemba is the best way) instead of holding a big group of peoples in a meeting room doing brainstorming for possible solution.

If you don’t know how it happen, you don’t know how to prevent it to happen…

Good Six Sigma Training Consultant Recommendation

An ex-colleague is looking for good Six Sigma consultant that provides Six Sigma training and BB certification. He would like to be a certified BB like me.

I don’t think this is a good idea to get BB certification. As I know, there isn’t any recognized international body that set standard for Six Sigma GB, BB or MBB certification. All the certification from respective Six Sigma training consultant ( as can find easily through the web ) are based on the guidelines of the respective training center.

Where is the standard then?

Answer to you, generally there is no standard for GB, BB and MBB certification.

Well, the DMAIC problem solving process has extended almost applicable to all industries, you can’t just master and handle the tools by just few days sitting in the class room and complete one or two Six Sigma project.

Six Sigma is a big topic that required continuous learning cycle. I would say, a true Six Sigma practitioner is the one who truly apply the DMAIC approach, not only limited to their daily job related problem solving activities, but also apply it for their personal career development.

My advice to the ex-colleague, selecting the right training center is important to ensure he learn the right Six Sigma approach, but BB certification from the training center doesn’t guarantee the sustainability of the knowledge if there is no regular practice and continuous learning cycle.

You Are The Real Boss

A colleague silently expresses his disappointment to me in the last Friday meeting. From the short conversation, I can sense that he is quite unhappy with his superior and the management. He has been with the department for more than 6 years but he is not given a change for his career advancement.

I feel sorry to hear that. From what I know, he is a very experienced engineer who gains lot of respect from his technical achievement.

He told me he is considering of inter departmental transfer but he worry he cannot get the green light from his “BOSS” because there are still plenty of cases need his attention…..

I don’t want to elaborate the case further since the answer is straight forward….

I have seen many similar cases like this, most of the time peoples suffer in such situation prefer to keep silent even they know they were ignored by the management. No one dare to walk into their manager’s office to voice up their feeling and seek for opportunity to fix the problem.

Honestly, I do face the same problem; I really walk into the GM’s office and ask for discussion about my career path, but I was chase out by him. I am quite disappointed when I asked to get out from the office, it is my bad experience. Anyway, I learn something from the lesson.

What for working with the management who don’t appreciate your talent?

Since then, I never treat my employer, managers as my “BOSS”. They are not my boss, they are just one of my customer. I M THE REAL BOSS.

I treat myself a service provider selling a service to the company at the price I think fair for both. I am responsible for the work I deliver. I have the right to ask for the fair price and I have the right to choose my customer who offer me best return and opportunity to growth.

Try to think this way, you may see thing differently….

Basic Six Sigma Infrastructure

New Year Plan

Another 30 days to go, farewell to the year of 2007 and a new milestone begin.

What have you achieved in the past 365 days and what have you planned to achieve in the coming new year? I like to ask myself the simple question every year about this time.

Well, I considered 2007 is a fruitful year to me. I realized many items that planned early of the year. Get the Six Sigma Forum up is one of the important action I achieved. The blog clocked 1930 visit from 478 different network location since the blog stat feature installed in 01/05/2007. Thank you for your support.

However, I do face some problems in my personal life as well as in the work place, that make me feel quite disappointed. Anyway, all the bad things soon will goes into history, most important to me is the lesson learn from the past experience.

I already have a long list of to do action item in my mind for the coming new year that enough to keep me busy throughout the year. It is also an important milestone for my Six Sigma career development.

Here are some item I wish to realize in the coming new year.

1. Clean up and enhance the blog content, make it more informative
2. Organize at least one info sharing session in a local university. It is my last year plan but I did not make it realized due to lack of interest from the university. I will try again this year.
3. Continue to organize Six Sigma training class for anyone or organization who shows interest in Six Sigma concept. I always welcome opportunities to give training, training is the only way I learn.

Lastly, I wish all of you a Happy New Year.

Mc Donald’s Production System

I got a chance to snap the photo in a Mc Donald’s restaurant while waiting for my turn to place order.

The incident happen when a customer service attendant found the burger tray is empty and the kitchen is not able to role out enough burger to meet customers demand. The crews seem like lack of experience in handle the messy situation. They loss control, leave the angry customers aside and having side discussion in front the burger tray. There are customer really unhappy to be serve with such situation. Some inpatient customer just walk away from the restaurant.

Mc Donald’s is one of the successful company in lean production system, yet they end up in such situation.

Why ?

In fact, I don’t really like the communication system that Mc Donald’s is using. Where the customer service attendant asking for stock replenishment through shouting to the kitchen. Is this effective ? I doubt, how many order the guys in the kitchen can remember ? The system make the restaurant looks busy but not really effective.

In the Mc Donald’s Production System, there is a Kanban tray in the system, but without the Kanban or Ticket to trigger the demand pull. Whereas, the demand pull is trigger by shouting.

May be, it is the company’s culture, the management want it this way. Some noise in the restaurant can make the environment looks young and energetic.

Anyway, there are room for further improve the operation system.

Make Sure You Point Your Finger Right To The Point

The quality manager posted a question to the test development manager in weekly quality review meeting.

She ask : Can you do something to improve your tester performance to improve product yield.

Per my understanding, she is requesting the test manager to come out a solution so that the tester won’t reject so many parts.

Can the manager turn a dead part alive with his gold finger ? This could be a big challenge for him.

Hmmm… something wrong with the quality manager I guess. She seems like not aware the whole purpose of 100% test and the main function of the tester. Well, the tester is just a machine that sorts out good and bad part from a batch, so that we ensure we are delivering “Zero Defect” parts to the customer. There is no magic to turn a defective part through the tester.

I curious why she is not question the process engineering manager, the guys should maintain the process performance.

Yes, process improvement should be focus on the process variation elimination. Not the tester. Feedback / data from the test equipment could be useful for targeting the right source of problems. If the process is really at the Six Sigma level, we actually can omit the 100% test before shipment.

We are working in a well structure organization. Everybody hold an important role and responsibility to ensure the business moving. As a team, we need to know the role and responsibility of each other. Sometime, simply finger pointing to the wrong person could affect the harmonization within the team members. Therefore, we have to be extra careful when we would like to point the finger out to somebody.