Blog | Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.

When I was 18 we (my family and I) had just returned on an accompanied tour with my father (a U.S. Marine) in London, England. We were in Jacksonville, NC for around two weeks when he received orders to ship off to the middle east to be a part of "Desert Storm". I was preparing to go to college in Greenville, NC which was about three hours from Jacksonville. I changed my plans when we got the news that my father was to be deployed again. I decided to go to the local community college so that I could watch after my mom and two sisters.  My first order of business once I was registered for school was to find a job. The only employment I found that would work around my schedule was McDonalds. I was hired as a night shift cook. I have always had the mind to be frugal with money. Like teaching, you don't enlist in the Marine Corps to get rich. I say this because I immediately saw waste at the McDonalds though At the time I did not know the concepts of Lean nor Six Sigma. ...

I'm sure most of you have seen thousands of infomercials over the years of "get fit quick" gimmicks. The man on the TV that I call "the Circus Barker" that excitedly tells you of a way to lose weight and get fit in seven days. We fall for these gimmicks time after time with the same result ... a new contraption that sits in a closet or in the middle of the room as a clothes hanger. Why does this happen? Because we want the quick fix with minimal investment.  Let's correlate the above example with an organizations investment in process improvement. When I am asked by people "Kevin, what do you do?"... I answer "I am like a fitness trainer for your organization except that I focus on the health of  your processes not necessarily the people." Organizations investing in process improvement are investing in the health of their company. For those of you that have significantly improved your health and sustained that improvement know that t...