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Best Practices and Articles

Select Collections by Name to View the Article Descriptions

All Articles are PDF files. which use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. See the link at the bottom of the page to get the latest version.

Articles - Short Subjects This collection is a treasury of one-page articles covering a variety of business process improvement topics. Find here ideas you can immediately put to use to save time and money for you and your business or non-profit organization.

Examples of topics: how to write a business charter, information about process improvement programs, applying Six Sigma to small businesses, using creativity as your competitive advantage, goal setting and the importance of keeping business records.

Business Organization Practices This is a collection of one-page articles to help your business save time and money by improving its organization habits.

Meeting Best Practices Of all the activities performed by your busy organization, one stands out as the most wasteful or resources and creates the most frustration for your people: meetings!

Poorly run meetings can drain productivity. Become familiar with the characteristics of great meetings so you can make your meetings more valuable and more fun!

Featured Business Process Best Practices in this collection cover estimating the true cost of your meetings so you can determine for yourself whether they are worth the effort. Value is more than money: are your meetings doing what your business needs them to do? What do you expect from your meetings? How can you fix them easily and with minimal impact and personal pain?

Process Engineering Best Practices Every step you follow to reach a goal is called a "process". Some processes can just happen without fanfare or planning without a problem. However, other processes - the important ones - need to be done right the first time and every time.

This collection covers process engineering and Six Sigma topics geared to any organizations that chooses to operate in an efficient and effective manner.

Excerpts from 30 Success Stories

Mass Email List Management Six Sigma Project

Problem: Ease the labor-intensive and error-prone task of sending electronic communications to all contractor employees. This is a regular HR requirement.

Results: Four levels of pre-determined lists were made available to HR. Lists are reviewed regularly for accuracy. Estimated cost avoidance benefits are $12.2K over 3 years. Improved communications among contractor locations.

Tools: Brainstorming, Standard Operating Procedures and Project Library.

Improving External Customer Relationships Six Sigma Project

Problem: Provide a mechanism to demonstrate contractor’s readiness to be a contractor the customer finds easy to do business with.

Results: Successfully applied lessons to contract negotiations. Increased fee from negotiations with approximately $575K attributed to this project. Estimated cost avoidance of $189K, a one-time benefit.

Tools: Brainstorming, Gap Analysis, Affinity Diagram, NGT, Fishbone Diagram and Project Library.

Editing and Cataloging Software Documentation Six Sigma Project

Problem: Current process flows for editing and cataloging software documentation associated with the delivery of COTS, STOs and PTOs needed improved turnaround time and maintainability.

Results: Eliminated a cross-reference file and reduced other labor intensive redundancy. Successfully deployed the new process. Well-received by customer. Estimated cost avoidance benefits of $149K over 3 years. Enhanced customer satisfaction.

Tools: Brainstorming, Flow Charts and Team Building.

Eccl 3:1 "To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven."  KJV.