Dear iSixSigma Blogosphere Readers,

Back in January 2005, I started up a little blog about Six Sigma companies. It caught the eye of iSixSigma’s very own Mike Cyger and he invited me to join his growing team of forward thinking Six Sigma zealots dedicated to providing the best information about Six Sigma to the masses.

As an active user of iSixSigma since 2001, working for the company was like being a roadie for my favorite band. Living and breathing Six Sigma.

I’ve been associated with the Six Sigma industry for nearly a decade and have met some of the world’s finest people in this community. To you, I give my deepest thanks for all you have taught me. My journey to this point has been fantastic.

But alas, it is time for me to move on. I have the chance to follow a dream of mine, and I cannot let the opportunity pass me.

I will remain active with iSixSigma over the next several weeks transitioning my role. I will continue to keep up with the industry and look forward to keeping in touch with you in the future. I can be reached via LinkedIn.

Best,

Michael Marx

The scoring is complete and the 2009 Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals is out.

Here is the Top 10 List in alphabetical order: I repeat, alphabetical order.

Cardinal Health Inc.

Computacenter AG & Co. oHG

Ecolab Inc.

McKesson Corp.

Merck & Co., Inc.

Pfizer Inc.

Piramal Healthcare Ltd.

Starwood Hotels, North America Operation

Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.

Xerox Corp.

The numbered order of this list will be revealed at an Awards ceremony and breakfast, February 3, 2010 during the iSixSigma Live! Summit and Awards in Miami. Congratulations to these companies as well as all those that participated.

There is still plenty of time to submit projects for consideration in other iSixSigma Live! Award categories:

* Best Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized program

* Largest Breakthrough Improvement Projects

* Six Sigma Hall of Fame

Next month (yes, I’m giving you early notice so you can put this in your calendar) TRIZ expert, Ellen Domb, will once again be on air with Steve Wilson of Quality Conversations, discussing practical applications of TRIZ.

Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, 11 AM Pacific. Be there.

Ellen is also speaking at the iSixSigma Live Summit & Awards in Miami next year. If you are looking for a reason to attend, Ellen’s TRIZ workshop would be reason enough - it’s fantastic.

The latest iSixSigma Magazine research is about to be released in the upcoming November/December issue.

For this research we surveyed over 800 Six Sigma practitioners and asked them all about the tools they use, the tools they don’t use, and what tools they think are misused…

The chart at the left is the top 10 tools that practitioners said are commonly misused. (Click for larger view.) FMEA clearly stands out, but the remaining 9 tools each bring in a fairly steady 4-5 percent of the vote.

For the full results, including the top 10 “most used,” top 10 “least used,” and the top 10 “never heard of that tool,” see the November/December issue of iSixSigma Magazine.

Now accepting salaries! Each year iSixSigma analyzes the data from its own iSixSigma Job Shop to create a comprehensive Six Sigma Salary report available in the March/April issue of iSixSigma Magazine.

Last year data showed that the average Black Belt in the United States made an average salary of $88,438. Master Black Belts brought home an average of nearly 120K. I don’t know about you, but I am very interested to see what those numbers look like this year.

I invite you to participate this year by logging into your Job Shop Account and updating your resume. If you do not have a Job Shop account, create one for free. We will be collecting data until next week: October 15, 2009. Thanks!

Tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept 30), Ellen Domb, founder of the TRIZ Journal, will be on Steve Wilson’s show Quality Conversations, hosted by blogtalkradio.

Steve has interviewed a plethora of quality professionals in the past. Guest appearances include Tom Kubiak, Forrest Breyfogle, Mark Graban, Jessica Harper, as well as yours truly.

Ellen and Steve will be talking about Six Sigma Trees. Not the kind that grow in your backyard, but rather the kind that Ellen so expertly sows into everyday business improvement thought processes...TRIZ sure has a way of growing on you. I’ve attended Ellen’s TRIZ workshops several times and always enjoy her style, method, and expertise in teaching the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving.

Below is the promo introducing the show. Check it out tomorrow 8:30 Central.

"Standard quality improvement methodologies such as DMAIC and PDSA have always incorporated brainstorming as a key method for finding creative solutions to problems. Brainstorming is designed to liberate a team’s thinking from past patterns and and uncover ideas that people might have unconsciously suppressed. When it works its great. But what happens when it does not work...if the solution lies outside the experience of the team? Ellen Domb, long time expert on the subject of TRIZ and founder of the TRIZ Journal joins us today to talk about the need for the use of TRIZ in Six Sigma."

The archive of my Quality Conversation with Steve Wilson this morning. Thanks Steve for having me on your show.

On Monday, Sept 14, I'll be speaking with Steve Wilson on his show Quality Conversations, hosted by blogtalkradio. Steve has interviewed many quality professionals in the past, including Tom Kubiak, Forrest Breyfogle, Mark Graban and our very own iSixSigma editor-in-chief, Jessica Harper. I am happy to join the ranks of Steve's guest list.

We're going to be talking Six Sigma and the Economy... discussing the findings of a recent iSixSigma Magazine research report published in July this year. We'll be talking about serious subjects such as budget cuts, workloads, and job losses as well as more positive aspects the down economy is bringing out in companies practicing Six Sigma.

The conversation is live and open to callers, so if you want to call in and heckle me...go ahead, make my day.

iSixSigma is pleased to announce the opening of award nominations for the iSixSigma Live! Summit & Awards in Miami in February 2010. Here’s what we are looking for:

* iSixSigma’s Six Sigma Hall of Fame: iSixSigma will recognize individuals who have significantly impacted corporate growth and shareholder value through the use of Lean Six Sigma by inducting them into the Six Sigma Hall of Fame. Last year Bill Smith was the first inductee into the Six Sigma Hall of Fame.

* Largest-Breakthrough Improvement Projects: In keeping with the conference theme of "Practices That Make Profits," iSixSigma will recognize Lean Six Sigma projects with the largest "breakthrough" results in four categories – supply chain, transactional, manufacturing and customer service.

* Most Successful Lean Six Sigma Start-up or Re-energized Lean Six Sigma Program: This award recognizes the most successful start-up or the most invigorating re-energized deployment.

* iSixSigma MVP Awards: iSixSigma’s MVP awards recognize individuals that have made outstanding voluntary contributions to the Six Sigma community through the iSixSigma Discussion Forum, Blogosphere and Twitter. (Finalists and winners for the MVP awards will be determined by iSixSigma’s editorial team.)

The deadline for submitting projects and nominations is Nov. 30. For more information on award categories and entry requirements, visit: http://live.isixsigma.com/awards/default.html

Nominations are open for iSixSigma’s second annual Best Places to Work List. If you are working for a top notch company using Lean Six Sigma, go ahead and nominate it to be included in our list of Best Places to Work.

Last year 10 companies made the list. McKesson took home the #1 spot, followed by Vought Aircraft Industries and Textron.

Read all about what makes McKesson the Best Place to Work in the latest article on iSixSigma.com. (This article was previously published only in iSixSigma Magazine).

If your company treats its Six Sigma employees right, let us know by nominating it for this year’s list.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=o3tIVeS1bYHbYiosX5BGNg_3d_3d