SixSigmaCompanies.com celebrates its first birthday today. I made my first post on this day last year. To celebrate I’d like to pay tribute to the short list of Six Sigma blogs and podcasts out there. There are only a handful of good Six Sigma blogs outside the iSixSigma Blogosphere. My definition of “good” is, written by a Six Sigma professional, a consultant or industry practitioner and contains relevant information that teaches and entertains.

David Silverstein, CEO of Breakthrough Management Group has a blog called Leadership and Business. He updates just about every month and always writes around a hot topic in the industry. Bill Hathaway, President of MoreSteam.com, writes the Lean Six Sigma Blog. Bill’s blog entries are well written and very insightful. And finally, The Six Sigma Coach is written by Russ Russo. His blog explores the issues around successfully coaching Six Sigma practitioners. When I said short list, I meant it.

The podcast list is even shorter. If you are not listening to the iSixSigma Magazine podcast, subscribe now. There are also two other podcasts worthy of your mp3 player. Sigma Breakthrough Technologies (SBTI) puts on the SBTI Lean Six Sigma Podcast. They regularly feature interviews and Six Sigma deployment how-to’s for the Six Sigma listener. A recent find is Keith Bower’s Six Sigma Show. Keith answers questions that readers/listeners send him via his website (which is a gold mine of info for statisticians and Six Sigma learners alike). His new Six Sigma Show podcast is very entertaining, even through detailed explanations of statistical concepts, Keith held my ear with his stories.

I can’t talk about the Six Sigma blogs without mentioning the Lean blogs too. There are many more Lean blogs to choose from, but I will list three to keep this post Lean…I’ve been reading Superfactory’s Evolving Excellence blog, and Mark Graban’s Lean Manufacturing Blog for close to a year now. Each offer stories and opinions along with insight into current issues facing the Lean Manufacturing community. I’ve also been following a relatively new Lean blogger, Mike Wroblewski. His blog Got Boondoggle? is packed with useful and entertaining stories from the trenches.

That’s it for Six Sigma blogs and podcasts. Thanks for joining my little party.

It seems to be a tradition for bloggers to make their 100th post about...the 100th post. Well, as a Six Sigma nut why should I introduce variation into the ritual? So here is my century post to SixSigmaCompanies.com…For those new to this blog the following is a rundown of what has gone on since I made my first post February 17, 2005…

• I started as a lone blogger with the desire to create a space where people could find an answer to that popular question, “Who is doing Six Sigma?”
• In May I was recruited to join the iSixSigma team and SixSigmaCompanies.com became part of the iSixSigma Blogosphere.
• In July the iSixSigma Blogosphere started to recruit Six Sigma deployment leaders as contributing bloggers. Currently, Gary Cone and Gianna Clark are sharing their experiences from the trenches and you can still count on Gary Cox to make you laugh and Michael Cyger to make you think while I give you the scoop on Six Sigma companies around the world.
• I have reviewed a total of 61 companies from the Fortune 500 and Global 500 lists.
• The remainder of the blog entries consist of industry lists and commentary on Six Sigma articles in the news.

Today the iSixSigma Blogosphere continues to grow. We receive thousands of visitors each week eager to read something new and exciting. If you have something you would like to contribute send me an email. That concludes my 100th post. I hope you join me for the next milestone...the year mark!

SixSigmaCompanies.com is going global! With the release of Fortune’s 2005 Global 500 list, I am now posting reviews of Six Sigma companies world-wide.

As Six Sigma deployment models differ from company to company and corporate culture to corporate culture, they also differ country to country, culture to culture. Steve Crom has written two articles on the cultural nuances that influence Six Sigma deployments. He touches upon this aspect of culture and its effect on Six Sigma teams in “Pace of Six Sigma Teams Differs Dramatically by Culture”. In “Using Six Sigma in Europe: A Cross-Cultural Perspective” he illustrates the influence national culture has on organizational change citing Six Sigma examples.

SixSigmaCompanies.com is now taking a closer look at companies around the world and sharing their Six Sigma success stories. Please take this virtual journey with me as I cover the globe bringing you the Six Sigma scoop on the world’s largest companies.

Notable Six Sigma companies ranked in the Global 500 include BHP Billiton, Bombardier, Alstom, AXA, Allianz, Siemens, Sony, Toshiba, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, LG Electronics, Samsung, HSBC, Lloyds TSB Group, and Marks & Spencer (just to name a few).

Each week the iSixSigma Blogosphere newsletter will feature a blog entry from a guest blog. I read several different business related blogs each day and I am constantly searching for new ones. I have been visiting Decker Marketing for over a year now and always enjoy reading what Sam Decker has to say. He is insightful, understands businesses from start-ups to corporate, and even writes about Six Sigma from time to time. In fact, after reading his blog last year I was inspired start blogging on my own.

His nuggets of business wisdom are most presently displayed in his latest post, 3 Principles of Tributary Leadership, where he draws out the parallels between nature, man, and business. Not surprisingly, each of his Leadership Parallels has a Six Sigma parallel as well.

"TRIBUTARY PRINCIPLE: There is a solid foundation from which the depth, breadth and strength of the branches are determined.

LEADERSHIP PARALLEL: Culture is driven from the top. The stronger the winning culture, the bigger, larger, wider, and more prevalent the branches of growth."

SIX SIGMA PARALLEL: As with culture, a successful Six Sigma initiative is driven from the top. The strength of the Six Sigma branches is determined by the foundation of leadership commitment.

After following the market for nearly four years, I decided I needed a place to organize my Six Sigma thoughts as they were crowding my head. I decided to jump on the blogwagon and write about something I knew well…Six Sigma. A few months worth of posts to my blog caught the eye of Michael Cyger, founder and CEO of iSixSigma. He was impressed with the information I was providing to the Six Sigma community and, to make a short story even shorter, he invited me to join his team at iSixSigma.

SixSigmaCompanies.com is now part of the iSixSigma Blogosphere. I lead research activities for iSixSigma.com as well as iSixSigma Magazine and remain the primary author and contributor for SixSigmaCompanies.com, doing what I love to do -- research and write.

I have been immersed in Six Sigma since 2001, researching the companies deploying Six Sigma as well as identifying the market for Six Sigma consulting services. I am a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. I received my bachelor’s degree in international relations from Brigham Young University and my MBA in international management from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management.

The 2005 Fortune 500 is out! I have been anxiously waiting for the new list to perform my annual ritual of updating my Six Sigma Fortune list with the new rankings. I have been keeping tabs on Six Sigma in the Fortune 500 since 2001 when Wal-Mart was #2 wedged between Exxon and GM.

Wal-Mart has achieved a Fortune Fourpeat holding on to the #1 spot and coveted title, America’s Largest Company. Cincinnati Financial jumped four to claim the namesake and final spot of the 500.

The First and the Last and everything in between make up nearly 8.25 Trillion Dollars in revenues. That kind of money would cover the US National Debt with only 500 Billion in change.

At least 40% of the 2005 Fortune 500 are actively engaged in improving their business through Six Sigma. I say "at least" because some companies no doubt use Six Sigma tools in their efforts but do not mention it in their annual reports. So here’s to the 2005 Fortune 500, may Six Sigma find it’s way into the DNA of them all... and may I have the time to write about it.

SixSigmaCompanies.com is dedicated to providing information about the Six Sigma initiatives at Fortune 500 companies. The author is a Market Research professional currently working in the Six Sigma Consulting Industry. He has nearly 4 years experience tracking the evolution of Six Sigma in companies throughout the world.

Currently, over 40 percent of the Fortune 500 are using Six Sigma to some degree. Over the course of the next year SixSigmaCompanies.com will provide an overview of each company’s Six Sigma program, details on the benefits they are achieving, and relevant articles and links for further reading.

First a few definitions: Each company is defined within a deployment scope. One of the beauties of Six Sigma is that it can be tailored to the individual needs and strategy of a company. This facet has led to many different levels of deployment. Not all companies have followed the GE way - a corporate-driven, top-down approach. Some companies prefer to start out smaller and work their way up to a full scale deployment. The following definitions are used classify the current deployment scope of each company:

• Corporate - The Six Sigma program is a corporate-wide initiative, fully supported by the CEO and executive team.
• Business Unit - One or more Business Units are using Six Sigma.
• Black Belt - This level of deployment simply means that the company is involved in Six Sigma at a fairly small level. They have either trained or hired a small number of Black Belts to work on projects.

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