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New Products Abound for Managing Six Sigma Projects

Microsoft Announces Accelerator for Six Sigma
The Microsoft Accelerator for Six Sigma is an integrated set of products and services that leverages existing software such as Microsoft Project and Visio® . The company says Accelerator provides added functionality designed specifically for six sigma organizations, such as interactive Project Guides to lead six sigma teams through each phase within the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) model.

Microsoft has been practicing six sigma internally, and to help ensure that the new offering meets the demands and quality standards of the six sigma community, Microsoft developed the Accelerator using Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), a methodology used to design six sigma quality into new products and services.
Microsoft has been working closely with Apriso Corp., a global provider of collaborative execution solutions, on this project and is drawing on the company's expertise in creating enterprise performance solutions for manufacturing and healthcare companies. In addition, Microsoft is teaming with SigmaPro Inc., a premier supplier of integrated six sigma, Design for Six Sigma, and Lean consulting and training services.
For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.microsoft.com.


Instantis Releases Six Sigma Project Lifecycle Management Solution 2.0
 Instantis SSPLM 2.0 is said to help control six sigma efforts, and replicate their successes throughout an organization. McKesson Corporation and Cooper Cameron Corporation are two companies that have adopted the Instantis Six Sigma solution.
As six sigma becomes widespread within an organization and more projects are undertaken, Instantis SSPLM 2.0 is meant to reduce the administrative burden of tracking, managing and reporting the progress of these projects. Bruce Hayes, President of Executive Advisor Group and a veteran six sigma practitioner with leadership experience from Fortune 500 companies stated, "The application enables black belts and other practitioners to focus on the six sigma methodology rather than the administrative burden of documentation and reporting."
Some of the product's features are:

  • An Idea Portal for collecting ideas globally over the web.
  • Projects with arbitrary six sigma roadmaps (DMAIC, DMADV, DFSS, etc.) may be initiated and auto-populated with the appropriate set of tasks and deliverables to be assigned to the various team members.
  • Flexible reporting for different audiences (executives, champions, black belts etc.) helps insure buy-in from all stakeholders.
  • Searchable knowledge and document repositories for sharing best practices throughout the organization.
  • Hard and soft dollar costs and savings may be tracked in detail for powerful integrated financial reporting
  • Centralized global team management, along with role and skill-based assignment to projects result in an increased number of successful projects
  • Modular table-driven architecture enables parameterization of many elements of the solution, including look and feel, workflow, and arbitrary roadmaps.

More information about the product is available at http://www.instantis.com.

Minitab Offers New Soft Tools for Quality Professionals
 Minitab has released Minitab Quality Companion(TM), software designed to integrate the numerous supporting tools needed for a successful quality deployment into one easy-to-use package.

Quality Companion's core feature -- the Roadmap(TM) -- outlines the steps to take in a project and links to the software tool available to help with each one, including process mapping, cause and effect diagrams, brainstorm/affinity diagrams, FMEA, CTQ matrix, and much more.

The product is aimed at process improvement specialists with features such as

  • Templates for the Roadmap and forms and tools to help new users begin their projects.
  • Customizing or creating new templates.
  • Example projects for both manufacturing and service quality, as well as
  • A comprehensive Help file.
  • Installation and hosting on a network drive, letting team members access projects at the same time.
  • Free technical support.

The company offers a free 30-day demo version of Quality Companion on their Web site at http://www.minitab.com.




 

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