Business901

Glenn Whitfield serves as Director of Dean Dorton Ford’s Process Improvement Services group based out of the Louisville office. Glenn was my guest on the Business901 Podcast and we had the opportunity to discuss DDF’s methodology for improvement within an organization. Their methodology concentrates on a Value stream Analysis to determine their clients individual needs. It was a discussion around practical hands on implementation and the role middle managers play.

Glenn has over twenty years of professional experience, he has managed and assisted organizations through a variety of improvement strategies and tactics, ranging from organization-wide Performance Improvement eff orts to facilitation of Value Stream Mapping or Kaizen events. A Six Sigma Black Belt, he utilizes tools and methodologies from Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, and traditional process improvement techniques to improve operations.

Related Information: Value Stream Mapping

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This week podcast guest was Aqua Porter, a Vice President of the Corporate Lean Six Sigma Strategy at Xerox Corporation. She is an advocate for Lean Six Sigma at Xerox and has led many Black Belt projects including the nomination of Black Belt candidates and the growth of Xerox Team Accelerator. Team Accelerator is a workshop program that utilizes the Belbin Team Role system to help teams draw on the strengths of each team member and work together. I seldom find the enthusiasm that Aqua brings to the Lean Six Sigma world. If you need your Six Sigma team to get pumped up about their next Six Sigma project this might be the podcast for them.

Aqua Porter has been with Xerox since 1984 and has held a variety of positions including Engineering, Marketing, Product Development, Purchasing, and Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. She is a senior manager with extensive experience in all phases of product development and delivery, and is adept in building strong teams who deliver exceptional business results.

Xerox has made a major commitment to using Lean Six Sigma tools and methodology - both to drive improvements in our own business and to deliver measurable results for customers. Our unique, disciplined approach involves analyzing business processes and identifying ways to eliminate both errors and unnecessary steps. Xerox Global Services looks for ways to deliver improvements quickly and focus on leveraging your existing IT investments. From streamlining paper-choked workflows to automating labor-intensive functions, the results can be remarkable.

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Bob Sproull was my guest on the Business901 podcast. Bob is an experienced manufacturing executive with a distinguished track record of achieving improvement goals in Manufacturing, MRO, Quality, Product Development, and Engineering. His experience base ranges from low-volume custom products (truck bodies) to process industries (tires) to service industries (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul). He is a nationally known speaker and author on problem-solving and statistical techniques, as well as his latest book on implementing an integrated Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints.

Our discussion centered around The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: Maximizing Profits through the Integration of Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints show you how to draw the best from Lean and Six Sigma by employing principles drawn from the Theory of Constraints. He says, this approach will ensure that your effort is focused in the right place, at the right time, using the right tools, and the right amount of resources. This multi-pronged approach addresses cost accounting, variation, waste, and performance measurements. But most importantly, it focuses your organization on the right areas to optimize.

I enjoyed many of his thoughts, especially on Value Stream Mapping and his description of focusing on the matter at hand, the constraint.

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I had Chad H. Pollitt on the Business901 podcast discussing the effects of Social Media on SEO and what it can do for you. Chad has a unique view on what he terms successful SEO. He is not after achieving #1 or #2 ranking on Google for his customers, he is after achieving the entire 1st page for his customer. Listen to the podcast and find out some SEO tips on how you might be able to start on this path. Also we discussed, Chad’s upcoming workshop on September 24th, 2009. Chad will be holding the Fort Wayne Chamber Business Brown Bag on “Cost Effective Marketing Using Social Media.” If you are thinking of participating in a workshop on social media, this podcast is a good listen on how to evaluate Social Media workshops.

Chad H. Pollitt list of accomplishments include Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco’s prestigious School of Business and Management, BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.  He has won multiple awards in sales/marketing and sales management while working and residing in Fort Wayne, IN.  Chad is also a Lieutenant in the Indiana Army National Guard and a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Chad currently works for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. as a Web Technology Consultant and Internet Marketing Manager and will be featured in The Wall Street Journal Sept. 16th.

Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. was founded in 1997 as a web design agency with a focus on providing professional website solutions for businesses while helping them promote their business to the vast global audience on the Internet. Now with a more diverse clientele and with clients nationwide, Digital Hill Multimedia has grown to become a full-service Internet Marketing Agency.

Disclaimer: I do not employ or have any affiliation with Digital Hill Multimedia but thought that their ideas about Social Media and SEO were interesting. By the way, if you do not think you can own an entire page on Google, do a search for “Fort Wayne Marketing Coach.”

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