In true Catalyst style guests were invited to the Cocktail SIPOC – a practical and visual tool for describing the necessary inputs and process steps needed to produce an Elderflower French 75 cocktail as the primary output of the process.A series of experiments then took place regarding the combination of inputs and the results were a lot of chatter and clatter and a very positive Lean Six Sigma culture quickly spread around the room

We were privileged to have the CEOs of not just one, but two great quality organisations attend, with Ian Swain, CEO of the BQF, and Vince Desmond, CEO of the CQI, both at the event and testing the quality of the cocktails.

Martin thanked everyone who has been involved in writing the book and paid tribute to the late John Morgan who continues to be an inspiration for everyone at Catalyst. He also thanked other members of the Catalyst team who have been so supportive and those who contributed guest chapters – Vince Grant, James Dwan and Chris Merriman.

He particularly thanked Jo Dowdall who has gained a reputation as a great blog writer and is one of the Catalyst trainer/coaches. Jo said it was really nice to see all the hard work culminating in the book and how the case studies underlined everything that we wrote about in the book. Martin said how important he felt the leadership role is, which is why he selected the subject when asked by Wiley to write the new book and that the title could have been “Lean Six Sigma …or whatever you want to call it….for Leaders” as this is “about Quality; Continuous Improvement; Operational Excellence; Business Excellence; or whatever you decide to call it. The key thing is the leadership role.” Martin also mentioned the Leaders’ case studies which bring the theory to life for example Kevin Barrett from Coopervision (now the world’s 2nd largest contact lens manufacturer) who heads up their European Operations. Kevin has been a great proponent for many years and he deeply believes in the approach. Martin wanted to encapsulated his thinking in the book.

Martin’s message was “You can make this happen, in your organisations. It is hard work, it is relentless, but it delivers results”. He was pleased that Vince Desmond the CQI’s CEO had come to support the launch in the CQI’s centenary year and said that “there is a strong message here about quality going into the future and believing in what we can do together for the world and for society.” Catalyst has recently been accepted as an Associate Partner of the CQI and is working on a number of projects in support of the centenary events. He also thanked Ian Swain, CEO of the BQF, who wrote the Forward to the book. Ian said he was delighted to have so many award winners also present at the event, including Elaine Marzell a Black Belt award winner from Coopervision and Rushmi Laidlaw who heads up CI at the Office for National Statistics who won the Lean Six Sigma Award back in 2014.

Martin finished by thanking everyone again and ended with the message “Let’s go on and make Quality happen!”

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Fifty-four per cent of all entries came from quality professionals working internationally with entries from over 28 countries, including Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Egypt, Nigeria, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and South Korea.

Catalyst’s Managing Director, Martin Brenig-Jones, announced the Award winners in the Quality Team of the Year Award category at the event.

Martin said: “It is an absolute privilege to have been involved in these awards as a sponsor company but also from a personal perspective as a judge and to present the award today. Teamworking is a very good fit for Catalyst, after all Quality is a team sport. Working together Quality Professionals can do amazing things as we have seen from the range of entrants for this award category. In Catalyst, we train and coach business improvement practitioners in continuous improvement and innovation techniques including lean six sigma. These approaches are best when practised in teams. Being a judge on this award category was particularly challenging – for a start we had the largest number of award entrants – nearly 40 !

My fellow judges – Niall Pembury from DNV GL and Estelle Clarke, CQI Executive Director and I worked hard to come up with the finalists. The range of entries was impressive, the quality of entries high. We selected 4 finalists and four notable entries.

The finalists were:

Quality Team, Crossrail, United Kingdom

The Quality team represents the entire Crossrail organisation, consisting of client, supply chain, Tier 1 Contractors and their suppliers. They consist of over 300 engineers and quality professionals who, for the past 10 years, in addition to ensuring that Crossrail is built technically correct, have led the industry with the aim of transforming construction quality forever

We liked the extensive quality system which Chris Titterton and his team have implemented across one of the largest construction projects ever. The work on inspection and test planning is truly excellent and I believe and hope that the learning from this team will positively influence future major construction projects in the future.

AZHD Quality Team, Al Zahra Hospital,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Al Zahra Hospital is a tertiary 187-bed hospital providing a broad range of evidence-based high-quality services with focus on clinical outcome. The Quality Team consists of highly professional staff leading the quality and patient safety journey.

A small highly regarded quality team achieving very tangible, measurable results in clinical and non-clinical projects through a systematic team based approach with real focus on measurement.

Quality Team, Banaskantha District Co operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited, Banas Dairy, India

Banas Dairy is a cooperative dairy and, at present, procure 4.5 million litres of milk per day. More than 350 thousand farmers are associated with the company. They manufacture milk products under the brand “AMUL”, the largest dairy brand in India, and endeavour to provide a quality product to consumers.

Such an inspiration – to see the principles of Quality Management adopted in a comprehensive way throughout this organisation. Teamwork, co-operation, concern for the community – we can all learn from this case study – turning theory into practice. 

Business Improvement Team, Costain, United Kingdom

A small national team united by their role to enhance Costain’s performance through the application of three quality themes: risk based governance; consistency-based assurance; and behaviour based improvement. In short, supporting Costain’s development as a ‘technology-based solutions provider’ by ensuring all Costain people work “The Costain Way”.

This small team is having a big and positive impact across Costain. They have developed a clear strategy and are making it happen – introducing what they have christened the ‘Costain Way’ – I particularly liked the Business Improvement Assessment approach they have developed.

…. And the two winners were announced by Martin as –

Al Zahra Hospital Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Entered by Mervat Mansour)

For their evidence-based high-quality services that lead the quality and patient safety journey

and

Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd, India (Entered by Bipin Patel)

For their work in ensuring a quality product to their consumers, while managing more than 350 thousand farmers.

More details about all the award winners can be found here –

Awards https://www.quality.org/international-quality-awards

The post Catalyst Consulting Sponsors the Quality Team of the Year Award at the CQI’s Inaugural International Quality Awards appeared first on Catalyst Consulting.

In September, James joined Catalyst as a Senior Partner. James joins us from Markem-Imaje with a wealth of experience and results, having risen swiftly through the ranks from Developer to PC Software manager, Programme Manager, Strategy Deployment Manager, and most recently Global Leader of the Program Office. With his wonderfully energetic and charismatic teaching style and natural drive to solve inefficiency and disorganisation, we are confident that our clients will be impressed by him and that he will be a great asset to the team.

The post New Recruits! appeared first on Catalyst Consulting.

These short courses have been designed to refresh and top-up your Continous Improvement Skills. The short courses we are offering include:

• Practical 5S – learn how to make 5S really work
• Value Stream Mapping – unlock the potential for lean flow in your processes
• Process Data Skills with Excel – use process data correctly and effectively
• Facilitating Improvement Workshops – increase your confidence and impact
• Lean Presentations – make your presentations flow and add-value
• Root Cause Analysis – equip your colleagues with the approach, tools and mindset

We are running these one and two-day “Friday” short courses this autumn in our easily-accessed London open training venue. They can also be delivered in-house on your premises.

Our specialist trainers will share their hands-on expertise and deep insights to enable your proficiency in the use of these essential skills. As always, you are encouraged to ask your trainer for advice following the training. If you would like more formal coaching support in these techniques, of course we would be happy to arrange that too!

The courses run 9am-4pm on Fridays (and Thursdays for 2 day courses). A lively end-of-week experience with drinks and nibbles afterward for any of you wishing to reflect on the day’s learning experience with your fellow CI practitioners.

If any you would like to find out more then please CLICK HERE.

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• Business Transformation in Ricoh and how Lean Six Sigma has been a key element of this programme across Europe.
• Deploying Lean Six Sigma in a central government agency – the Department of Communities and Local Government and how the approach is extending into wider deployment.
• Accelerating Transformation – Integrating Agile into Lean Six Sigma to accelerate change at the project and programme level.

It was a super event attended by many of Catalyst’s clients including Barclays, London Stock Exchange, Essex County Council, Bam Nuttall, Blue Bay, Sky TV, Arqiva, ONS, Freshfields, ESB and Keit.

The post All Of Us Are Smarter Than One Of Us appeared first on Catalyst Consulting.