November 2002
Volume 2 • Number 1
From the Editor
Champions, Leaders and DFSS
By A. Blanton Godfrey
godfrey@asq.org
Welcome to the second year of Six Sigma Forum Magazine. We are incredibly pleased at the response to this new publication. We have exceeded our goal for subscriptions by nearly 2,000%, have a growing pipeline of articles in the review process and have received new interest in serving on the Editorial Review Board in the future. Thank you to everyone for your help in making this first year such a success!
In this issue, we feature our first articles from outside the United States—one from Asia and one from Europe. Jong-Yong Yun, vice chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics, and Richard C. H. Chua, executive vice president of the Juran Institute Inc, explain how Samsung, one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing companies in the world, is using Six Sigma as a key part of its business strategy.
Lennart Sandholm and Lars Sorqvist give us new insights from both academic and industrial perspectives in Sweden. These authors are exceedingly well qualified to provide this view because of their combined years of working for and with leading Swedish companies and their academic work at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
In the last issue (August 2002), we addressed one of the most asked questions about Six Sigma—how to define design for Six Sigma (DFSS)—by collecting recommendations for the best DFSS books and articles for the “Current Literature” department. In this issue, we are fortunate to publish an article by Maurice L. Berryman of Berryman and Associates, widely acknowledged as one of the leading experts and a pioneer in the DFSS field.
Our fourth article is by William Michael Kelly on another hot topic, project selection. How to select the right project is another question frequently asked by both Green Belts and Black Belts. Kelly provides not only an excellent discussion, but he also gives us a useful tool to help rank the different project opportunities and make informed decisions on which ones to attempt first.
In this issue’s “Your Opinion” and “Current Literature” departments, we tackle another common question: How do Six Sigma and lean thinking fit together? We asked several people with experience in both areas to offer their comments and recommend books and articles that address both topics. Perhaps we will inspire someone to submit an article describing how some organization is combining the two.
Out goal remains to make this magazine the best source for material on Six Sigma. We have completed an outstanding first year. With your help, the second year will be even better.
