/editorial

Welcome to the second edition of the Six Sigma City magazine. If you caught the first edition, you’ll know all about the quality articles and knowledgeable contrii butions from the Lean and Six Sigma community. If not, take a browse through this magazine, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the well written articles and quality publication are a useful source of informaa tion for practitioners in the improvement business. This issue of the magazine focuses on Healthcare, a subject many of us will be deeply interested in for both professional and personal reasons. Personally, because the health service affects pretty well all of us, either directly or for those we know and love, and we want it to work as well as it can, and professionally, because we want to know if six sigma and lean initiatives can work in the challenging environment that is the health service. The NHS was first established in 1948, and is now the largest organisation in Europe, employing 1.34M people. The NHS works in partnership with the indee pendent health care sector to provide health care to 60 Million people living in the UK. Although as an organisation the NHS has gone, and is still going, through significant change, there has been much written about how further change is required if it is to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and like many organisaa tions resources for change are limited. Can Six Sigma help in such a large and complex service based environment? Six Sigma originated with Motorola in the manufacturing sector, as did Lean, which came from Toyota, several of our articles in this issue talk about how Lean and Six Sigma can be adapted and used in health care, Scott McAllister talks about the biggest step being a willingness to get started, a single event or project can pave the way for other initiatives in other areas, but it must start somewhere. Alastair Muir tells us about a number of successes, and Mark Boult and Mark Eaton reminds us to always considerpatient safety. In their thought provoking article the Lean Six Sigma delusion, Chris & Russell Stokes urge us to take a strate gic perspective, and to really understand the situation and resources available and goals before starting any initiative, there are no quick fixes. The article by Guillermo Arosemena is an inspiring story of how Six Sigma has helped to start the transformation of JBG, a not for profit hospital in Ecuador. Fighting against oil price collapse, frozen funds, economic recession and even el Niño the organizational changes continued, and a Six Sigma project has allowed 600 extra patients to be treated each month. JBG recognize that they must keep looking for ways to improve, and there is a long way to go, but they are on the move, full of pioneering spirit. Whether you agree or disagree with our contributors this month, I’m sure you’ll find the articles thought provoking, and helpful in your own improvement challenges. Don’t underestimate the challenge involved in driving improvement in any organisation, think about the barriers involved, think about the resources available and the methods to use. Have a passion for what you are doing, and do it to the best of your ability, and remember to keep an eye on Six Sigma City for the latest information to help you on the way!

Chris D. Rees
Director UK Operations
SigmaPro Limited
editor@sixsigmacity.com