September in South San Francisco at Six Sigma Training

Six Sigma Training? What's Six Sigma? Yeah, that's what I thought until today.

I arrived at the Residence Inn last night at 8:00. It's not so bad. I'm in a "Studio". Here's the kitchen... A refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, pantry and bar. OK, maybe I can handle this.

There's a nice little sitting area with a fireplace. Nice artwork...

I can sit at the desk, enjoy the fire and watch Monday Night Football... I could get used to this.

Here's the view out the window (Ok, it's the window by the elevator, not the window in my room) -

Look at this office building. These workers can go out their office back door, and stroll along the walking path next to the San Francisco Bay. What a life...

So what's Six Sigma anyway? I'm glad you asked. In today's class, Jeff taught us that Six Sigma is a process improvement business strategy that began at Motorola. It has changed quite a bit since it was first used at Motorola.

If you really want to know what Six Sigma is, read what Wikipedia says...

"Sigma (the lower-case Greek letter σ) is used to represent the standard deviation (a measure of variation) of a statistical population. The term "six sigma process" comes from the notion that if one has six standard deviations between the mean of a process and the nearest specification limit, there will be practically no items that fail to meet the specifications.

Taking the 1.5 sigma shift into account, short-term sigma levels correspond to the following long-term DPMO (Defective Parts per Million Opportunities) values (one-sided):
One Sigma = 690,000 DPMO = 31% efficiency
Two Sigma = 308,000 DPMO = 69.2% efficiency
Three Sigma = 66,800 DPMO = 93.32% efficiency
Four Sigma = 6,210 DPMO = 99.379% efficiency
Five Sigma = 230 DPMO = 99.977% efficiency
Six Sigma = 3.4 DPMO = 99.9997% efficiency"

'What?' Yeah, that's what I said. Jeff didn't explain it that way (and I think you can see why). He actually did a great job teaching us how we can use Six Sigma at our businesses to improve our processes, be more efficient, save money, and make our customers more satisfied. Now that's what I'm talk'in about!

The Great Front Door Experience

I finally did it! Our new front door has been standing in our garage for the last 5 months. It's taken a while, but I finally scheduled a day to install it! Here's a 'before' pic...

That's the original 45 year old door.

I got up at 6:18 yesterday morning and went right to work. This is me at 6:29 AM - somehow thrilled and ready for action (very un-characteristic). Notice the open door behind me - it's still dark out.

Here we go- first I tear the stucco off because I'm replacing the entire thing - the door AND the side-light.

The side-light window is out, and I'm ripping out the frame.

About this time (the sun is just on the horizon), a young couple is walking down the street in front of the house. I can hear that they are arguing. Then the girl starts walking up my driveway. She asks if she can use my phone. She kept asking the guy to give her cell phone back, and he wasn't cooperating. I said, "yeah, sure you can use my phone". So I went in and grabbed the cordless phone and brought it out to her. She began to call various numbers, and apparently there was no answer at the other end because she never did talk to anyone. The entire time she was crying and asking the guy to give her, her cell phone. Being the 45 year old man of wisdom, I figured it was time to get involved. So I asked the guy, "do you have her cell phone?" That obviously irritated him because he then started to get all puffed up and ask me why I was sticking up for her and getting into their business. I had a hammer and a small wrecking bar in my hand, so I wasn't too intimidated. Plus he was probably only 5 1/2 feet tall. I said, "hey, I'm not sticking up for her, I'm just trying to help the two of you". That gave him the cue to launch into a long explanation of how bad things had been going for him and why I should feel sorry for him. He said something about her hitting him in the 'privates' and she said that was because he was touching her and she didn't want him to touch her. I told the guy, "relationships are hard huh?" He said, "YEAH". It was obvious she didn't want anything to do with him and he didn't want her to leave. I told him, "look, you can't force her to love you. And if you did, what kind of love would that be?". I said, "It's the same thing with God, He doesn't force us to love Him. And a lot of people run around ignoring Him, but He doesn't push Himself on us." He seemed to think about that and talk a little more, then he finally handed her the bag he was carrying and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and handed her that too. That was all she wanted, so she was out of there. He started to walk the other way, then he turned around and started to follow her and ask her to stop and talk with him. She kept walking and I hope she kept on walking.

So that was my counseling session for the day, back to the front door!

Now I'm ripping off the drywall on the inside.

Just one 2x4 left!

8:48 AM - Ouchy! I got a splinter! I hate it when that happens. So I put my 'scientist' goggles on and performed surgery. No cause for alarm - I got it! Back to work.

Demolition done! Time to prepare the 'rough' opening for the new door. But first...

9:45 AM - It's going to be a long day, so coffee and donuts are a well deserved mid-morning snack! Nick liked that part too!

Here's an important part - the 'sill'. That's right, a door has a 'sill' too (just like a window). I learned that from the guy at Home Depot. I got this one weather-proofed, perfectly sized and ready to go, then... the first set-back. I discovered that this 2x6 sill would be too tall - Argh!

OK, no use crying about it. I just need to find a hunk of wood that wasn't quite so thick and move along. Fortunately I had just such a piece of wood in my 'spare wood' supply.

All I had to do was rip the board to the right width, give it a couple of coats of weather-proofing stain, and I'd be ready for action!

Oh - look at the pretty flowers! Hey - there's a job to do! Quit messin' around with the camera and get back to work!

3:40 PM - The rough opening is finally ready! I had to add a 2x4 on one side and a 1x4 on the other, and of course the set-back on the door-sill cost me a lot of time. But finally, I'm putting the new door in place! That's Nick's arm sticking out from behind the door. He was too shy to actually show his face.

Time for shims! This is actually the trickiest part - getting the door straight, level, and not tweaked. I learned a lot about all of that on the side door a couple of months ago. That helped a lot, this part didn't take too long!

I was a little worried about the heat, since I was going to have a large gaping hole in the front of the house all day. Fortunately it didn't get that hot! And the house only got up to 80 inside.

5:00 PM - The first screw! Yeah - I'm starting to put screws in - that's a major milestone in my book!

6:12 PM - Been at it for almost 12 hours now. All the screws are in and the shims are cut off! It seems like I should be done by now, but wait... do I want to be able to lock the front door before I go to bed tonight? If so, I'd better put a door knob and deadbolt on. Next task...

I thought the door sill height was a set-back!? It turned out, the door hardware was fraught with issues. The door manufacturer did a poor job cutting the holes. The holes in the door didn't line up with the holes in the door jamb, and there were other problems. I had to do a lot of chiseling, dremeling and adjusting to get all the hardware to fit correctly.

About this time, I did my next 'good deed' of the day. We live by Fresno State, and Saturday night was the big game - Fresno State Bulldogs vs. the Wisconsin Badgers. The local ABC affiliate said it was, "Perhaps the biggest home game in school history". Lot's of people walk past our house to get to the stadium on game nights. A rather large group of people was passing by when I notice on guy split off from the group and head straight towards me, working on the front door. He had obviously been very careful to prepare for the game with many libations. He asked, "I was just wondering, can I use your bathroom?" Being very sympathetic to his situation (I've had a few moments of desperate need in my day), I had no problem showing him the way down the hall. Didn't his mom teach him to go before he left the house? He was very grateful, and ready to run catch up with the group after, 'the pause that refreshes'.

Next order of business...

7:46 PM - Tracy prepares a DELICIOUS dinner! New York steak, green beans and spinach salad with strawberries! You can just see Tracy and Nick thinking, "Isn't he done with that stupid door yet?!"

8:40 PM - YEAH! I'm snapping on the final piece to the doorknob hardware! I'm done! It's finished! I can't stand this door any more! I've been working on this thing for 14 hours now! Can't I go watch TV? No, I have to clean up - nuts!

Did you ever try Corona mixed with Limeade? I can attest - it's pretty good, especially after you've been working on your front door ALL DAY LONG!

That's the story. The major work is finished. Next I have to insulate and figure out just how to do the trim on the inside and the outside - another tricky part. But the door is finally in, and I've reclaimed that space in the garage! Counselor, Construction and bathroom Concierge, it was definitely a full day.

The Blogger's Apprentice

I discovered today that I'm still just a 'blogger-in-training'. I had to go for milk on the way home from work. As I left the store, I noticed a lot of smoke coming up from behind the store, so I drove that way home to do a little rubber-necking. To my amazement, I saw a big group of bushes next to Bullard avenue (across the street from College Church of Christ), totally engulfed in flames! An area about 10 feet wide and 25 feet long was at peak burn, with flames shooting 40 feet into the air! There were power lines directly above, and they were on fire too! My first thought was, "maybe I shouldn't be driving right next to this?" Then I wondered if some transformer on a power pole would explode soon. So I called home and warned everyone to, "turn off the computers for Pete's sake, the neighborhood power grid is about to explode!" Once I got home, I hit myself on the forehead like one of those V8 commercials and said, "why didn't I stop (a safe distance away), get out and capture some exciting blog-worthy video!?" I mean, that's why I carry a PDA-Video-Phone around with me everywhere I go, right? So it's obvious that I'm still green at this blogging thing. You should be watching some fantastic fire-devastation PDAPhone video right now, but instead you're just going to have to use your imagination. Here - This might help -

This Old House

I was working on the house yesterday, dreaming of the kind of house I would really like to live in (as well as a more desirable location). A thought crossed my mind-- "I have a house!" How many people in the world would love to have my house?!? (The answer is 'lots'.) The other thing that strikes me is this-- I've always enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together. I like working with my hands, making things, fixing things, etc. If I lived in a house that didn't require anything to be done to it, I would be bored. So, from now on I will realize just how blessed I am, and I'll whistle a tune while I work on this house!

And while I'm on the subject, every year we go for a few days to a 'Sunset Magazine' house in Carmel-by-the-Sea. It's definitely one of those 'dream' houses I used to envy. And now you can have a 'Look-i-loo' at this remarkable house and it's remarkable owners! Here's the link --> http://stories.lookiloos.com/2008/08/artist-in-resid.html