Auction leaders from around the country completed Six Sigma Greenbelt training held at Triad Financial’s corporate offices in Huntington Beach. The training was conducted by Alex Martinez, Six Sigma Master Black Belt; Mina Gill, Manager-Six Sigma; and Jay Lowy, VP Vehicle Remarketing and Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

The following individuals successfully completed Triad’s Six Sigma Green Belt course (front row, left to right):

• Joe Caldarella - Regional Auction Manager, Triad Financial
  

  
  

• Starla McHugh - ABC Corporate
  

  
  

• Patricia Ouellette - Regional Auction Manager, Triad Financial
  

  (back row, left to right)
  

  
  

• Paul Rettenmaier - ServNet
  

  
  

• Kyle Dietrich - VP Sales, Triad Financial
  

  
  

• Scott Sylvester - Norwalk Auto Auction
  

  
  

• John Dorming - CADE
  

  
  

• Kurt Madvig - ADESA San Diego
  

  
  

• Dan Doherty - ABC Washington/Dulles

  
  

  Triad adopted the Six Sigma philosophy two years ago. As a natural progression, Triad decided it was important to involve its suppliers so they could more effectively address process issues impacting Triad’s remarketing performance. Before attending the class, each student submitted a project idea that would be worked on throughout the training. Projects pertain to condition report accuracy and timing, transportation cycle time, and AutoIMS postings. When completed, all customers, not just Triad, will realize the benefits of these process improvements.

  Six Sigma follows a disciplined approach to process improvement and problem solving called DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control).

  
  

  
  

• Define - refines the project team’s understanding of the problem to be addressed and to select the Critical-to-Quality characteristics (CTQ’s)
  

  
  

• Measure - establishes techniques for collecting data about the current performance of the processes identified in the Define phase.
  

  
  

• Analyze - allows the project team to target improvement opportunities by taking a closer look at the data.
  

  
  

• Improve - allows the project team to develop, implement and validate improvement alternatives that will lead to improved CTQ performance.
  

  
  

• Control - institutionalizes process/product improvements and monitor ongoing performance in order to sustain the gains achieved in the Improve phase.