April 29th 2010 - 6sigma and Saudi polenta

Todays it's half holiday in KSA (as for our saturday), but the program at AHCSC offices is intense and exciting. They are waiting for the visit of the Singapore six-sigma consultant that is supporting the company in the deployment of their six-sigma system, that has started with the training of some employees and is continuing with the optimization of a series of internal processes.

The whole morning is spent in preparation for the visit: Majid is leading one of the projects that is to be reviewed today, so we work on filling the typical six-sigma documents. I have double interest in attending these meetings: on the one hand I have learned of lean six-sigma from books and publications but never had the occasion of a first hand experience with the metodologies involved into its deployment. On the other hand, I get to know that the process we are working on today is about the optimization of the delivery of products from the AHCSC international suppliers to the customers in Saudi Arabia; one of the main issues that we have learned as a critical one during the visit in KSA is the difficult delivery of spare parts to fix equipment in the Kingdom (mainly due to the specific custom clearance regulations in this Country), so I take advantage of the situation and ask a lot of questions to get more insights into this issue.

We have Burger King lunch in the meeting room while we continue discussing of Voice of the Customer, DMAIC, Pareto charts, ... At 2.30pm the Singapore consultant arrives. He's an elegant man with experience with the Motorola six-sigma system; in the specific terminology they use he's a black belt and his knowledge and focus capability is impressive. During a break of the meeting (due to one of the 5 prayer moments of the day) I intrduce myself and the TBS activities to him and we discuss of how lean six sigma in manufacturing is different from its applications in service companies. The subject may be boring for the vast majority of the people, but I find it fascinating and effective.

At the end of the day at AHCSC I go shopping with Majid; he's got to buy things for his home and we decide that I have to show him some specialities of the italian cooking. I select two representative dishes: the "frico" and the "polenta". We buy potatoes and cheese for the frico, and we also find the corn flour to make a perfect polenta. The frico will be the guest star for the barbecue he's organizing for tomorrow (friday is the holiday here as sunday is for us), but the polenta will be immediately prepared! We go to his home where I meet his wife and one of his cute kids, and I teach him how to prepare the polenta. They are lovely people and I take advantage of the time we spend together to ask them about the way people live in Saudi Arabia, their religion, their culture and the way they compare to the lifestyle in other countries: I feel fortunate to have met people like them, they're really deep and avaliable to discuss. You rarely find this and I feel thankful and enriched.

Majid preparing the polenta!

Amazing polenta in Riyadh!

I'm sure that other people from Friuli have been in Riyadh in the past, but I don't think that many of them may have prepared a real polenta here ...