Ken Feldman

Unfortunately, sometimes your process produces unacceptable output. These are usually referred to as defects or defectives. Let’s examine what a defective item is and contrast it with a defect. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a defective as: having a defect or flaw or imperfect in form, structure, or function. Simply put, a defect is a flaw […]

Is there a relationship between wearing your seatbelt and whether or not you survive an auto accident? Is there a relationship between studying and whether you pass an exam? These are the types of questions a Chi-Square Test can answer.

C-level has a vastly different definition than sea level. One refers to the levels of senior management in an organization and the other is a measure of elevation. Let’s explore this in a little more detail. When walking through the halls of your organization’s offices, have you heard someone say, “Hey Chief”? Does that mean […]

This is what I want! This is what I need! This is how I want it to perform! You need to embark upon a process to take your customers’ qualitative wants and needs and translate them into specific customer requirements. 

Does your organization have a centralized department or function that monitors and tracks the performance of your operations relative to your customers? If you do, let’s see what it might be doing. The term “Customer Operations Performance Center” is not a widely recognized or standardized term, so its exact meaning may vary depending on the […]

If you look at the dashboard of your car, you will see information related to the car’s performance and the progress of your journey. When you look at your business dashboard, you can see examples of similar information.  

Organizations love to talk in terms of averages. They talk about average sales, average units produced, or the average time to complete an invoice. But, is that adequate? Let’s explore other measures of central tendency and answer that question.

Often organizations do a root cause analysis after a problem has occurred. Is there something you can do as a preventive action prior to something happening. Let’s learn more about CAPA. Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) is a systematic approach used in various industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and quality management, to identify and address the […]

No two snowflakes are alike, goes the old saying. Variation is everywhere. But, is some variation predictable and due to the variation in your process, while some is not? Common cause variation is a part of every process. Let’s learn more about it. 

Data collection doesn’t always have to be a complex process. A simple check sheet can allow you to capture relevant data in a graphical format for initial interpretation of your process or for in-depth analysis later.

Blocking doesn’t always refer to football. It can also apply to Design of Experiments. Let’s explore how that works.

During the Six Sigma Improvement Stage of DMAIC, you will need to develop strategies and ideas for improving your process. There are three steps to coming up with viable improvement solutions. These steps are idea generation, organization, and assessment.  Brainstorming can be defined as a structured method of generating unconstrained ideas/ solutions and gaining engagement/involvement […]

Will being a Black Belt help you beat up your competition? In a way, yes. A skilled and experienced Lean Six Sigma Black Belt will help your organization improve all you do. Let’s see how.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Such is the case with a box plot. This simple graph can be used to describe many things about your data. Let’s see how.

Similar to the way a Black Belt denotes a certain competency in martial arts, the Certified Six Sigma Black Belt indicates someone who has demonstrated competence in techniques and principles of Six Sigma.

In the context of Lean Six Sigma, we can talk about bias in the context of measurement and statistics. Minimizing or eliminating bias in your measurement data and statistical analysis should be a goal. Let’s explore the many types, sources, and impact of bias. 

3P? How hard could that be? It’s only three letters: P-P-P. You will see that there is more than meets the eye.

An underlying assumption for the use of many statistical tools is that your data is normally distributed. But, how do you know? The A-square calculation for the Anderson Darling Normality Test will tell you.

When talking about an alias, alias structure or aliasing, you are talking about Design of Experiments (DOE). More specifically, you are referring to the confounding of effects in a fractional factorial experiment. Aliasing occurs when the estimate of a factor effect  is difficult to distinguish because of the impact of other factors in your experiment. […]

Don’t you hate it when you make a mistake? Well, an alpha risk is just that. Let’s learn what that mistake is and how to keep from making it.

At the gun range, your goal is to hit the target. Accuracy will be measured by how close you come to that target. The same is true of your process.  

The bad news is that you have problems to solve. The good news is that there are a number of simple, yet powerful tools that can help you. The 8D process is one of them.

A buffer can be simply defined as something that serves as a protective barrier. Let’s see how this might apply in the context of technology and computing as well as manufacturing. In the context of technology and computing, a buffer is a temporary storage area that holds data while it is being transferred from one […]

Why do you weigh yourself before you start your diet? You probably want to get a starting point or baseline to help measure your progress so you know whether the diet is working or you have reached your goal.