Ken Feldman

Do you like to take classes in a physical classroom or virtually on a computer? This is a significant decision since Lean Six Sigma training and certification can be achieved either way. Let’s examine the plus and minus of each format.

Would you be happy if your doctor received her MD from an unknown and unaccredited medical school? Probably not. What about your CPA or attorney? Again, probably not. For the same reason, your employer wouldn’t be happy with your Lean Six Sigma certification if it was awarded by an unknown organization with a poor reputation […]

There are two steps to earn a martial arts belt. First, you must be trained in the various techniques and then you must demonstrate your skills and knowledge. The same holds true for Lean Six Sigma training and certification. Let’s learn a little more. What is Lean Six Sigma training and certification? In martial arts, […]

When there are too many items on a menu you can get confused by the variety of choices. Getting Lean Six Sigma trained and certified can also be confusing. Let’s discuss some of your options.

If you suspected there was a relationship between your customer’s experience with your product and their future buying tendency, how would you go about confirming whether a relationship existed or not? 

Don’t you feel really good when someone recognizes your achievements? The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is intended to recognize those US organizations that have achieved excellence in quality management. 

There are several statistical tests which assume that independent data sets have equal, similar or equivalent variances. Violating this assumption could render any statistical conclusions invalid. 

Would it be useful to have a simple metric for measuring how well your manufacturing process is working? That is exactly what Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is all about. Let’s learn a little more about OEE.

Despite the type of data your process generates, there are typically three descriptors or characteristics you would want to know to properly describe your process. Let’s learn what those descriptive statistics are.

It is not practical to calculate the statistical parameters of your population by measuring everything. The Central Limit Theorem will help you use samples to get to your answer.

How can you tell whether the average of your two sample data sets are statistically different and not just due to random chance? The T test is what you would want to use to answer the question. 

The concept of a prediction band is usually associated with regression analysis. We will also contrast a prediction band with a confidence band.

Have you ever wondered why your doctor may keep you waiting in the waiting room or why you have to fast before doing a blood test? Let’s see if Lean Six Sigma can give you an answer.

What kind of relationship do your X and Y variables have? Is it linear? Is it non-linear? Let’s learn more about how it can be determined graphically and statistically.

You have two sets of data and want to test whether the means of the populations they came from are the same but the data is not normally distributed. What can you do? Let’s find out.

Does your data from yesterday represent the current state of your process better than that from a month ago? How can you place more emphasis on it yet still make use of older data? That’s what the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average does. 

A control chart is used to identify and alert you when your process has unexpectedly shifted. Traditional Shewhart charts are good for moderate to large shifts but not for small shifts. The CUSUM (Cumulative Sum) is better for identifying small shifts. Let’s see how.

You have compared your process data before and after an improvement. Is the difference real or just noise?  Statistical significance will help you answer that question.

Correlation allows you to determine whether sets of data have some sort of relationship. Goodman-Kruskal Gamma looks at pairs of data and determines a correlation. Let’s see how.

Kanban is a tool used in Lean Manufacturing to visually manage the workflow through your processes. It is based on the concept of a pull system where things are only replaced as they are consumed. 

This consumer products company has a large portfolio of products. Working with key customers, the company develops and promotes brand marketing programs to help the customer improve their sales which increases the company’s revenue as well. The CEO of the company realized the percentage of successful promotions was less than he expected. At the same […]

Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process — from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.

You may think turnaround time has decreased from your baseline as a result of a process improvement. But has it really? The t statistic is one way to find the answer to that question.

The word Normal generally has a positive connotation. When applied to statistics, the term Normal Distribution has essentially the same effect. Let’s see why.