Category: Concepts

ARMI stands for Approver, Resource, Member, and Interested Party (IP). Find out more about these Lean Six Sigma expertise classifications.

Ever been to a business meeting? Ever thought it was a waste of time? Let’s explore how the 5Ps of meeting effectiveness may help you have a better meeting.

You are probably familiar with the term 5S in the context of Lean Six Sigma. But, what about the term 5Z. Let’s learn a little more about what that means. The 5Z’s provide the principles and guidelines for achieving 5Z Accreditation. The 5Z process uses the Genba (Gemba) Kanri principles to maintain, evaluate, promote, and […]

5C is the formal activity of organizing the workplace, and it serves as the foundation of any continuous improvement effort. Explore the 5C framework, and learn how to implement it in your organization.

Sometimes you need an improvement approach that is faster than the traditional Six Sigma methods of DMAIC or DMEDI. Agile may be your answer. Let’s see how.   The word agile refers to the ability to rapidly create and respond to change and the need to improve. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately […]

When the Z bench is calculated from the overall standard deviation and average output of the process, you arrive at Z lt.

Monitoring your process metrics over time allows you to look for trends and patterns in the data. The run chart is one of the easiest graphs to use to do this. 

There are a number of descriptive statistics you can use to describe the central tendency of your data. The mode is one of them. 

Manufacturing processes vary over time. Occasional large, special-cause events that are sprinkled against a background of lesser variation are natural to the process. Most processes, as a result, use a control strategy, at the heart of which is a measurement system designed to manage the product properties that are critical to customers. To maintain accuracy, […]

I will be the first to admit that I still have a few cases of 8-track tapes. For those too young to know what 8-track tapes are, please ask your parents. As a customer who purchased a lot of music, my needs were simple. I wanted clearer sound and something smaller to store. The music […]

Several management approaches, including Six Sigma, involve a key focus on process analysis. Too often processes are schematically represented in boxes and arrows. While this final result of a process analysis is beneficial, practitioners should ensure they are considering the numerous factors and components that influence a process and how it is viewed. Stakeholders and […]

In the midst of a complex organizational structure and multiple frameworks, a process owner is often faced with the challenge of providing the biggest “bang” for the lowest “buck” in the shortest time. At the same time, organizations want to optimize the investment a process-improvement drive demands and strive for a common approach that can […]

The Lean Six Sigma deployment climate has evolved from one of training internal resources as experts on implementing process improvement projects to a progressive and forward-thinking collective effort facilitating cultural change in an organization. Historically, with a few exceptions in large companies, most financial services organizations are behind in terms of adapting formal, continuous improvement […]

While traveling on an international flight earlier this year, I was asked to fill out forms for customs. After filling out the forms I proceeded to wait in line where fellow travelers in front of me delayed processing time because of a simple data entry error on their customs card. Apparently 1/11/07 is read as […]