Category: Methodology

Have you ever been on an improvement team that just doesn’t work as well as you expected? Was it because people weren’t trying or was the mix of personalities and perspectives not conducive to working together for a solution? Let’s see how one company handled this problem. Using the Six Thinking Hats helped this company […]

While Motorola had been an industry leader for decades, by the 1970s, many of its products were seen as potentially unreliable by consumers. The company addressed this issue by embarking aggressively on an innovative program of continuous improvement that has come to be known as Six Sigma. How Continuous Improvement Changed Consumer Perception Of Motorola […]

What Is Linearity? Before we can understand linearity, we must understand another measurement error known as bias. Bias is a consistent mistake that occurs in measurement. For example, every measure taken with your scale comes out heavier than the actual weight. Linearity measures the consistency of a bias over the entire range of possible measurements. […]

What is Common Cause Variation? Common cause variation is the kind of variation that is part of a stable process. These are variations that are natural to a system and are quantifiable and expected. Common cause variations are those that are predictable, ongoing, and consistent. Major changes would typically have to be made in order […]

The Six Sigma process report is a Minitab tool that calculates process capability and provides visuals of process performance.

What Are Tangible Benefits? Tangible benefits are positive results that can be accurately measured and quantified with standard measurements. In business, the term describes any kind of outcome that is directly associated with financial gain or loss. You can always boil down tangible benefits to a monetary value relative to other types of investments or […]

Null Hypothesis vs. Hypothesis: What’s the Difference? What Is Null Hypothesis? A null hypothesis is a prediction that there is no statistical relationship between two variables or two sets of data. Essentially, a null hypothesis makes the assumption that any measured differences are the result of randomness and that the two possibilities are the same […]

Confirmation is a way to confirm that a process is working as expected. It can be used to validate or invalidate a hypothesis, test a process or product and test the process of testing.

Using GOAL Deployment in support of their Strategic Plan, this company was able to align goals and objectives and achieve impressive organizational improvements  The Company historically used yearly Strategic Planning to lay out its macro goals and initiatives. This was done by each functional area of the company submitting what they believed they wanted to […]

What Is Accuracy? Accuracy is the difference between a measured value compared to its true value. Since no measurement can be 100% exact, there needs to be a degree of inaccuracy allowed in the measurement. This degree of inaccuracy depends on the amount of error you are able to accept and is denoted by a […]

What is a Subject Matter Expert? Subject matter experts (SMEs) are people who have a significant amount of knowledge or experience regarding a specific subject. They can specialize in any kind of academic discipline, profession or practice. Even though their area of expertise is relatively narrow compared to general consultants, there is still a lot […]

Visual Management Boards played a critical role in enabling this company to link and visually display critical metrics, KPIs and actions in a simple and consistent way. Using Visual Management Boards (VMBs), the company was able to consistently create and display critical organizational information  A Visual Management Board (VMB) is used to display critical information […]

What Is Repeatability? Repeatability is the typical variation that occurs when a person measures a part with the same tool (or gauge) multiple times. This concept relates to the accuracy of any measurement. A measurement is only as accurate as the typical variation that occurs when that item is measured. When conducting a repeatability test, […]

What Are Exit Criteria? Exit criteria are conditions that must be met before closing out one project stage and advancing to the next stage. When project management teams use exit criteria, they break down the project into multiple steps. Therefore, each stage will have its own set of conditions (exit criteria) that must be met […]

Repeatability and reproducibility are two ways that scientists and engineers measure the precision of their experiments and measuring tools. They are heavily used in chemistry and engineering and are typically reported as standard deviations in scientific write-ups. While these two measurements are both used in many types of experiments, they are quite different and offer […]

What is Value Added? The most important thing to understand about value concepts is that they always revolve around the customer. Customers are the ones who set the standard for value, which means it’s based on whether the customer believes the product or service will address their specific needs. Increasing appeal by adding value may […]

What is Cpk? Cpk is short for Capability Index. It is a measurement of the capability of a process to deliver output that is within the specification limits of a process. The Benefits of Cpk With Cpk, you are able to determine how closely a process can meet overall specifications in its ability to produce […]

What is Standard Operating Procedure? Most established companies have some kind of standard operating procedure (SOP) in place, even if it’s a bit vague and outdated. Six sigma practitioners have no excuse for vague or outdated procedures though because these things should be second-nature when you are deep into process management. A SOP is a […]

An analytical management tool used to develop a basic outline of core processes and help the analysts consider what may go wrong with each step.

What is Variable Data? Variable data is any kind of information that is represented and recorded as measurements. The term is often used when discussing the creation of control charts for the purpose of process analysis. Variable data is quantitative, which means it can be described with numerical value and can change along a perpetual […]

What is Pugh Matrix? When it comes to finding solutions and improvements in business processes, making a final decision can seem impossible. There are always multiple options for dealing with a situation or problems, which can be paralyzing for leadership. Pugh’s Controlled Convergence, also called the Pugh Matrix, is a numerical method for making tough […]

What is a Spaghetti Diagram? A spaghetti diagram is defined as the visual representation of the flow of an activity or process utilized to identify areas that could use improvement. It is unique in that it demonstrates motion work and its associated waste and assists in the quantification of the amount of walking an operator […]

Sometimes you have to break something down into the smallest possible pieces before you can make it right. Process mapping is one of the first major steps when adopting six sigma, so it’s something business leaders should learn to love. Depicting workflow and processes in a visual format sets the stage for defining, understanding and […]

What is Continuous? Continuous data refers to numerical data that has any value within a certain range. There are infinite possibilities for the values, but they all fall within a range. These can be whole numbers or decimals measured using data analysis like skews and line graphs. This kind of data can change over time […]