Ben Royal

Thanks, Heebee. I just wanted to calibrate off some other companies.

Clio,
Simon has you pointed in the right direction. You are going to have to bite the bullet and develop operational definitions for your defects.
Try to get specifications that permit you to measure a defect. It took us a while, but we finally for marketing and engineering to agree on what an accetpable gap was a facade-door interface, for e…[Read more]

John,
I guessed it was a bad day. Glad to see the reflection, but do not lose the passion. It will take both to get to the top.
Ben

John,
We await your postcard.

artoflean.com
 

Bob,
Sigma represent the variation in a process in relation to the customer’s specs. If your process performs at a six sigma level, its variation is so small that the product (or service) is 99.9997% defect free.
Your class handouts may include a sigma conversion chart that shows the defects per million for 1, 2, 3 etc. sigma. My chart I sh…[Read more]

The Rother and Shook book Learning to See is an excellent introduction to value stream mapping that will also answer most of your questions.
Web searchs will also turn up a lot of information also; look for the pdf format articles.
Finally, log onto and join up with the Lean Enterprise Institute, Jim Womack’s website. You can join for free,…[Read more]

S.A. (and Jimmie) – I’m in the early stages of a project that is very similar – thickness variation in an extruded sheet used to thermoform a part. In addition, thickner parts require more virgin material, which is getting more expensive every day.
So I am looking to first reduce variation, then shift the thickness mean down.
Thanks for the…[Read more]

Sir,
Would it be possible for your to post your response to jimmie65 as an article on this site? This concept is something that is usually overlooked in Green Belt and Black Belt training.
Thank you

Darth and Stan,
Thanks. E-mail on the way. And thanks for taking time to comment on this site.
Ben

Don’t think it was Harry; I cannot afford his books. What I am trying to find is some thoughts on just how far corrective action and SPC can take you before you change to the more optimization sophisticated tools. 
Thanks.

Sandy,
We are facing the same problem. In the last issue of iSixSigma magazine there was an article by Mike Carnell and Scott Shank on filling the pipeline that is helpful. Maybe he will comment here, too. In the same issue was a benchmarkuing article on Project Selection. I also found lots of articles via Google.
We finally decided on setting…[Read more]

You might want to try a web search on “analyzing Likert scale data”. There are some hazards you should be aware of.
 

You might issue each of the participants a beeper. Set off the beeper at random intervals and have them call or write in a journal what they are doing, etc.
Ben
 

Sir,
I was coming from the point of view that Six Sigma tools and philosophy would be a good things for Gord to know about.
Would an alternative be to study the BOK for the ASQ certified quality engineer exam? Far less expensive than BB training, but could offer exposure to quality tools and to the ideas of people like Deming, etc.
Again, this…[Read more]

Gord,
Don’t give up just yet. Riff through these forums to find consultants who have good reputations. There are also a lot of ads on this page dealing with BB certification. Talk with some of the providers. Explain your situation and see what they say. They will have ROI data.
Implementing Six Sigma is very difficult even in the best of c…[Read more]

You might want to spend some time reading what Shigeo Shingo has to say about mistake proofing and Zero Quality Control. He has a couple of books out on this subject that will be very helpful.
Good luck. 

Pam,
There are some excellent and reasonably inexpensive books available that can help clarify things. Probably the most recommended on value stream mapping is Rother and Shook’s book, Learning to See. It is published by the Lean Enterprise Institute.
Productivity Press also has some excellent books.
You can check out ASQ for books on process…[Read more]

We’ve spent a lot of time lately on machine downtime. The approach is simple: a team is assigned to conduct corrective action on every downtime indicent over a certain length of time. The keys is effective root cause determination.
A nice part of this effort is the attention our Senior Director pays to the process. He never misses the daily rep…[Read more]

I have worked in companies that did it both ways and it seems to me that having at least attempted TQM in some ways better prepared the ground for Six Sigma. At least some in the population had been exposed to some of the concepts and this made them more receptable.
The most successful implementers were very orientated toward the bottom line and…[Read more]