Elbrin

If you have your scored CTQs and your Inputs defined, a QFD would be my next step.  I usually develop about 3 to 4 layers of QFDs for a typical process.  The hard part about using SS in the service industry is that you don’t always have hard data.  Many times you must rely on subjective data.  Be sure you have a diverse team with all sta…[Read more]

Mike,
I don’t pretend to be the an authority on anything.  The 17 years is just a clarification that I did not just start in C.I. and quality after a 3 day online BB course.  You are right nothing I have written is new or inovative, yet mangement as a whole doesn’t seem to adhire to these commonly accepted practices.  Most of the gene…[Read more]

Mike,
Yes, my statement was a generalization.  As I stated in the related reply.  This generlization is based on my observation across some 25 companies, and conversations with 100 or more senior managers.  Admittedly a small sample, none the less my observation.  Where I have seen success it is not a single method that creates that suc…[Read more]

Mike,
It seems Timothy Tyson is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy; hmm maybe he has had some leadership training.

 Mike,
I don’t know your background or experience.  Judging by your other postings on this site you seem very intelligent and knowledgeable about Six Sigma.  But you seem to be slightly blinded by the brilliance of the Six Sigma sun.  Six Sigma boasts it origins from the works of Shewhart, Deming and Juran.  After digging through my old TQM guid…[Read more]

It is not about which method is better.  Six Sigma is no more than an evolution of TQM.  Motorola took the TQM model and constructed a robust application of its principles in Six Sigma.  The difference between the other companies mentioned in which TQM did not work is that they lacked the leadership and discipline to make it work.
Jack Welch be…[Read more]

I recently left an identical situation.  The company leadership spoke Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement; but where the rubber met the road they did not actively support it.  I am now with a company that cooks improvement goals into performance evaluations.  Everyone is held to a task-out, cost-out, defect reduction, and/or cycle time red…[Read more]

As with everything, it depends.  What are you trying to learn from this analysis?  Boxplots give you a visual representation of the mean median and dispersion of the subgroups.  But with no control limits you cannot determine with any certainty if there is a statistiacl difference between them.  However if you are searching for what to focus on…[Read more]

It’s never too early to learn.
For my money they should teach this stuff in high school.

R.M.
Your direct customers are the best source for this answer.  As what I refer to as a business enabler, and not part of the value stream, you will need to calculate the cost of an onsite library vs. the cost of the time for your company’s engineers and developers ect. to get their reaserch from an outside source.  The difference of the two wil…[Read more]

R sq Adj. takes into account how many degrees of freedom are assigned in  your Error Term.

MR Iam
I am involved in a project to start up a Call Center for post sales support of our products.  It is quite possible we will be looking for 3PL provider do provide this service to our customers.  Please email me at [email protected]

Is your product coming from off-shore or Mexico or is it out of a domestic warehouse?

Thanks for the help.  I have another one.
I want to sub-group by department number, which is saved as a text field.  But when I go to enter it in the “subgroup size” field when making the chart, department number is not available.  I have tried several times.  Even changing it from text to numeric and back doesn’t help.

Keeping your process mean centered on the target while ideal is not paramount.  That is why we measure both Cp and Cpk.  If the process control limits are outside your spec. limits you have bigger fish to fry.  As for distribusion normality, you are correct; you don’t want a long tail which might exceed your spec limit.

Pablo,
I would be more concerned that the CLs are outside your SLs; this indicates that your process is not capable.  Your process has too much variation.  Which SL you are closer to is irrelevant at this point.

Let me know when you find one……

You may find this tactic somewhat career limiting, but try asking the VP why Director so and so is’nt interested in saving the company $3M.

Quantifying savings is particularly difficult on the cost side of a business, and doublly so if it is transactional.  In many cases we are talking about enablers of the revenue side.  If I improve speed and or quality on the cost side, and the revenue side does not choose to take advantage of it, what is the benefit.  Example, engineering docu…[Read more]

abe,
I far as I know there is no standard for GB and BB project savings.  Different companies apply different standards to these projects.  Of course it will depend on the size of the company and its annual revenue as to what individual project savings should be.  The idea is to set a level that justifies the resources spent on the project.  As f…[Read more]