roadrage01

GE is not scraping Six Sigma.  They are adding Lean as part of the tool kit. They have abandonned their in-house Six Sigma Training.  Six Sigma is alive and well in at least one GE partnership, Penske Truck Leasing.

We must work for the same folks.  Sometimes they actually say “Thank You” too.

Look in upper right hand area under search.

Pareto was my first thought, but no statisticak reference from that.  So Chi Square it is.  To set this up you take the total opportunities for each type denial to occur (I extracted this from you data) 70, then list be each denial reason the number of times for Yes denied for this reason and No, not denied for this reason.
Chi-Square T…[Read more]

Anon, another example of degrees of freedom.
Shirts come in following sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL (3 degrees of freedom.
Or shirts sizes 4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22 (9 degrees of freedom) The increase in distinct catagories reduces the noise by more strictly defining the district catagories.

Yes, it would be distinct catagories.

I would recommend the Moods Median, robust to non-normality.  And if the data is normal, the mean and median will be close to equal anyway.

F test likes normality.. alot.  Or better said, F test is not robust to non-normality in the least. 
Degrees of freedom – How many different types does the test see.  We teach that a minimum of 4 is required in order to use the test.  Higher is better.  It comes down to the noise in the process.  With fewer degrees of freedom, there is more…[Read more]

Yes the 99.73 does equate to 3.0 as your confidence level.  Make sure you square, not square root.

Chris, Excellent use of lean concepts.  We will have to bring that into our training.

We currently use both the catapult and the helicopter for training Black Belts.  The helicopter is easier, but more prone to “noise” caused by design defects from the individuals constructing the helicopters.  The catapult isn’t cheap, see attached web site.
http://www.4ulr.com/products/statisticalanalysis/trainingaids_22a.html

jnu, Mike is correct in the explanation of the 1.96.  Give me an email address and I’ll send you a sample size calculator in excell.

Confidence levels – 95% confidence level is again the generally accepted level.  Mitigating factors would be risk and costs.  Higher risk and cost would perhaps lead to a higher confidence level required.  As far as degree of precision you would look at +/- pounds or inches.  Formula is n (sample size) = (1.…[Read more]

30 is a generally accpted sample number when dealing with continouos data such as weight and height.  If you could get this sample of 30 and determine the standard deviation for the height and weight, you could then determine how many samples would be needed depending upon the degree of precision you are willing to accept.  Send me an email for more

I recommend thaat you go over the operational definitions again with the operators.  The one operator is (or is not) seeing something different from the other two.  You mention repeatability, did you also test for reproducibility?

If the data is “normal”, then yes you can use ANOVA for analysis of the central tendency (mean).  If the data is non-normal then you would need to use a nonparametrics to analyze the central tendency (median), such as Moods median.  Don’t forget to analyze the variation as well, using HOV ( Homogeneity of Variance).

In Minitab unless you have the GE add on “Six Sigma” I do not believe you can do a process report.  However, there are tools available that you can determine capability without the USL.  Look at the menu tabs here on Isixsigma to the right for the Sigma Calculator.

As I side issue I recommend that you look at Net Promoter Score (NPS).  A derivitive from the VOC, it boils down to one question (How likely are you to recommend our company).  This has been receiving a lot of attention as late. http://www.netpromoter.com

The Leadership Contract and Systems and Structures Analysis are initially developed up front in Define or Measure for DMAIC or DMADV.  For Lean activities we use the Leadership Contract at the onset so that we (the Quality folks) and they (the operators) reach an agreement as to what is expected.  Not limited to the leaders either, can go all t…[Read more]

Steven, As a Change Acceleration Proces (CAP) Facilitator/Instructor and a DMAIC/DMADV/Lean MBB I have learned the hard way that the soft skills are imperative to successful solution development and deployment.  There are 5 CAP deliverables required for my organizations Improvement Projects; Leadership Contract, Influence Stategy, Communications…[Read more]