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When a product is purchased by an end-user, it is generally sold individually. However, when the product is initially delivered to a distributor by a supplier or sold wholesale, it is usually grouped into a large quantity and sold as a lot. When your business expands, it is almost guaranteed that you will be dealing […]

Waste is one of the biggest setbacks that prevents companies from reaching their maximum potential. One of the categories of waste, as described by Talichi Ohno, is known as muri. Talichi Ohno developed a system for Toyota that focused on the continuous improvement of quality and the elimination of waste. The types of waste as […]

A competitive and successful business needs to critically evaluate all the opportunities for improvement and deploy valuable resources strategically. By identifying low-hanging fruit, high-impact, low-effort activities can be addressed creating a solid foundation for continuous improvement.

Management plays a critical role in the successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodologies within organizations. It provides the foundation for driving process improvement, achieving operational excellence, and delivering superior customer value. In today’s competitive business landscape, organizations strive for efficiency, quality, and continuous improvement to stay ahead. In pursuit of these goals, Lean […]

Your customers want to know when they can expect completion of their orders. Little’s Law, or Process Lead Time (PLT), is a simple way to calculate how long an order will take to complete.

Incremental and continuous improvements are great. When appropriate, breakthrough improvement is even better. IDOV (identify, design, optimize, validate) is one tool for accomplishing this. Let’s see how. 

The Individuals-Moving Range (I-MR) Chart is one of the most widely-used control charts in statistics and the standard for most situations where data was collected in individual data points. It allows such a process to be assessed for stability both in terms of central tendency as well as variation.

Leaders, managers, and practitioners love tangible (hard and soft) benefits because they can be measured and quantified; however, intangible benefits create goodwill and buy in among employees. 

The phrase “it depends” sums up the concept of interaction in the context of Design of Experiments. Interaction is when the effect of one factor on a response variable depends on the level or setting of another factor. 

Your business is at war with waste, defects, and inefficiencies. Let’s attack and defeat your enemy with a lightning-quick attack using overwhelming forces. In other words, a Kaizen Blitzkrieg, or Blitz for short.

Or Key Process OUTPUT Variable

Kappa is the common measurement for judging how your measurement system works for attribute data. It is also described as the primary output from an Attribute Agreement Analysis.

You may remember seeing or having a Jack in the Box toy when you were a child. It looked much like a box and would have a crank on its side that you could turn. It would play a little song, and suddenly the top would fly open and the head of a clown (or […]

Complex products and processes can often yield significant variation in output, with resultant poor customer satisfaction, especially when process inputs are not well controlled. By understanding and controlling our key process input variables, we have the perfect approach to keep output variation in check.  

House of Quality? No, this is often referred to as a House of Pain because of the effort needed to complete one. Let’s see if we are just being overly pessimistic. 

Creating and mapping business process models can sound like a daunting task with little tangible value. With input-process-output models, we debunk these myths and introduce a versatile, straightforward methodology that can be used to transform your business.

What do your customers really want? You are taking a risk by blindly fulfilling your customers’ needs without understanding how they classify them. Kano analysis will allow you to properly classify those customer needs and lower your risk.

Japanese quality professional widely known for the Ishikawa diagram also known as the fishbone or cause and effect diagram. He is also known as Ishikawa, Kaoru.

Process stability is a critical need before trying to improve that process, and control charts are used to assess it. The lower control limit is one of the three fundamental lines on a control chart for identifying a lack of stability.

In a box plot, it is easy to see the range of where 50% of your data lies. Let’s examine this a little further by describing the interquartile range. Quartiles can be defined as dividing your data into 4 parts or quarters of approximately equal size. You can define the 4 parts in terms of […]

If your organization is too impatient to use a formal DMAIC approach to continuous improvement then Kaizen may be the tool for you. 

In-control is not referring to the behavior of your children. It’s about whether your process is exhibiting common or special cause variation. Let’s explore how this works.

When it comes to process capability, the more tools you have, the better. An L2 spreadsheet can help to make working with your capabilities a simpler endeavor. L2 Spreadsheet An L2 spreadsheet is just one of many spreadsheets that can help you be more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of your business. Overview: What […]

Hypothesis testing is a branch of statistics in which, using data from a sample, an inference is made about a population parameter or a population probability distribution.

Six Sigma is a method for process improvement that aims to minimize variation. Organizations with multiple departments such as finance, manufacturing, and sales with different definitions of a defect can use these universal metrics to identify processes that are not operating at a Six Sigma level. Overview: What is an L1 Spreadsheet? An L1 spreadsheet is […]

Have you ever had to shut down your manufacturing line because major components haven’t arrived from your supplier? Have you ever had to rent extra warehouses for your finished goods? Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing would prevent that from happening. Let’s see how that works.

Sometimes we need the input of others in order to make a process easier. We also often could use someone who can bring a group together when working toward a goal. When this is done, that person is someone who facilitates. In a meeting, it can be easy for a group to lose direction. Having […]

While you hope everything goes smoothly and as planned, sometimes you have to make a change in your existing product or product design. The engineering change request is the form you use to initiate the changes.

Instant pudding may make a great snack, but it’s a terrible approach to managing quality and productivity in business. Unlike the average domestic kitchen, there are very few things that you can simply whip together in the business world. Overview: What is instant pudding? In the context of business and process management, the term “instant […]

Will having a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt help you break boards? No. But a trained and experienced Green Belt will help improve what your organization does so you can defeat waste, process defects, and much more. Let’s see how.

How does your organization track and monitor organizational performance? Do you have key metrics that you frequently look at to make decisions? Using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a common method for tracking your most important metrics. Let’s see how. A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company […]

Goals are pretty simple. In sports, reaching the goal adds points to the scoreboard. In business, reaching the goal means doing what you set out to do. In your personal life, it’s finding a sense of purpose, belonging and completion. Overview: What is a goal? Even though the concept is easy to define and understand, […]

Fitted values are, in short, predictions. In Six Sigma terms, they are the expected value of Y for a specific combination of Xes and allow the practitioner to estimate what to expect even when those predictor values have never been observed.

Does your organization just focus on today’s operational and tactical issues, or is there a process for developing a strategic plan for the future? Hoshin Kanri is a method for ensuring an organization’s strategic goals drive progress and action at every level within that organization. 

The purchasing department manager left another message, informing the planning department that they once again sent over a request for a quote that didn’t contain all the information needed to place the order.  It’s a problem that seems to keep repeating, but is it truly that impactful an issue? To better understand the situation, the […]

Fractional factorial DOE is a cost- and time-effective designed experimentation statistical tool for understanding the impact of your process inputs on your process outputs. 

Now that you have brainstormed and gathered a list of random ideas, how do you make sense of them? KJ is a tool for helping you establish the themes and relationships between your ideas. 

Key business requirements are everything. They are the measure by which your product, process or company lives or dies, so ignorance is not an option.

Is your Lean Six Sigma training accomplishing what you want it to do? How do you know? Those questions can be answered by using the Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation. Let’s see how.

Error that concludes that someone is not guilty, when in fact, they really are. (Ha true, but I concluded Ho). BETA Accept an hypothesis or statement as true when it is false: Ho is false, but I conclude Ho is true. Error that concludes that someone is not guilty, when in fact, he or she […]

You want to make good data-driven decisions, but can you trust your data? Is the measurement system you used to gather the data giving you precise and consistent measurements? A Gage R&R study will answer your questions. 

The pursuit of knowledge is not relegated solely to the individual. Businesses regularly gather staff and other stakeholders with the intent of working together to gain knowledge that can assist in the goals of the organization. When an organization puts together a knowledge-based community, it shows that it is not only invested in the advancement […]

The landscape of how business is done is ever-evolving. The way that businesses interact with customers and how those customers purchase goods and services is unrecognizable from how things were done just a couple of decades ago. A big component of these changes is the rise of information communication technology. Any time you make a […]

Having a clear comprehension of all the costs you incur when creating a product is integral to running a successful business. This includes both your direct and indirect costs. When making a product or providing a service, it may be obvious what your direct costs are since you are paying for parts, labor, and so […]

Are all your organization’s problems and issues of equal importance? Probably not. How should you handle those that are the most critical and important? Let’s find out. A Key Business Issue (KBI) refers to a critical problem or challenge that your organization faces, which can significantly impact your performance, growth, or competitiveness. KBIs are specific […]

Error that concludes that someone is guilty, when in fact, they really are not. (Ho true, but I rejected it–concluded Ha). Also known as ALPHA error. Also known as Producer’s risk.

An in-depth look at how IGI can help businesses become more efficient, profitable, and less wasteful by helping managers keep track of incoming good compliance issues while ensuring incoming goods meet quality standards set by the company.

Virtually every business decision is a matter of investment and success is based on how companies deploy resources like employee time, capital and brand image. The authority to make independent decisions is also a type of resource that can and should be invested by delegating it to team members. Overview: What is empowerment? Employee empowerment […]

STOP THE PRESSES! Jidoka will immediately stop equipment upon discovering an abnormality in the process. Let’s explore this a little deeper.

Marketing is crucial for most organizations in their efforts to acquire new customers and maintain their relationships with their existing ones. There are many factors involved in developing proper marketing strategies. One of them is the collection and proper analysis of interactional data. Interactional data is not used to its full potential by many organizations […]