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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 […]

There are several statistical tests which assume that independent data sets have equal, similar or equivalent variances. Violating this assumption could render any statistical conclusions invalid. 

With Six Sigma, customer satisfaction comes first. We’ve talked at length in the past about the various nomenclature, techniques, and so forth that drive Six Sigma. As a comprehensive discipline, it is a transformative means of making your organization the best it can be. However, it is a methodology and approach that takes […]

Six Sigma is all about what can be quantified and measured. So it is not surprising that organizations that utilize Six Sigma often prefer to measure success in terms of hard savings or dollars to the bottom line now. They are subsequently less impressed with soft savings, or the possibility of dollars to […]

Lean Six Sigma is a system that measures how well a process operates, with “six sigma” being the level of perfection in which processes operate at or below 3.4 defects per million units produced. In order to achieve this, companies must eliminate all but the most critical process steps and then re-engineer those remaining steps to be more efficient and effective.

It is important in business to have a sampling system in place to determine when to dump a pack of units dumped due to an unacceptable amount being defective. LTPD is part of this sampling system.

When things go wrong in the process, how do you know? And how do you know what to do?

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.  

Financial project metrics can be cumbersome to use and jargon-heavy. We demystify and simplify project return on investment, making the concept accessible to all and giving you the confidence to use it in your project management operations.

A major dilemma companies face today is the pressure to deliver short-term improvements and benefits while still contributing to longer-term breakthrough objectives. The 3-6-12-24 planning tool helps practitioners find a way out of this predicament.

When it comes to Six Sigma, data is your lifeblood. The ability to interpret what the data is saying is how you know whether you are on the right path. Further, it shows how you’re achieving your goals and objectives and avoiding roadblocks on your journey toward success. Accurately collected and analyzed data […]

Understanding discrete data will give you yet another tool for understanding your process measure or outcome. This article will explain the tips and traps of using discrete data in process improvement.

If you have a new machine or equipment, you need to be able to determine if it is going to have the potential to make the cut. That is where Cmk comes in.

Quality management should be a holistic approach. Process, product, and people are the three key elements of a company’s quality system and all of them need to be focused on for an overall improvement in performance. Why It Matters So, why consider this approach for your quality management? While there are many approaches […]

The Toyota Production System (TPS) serves as the foundation for Lean Manufacturing. Let’s explore this powerful method for improving your processes.  The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a manufacturing philosophy and a set of management practices developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation. It emphasizes continuous improvement, just-in-time production, and efficient use of resources, […]

Use these 10 questions when teaching DMAIC. Learn when and where some commonly used Six Sigma tools do – or don’t – apply; align the tools to the underlying question as part of this coaching task.

The Need for Adapting LSS Training The traditional LSS approach relies heavily on human expertise for data collection, analysis, and decision-making. While effective, this can be time-consuming, prone to errors, and limited in scope. AI, on the other hand, can process vast amounts of data in real-time, identify patterns that may not be […]

Deming’s 14 Points provide a roadmap to transform American Business and increase productivity and competitive position.  Without W. Edwards Deming, modern quality improvement might not exist. If you have never heard of Dr. Deming or his 14 Points for Management, welcome aboard. If you have, get ready to reacquaint yourself.   What Are Deming’s […]

What Is Linearity? Before understanding 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. […]

Quality management is an essential aspect of any business that strives to deliver products and services that meet or exceed customer expectations. The core principles of Quality Management were developed as part of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) seven principles of quality management. Traditional quality management systems like Total Quality Management (TQM) […]

In many industries, it is possible to find distributed data that does not follow the typical bell-shaped curve. In some instances, you will find that there is a much longer tail on the right side. This type of distribution follows the 80/20 rule, which states that roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% […]

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) can be accomplished using any one of many methodologies. IDOV is one popular methodology for designing products and services to meet Six Sigma standards. IDOV is a four-phase process that consists of Identify, Design, Optimize, and Verify. These four phases parallel the four phases of the traditional Six […]

You will often see attribute data and discrete data being used interchangeably. At some level, they are similar. But, if we dive a little deeper, you’ll see that there’s a bit more distinction than meets the eye.

Process time is the time it takes for one or more inputs to be transformed into a finished product or service by a business process.

Achieving world-class quality isn’t something every organization can do, because so much of what makes it possible cannot be taught. It boils down to mindset and certain character traits that some people have, some people don’t. Do you?

The definition of non-conformity is provided and then described with examples of what non-conformities involve, giving examples of the process approach to facilitate the management of the non-conformities.

Consider a production process that produced 10,000 widgets in January and experienced a total of 100 rejected widgets after a quality control inspection (i.e., failure rate = 0.01, success rate = 0.99). A Six Sigma project was deployed to fix this problem and by March the improvement plan was in place. In April, […]

Do you possess a crystal ball to see what the future brings for your organization? Probably not, but you do have a statistical version of a crystal ball by using trend analysis. 

Test plans, also called test protocols, are formal documents that typically outline requirements, activities, resources, documentation, and schedules to be completed. Some form of test plan should be developed before any test. The key reasons for developing test plans are: The Importance of a Plan Before embarking on any testing, experimentation, and so […]

With increasing competitive and market pressures, understanding customer requirements and delivering high-quality products, processes and services has never been more important. By implementing a Quality Operating System, you can ensure that quality improvement is every employee’s responsibility and focus.

A predetermined motion time system can be useful for everything from estimating labor costs to balancing production lines. It is a concept worth exploring for its myriad applications.

Process mapping is one of the basic quality or process improvement tools used in Lean Six Sigma. It has acquired more importance in recent times, given the complexities of processes and the need to capture and visualize knowledge that resides with the people who perform the task. Often process mapping is looked at […]

Big Data vs. Small Data Big data vs. small data, which should you be paying attention to? Data is generated throughout an organization. You’re gathering it when selling products, producing things, and even just interacting with customers. However, when we start talking about data, the notion of big data and small data enter […]

When it comes to sampling plans, there are some terms that are absolutely crucial to be aware of. These are Acceptable Quality Level (AQL), Indifference Quality Level (IQL), and Rejectable Quality Level (RQL).

Lean management – often called “Lean Management,” “The Toyota Way” or simply “Lean” – is a systematic method for waste minimization and process improvement in any type of service or manufacturing

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.

NORMSINV is an Excel function that provides the INVERSE of the cumulative standard normal distribution. Let’s learn how it works.

You need to know more about how to know more about your company. Good analytical practices shape your strategic thinking, which determines your entire future.

Lean business operations don’t happen without defining expectations, collecting data and monitoring results. Statistical limits serve your streamlining goals through efficiency quality control and loss prevention.

In a fiercely competitive market reacting swiftly to product or process failures, determining the true root cause and implementing change limits financial and reputational damage. Utilising root cause and failure analysis methodology is your gold standard for robustly preventing future failures.

The null hypothesis, written as Ho is a subset of the larger topic of Hypothesis Testing. The null hypothesis is a statement about a specific condition of your data and allows you to draw important conclusions about that data.

Many people use the terms verification and validation interchangeably without realizing the difference between the two. Not understanding that difference can lead to many models that do not truly represent a real-world process and lead to errors in forecasting or predicting the outcomes. In this article, we will explore the meaning, importance, differences, […]

Not all your data will have a normal distribution. Sometimes, the curve is taller or shorter than a theoretical  normal distribution. Does that mean you have a problem? We can answer that question by learning a little bit more about kurtosis and the platykurtic distribution.

When it comes to variance, there are two main types to consider. These are common cause and special cause. Common cause variations usually do not pose much of a problem. Special case variations are another story.

The concept of a confidence band is usually associated with regression analysis. We will also explain why a confidence band is not the same as a confidence interval.

Are you hearing voices? If it’s in a business context, then there is nothing to worry about — and it might even be a good thing. Let’s listen in to the voice of the process and hear what it has to say.

With your business, sometimes a need arises to address an issue swiftly and with all hands on deck. A Kaizen Event is meant for these kinds of times.

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.

Design risk assessment is a risk assessment framework that identifies, analyzes, and documents risks during a design project. When performing a design risk assessment, the team will assess all risks associated with the project including the design process. 

Background Company X (fictional name) is a multi-billion-dollar retail giant, known for offering an expansive range of Do It Yourself (DIY) goods and services. With hundreds of retail outlets scattered across the country, the company’s retail division was the backbone of its operations, responsible for generating a significant portion of its revenue. However, in recent […]