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Knowing the availability of your product or service to meet demand is an absolutely crucial part of doing business.

A vital position in companies with high production rates to ensure products or services meet expected standards.

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.

Value is the goal of Lean Six Sigma and is the reason for its existence. Value is what the customer wants, and it’s what a company needs to provide in order to be successful.

A thought process map (TMAP) is a tool used to help you learn, remember, and teach others. Using a TMAP allows you to organize information in a clear and concise way so that it can be easily understood by others, even if they are not familiar with the subject matter. This is beneficial for both training purposes as well as project management purposes.

Process control is a principle that you can use to help you manage your processes more effectively. The goal of process control is to make sure that what your employees do every day is done using the same set of steps or standards so they can get better at their job. Process control helps organizations […]

When you complete the steps of a process, there is an outcome. There is a name for this outcome which will be discussed below.

A key production statistic derived from comparing the number of defects to number of total units.

Short description: Do you want to succeed? The best way to do so is by using metrics. Using Lean Six Sigma metrics ensures that you get the most important tasks done first and makes you a stronger company in the long run.

A professional and formal report pertaining to the quality of a particular sample of a physical or technical product.

Prioritizing properly is key to a project’s success. There are many tools available in order to accomplish this. A characteristic selection matrix is one of them. 

When there is a need to look beyond continuous improvement methods, there is a concept that takes looking at workflow even further.

When there are too many items on a menu you can get confused by the variety of choices. Getting Lean Six Sigma trained and certified can also be confusing. Let’s discuss some of your options.

In every business, there are times when processes need improvement. In fact, continuous improvement should be a goal for you and your team. One well-known process improvement procedure for those working towards Sigma levels is DMAIC. Below we will be exploring another one.

A project needs to have clear boundaries and parameters that establish its scope. Any tool that can help your team understand and agree as to what is included and what is excluded from your project saves a lot of headaches during project implementation.

Not all data is collected equally. Passive data is information collected without direct input from the participant and can provide substantial insight into key processes.

Understanding normal probability helps us make better decisions. By being able to calculate expected values and percentiles, we can put our past experience into context and gain knowledge that will help us make better decisions in the future.

The histogram tool in Lean Six Sigma is one way to visualize your process data to identify any potential problems in your process. If you’re not already familiar with the histogram tool in Lean Six Sigma, well then it’s time to meet one of the most powerful tools in the data analysis world.

If you suspected there was a relationship between your customer’s experience with your product and their future buying tendency, how would you go about confirming whether a relationship existed or not? 

Don’t you feel really good when someone recognizes your achievements? The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is intended to recognize those US organizations that have achieved excellence in quality management. 

Having employees that want to go above and beyond, endorse your organization, and trust in its leadership is not an impossible feat. It just requires developing a passion for action.

Central tendency and mean are two of the more significant statistics that are used in Lean Six Sigma. These two concepts have a large place in the developed world of LSS and are important when it comes to implementing new technologies or measuring processes for improvement.

There are times when you may encounter the need to analyze non-normal distribution. Having another option other than the ANOVA test in these types of situations is critical.

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. 

No, that is not a spelling error. A digraph is a bit different than a standard diagram in that it is a diagram that puts an emphasis on direction.

Businesses that buffer often struggle to balance operational stability with lean management. Lean level of buffering is a combination of the two philosophies.

Designing an effective and efficient plan to develop new products or services is a complex challenge that requires thorough planning. Applying the methodology of DFSS allows businesses to see improvement in products or services that normally would have been missed in other design strategies.

If you are embarking on a project for your organization, it is time to put together a charter.

Correction is a critical part of any lean six sigma program. It involves fixing problems once a firm identifies a good or process that does not meet minimum quality standards.

Sometimes there are too many ideas coming at you at once. When this is the case, instead of succumbing to the chaos, grab a stack of Post-it notes and create an affinity diagram.

What would happen if a new competitor suddenly enters the market? Can your company survive if a key supplier fails you? Get answers to the “what ifs” of business with an impact analysis.

Would it be useful to have a simple metric for measuring how well your manufacturing process is working? That is exactly what Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is all about. Let’s learn a little more about OEE.

Despite the type of data your process generates, there are typically three descriptors or characteristics you would want to know to properly describe your process. Let’s learn what those descriptive statistics are.

It is not practical to calculate the statistical parameters of your population by measuring everything. The Central Limit Theorem will help you use samples to get to your answer.

How can you tell whether the average of your two sample data sets are statistically different and not just due to random chance? The T test is what you would want to use to answer the question. 

The concept of a prediction band is usually associated with regression analysis. We will also contrast a prediction band with a confidence band.

Have you ever wondered why your doctor may keep you waiting in the waiting room or why you have to fast before doing a blood test? Let’s see if Lean Six Sigma can give you an answer.

You have two sets of data and want to test whether the means of the populations they came from are the same but the data is not normally distributed. What can you do? Let’s find out.

What kind of relationship do your X and Y variables have? Is it linear? Is it non-linear? Let’s learn more about how it can be determined graphically and statistically.

Does your data from yesterday represent the current state of your process better than that from a month ago? How can you place more emphasis on it yet still make use of older data? That’s what the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average does. 

A control chart is used to identify and alert you when your process has unexpectedly shifted. Traditional Shewhart charts are good for moderate to large shifts but not for small shifts. The CUSUM (Cumulative Sum) is better for identifying small shifts. Let’s see how.

Without having a defined way to measure the amount of something, the world would be chaotic. Thankfully, we have units and ways to quantify and measure them.

Errors are common when testing a statistical hypothesis. They can be difficult to avoid and by taking to preventive measures to protect yourself from one kind, you open yourself to the likelihood of another.

Being able to divide a sample into smaller groupings can be a vital tool for understanding what is happening in your processes.

Limitations define life. Businesses face this reality every day in many different ways. That’s why leaders need to learn how to manage, overcome and capitalize on these constraints.

In everything from everyday language to mathematical logic problems, we often need a way to express just how much or how often something occurs or exists, in order for a statement to be clear or make sense.

When sampling, it is important to avoid bias, a lack of precision, and a lack of reproducibility. Having an understanding of population and how they work can help you avoid this.

Diagrams can be extremely helpful as a visual aid to gain understanding of a project. This is a valuable type of diagram that you will likely come back to time and again for your team projects.

Errors are an issue that should be kept to a minimum, especially for those aspiring to a high Sigma level.

Concomitant variables are secondary variables that may affect a process under study but are not the significant parameters that the research is designed to understand or control.