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Does your organization use a pull or push system to allow your manufacturing function to meet your customers’ demand for your products? Let’s learn why a pull system might be a better approach for optimizing your organization.

When faced with multiple decision criteria, how do you prioritize them? Do you flip a coin or use something more structured? You might want to consider using the Analytic Hierarchy Process as a structured format for prioritizing your decisions.

In engineering and manufacturing, there are situations where measuring in degrees is not the best option. For these metrics, you will find that radian is a better fit.

When managing any organization, there are four voices you should be listening to; Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Process, Voice of the Business and Voice of the Employee. Let’s focus on learning more about the Voice of the Employee or VOE. 

A final product can have a lot of moving parts to it, some of which were not developed by your business. Regardless, they are part of your product and your customers expect them to work.

Out-of-control Action Plans (OCAPS) are a piece of the Lean Six Sigma methodology that is often overlooked. Though they have been phased out in some organizations, it is important to understand their purpose and how they can help a company improve its processes.

If you need a control chart that is quick and easy to set up in order to track defects, an F-chart is worth knowing about.

Addressing the challenges posed by capacity constraint resources determines how much and how quickly businesses can grow beyond their status quo.

We know that many hypothesis tests have an underlying assumption of normality. But, what if your data is not normal? Let’s see how the 1-sample sign test can help. 

If you have ever seen a polygon web-shaped chart with points all over it connected by various colors, you may have wondered how it works. It is a web chart and it is not as complicated as it looks.

When you talk about Design of Experiments, you can discuss the 3 Big R’s; Randomization, Repetition and Replication. Let’s learn more about Replication and contrast that with the other R’s. 

If you have your three laboratory technicians measure the same samples using the same equipment and measurement process will they give you the same answers? Let’s learn more about the concept of reproducibility.

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 correlation coefficient (r) answers the question of how strong and in what direction is the relationship between two continuous variables. Let’s explore this statistical descriptor and what it tells you about your data.

Short description: With the increasing demand for Lean Six Sigma to address the rising costs of product and service quality, the “Probability of Defect” concept is still very relevant in today’s environment of process improvement.

Embarking on projects without any formalized, thought-out process involved can be fine when you are keeping it small or routine. This sort of fly-by-night approach is not recommended when there is anything major actually at stake.

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).

It is inevitable that change happens, whether it be temporary or permanent. Whether you are on the supply side or the manufacturing side of engineering, for permanent changes it is likely you are going to encounter an SREA.

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.

The Glenday Sieve approach can help companies improve business processes, boost profits and eliminate waste and underperformance.

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.

There are some common everyday terms that can mean one thing, but that can be a bit more nuanced when it comes to Six Sigma. One of these terms is “opportunity”. Read on to find out what it means when it comes to Six Sigma.

The ability to find and create opportunities is of paramount importance in terms of innovation and growth for your business. Being able to find opportunities is one thing, but can opportunities be created?

Will having a Master Black Belt help your organization beat up your competitors? Yes. By having a skilled and experienced Master Black Belt, your organization will have the capabilities to improve all that they do and gain competitive advantage. Let’s see how.

In business, you always want to think of your customer and you should be doing everything you can to add value to your service. There are some things, however, required to run your business that will have no inherent value to your customer.

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?

Can your process meet the expectations and specifications of your customer? The Process Capability Index is a simple way of answering that question. Let’s see how.

It is important to have a procedure in place to finalize a project. That is where a PSO (process sign off) procedure comes in.

What is the most efficient way for an employee to complete a task? Could the way they are getting the job done improve? Could it be safer? Predetermined motion time systems help to answer these questions.

It is important to be able to see your processes, projects, and services from every conceivable viewpoint. Putting together FAST diagrams can achieve this while doing it in a collaborative and potentially even fun way.

The Lean Six Sigma inspection plan is a very useful tool for creating a quality control program that achieves high-quality results and customer satisfaction. If you are looking for a way to streamline your organization’s quality assurance goals, you will greatly benefit from this comprehensive guide.

In business, the durability and longevity of machines utilized in operations are integral for optimal production. This can be planned for using the Kaplan-Meier estimator.

When dealing with data and statistics, there is no certainty. As the researcher, you get to choose the level of confidence you need to make your decisions.

You can learn a lot about your process by monitoring its change over time. There are different trend charts which will allow you to do that. Let’s look at a few. 

Short description: Before you can improve anything, you’ve got to be able to identify the areas that you can improve. This is what the Lean Six Sigma principle of muda is all about: identifying where waste is happening and eliminating it.

When defects happen in the manufacturing process, it’s important to correct them as quickly as possible and take action so they don’t occur again. Initiating a Corrective Action Report, or CAR, helps a project manager document the issue and define steps to avoid repeating it.

The power of data can be harnessed by understanding the benefits, best practices, and proper use of process indicators. Quantifying process performance allows for clear analysis of operations.

Your data has failed the assumption of normality needed for a parametric test of hypotheses. If you have two or more groups you want to analyze, what do you do? Maybe the Mood’s Median Test will help. 

With ever more complex products, processes and services the potential for high impact failure modes increases. Risk management is crucial for business success and the calculation of Risk Priority Number with mitigation and correction actions is an industry standard methodology that helps achieve your quality goals.

Sometimes you are interested in analyzing data that is not measurable. Nominal data consists of unordered categories which can be counted but not measured.  

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.

To answer the question of how strong and in what direction is the relationship between two continuous variables you would use the Pearson correlation coefficient (r). Let’s learn more about this statistical descriptor and what it tells you about your data.

When you hear the phrase Mallows’ Statistic (Cp) think of multiple regression analysis. The question you want to answer is which combination of predictor variables will give you the best prediction model. Let’s learn a little more. 

What is an independent variable and why is it important to understand? And how is it different from a dependent variable? Let’s answer those questions for you.

The design, collection and analysis of experimental data takes significant time and resources. Careful consideration of the potential cause and effect relationships is key along with an understanding of variables that can influence both cause and effect. These confounding variables are ever present but their influence can be mitigated with good experimental design.

Normality of the data is an underlying assumption for the use of many statistical tools. When normality doesn’t exist, transforming the data may be necessary. Let’s see how one company did that.

Can you always believe data which is based on people’s opinions and self-reporting? The obvious answer is no. Let’s see how one company used Attribute Agreement Analysis to determine the reasons for speaker program cancellations.

Through the use of Design of Experiments (DOE), a pharmaceutical company was able to extend the shelf life for one of its life saving liquid oncology medicines. Let’s see how this saved the company money, lowered the price of the drug and helped save lives. 

R-Square adjusted is a concept that is associated with regression analysis, which is a method used to identify which variables have an impact on a topic. Learn more about this Six Sigma concept.

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.