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The Journey from Voice of the Customer to Customer Requirements

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This is what I want! This is what I need! This is how I want it to perform! You need to embark upon a process to take your customers’ qualitative wants and needs and translate them into specific customer requirements. 

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C-Level: A Guide to Senior Management

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C-level has a vastly different definition than sea level. One refers to the levels of senior management in an organization and the other is a measure of elevation. Let’s explore this in a little more detail. When walking through the halls of your organization’s offices, have you heard someone say, “Hey Chief”? Does that mean […]

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Exploring Box Plots: The Key to Comparing and Analyzing Data Sets

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It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Such is the case with a box plot. This simple graph can be used to describe many things about your data. Let’s see how.

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Blocking

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Blocking doesn’t always refer to football. It can also apply to Design of Experiments. Let’s explore how that works.

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Bias

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In the context of Lean Six Sigma, we can talk about bias in the context of measurement and statistics. Minimizing or eliminating bias in your measurement data and statistical analysis should be a goal. Let’s explore the many types, sources, and impact of bias. 

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Exploring the Requirements for Black Belt Certification

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Will being a Black Belt help you beat up your competition? In a way, yes. A skilled and experienced Lean Six Sigma Black Belt will help your organization improve all you do. Let’s see how.

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Understanding Brainstorming: A Structured Approach to Idea Generation

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During the Six Sigma Improvement Stage of DMAIC, you will need to develop strategies and ideas for improving your process. There are three steps to coming up with viable improvement solutions. These steps are idea generation, organization, and assessment.  Brainstorming can be defined as a structured method of generating unconstrained ideas/ solutions and gaining engagement/involvement […]

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Keep It Simple, Get It Right: How Check Sheets Improve Decision-making

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Data collection doesn’t always have to be a complex process. A simple check sheet can allow you to capture relevant data in a graphical format for initial interpretation of your process or for in-depth analysis later.

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The Path to Becoming a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt

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Similar to the way a Black Belt denotes a certain competency in martial arts, the Certified Six Sigma Black Belt indicates someone who has demonstrated competence in techniques and principles of Six Sigma.

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Chaku Chaku

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Is Chaku Chaku a real word or the sound of machines loading and unloading parts? It turns out that Chaku Chaku is Japanese for load load and a system of loading and unloading parts from a machine. Let’s explore this a little deeper.

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3P

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3P? How hard could that be? It’s only three letters: P-P-P. You will see that there is more than meets the eye.

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A-square

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An underlying assumption for the use of many statistical tools is that your data is normally distributed. But, how do you know? The A-square calculation for the Anderson Darling Normality Test will tell you.

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Understanding Alias: A Key Concept in Design of Experiments

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When talking about an alias, alias structure or aliasing, you are talking about Design of Experiments (DOE). More specifically, you are referring to the confounding of effects in a fractional factorial experiment. Aliasing occurs when the estimate of a factor effect  is difficult to distinguish because of the impact of other factors in your experiment. […]

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attribute data

Formulating the Alternate Hypothesis: Guidelines and Examples

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The Alternate Hypothesis, written as Ha, is a subset of the larger topic of hypothesis testing. The Alternate Hypothesis is the default statement about a specific condition of your data and allows you to draw important conclusions about the population from which the sample data came.

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variable vs. attribute data

The Power of Alpha Risk: Minimizing Errors in Statistical Analysis

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Don’t you hate it when you make a mistake? Well, an alpha risk is just that. Let’s learn what that mistake is and how to keep from making it.

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Accuracy

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At the gun range, your goal is to hit the target. Accuracy will be measured by how close you come to that target. The same is true of your process.  

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8D Process

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The bad news is that you have problems to solve. The good news is that there are a number of simple, yet powerful tools that can help you. The 8D process is one of them.

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Improving Efficiency with Work-In-Process Buffers

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A buffer can be simply defined as something that serves as a protective barrier. Let’s see how this might apply in the context of technology and computing as well as manufacturing. In the context of technology and computing, a buffer is a temporary storage area that holds data while it is being transferred from one […]

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Baseline

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Why do you weigh yourself before you start your diet? You probably want to get a starting point or baseline to help measure your progress so you know whether the diet is working or you have reached your goal. 

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A Comprehensive Guide to Business Process Management Systems

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While you may be familiar with Lean Six Sigma as a methodology for improving your processes, have you heard of the Business Process Management System (BPMS)? If not, this article will provide lots of information on what it is and how to use it. Business Process Management System (BPMS) Business Process Management System (BPMS) is […]

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What is 5Z Methodology? A Complete Guide

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You are probably familiar with the term 5S in the context of Lean Six Sigma. But, what about the term 5Z. Let’s learn a little more about what that means. The 5Z’s provide the principles and guidelines for achieving 5Z Accreditation. The 5Z process uses the Genba (Gemba) Kanri principles to maintain, evaluate, promote, and […]

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The 5Ps: A Proven Method for Meeting Effectiveness

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Ever been to a business meeting? Ever thought it was a waste of time? Let’s explore how the 5Ps of meeting effectiveness may help you have a better meeting.

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The Agile Advantage: Speed and Adaptability in Project Management

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Sometimes you need an improvement approach that is faster than the traditional Six Sigma methods of DMAIC or DMEDI. Agile may be your answer. Let’s see how.   The word agile refers to the ability to rapidly create and respond to change and the need to improve. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately […]

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The Power of Run Charts in Identifying Process Trends

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Monitoring your process metrics over time allows you to look for trends and patterns in the data. The run chart is one of the easiest graphs to use to do this. 

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