Lori Kinney

The role of a process owner in Lean Six Sigma goes beyond being a mere title or designation. By assigning dedicated process owners, organizations can unlock the true potential of their processes, driving efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction In today’s dynamic business landscape, organizations constantly strive for efficiency, quality, and continuous improvement, all […]

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.

Increasing complexity of products and services in combination with the pressure of reduced time to market can increase the probability of non-conformance and the need to perform rework to meet functional requirements. We’ll explain why avoiding rework activities is an all-round winner with some top tips for you to implement it in your business.

When you are part of an organization that is working towards goals, you are part of a team. A team moving toward hitting milestones can sometimes need to generate excitement and motivation while inching toward the goal line. This is why we have acronyms like TEAM. An acronym like TEAM can be used […]

You need to be SMART when writing the goals for your project charter: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here’s how the SMART framework can help you write better goal statements.

Fisher’s 1-way ANOVA is a classic analysis of variance utilized in statistics to determine if there are statistical differences between the means of two or more unrelated groups.

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.  

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.

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% […]

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.

Problems are going to arise in business, but the companies that succeed in the long term are those that find the true causes of those problems and find ways to keep them from happening again. When an issue occurs, the inclination is to stop it quickly. While this is fine, it is important […]

The ability of a process improvement initiative to invoke sustainable change within an organization depends on the support of stakeholders who will execute the proposed changes.

Learn how defects per unit is used to understand the quality levels regarding defects, how DPU compares to other yield metrics, and the benefits of regularly measuring the metric.

When it comes to Lean Six Sigma, “yield” is the measure of the percentage of items produced that meet customer quality or specification requirements. Find out more about this concept.

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.

Y=f(x) is a concept regarding the setup of a formula used to perform analysis during problem-solving efforts. Let’s look at how Y=F(x) works within the problem-solving process, the benefits of Y=F(x), as well as some frequently asked questions.

Get a quick primer on Paynter charts, a graphical method for comparing data regarding sub-groups. We look at how Paynter charts compare to KPI data and Pareto charts as well as the benefits of creating and reviewing Paynter charts.

The term COC can mean two different things in Lean Six Sigma management. It can either refer to the “cost of conformance” or a certificate of conformity. Since “cost of conformance” has already been defined on isixsigma.com at the link listed above, this article will discuss certificates of conformity. What Is a Certificate […]

ZARA changes its clothing designs every two weeks, offering 11,000 distinct garments annually. In comparison, competitors change their designs every three or four months and produce 3-4,000 distinct pieces. This is fast fashion: the business model of replicating high-fashion, luxury-brand pieces quickly and cheaply, making them available to customers while the trend and […]

The customer just called again, wondering if the item they ordered will be on time. Will it? Do your company’s processes make it possible to be on time per the customer’s needs? To know that requires understanding how long it takes to produce the product, and that requires knowing your cycle times.  An […]

Upper Control Limit Overview: What Is the Upper Control Limit (UCL)? A control chart consists of several parts. It has two control limits and an average line. The bottom dashed line is called the lower control limit (LCL).  The solid middle line is the average of the statistic being plotted. The top dashed […]

Critical of quality is the path to customer satisfaction. Learn how Critical to Quality impacts the ability to satisfy your customer, the benefits of addressing CTQ related issues, and see an example.

In today’s highly competitive business landscape, organizations are constantly seeking ways to improve their operations and deliver exceptional value to their customers. One such company that embarked on a transformative journey is Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon. Facing significant challenges, AWS turned to Lean Six Sigma practices and tools to […]

InterConnect Wiring was constantly needing to be ahead of schedule in assembling its aircraft kits, causing unneeded stress and an unbalanced workload. By utilizing Lean and Six Sigma concepts, the organization was able to make significant improvements to its processes. Despite already being a very successful organization, InterConnect Wiring was able to utilize Lean and […]