Category: Concepts

If you are going to get something done, it is best to usually have a plan. If there are steps that need to be taken towards reaching a goal, those steps likely need to have a sensible order to them.

You have retrofitted your major production machine to make it run faster. Did the retrofit really improve machine speed? A 2-Sample t-Test can be used to answer that question. 

Complex math is often the best way to make sense of a confusing maze of quantifiable variables and conditional relationships.

When you collect data from your process, the values will vary. This dispersion or variation of data around the central tendency can be measured. Let’s explore the different ways to measure dispersion.  

Randomness and independence are two required characteristics for understanding and analyzing process variation. The Runs Test allows you to check for the randomness of a set of sequentially collected data. 

The word gating is often used in the context of Six Sigma and DMAIC and is usually referred to as tollgate reviews. The purpose is to evaluate your progress, and make sure you’re still heading in the right direction. 

What if you were asked to rate this article on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being you didn’t like it and 5 being you loved it. That’s an example of a Likert Scale.

As the name implies, capability analysis is an analysis of the ability of your process to meet your customer’s expectations and requirements. There are a number of calculated metrics which can be used to help you do your capability analysis. 

ANOVA is a powerful statistical method for comparing several samples (3 or more) to each other to see if the populations that the means came from are statistically different.

In production, some events are hard to predict, but most things can be prepared for with proper planning.

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.

If you ever find yourself, solving the same problems week after week with nary a long-term impact, it could be worth creating a current reality tree to identify the root causes.

When you have multiple factors at different levels, it can be challenging to figure out which is the optimal combination. Design of Experiments is one common method you can use. The Taguchi Method is another.

In the context of marketing, segmentation is the process of dividing a target market into groups with similar needs and behaviors. This allows you to develop unique strategies to meet specific wants and needs. 

With your company, you need to be able to have your customers believe in you, deliver products on-time, and understand your processes as well as how they can be improved. This can all be accomplished with a quality assurance schedule.

Now wait a minute, we already have a Quality Management System and a Quality Manual, I don’t have time for this Total Quality Management fad, right? Think again, this is no fad. With successful deployment and adoption of TQM you can elevate your business to new quality highs and both your customers and employees will reap the benefits.

Delivering quality and value for your company and your customers is a basic building block of business success and growth. With Total Value Management (TVM) we will show you a system that is straightforward to deploy, delivers real and tangible results, locking in value for you and your customers alike.

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.

If your manufacturing process produces multiple products or SKUs in short runs, how many control charts will you need to monitor those different products? With short-run SPC, you might only need one. 

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.