Category: Concepts

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.