Category: Concepts

A U chart is one of four quality control charts that engineers use to track variation in a manufacturing process. The other three typical quality control charts are the p chart (which plots the proportion of defective items, the c chart (which shows the number of defects), and the np chart (which shows the number […]

Tribal knowledge is the information regarding a product or service process that resides only in the minds of the employees. Familiarize yourself with how non-documented tribal knowledge creates inefficiencies within the process, and understand the benefits of addressing these gaps.

When you hear the word variance, you can think of it in terms of finance or statistics. In statistics, variance is a calculation describing the spread, or variation, of the data around the average, or mean, of the data.

Is there a simple graphical tool for looking at a series of linked hierarchical activities? Yes, a tree diagram would be a good one to use. Let’s see how it would work. If you have a series of hierarchical tasks and subtasks to complete before you reach some objective, then a tree diagram would allow […]

Defects in quality put a severe dent in the potential profits of companies all over the world year after year. Having an understanding of the total probability of defect puts the power in an organization’s hands to make improvements and reduce the chance of its customers receiving faulty products.Knowing the total probability of defect for […]

It’s not practical to measure every value in a population, whether it be people or all the jars of peanut butter you produced. Taking samples helps. But if your samples are biased and don’t represent the population, then you have a biased statistic or estimator. Let’s learn how you can calculate an unbiased statistic.

Proper WIP management creates both quick wins and long term improvements. Here’s what you need to know.

Gain a better understanding of value stream mapping and how you can use it in your business. We’ll cover the flow, department interactions, bottleneck identification, and key metrics — as well as a few best practices.

Visual Quality Document

Do your processes deliver value for your customer? How do you know if what you do is valued by your customer? Let’s find out.

Are you ready to dust off your calculus differential equations and Laplace transformations? No? Then we will have to provide a simpler discussion of what a transfer function, or Y=f(X), is all about. 

Sometimes you really need to look at problems in a creative and innovative manner. TRIZ is a problem-solving approach that fosters invention for project teams who have become stuck while trying to solve a business challenge.  TRIZ (Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadach) is a problem-solving methodology that was developed in the former Soviet Union by Genrich […]

Being busy and working hard don’t necessarily mean what you are doing will have value to your customer. Let’s see why not.

It is important that you clearly specify your expectations about a company process or product. These detailed expectations are called specifications and serve as a guide as to how well you are satisfying both internal and external expectations. A specification (spec) is a detailed description of the requirements, characteristics, and features of a product, service, […]

Do you remember the days of having to get off the internet when your mother had to use the phone? How about waiting to watch a video while an advertisement seems to buffer endlessly? Advancements in the telecosm have made the amount of bandwidth across all mediums feel infinite in comparison to the early days […]

The term standard order refers to the sequence of the runs you will do in your Design of Experiments. The question we will answer is whether to use the standard order or a random order.

If you have a question about how your process or organization is performing, statistics will be the methodology for answering those questions. Statistics is the discipline and science used for the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of your data. Statistics usually fall into one of two categories: Descriptive statistics: methods used to summarize or […]

The variance inflation factor measures the degree of multicollinearity of multiple predictor variables in a multiple linear regression. Holy smokes, that’s a lot of big words. Let’s find out what it all means.

An SS product report is a critical document that summarizes the results of the product development process, including quality, reliability, and performance. Understanding SS Product Reports The Six Sigma methodology is a highly effective process improvement approach that has been widely adopted across various industries. It provides a data-driven and customer-focused approach to reduce defects […]

If you hear someone say, “Darn, I didn’t expect that to happen”, they are probably experiencing an unintended consequence from some action they took. No one plans for things to go awry, but unfortunately, they do.

Spread comes in a variety of forms. It refers to the variation of the data and can be calculated in a number of different ways. Let’s explore these.

When workers lack motivation, this can be incredibly frustrating. There can be a temptation to address these frustrations using terms that one has heard elsewhere. Take care to keep criticism constructive, to be very aware of how certain terms are used culturally, and to avoid them if they could be inappropriate. When workers have used […]

Webster’s dictionary defines stratification as: formed, deposited, or arranged in stable layers or strata. That’s interesting, but how does it apply to Six Sigma? Let’s find out.

If your machines are not working, you can’t produce products for your customers. Your customers will likely not remain your customers for very long. Let’s see how Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) can keep your equipment up and running. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance strategy aimed at maximizing the productivity of equipment, machines, and […]