Category: Concepts

So, you’ve decided to tackle a key process improvement project. You have your problem statement and scope set up, and now you need to determine who will be assigned to the core project team. Who needs to be on the team to maximize your probability of success? There’s a term for those individuals: […]

Have you ever heard your customer ask, “Why does my job take 10 days when there is only 5 days of actual work?” It may be because the Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE) is low, and there is a lot of waste in the process. PCE will help define how much that waste is.

Learn the benefits of standard work, including how it is used to reduce variability within processes, assists faster training timeframes, and provides a starting point for process improvement projects.

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 testing if the means of greater than 2 groups are statistically different you could use a 1-way ANOVA. But, if you have multiple treatment groups, then you can use Dunnett’s 1-way ANOVA.  ANOVA stands for Analysis of Variance. ANOVA is a statistical method used to compare the means of two or more […]

Learn more about the lower specification limit — in other words, the lowest limit that a measurement or reading can reach and still be acceptable to the customer. We’ll look at the benefits of monitoring LSL as well as some best practices and frequently asked questions.

Would you and I agree what 50% cotton/50% polyester means if we saw a label on your shirt? Probably not. How about whether your order was delivered? Without good operational definitions, we would likely not agree on many things. Let’s see how we can overcome that gap.

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.

Do I have to pay money to get through my project Tollgate? Of course not, but you do have to stop, evaluate your progress, and make sure you’re still heading in the right direction — and accomplishing the tasks required for each step of your project. 

Your design of experiments (DOE) has many variables and a tight budget. How can you balance the process information you need with the limitations of time and resources? You might try using a screening DOE.

Run rates are a measure of the number of units produced by a process over a period. Actual run rates are often used to make future projections of process performance.

You may need to be able to determine if your processes are acceptable and capable. Thankfully, there are capability and performance indicators such as Cp, Pp, Cpk, and Ppk that can help you make that determination.

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.

Cost models provide a wealth of vital information about the overall state of a business as well as details of specific operations, which makes them a powerful tool for any streamlining agenda.

In business, you always want to think of your customer and you should be doing everything you can to add value to your service. There are some things, however, required to run your business that will have no inherent value to your customer.

The DMAIC methodology of Six Sigma is a well-known tool for improving existing products and processes. But, what if our existing process or product can’t be improved enough to meet expectations? What if we are developing a process that hasn’t existed before?

The Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test, sometimes called the Mann Whitney Wilcoxon Test or Mann Whitney U test, is used to test whether two independent samples come from the same population or two different populations. 

Cpk is one of the metrics calculated for determining whether a process is capable of meeting customer specifications or requirements. 

Red X is an anti-hero and a former “villain identity” employed by Robin of Batman and Robin fame. No, that’s not right. Red X is really a problem-solving methodology developed by Dorian Shainin. Let’s explore this a little further.

When defects happen in the manufacturing process, it’s important to correct them as quickly as possible and take action so they don’t occur again. Initiating a Corrective Action Report, or CAR, helps a project manager document the issue and define steps to avoid repeating it.

A machine capability index is an index that can be utilized as an effective measure of machine improvement. Therefore, it is an important term to be aware of so that you can be sure that the changes you have made to improve how the machines in your business are actually working!

Six Sigma has been defined in three ways: as a metric, a methodology, and a philosophy. Sigma can be defined as the standard deviation of a set of continuous data, so Six Sigma would then be six standard deviations.

You know variation in your process is not a good thing. It negatively impacts predictability and planning. Let’s learn about an easy way to measure variation so you can better understand your process.

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.