isixsigma.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Diagrams can be extremely helpful as a visual aid to gain understanding of a project. This is a valuable type of diagram that you will likely come back to time and again for your team projects.

Errors are an issue that should be kept to a minimum, especially for those aspiring to a high Sigma level.

Concomitant variables are secondary variables that may affect a process under study but are not the significant parameters that the research is designed to understand or control.

You have compared your process data before and after an improvement. Is the difference real or just noise?  Statistical significance will help you answer that question.

Variation and quality are not compatible with each other. The reality, however, is that anytime measurements are taken, there is going to be variation.

If you have ever taken a test and your results told you that you were in a certain percentile or quartile, you may already have a bit of an understanding of how quartiles and boxplots work. Q3 is an important part of fully understanding boxplots.

The concept of quality assurance began in the manufacturing industry and is now standard for most industries.

In your regression model, one thing to look for is multicolinearity. It is a problem and can cause issues when you are interpreting results.

In business, things aren’t always what they seem. Companies that want to see what’s really going on conduct audits to get actionable details.

Knowing how your company is doing and where it can improve is vital to the health of your organization. Performance metrics help to accomplish this and one such metric is a balanced scorecard.

Accountability is everything. It builds trust, reputation and responsibility and is the foundation of every good business practice.

Finding solutions to problems can often be better as a group effort. There are several group methods for addressing an issue. One option is the nominal group technique.

Correlation analysis is central to business operations in a wide range of industries, from statistics and research, to marketing and psychology, to agriculture and physics. Even a basic understanding of the overall principles can be useful for virtually any business, in any industry.

Every company faces risks all the time. Specific threats and priorities may change, but the need for an effective management strategy doesn’t.

Having enough data available for what you want to do is vital for estimates that are as precise as possible. Degree of freedom is a concept that assists in higher forms of statistical analysis.

Business transformation and lean deployment take dedicated resources with a particular set of skills to ensure change and continuous improvement are embedded in an organization. The role of change agents has never been more vital in today’s super competitive business world, and we’ll show you why.

The skill of an artisan can produce unique, beautiful and innovative products, but this type of process is challenging to capitalize on in business.

You’ve heard the saying “everything is a process.” It’s a diplomatic way of saying something is taking too long, is too inconvenient, or that an outcome is out of one’s control. But processes are not carved in stone. They are meant to be continually analyzed, taken apart, cleaned up, enhanced, and optimized. And business leaders who constantly engage with their company’s processes do so because it’s how they are empowered to control every detail, every outcome, every time.

Kanban is a tool used in Lean Manufacturing to visually manage the workflow through your processes. It is based on the concept of a pull system where things are only replaced as they are consumed. 

This consumer products company has a large portfolio of products. Working with key customers, the company develops and promotes brand marketing programs to help the customer improve their sales which increases the company’s revenue as well. The CEO of the company realized the percentage of successful promotions was less than he expected. At the same […]

Often in business, it becomes necessary to make changes to ensure a greater degree of quality. Just because a change is made though, does not necessarily mean an improvement has been made. Change needs to be systematic for quality to improve.

This mathematical value is, of course, the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter and is signified by the symbol π. In manufacturing, however, it can mean something else.

Overview: What Is Big ‘Q’? It is a strategic approach to quality improvement that focuses on the entire business rather than only seeking to improve the product itself. This management method asks every level of management to focus on exceeding customer expectations to produce global changes in how it meets market needs. Conversely, little ‘q’ […]

Process and measurement variations should be kept to a minimum. When looking at these variations and how they are impacting your work, there is a way to group them together.

It takes a lot of testing and evaluation in order to get software ready for the marketplace. Early on in software development, clearly defined methods were put in place to ensure high-quality products that were bug-free.

There are several ways that companies conduct inspections of their software. One such method is Fagan Style Software Inspection.

In modern manufacturing, it is likely that once operations reach a certain level of growth, they will be spread out over multiple locations and a standard of quality will be more difficult to maintain.

If you have a project goal, it can be tempting to forge full steam ahead without looking at any potential fallout. This is, of course, a mistake. It is always important to look at what issues might come up on the way towards reaching a project target. When working on the primary metric, other metrics should be kept aware of.

Sometimes, as companies make efforts to limit costs by improving their processes, they incur costs related to an increased level of inspection. This can prove to be even more costly than the initial issues.

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. 

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.