exam 2 (ch. 5, 8, 9, 10, 11)

Process capability indices cannot be computed from data in an x̅ chart

False

Which of the following is a major drawback of the bottom-up approach to Six Sigma projects?

The projects receive little support and low recognition from the top management.

Compared to lean tools, Six Sigma tools are more intuitive and easier to apply by anybody in the workplace

False

Data sheets are special types of data collection forms in which the results are interpreted on the form directly without additional processing.

False

If most of the points on a control chart are within the control limits with a recognizable pattern, then the process is in statistical control.

False

The vision, values, and mission area to address asks organizations to answer the following question: In creating a sustainable organization, how do senior leaders develop and enhance their leadership skills?

True

A p-chart is used with the attribute data.

True

attribute measurement

•characterizes the presence or absence of nonconformances in a unit of work, or the number of nonconformances in a unit of work. -Attribute measurements often are collected by visual inspection and expressed as proportions and counts.

FADE

•focus, analyze, develop, and execute.

Treatment errors

•in the contact between the server and the customer, such as lack of courteous behavior, and failure to acknowledge, listen, or react appropriately to the customer.

Process Management

•involves planning and administering the activities necessary to achieve a high level of performance in key business processes, and identifying opportunities for improving quality and operational performance, and ultimately, customer satisfaction.

Precision

•is defined as the closeness of repeated measurements to each other. -Precision relates to the variance of repeated measurements.

Accuracy

•is defined as the difference between the true value and the observed average of a measurement. -Accuracy is measured as the amount of error in a measurement in proportion to the total size of the measurement.

strategy

•is the pattern of decisions that determines and reveals an organization's goals, policies, and plans to meet the needs of its stakeholders..

Strategic planning

•is the process of envisioning the organization's future and developing the necessary goals, objectives, and action plans to achieve that future.

Individual

•real-time information for feedback and process control

Agility

•refers to flexibility and short cycle times. •Examples: -rapid changeover from one product to another -rapid response to changing demands -the ability to produce a wide range of customized services •Agility is crucial to such customer-focused strategies as mass customization.

Customer errors during an encounter

•such as inattention, misunderstanding, or simply a memory lapse, and include failure to remember steps in the process or to follow instructions.

Customer errors in preparation

•such as the failure to bring necessary materials to the encounter, to understand their role in the service transaction, and to engage the correct service.

Internal benchmarking

•the ability to identify and transfer best practices within the organization

Control

•the activity of ensuring conformance to requirements and taking corrective action when necessary to correct problems and maintain stable performance •Control is different from improvement:

Value-creation processes

•those most important to "running the business"

Process:

•understand whether processes are accomplishing their objectives, whether they are using resources effectively, and where improvement might be necessary.

Defects per million opportunities (dpmo) = _____.

(Number of defects discovered / Opportunities for error) x 1,000,000

•Appraisal

-Associated with efforts to ensure conformance to requirements, generally through measurement and analysis of data to detect nonconformances

•External failure

-Costs incurred after poor-quality products reach the customer

•Internal failure

-Costs of unsatisfactory quality found before the delivery of a product to the customer

•Prevention

-Investments made to keep nonconforming products from occurring and reaching the customer

•After-action review

-What was supposed to happen? -What actually happened? -Why was there a difference? -What can we learn?

Design processes

-activities that develop functional product specifications

Production/delivery processes

-those that create or deliver products

Process Design

1. Identify the product or service: What work do I do? 2. Identify the customer: Who is the work for? 3. Identify the supplier: What do I need and from whom do I get it? 4. Identify the process: What steps or tasks are performed? What are the inputs and outputs for each step? 5. Mistake-proof the process: How can I eliminate or simplify tasks? What "poka yoke" (i.e., mistake-proofing) devices can I use? 6. Develop measurements, controls, and improvement goals: How do I evaluate the process? How can I improve further?

DMAIC Methodology

1.Define 2.Measure 3.Analyze 4.Improve 5.Control

In which of the following stages of the PDSA cycle, the improvements become standardized and the final plan is implemented as a "current best practice" and communicated throughout the organization?

Act

DRIVE

Define the problem, Recognize the cause, Identify the solution, Verify the actions, and Evaluate the results.

Which of the following is regarded as the best approach to prevent mistakes in a process because of its ability to avoid rework and wastage of time and resources?

Designing potential defects and errors out of the process

In the context of the criteria for performance excellence, the strategic planning category is positioned as the foundation for all other categories in the systems framework that underlies the Baldrige philosophy.

False

Processes must be measurable and repeatable in order to apply the techniques of process management.

False

Six Sigma is focused on improvement regardless of financial accountability whereas TQM requires a verifiable return on investment and focus on business results

False

Support processes generally require a higher level of attention than do value-creation processes.

False

The "Act" stage in the PDSA cycle involves determining whether the trial plan is working correctly by evaluating the results.

False

The Baldrige Criteria are prescriptive in that they specify detailed procedures for achieving quality.

False

Which of the following is NOT an indication of an out-of-control process?

Five consecutive points fall on one side of the center line.

The PDSA Cycle

For Plan-Do-Study-Act. Describes how to test a change: by trying it, observing the consequences, and then learning from those consequences.

Three Levels of Measurement

Individual Process Organization

Team Members:

Individuals from various functional areas who support specific projects.

Which of the following is a reason why process management is important for organizations?

It assists organizations in identifying opportunities for improving quality and operational performance.

Which of the following statements is true regarding kaizen?

It focuses on small, gradual, and frequent improvements

In the Baldrige assessment, _____ refers to how a company refines the approach through cycles of evaluation and improvement, encourages breakthrough change to the approach through innovation, and shares refinements with other relevant work units in the organization.

Learning

_____ is defined as the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.

Reengineering

Knowledge Transfer

The transfer of knowledge within organizations and the identification and sharing of best practices often set high-performing organizations apart from the rest

A measurement system may be precise but not necessarily accurate at the same time.

True

An ultimate stretch goal of all organizations that adopt a Six Sigma philosophy is to have all critical processes, regardless of functional area, at a six-sigma level of capability.

True

Attribute measurement requires a much larger sample size than variable measurement to obtain the same amount of statistical information.

True

Projects generally cut across organizational boundaries and require the coordination of many different departments and functions.

True

After using an ATM machine, Deborah forgets to remove her card from the machine. This is an example of:

a customer error during an encounter.

developing strategies

are broad statements that set the direction for the organization to take in realizing its mission and vision.

Action plans

are things that an organization must do to achieve its strategic objectives.

Organization

basis for strategic planning and design of products, services, and processes.

Variable data are _____.

continuous

An effective problem-solving process that can easily be adapted to quality improvement stems from _____ concepts pioneered by Alex Osborn.

creative-problem solving

The design activity of process management focuses on:

ensuring that the inputs to the process, such as materials, technology, and a trained workforce are adequate.

In service applications, the term _____ is generally used to describe a nonconformance.

error

A(n) _____ is a design tool that enables management to study and analyze processes prior to implementation in order to improve quality and operational performance.

flowchart

Task errors

include doing work incorrectly, work not requested, work on the wrong order, or working too slowly

Customer errors at the resolution stage of a service encounter

include failure to signal service inadequacies, to learn from experience, to adjust expectations, and to execute appropriate post-encounter actions.

Rapid knowledge transfer

involves the discovery, learning, creation, and reuse of knowledge that eventually becomes intellectual capital—knowledge that can be converted into value and profits.

Process capability calculations make little sense if the process:

is not in statistical control.

Flexibility

refers to the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to changing requirements.

Data such as production volume, cost, and customer satisfaction indexes are often plotted on a _____, which displays the data over time.

run chart

Tangible errors

such as unclean facilities, dirty uniforms, inappropriate temperature, and document errors.

Support processes

those most important to an organization's value creation processes, employees, and daily operations

Pre-Control

•... a simple technique for ensuring that a process that has relatively good capability remains in control. •Divide the tolerance range into zones by setting two pre-control lines halfway between the center of the specification and the upper and lower specification limits. -The center zone, called the green zone, comprises one-half of the total tolerance. -Between the pre-control lines and the specification limits are the yellow zones. -Outside the specification limits are the red zones.

Dashboards

•... summaries of key performance measures, typically consisting of a small set of measures (five or six) that provide a quick summary of process performance. •Dashboards often use graphs, charts, and other visual aids to communicate key measures and alert workers and managers when performance is not where it should be.

Six Sigma

•...a business improvement approach that seeks to find and eliminate causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and service processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers and a clear financial return for the organization. •The term six sigma is based on a statistical measure that equates to 3.4 or fewer errors or defects per million opportunities (dpmo).

Strategy Deployment

•...involves developing specific action plans to achieve strategic objectives, ensuring that adequate financial and other resources are available to accomplish the action plans, developing contingencies should circumstances require a shift in plans and rapid execution of new plans, aligning work unit, supplier, or partner activities as necessary, and identifying performance measures for tracking progress. -Links the planners (who focus on "doing the right thing") with the doers (whose focus is on "doing things right").

Processes

•A process is a sequence of linked activities that is intended to achieve some result. •Processes involve combinations of people, machines, tools, techniques, materials, and improvements in a defined series of steps or actions. •Examples: -machining -mixing -assembly -filling orders, approving loans

Knowledge Management Systems

•Characteristics -A way of capturing and organizing explicit as well as tacit knowledge of how the business operates -A systems-approach to management that facilitates assimilation of new knowledge into the business system and is oriented toward continuous improvement/innovation -A common framework for managing knowledge and some way of validating and synthesizing new knowledge as it is acquired -A culture and values that support collaborative sharing of knowledge across functions and encourages full participation of all employees in the process

control and Improvement

•Control should be the basis for organizational learning and lead to improvement and prevention of defects and errors.

Breakthrough Improvement

•Discontinuous change resulting from innovative and creative thinking, motivated by stretch goals or breakthrough objectives and facilitated by benchmarking and reengineering

Master Black Belts in six sigma

•Full-time Six Sigma experts who are responsible for Six Sigma strategy, training, mentoring, deployment, and results.

Black Belts in Six Sigma

•Fully-trained Six Sigma experts with extensive technical training who perform much of the technical analysis required in Six Sigma projects, usually on a full-time basis.

Green Belts in Six Sigma

•Functional employees who are trained in introductory Six Sigma tools and methodology and work on projects on a part-time basis, assisting Black Belts while developing their own knowledge and expertise.

Organizational Structures

•Line organization -Traditional functional departments •Line and staff organization -Key functional departments with staff support •Matrix organization -Typically used in project-oriented organizations

Typical Out-of-Control Patterns

•Point outside control limits •Sudden shift in process average •Cycles •Trends •Hugging the center line •Hugging the control limits

Quality Cost Classification

•Prevention •Appraisal •Internal failure •External failure

Champions in six sigma

•Senior-level managers who promote and lead the deployment of Six Sigma in a significant area of the business.

Mistake-Proofing Processes

•Typical reasons for mistakes and errors: -Forgetfulness due to lack of reinforcement or guidance -Misunderstanding or incorrect identification because of the lack of familiarity with process or procedures -Lack of experience -Absentmindedness and lack of attention, especially when a process is automated

Kaizen

•a Japanese word that means gradual and orderly continuous improvement •Focus on small, gradual, and frequent improvements over the long term with minimum financial investment, and participation by everyone in the organization.

Variable measurements

•apply to dimensional quantities such as length, weight, and time, or any value on a continuous scale of measurement. -Variable measurements are generally expressed with statistical measures such as averages and standard deviations.

Strategic objectives

•are what an organization must change or improve to remain or become competitive.