Six Sigma Yellow Belt Training Manual 2018
All processes generate some form of data. Why is data valuable to Six Sigma teams?
It's often how they define whether a process is in control and successful.
To define and maintain proper scope, a Six Sigma team has to:
Identify the processes that were related to a process improvement or project.
The first step to removing quality-related muda is ___.
Identifying it.
Defects per Million Opportunities for each Sigma Level
One Sigma - 690,000 Two Sigma - 308,000 Three Sigma - 66,800 Four Sigma - 6,200 Five Sigma - 233 Six Sigma - 3.4
DMAIC/DMADV Phase 5: Control or Verify
For DMAIC and DMADV teams, the control or verify phase is where loose ends are tied and the project is transitioned to a daily work environment. Controls and standards are established so that improvements can be maintained, but the responsibility for those improvements is transitioned to the process owner. During the transition, the Six Sigma team might work with the process owner and his or her department to troubleshoot any problems with the improvement.
5S Phase 1: Sort
- all items or materials in a workspace are reviewed, removing unneeded items and keeping necessary resources. - Can also be applied with computerized processes
Tools used by a team during the Control phase include:
- documentation checklists - control charts - response plans - process maps - process dashboards.
For organizations, it's not just about the rate of error - it's also about
the costs associated with each error.
Cost of Poor Quality (CoPQ)
the costs or expenses associated with defects created by a process. typically easier to measure than the cost associated with overall quality. Broken into two categories: - Cost associated with external failures (after the products or services have been delivered) - Cost associated with internal failures (when products, services, or processes don't conform to the requirements set by the company, and the product or service is provided to the customer in an unsatisfactory fashion) These are also known as the costs of nonconformity
List out a typical Six Sigma team
- Project leader - Process owner - Process expert - 1 to 3 other regular team members
How to create a Critical Path Diagram
A critical path diagram can be created for the entire project or for each phase of a project. 1. Identify the critical needs or activities to complete the project or phase of a project. 2. Put critical activities in order. 3. Assign a time to each task. 4. Create a diagram of the tasks, stacking simultaneous or parallel process and including time figures. 5. Draw a critical path through the diagram. - the critical path goes through the step with the longest time estimate. 6. Add up the longest times from each section.
Common Six Sigma Principles: Equipping People
After implementing an improved process, employees who work directly with the process are equipped to control and manage the process in its improved state.
Once measurements are collected - or are in the process of being collected - Six Sigma teams usually move on to the ___ phase.
Analyze
The Equation for CoPQ
CoPQ = External Failure Costs + Internal Failure Costs
The equation for CoQ
CoQ = CoPQ + Prevention Costs + Appraisal Costs
Six Sigma works best when it is implemented as a ___ culture.
Company-wide
In a process redesign project, all phases are essential, but ___ is often seen as the most critical.
Design
Six Sigma process improvement teams usually take a two-step approach to improvements.
First, they have to determine if the process is functional. Once the team determines that, they make improvements to remove the variation that causes outputs to deviate from the result
What occurs during the Verify Phase (of DMADV)?
It is very similar to the Control phase of a DMAIC project. The new process, product, or service is transitioned out of project mode and handed off to a process owner or employees who work daily with the process or product in question. - Control plans, including control charts, might be put in place by the team to track ongoing results, and almost all of the tools used in a DMAIC Control phase are relevant to Verify. At the end of the Verify phase, a team delivers a final product or process that meets the needs first identified in the Define stage. - The process or product should be free of known problems and defects wherever possible, and teams should have provided a way to manage and control the process through statistical control charts, Lean templates, and policies.
Challenges of Six Sigma: Lack of Support
Leaders and executives must be willing to back initiatives with resources—financial and labor related. Subject-matter experts must be open to sharing information about their processes with project teams, and employees at all levels must embrace the idea of change and improvement and participate in training.
Which phase is often the most challenging phase for a Six Sigma team leader, especially when working with teams that are inexperienced in the methodology.
Measure phase, because of storming and not knowing what to measure, and the difficulties of collecting data
Problem Statements lead to:
Objective statements/goals. A way you can tell you have a strong problem statement is that you can create an overall project objective statement or goal directly from the problem statement.
Common Six Sigma Principles: Continuous Process Improvement
Once one area is improved upon, the organization moves on to improving another area.
The disadvantage of launching ideas into beta—or to an entire population--without going through a Six Sigma methodology is that
Organizations can experience unintended consequences from changes, spend money on ideas that don't end up working out as planned, and impact customer perceptions through trial-and-error periods rife with opportunities for error.
What are good tools to identifying muda?
Process maps, spaghetti diagrams, and value stream maps.
Common Six Sigma Principles: Reduce Variation
Reducing variation leads to product/service consistency.
Two tools that teams can use to choose a Six Sigma project
Selection matrix Project viability model
What is the difference between Lean and Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is concerned with eliminating variation and defects Lean is concerned with eliminating waste.
Tips for Control Phase
Six Sigma leaders can help team members transition a project by preparing them in advance for this phase. Six Sigma leaders should always host a meeting to wrap up the project. - The meeting should be somewhat celebratory in nature - if budget, time, and policy allows, Six Sigma leaders might consider having lunch or snacks at the meeting. Take time to recognize each team member's contribution, and ask team members to identify something they learned that can be applied to their own work Recognition is extremely important when ending a Six Sigma project. - Six Sigma leaders should make it a point to recognize the work of team members in front of a project sponsor or champion, and, when possible, in front of the department for which the improvement is being made.
List the Four layers of a process
The Steps - every process is a series of some number of steps Processing Time - Processes all take a certain amount of time, and processing time can change with a variety of factors. - Process maps and documents record average time a process takes, but real-time observation of a process almost always provides better information about processing time. Interdependencies - Almost any process in a business will be dependent upon one or more other processes. - Sometimes, interdependencies are noted on processes maps. Other times, interdependencies are resource-related. - When working with processes during a Six Sigma improvement project, teams must be aware of interdependencies. What does the process rely on? What relies on the process? Resources and Assignment - Processes require resources (power, people, cash, equipment, skills) - Processes need adequate resources, and resources need to be assigned to the correct processes
Common Six Sigma Principles: Controlling the Process
The goal of improvement is to bring a process back within a state of statistical control. Then, after improvements are implemented, measurements, statistics, and other Six Sigma tools are used to ensure the process remains in control.
Who does a Six Sigma Black Belt report to?
The project sponsor/champion
Who is usually responsible for the final result of a project, which means he or she usually wants regular reports about progress?
The senior leader, sometimes the senior leader is the project sponsor/champion.
Which Methodology Would You Use? (A business wants to create a smartphone app to help customers make and manage appointments.)
The team handling an improvement for the business in example 1 would choose a DMADV approach. They are creating a product that doesn't yet exist; while the team is meeting a need that already exists and is improving an overall process - the setting of appointments - the app itself is a new process and a new product. The app will need to be designed, integrated into existing systems, and the final product tested before full implementation.
Tips for Improve Phase
To address project fatigue, the best way for a Six Sigma team leader to create strength as the team nears project completion is to build a good foundation for Six Sigma in the earlier phases. Six Sigma team leaders should also continue to foster a team approach to all aspects of the project. One challenge for leaders is to take everything upon themselves, however this alienates other team members. - Keeping the team involved - and making exercises and meetings fun and productive - helps you make it through the Improve phase.
The transition between phases is marked by a ___
Tollgate review
True or False: Departmental staff might use Pareto charts to identify some areas where improvement would create results; they can then use the selections matrix to validate those assumptions and prioritize efforts.
True
True or False: Some DMAIC projects can become DMADV projects - usually during the Define, Measure, or Analyze stages - and vice versa.
True
Name the two types of Muda
Type I Muda - non-value-added tasks that might actually be essential or required by circumstances. - For example, the act of inspecting products is muda but might be required if the process is known to produce defects. Type II Muda - non-value-added tasks that are not essential and can be immediately removed from a process. - For example, if a product is carried to and from several work stations while it is being completed, it's likely type II muda of conveyance exists.
Common Six Sigma Principles: Customer Focused Improvement
Understanding the customers and their desires, improving processes based on what the customers want.
First steps in controlling an improvement process
Understanding the relationship between problems and inputs Knowing how to create a strong problem statement
In Lean Process Management, waste is:
Unnecessary time, labor, or material in a process. Generally, waste is something that is used in the process that isn't required for a satisfactory outcome.
According to Six Sigma methodology, what is the root of many defects?
Variance
Lean management is highly concerned with removing ___ from any process.
Waste. Waste increases costs and time spent on a process, making it generally undesirable.
When should you use Six Sigma over other process improvement methods?
When facing the unknown When problems are widespread and not defined When solving complex problems When costs are closely tied to processes
How does a Six Sigma project usually start?
With a formal problem statement
One of the challenges when dealing with budgets in a Six Sigma project is that all team members are ___.
not always completely aware of financial drivers. - In some cases, financial information might even be restricted. Some information and analysis might need to be performed solely by a project-leading Black Belt in such cases, especially if data is critical or sensitive.
DMAIC/DMADV Phase 3: Analyze
DMAIC: - During the Analyze phase of a DMAIC project, teams develop hypotheses about causal relationships between inputs and outputs and between Xs and Ys, they narrow causation down to the vital few (using methods such as the Pareto principle), and they use statistical analysis and data to validate the hypotheses and assumptions they've made so far. - The Analyze phase tends to flow into the Improve phase in a DMAIC project; hypothesis testing to validate assumptions and possible solutions might begin in Analyze and continue into the Improve phase. DMADV: - A team using DMADV might also identify cause and effect relationships, but they are usually more concerned with identifying best practices and benchmarks by which to measure and design the new process. - Teams might also begin process design work by identifying value- and non value-added activities, locating areas where bottlenecks or errors are likely, and refining requirements to better meet the needs and goals of the project.
Once a team has a good grasp of what the process does and how it works, what the problem is, and what the goal for the project is, the team moves from ___ to ___.
Define, Measure
DMADOV
Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Optimize, and Validate - Teams using the DMADV approach usually combine the activities from Design and Optimize. - The Optimize phase usually entails testing. Getting feedback from users and troubleshooting.
DMADV
Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify These are the five phases of a Six Sigma project used when developing a new process.
What occurs during the Measure phase?
During the Measure phase, the team is concerned with creating a baseline metric for the process and refining problem statements and other outputs of the Define stage. - Creating a baseline metric lets teams understand how a process should be measured and how the process is really performing before improvements begin. Some tools used in the Measure phase are the CTQ tree and sigma level calculation.
Six Sigma is typically managed on two levels within an organization.
First, the culture of Six Sigma must be managed at an enterprise-wide level, usually by a group or council of senior managers, such as executives, with the guidance of a Master Black Belt or Black Belt. - This group sets the tone for Six Sigma within an organization, provides final approval on projects, and holds others accountable for metrics, performance, and success. - While many of these individuals might also work as sponsors or champions on projects, as a group they don't tend to get involved in the day-to-day project details Second, Six Sigma must also be managed at the team level.
Challenges of Six Sigma: Data Access Issues
Gaining access to consistent and accurate data streams—and applying statistical analysis to that data in an appropriate manner—is difficult.
Two types of VOC campaigns
General customer feedback Specific customer feedback
During the Define phase of a Six Sigma process improvement project, teams create what is known as a ___ and a ___.
Project charter, basic plan for work
Project managers
Some organizations use traditional project management techniques alongside Six Sigma improvement methodologies. In these organizations, a project manager is usually assigned to a Six Sigma project. - While structures vary by organization, the project manager does not usually lead the team. - Instead, the PM offers leader support to the Black Belt by keeping up with documentation and timelines, helping keep meetings on track, and ensuring items are followed up on after meetings. - With a PM worrying about timelines or whether the meeting is getting too far off track, a Six Sigma exert is free to concentrate on the brainstorming session or statistical analysis at hand.
Specific customer feedback
Sometimes, organizations want feedback that is specific to a problem, product, or idea. - If you want to test a product, idea, or marketing campaign, an in-person or online focus group might be best.
True or False: While ad hoc or resource team members can serve several projects and handle their own work on a daily basis, regular team members should not be asked to serve on more than one team and handle daily workloads.
True
True or False: the lines between Measure and Analyze are often blurrier than the lines between Define and Measure.
True In some cases, a team has to measure, analyze, and then measure some more - particularly if metrics aren't already in place for a process.
True or False: In some cases, removing prevention or appraisal from processes actually creates a positive impact on quality, production, and customer and employee satisfaction.
True. Often, in a process that is functioning at a high sigma level, prevention and appraisal activities are a form of muda.
True or False: The Control Phase is often easy for a team.
True. The Control Phase is often easy for a team because the work of the team has already reached a crescendo. In a well-run DMAIC process, the Control phase is a time of wrapping up loose ends and arriving at the end of a project
Processes involve adding ___ to some kind of inputs. An output is almost always of more ___ to the ultimate process than the input is.
Value, value
Six Sigma teams usually start with some type of ___ data when they are defining a problem and working on goals for a project.
VoC (Voice of the Customer)
When is the 5 Whys usually deployed?
When processes involve human interactions or people-powered inputs, though it can be an effective start to brainstorming on any process.
Process
a collection of tasks, steps, or activities that are performed, usually in a specific order, and result in an end product such as a tangible good or the provision of a service.
Likert Scale
a ranking-scale used for analyzing data from VOC (Voice of the Customer). Using a Likert Scale, you would frame all questions so they are answered via a 5-point ranking. The ranking can be any number of things, but most commonly is some variation of: - Strongly agree - Agree - Neutral - Disagree - Strongly disagree The answers are coded with numbers when data is entered into statistical software (ex. Strongly agree = 10, Agree = 7, etc.)
The Pareto Principle i.e. 80/20 rule
a rule that states 20% of the causes lead to 80% of the effects. - also called the law of the vital few: the vital few inputs drive the majority of the outputs. - understanding which inputs or root causes are high on a Pareto chart let project teams determine where improvements will make the biggest impact to the bottom line.
Storming stage
because of all the difficulties with the Measure phase (understanding how and when to measure things, collecting data that hasn't been collected before), teams might enter this stage: - team members question the viability of the project, rail against the Champion or the team leader, complain how much time the project is taking from other duties, or stop showing up to meetings altogether.
Scope creep
occurs when teams look to make infinite perfections on a process, attempt to reach unrealistic goals, or begin to reach for processes or problems that are out of the original scope.
process owner
usually someone who is directly responsible for the process in a leadership capacity. - Usually, the process owner is the person who is going to "receive" a solution implemented by a Six Sigma team once that solution is ready to be rolled out to all team members or used on a daily basis. - Because of this, the process owner is usually included in the team because he or she must understand how and why any change is made. - He or she will become responsible for maintaining and monitoring those controls once the process is transitioned from a team environment to day-to-day production. - A process owner usually also acts as a process expert on a Six Sigma team. - When leading or managing a Six Sigma team, Black Belts and others do have to be wary of process owners who are resistant to change or who believe they have all the answers.
In a true Lean process, every step of the process provides ___
value
Defects per million opportunities
(number of defects in a sample/opportunities for a defect in the sample) * 1,000,000 Example: If each form has 10 fields, then there are 10 opportunities for an error on each form. If the retailer reviews 90 forms, then there are 10 * 90, or 900, total opportunities for errors. During the review, the retailer finds 2 errors, or defects. To calculate DPMO, the math would be as follows: (2/900) * 1,000,000 = 2,222 defects per million opportunities.
Executive leadership groups working with Six Sigma leaders and experts usually put teams together. Any process improvement team should have, at minimum:
- A Six Sigma leader - A process owner - An expert on the process - Someone to manage budgeting and accounting Depending on expectations of needs, the team might also need to include technical resources, such as a programmer or IT leader, as well as individuals from human resources, compliance, legal, or other ancillary departments
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Over-processing?
- A value stream map, is a good tool for identifying any points of over-processing. Any part of the process that doesn't provide value could be considered over-processing; when the process features a series of linked events and none provide value, it's even more likely that over-processing is occurring.
What did physicist and mathematician W. Edwards Deming contribute to Six Sigma?
1. He brought Walter Shewhart's statistical concepts to the United States Census Bureau, applying his theories outside of an industrial or manufacturing environment for possibly the first time. 2. He created the PDCA cycle. 3. He worked in Japan as a valued teacher and consultant to manufacturing companies, planting the ideas and concepts that would soon become the Toyota Production System (or Lean Six Sigma)
DMAIC/DMADV Phase 2: Measure
DMAIC: - The DMAIC Measure phase is when teams use data to validate their assumptions about the process and the problem. Validation of assumptions also merges into the analyze phase. - The bulk of the measure phase is occupied with actually gathering data and formatting it in a way that can be analyzed. - Measuring can be one of the most difficult tasks in a Six Sigma project if data isn't already being captured. - After validating assumptions from the Define stage with actual data, the team might revisit problem statements, goals, and other process-related definitions. - If the team leaves Define with a "rough draft" of these things, they should leave Measure with a final draft. DMADV: - Teams working through a DMADV approach might do some of the same things during the Measure phase, but activities are typically more targeted. - Teams will likely collect data and measurements that help them define performance requirements for the new process.
DMAIC is broken into five phases:
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.
Who is considered the father of Six Sigma?
Dr. Mikel Harry
Who founded the Six Sigma Academy?
Dr. Mikel Harry (who also worked for implementing Lean Six Sigma concepts in Motorola in the 1980s) and Richard Schroeder.
Which Methodology Would You Use? (A doctor's office has had numerous complaints from patients because it is too hard to get appointments, appointment communications are confusing, or patients show up for appointments and are told they don't have an appointment.)
Example 2 is for an existing process, so the team would begin with a DMAIC approach. It's possible that the team might determine during the process that one solution might be to develop a new appointment-setting software or replace existing software with something from a different vendor. In some cases, that might warrant a switch to DMADV, but, as previously stated, not all organizations would do so. Some organizations would continue with the DMAIC process and modify the activities in each phase to fit the needs of the project at hand.
True or False: In Six Sigma, if the cost of poor quality goes down, the cost of good quality is likely to go up.
False. Because Six Sigma works to create quality that is inherent in the process - meaning things are done right the first time and defects are reduced - the costs of quality often go down while quality itself goes up. As sigma level rises, there are fewer defects. Fewer defects = cost of poor quality goes down. As the sigma level of processes is increased via the application of Six Sigma tools and methodology, the cost of both prevention and appraisal goes down as well., leading to reduced cost of overall quality.
Tips for a Successful Design Phase
It's easy for teams to fall prey to project fatigue just as work requirements pick up for everyone involved. Six Sigma team leaders can help improve the chances of a successful Design phase by following the tips for managing Improve phases. - Teams should also be realistic about target dates for design work.
It's often easier and less expensive to detect costs associated with (nonconformance/conformance)
Nonconformance. Six Sigma teams should typically focus on internal and external failure costs (costs of nonconformity) before they focus on prevention and appraisal costs (costs of conformity)
Timekeeper
Not all Six Sigma teams use timekeepers, but they can help keep meetings on track, reduce the chance of scope creep, and increase overall productivity. - The timekeeper can be any person on the team who is not regularly engaged in leading meetings, brainstorming activities or recording team activities and notes. - The timekeeper shouldn't police time in a such a rigid fashion that the benefits of fluid discussion and brainstorming are lost, but he or she should gently steer teams toward following agenda schedules or provide the project leader with an indication that time is up for the topic at hand. - To function properly, a timekeeper needs an agenda to follow. It is usually the responsibility of the Black Belt or project manager to provide a detailed agenda for each meeting. The agenda should include clear indications regarding how long each item is expected to take. - Team leaders should pick a timekeeper who is organized and level-headed.
Asea Brown Boveri (ABB)
a company Dr. Mikel Harry worked for (after leaving Motorola) with Richard Schroeder (who would become a champion of Six Sigma). - Harry incorporated financial tactics into the Six Sigma methodology. For the first time, the method was focused on the bottom-line as a primary goal with other concerns and goals stemming from financially-led goals.
A Six Sigma defect is:
a failure to meet a requirement in a process. Defects are costly and lead to decreased customer satisfaction.
Problem statement
a formal addressal of a specific problem that provides enough information that a busy executive can understand what the issue is and why there is a need for an improvement effort. Problem statement should include: - Where and when the problem was recorded or was occurring - A measurement of magnitude for the problem, preferably with some tie to cost - A brief description of the problem that could be understood by professionals not closely aligned with the process - A brief notation about the metric used to measure or describe the problem
Jidoka
a principle that creates control of defects inside a business process. Instead of identifying defects at the end of the production line and attempting to trace errors back to a source, jidoka demands that a process stop as soon as errors are detected so improvements or troubleshooting can happen immediately. - For jidoka to work properly, machines are often equipped to recognize bad outputs from good outputs; the machines are also equipped with a notification of some type to spark human interaction in the process when things go awry. - Served as one of the pillars of the Toyota Production System
Scrum
a project development method specific to Agile programming endeavors in technical departments. Scrum is used when teams want to create new technical products or integrate new developments on existing products within a short time frame. Usually a very tight completion timeline for programming, Scrum projects last between two and four weeks. Scrum was developed as programming and development teams needed a way to meet continuous technical design and improvement needs from other departments without substantially increasing programming, testing employee hours, or hiring more technical staff. Features three main phases: - The pregame - The game - The postgame
Tollgate review
marks the transition between phases, wherein the team presents its work to a champion or a Six Sigma leadership board. The champion or board provides feedback and makes the decision about whether the team is ready to move on to the next phase.
Lean Process Management
methodologies designed for reducing waste in a process. - while originally developed for reducing waste in a manufacturing environment, the ideas of Lean Process Management can be applied to any process that involves the movement or creation of goods or services. - Focuses on continuous improvements, like Six Sigma. - Also like Six Sigma, Lean is more about an overall culture of quality than a single quality event.
Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY)
provides a probability that a unit will be generated by a process with no defects. - One of the main differences between RTY and basic yield or first time yield is that RTY considers whether rework was needed to generate the number of final units. - RTY is calculated in a similar manner to FTY, but it takes rework into account. - If process A from the FTY example only achieved a yield of 95 because someone reworked five items to make them good, then RTY calculations add five instances of rework into the ratio. - The formula is: (Number of units entering - (scrap + rework))/number of units entering process - In the case of process A: (100 - (5+5))/100 = 90/100 = 0.9
Scope
the definition of what is included - and what is not included - in a process or improvement project. - You begin defining scope with your problem statement. - Your individual project needs a specific, challenging, but attainable goal (nothing outside scope)
Quality
the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements. A Six Sigma team should be interested in requirements generated by all interest points, but often focuses most on those generated by the customer. Various types of requirements might include: - Customer expectations - Compliance or regulatory rules - Brand expectations (which come from in-house leadership)
Cost of Quality (CoQ)
the expenses associated with maintaining good quality throughout an organization or process. Includes the cost of poor quality and the cost of good quality. In addition to internal and external failure costs, CoQ includes: - Prevention costs (expenses that are related to any activity meant to stop an error or defect from occurring. For ex. error-proofing, reviews, training focused on quality results in prevention costs) - Appraisal costs (those associated with any activity meant to ensure high levels of quality across a process or organization. Hiring a quality control specialist to ensure high levels of quality is an appraisal cost) These are also known as the costs of conformity
Critical to quality characteristics (CTQs)
the factors or parameters that are the major drivers of quality within an organization or process. - Usually, CTQs are key characteristics that can be measured; where the performance of said metric provides information about whether or not the customer is going to be satisfied.
The major differences between DMAIC and DMADV are:
the goals the team sets and the outcome of the completed project DMAIC is for improving a process DMADV is for creating a new process
One of the major differences between DMAIC and DMADV is ___
the possible timeline. A problem fits the DMAIC model if it can be solved in less than six months. While some DMADV projects might only take a few months, many process or product designs can take years.
First Time Yield (FTY)
the ratio of units produced to units attempted to produce. For example, if you put 12 cookies in the oven, but only 10 come out edible, then you haven't produced 12 cookies. The formula for FTY is: Number of good units produced / number of units entering the process In the cookie example, the FTY is 10/12, or .833.
Tasks i.e. activities
the the heart of a process. Tasks are the physical, automated, or computerized actions within a process. - Tasks are what turns inputs into outputs.
The purpose for determining a value stream for a process is that
you can identify areas of concern, waste, and improvement.
Other tips, other than having small teams and not allowing regular team members from doing too much work, for selecting team members include:
- Choosing employees who are knowledgeable about the customer, product, or process related to the project. - Choosing employees who have shown a willingness and ability to work toward improvement in a team environment. - Selecting employees who have access to and an understanding of the data required to learn about and measure the process or problem. - Picking employees who can provide at least five hours of work per week to the team. - Matching the skills of employees to the projects at hand; if a project is likely to include all technical improvements, you would be less likely to add a team member who is skilled in marketing. - Removing political obstacles through team selection; if a specific person in an organization is likely to be an obstacle to a team, sometimes putting that person on the team can increase the chance that they will buy into the process.
How do you conduct a 5 Whys session?
- Gather subject-matter experts (people who are close to the process) - Display a problem statement as you understand it - Begin by asking the highest-level "Why?" question. Write down the question and answer. - Keep asking "Why?" while writing down the questions and answers until you get to root causes. That cause is where improvement focus should be placed.
List the major process components
- Inputs - Outputs - Events - Tasks (activities) - Decisions Inputs enter a process when a specific event occurs. Tasks and decisions are performed upon or with the inputs. At the end of the process, an output is generated.
Six Sigma teams might approach improvements through DMADV if:
- The business wants to launch a new service or product. - Business leaders decide to replace a process because of upgrade needs or to align business processes, machinery, or employees with future goals. - A Six Sigma team discovers that improving a process is not likely to provide the success desired from a project.
Benefits of a SIPOC diagram
- Understand process components and process relevance. - Teams can create SIPOC diagrams in a single brainstorming session - SIPOC diagrams are also infinitely scalable. Teams can diagram processes at a very minute level, but they can also use SIPOC to diagram an entire business.
When writing your own problem statement, follow the problem statement checklist:
- Where did the problem occur? - When did the problem occur? - What process did the problem involve? - How is the problem measured? - How much is the problem costing (in money, time, customer satisfaction, or another critical metric)?
The Seven Muda: Overproduction
- a product, part, or service was produced too fast, at the wrong time, or in too much quantity. - Important to note that overproduction is not always bad: sometimes having extra stock of safety equipment is overproduction but necessary - The key to eliminating is planning
The main activities of a DMAIC project include
- identifying the critical inputs or causes (the Xs) that are creating the problem (the Y) - verifying those causes - brainstorming and selecting solutions - implementing solutions - creating a control plan to ensure the improved state is maintained.
What are the benefits of the 5 Whys Analysis?
- it only costs your team a small amount of time to use—a team familiar with a process can conduct a complete 5 Whys session in less than an hour if a moderator keeps things on task. - Because of its simplicity, the 5 Whys tool can be used for almost any problem. It facilitates communication and thought.
Master Black Belt
- the highest certification level achievable for Six Sigma - usually manage Black Belts and Green Belts, consult on especially difficult project concerns, offer advice and education about challenging statistical concepts, and train others in Six Sigma methodology.
Black Belt
- usually works as the project leader on process improvement projects. They might also work within management, analyst, or planning roles throughout a company.
What occurs during the Define Phase?
1. A project charter and a basic plan for work is made. 2. Teams also create or list measurable customer requirements and create high-level documents about the process (including process maps). - Often, teams will start with a SIPOC diagram to help them begin to understand a process. 3. Teams should also identify stakeholders during the Define phase.
Calculating Standard Deviation with Sample Data
1. Calculate the mean 2. Subtract the mean from each data point and square it. 3. Find the mean of the results (called the variance) 4. Find the square root of the variance (standard deviation)
Formula for standard deviation when dealing with data of an entire population:
1. Calculate the mean 2. Subtract the mean from each data point and square it. 3. Find the mean of the results (called the variance) 4. Find the square root of the variance (standard deviation)
How to create a SIPOC diagram
1. Create Swim Lanes - 5 lanes: Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers. 2. Set Boundaries and Name Your Process - Identify the scope and the name of the process. 3. Complete Swim Lanes - Enter data starting with Process, usually in this order: - Process - Outputs - Customer - Inputs - Suppliers - Keep it high-level (don't be too detailed) 4. Validate the Information - Invite other SME's (subject matter experts) or the process owner to review the diagram briefly with the team and provide feedback.
Organizations can apply a five-step procedure for identifying viable Six Sigma improvement projects.
1. Data-Based Review of Current State of the Organization - begin with a high-level look at internal and external sources of information about performance. - Internal examples = issues raised by employees, existing performance metric reports - External examples = VoC 2. Brainstorm and Describe Potential Projects - Brainstorm using 5 Whys and create a list of possible Six Sigma projects - Remember, the point of this exercise is to call out possible areas for improvement, not validate assumptions or come up with solutions. - Once teams have a large list of possible projects, they should begin creating short descriptions that will become the basis of step three. The descriptions also let teams quickly identify things that are not actually problems or would not apply within an improvement project environment. 3. Apply Some Basic Criteria to Shorten the List - Once a list of possible projects is created, teams can apply some very basic criteria to remove projects that are inappropriate, would not work with Six Sigma methodology, are not property scoped, or have little likely return on investment. - If a significant difference between desired state and current state doesn't exist, then there's nothing to improve. - Teams can remove issues that have very obvious problems and/or solutions. 4. Create Unique Business Criteria - After removing project ideas that don't fit Six Sigma methodology, teams should create and apply business criteria to further filter the list. - Business criteria usually come in the form of expenses, monetary gains, impact on customer satisfaction, and urgency. 5. Use Business Criteria to Prioritize Project Lists - Using the business criteria, teams should prioritize projects and select projects from the top of the prioritized list for immediate work. - One of the best ways to prioritize projects is to create a selection matrix with defined criteria and a numerical ranking system.
How to Create a CTQ Tree
1. Identify Critical-to-Customer Needs - Begin the CTQ tree process by creating a list of needs that are critical to the customer. - Define needs in broad terms to help catch all drivers and requirements later in the diagramming process. - The best way to define needs is to directly ask customers for feedback. In the absence of customer feedback, brainstorm critical needs with a group of employees who has knowledge of and experience with the customer. - You can also begin a CTQ tree with the outputs of your SIPOC diagram; you might need to define critical quality factors for the output as a starting point for your CTQ tree diagram. 2. Identify Drivers of Quality - Once you have a list of critical needs, work with one need at a time. - Identify quality drivers that must be present or met for the customer need to be fulfilled. - Drivers are the transition point between customer needs and requirement. They should be a bit more detailed than the broad customer needs. 3. List Requirements for Each Driver - Requirements are the most detailed breakdown regarding critical to quality characteristics. These are the things that you can measure that lead you to understand whether drivers are performing appropriately so customer needs are met.
Misconceptions and Myths surrounding Six Sigma today
1. Six Sigma is solely concerned with metrics and ignores common sense. - The opposite is true. Six Sigma often starts with traditional common sense ideas, often arrived at through brainstorming, and validates those assumptions with data. 2. Six Sigma is too expensive. - While enterprise-wide adoption of Six Sigma can be costly at first, due in part to training needs, slowly integrating the concepts into a company often costs very little in the long run. When implemented correctly, Six Sigma generally leads to savings that more than cover its initial investment. 3. Six Sigma can fix anything. - While Six Sigma can be applied to any problem of process, it's not always relevant to problems of culture or people. If morale or other human resource problems are at the root of an issue, statistics can't help.
Define the statistical concept represented by 6σ.
6σ is a statistical representation for what many experts call a "perfect" process. Technically, in a Six Sigma process, there are only 3.4 defects per million opportunities. In percentages, that means 99.99966 percent of the products from a Six Sigma process are without defect. At just one sigma level below—5σ, or 99.97 percent accuracy--processes experience 233 errors per million opportunities.
Scribes or Minute-Takers
A lot of discussion occurs in the midst of Six Sigma brainstorming and team sessions, and someone needs to record that information. - The team leader should appoint one person as the official scribe for the team. Sometimes, that person is a certified project manager working in conjunction with a Six Sigma team leader. Other times, it is a member of the team who is seen as detailed and organized. - The Black Belt or other project leader should never be the scribe; it is too difficult to take notes while leading a discussion or exercise. - The scribe should create notes or minutes of the meeting in typed format and disseminate those notes to all team members as soon as possible following a meeting.
What occurs during the Analyze Phase?
Analyze phases are when teams perform detective work on the process. - Using the clues gathered during the Define and Measure phases, along with information provided by the sponsor, process owner, and subject matter experts, teams attempt to identify root causes for a problem. - They also use statistical analysis and other tools to verify causes before turning to the work of identifying possible solutions. During the Analyze phase, teams use a variety of tools such as Pareto charts, run charts, histograms, cause-and-effect diagrams, scatter diagrams, process maps, and value analysis. As teams work through the Analyze phase, they also start preparing for the Improve phase. - During Analyze, teams might begin working on possible solutions and selecting solutions, developing improvement plans, and preparing some basic documentation about improvement work.
Tips for Positive Movement in the Define Stage
As a Six Sigma team leader, you can increase chances of success by keeping the team as focused as possible during the Define stage. - Begin by explaining the Six Sigma process and the purpose of the project for any ancillary team members who may not be familiar with Six Sigma and DMAIC. - Next, work as a team to create ground rules for how the project will run - including how meetings are organized and managed, how information will be communicated, and what each team member might be responsible for during the project. - Create a charter and project plan so the team has something to focus on. If possible, have the Champion of the project spend time with the team. Define is also a good time to explain the roles of scribe and time keeper and talk about the purpose of brainstorming.
How to Create a Project Viability Model
Based on the 15 criteria, teams create a matrix Teams then apply a numerical weight to each criterion. Weigh each criterion on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being least important and 5 being most important. Next, teams should answer each question by marking a 1 in the relevant box on the grid; the answers correspond with no, mostly no, possibly, mostly yes, and yes. Once a matrix is completed for each project, teams must calculate and compare the score for potential projects. These calculations are completed via the following steps. 1. Divide each weight by 3; a weight of 3 equals 1, but a weight of 5 equals 5/3, or 1.7 2. Convert each of the 1s listed on your grid to a weighted value by multiplying it by the converted weight from step one. 3. Sum the numbers in each of the five columns. 4. Multiply each of the summed weighted scores by the number at the top of the column. For example, the sum of the column for the "No" answers is 1.3. Multiplying that by 1 equals 1.3. The other columns are calculated as: 4.4 * 2 = 8.8 4.7 * 3 = 14.1 3.3 * 4 = 13.2 4.4 * 5 = 22 5. Add up the answers from the previous step. In this case, the total is 59.4 6. Divide the sum from step five by the sum of the weighted totals from step three. In this case, 59.4 / 18.1 = 3.28 7. The answer from step 6 is the score for your project. Once you score each potential project, you can determine if it is a viable project within a DMAIC methodology with the following key: < 2.0 = not viable for DMAIC 2.0 to 3.0 = Possibly viable, but organizations should validate further Above 3.0 = A viable DMAIC project
y = f(x)
Because Six Sigma approaches things with a statistical mindset, it considers all problems as a function. - It is a general map for stating a problem. Y (the problem) occurs because some X (input or cause) is occurring. In reality, Y is usually occurring because of some group of causes or inputs, which means there are going to be more than one X inputs.
How can Six Sigma leaders reduce the impact of storming on a team?
By demonstrating a calm approach to each aspect of the project and redirecting the strong emotion of storming to more productive work. - If you can identify an easy task or problem, letting the team work on that and accomplish something immediately can reduce the excitement of storming. - Six Sigma leaders should also ensure work is fairly distributed and that each team member knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are.
To gain a better understanding of how to measure the quality of a process, teams must convert VoC statements to ___. One of the best ways to do this is through a diagramming process known as a ___.
CTQs (Critical to quality characteristics) CTQ tree
What is the difference between critical to quality characteristics (CTQs) and critical to customer characteristics (CTCs)?
CTQs are closely related to CTCs, or critical to customer characteristics, but they are not the same thing. Something can be critical to quality - even critical to how a customer ultimately feels about a service or product - without being critical to the customer directly. CTQs are internal concerns, but they drive CTCs.
A Six Sigma culture is about ___ improvement.
Continuous
Sigma Level is not a final indicator in determining which particular process an organization should improve first. Leadership should also consider ___, ___, and ___.
Costs, resources, and the estimated impact of improvements. Sometimes, a process might have a low sigma level, but it wouldn't be worth improving because it is too costly to improve.
Sometimes, teams realize that fixing or improving a process isn't the right way to achieve sustained improvement for the organization. Instead, a process might need to be completely replaced or redesigned to meet goals for customer satisfaction or organizational improvement. In such cases, teams can employ the ___ method.
DMADV
DMAIC/DMADV Phase 1: Define
DMAIC: - During a DMAIC project, the Define phase is concerned with identifying the problem, defining requirements for the project, and setting goals for success. DMADV: - in a DMADV project, the Define stage is slightly more rigid. Teams also have to identify a problem and begin defining requirements, but requirements must be made within a change-management environment. - Sometimes, organizations have a change management program in place, which means Six Sigma teams must incorporate all requirements of that program into the DMADV phases
DMAIC/DMADV Phase 4: Improve or Design
DMAIC: - Six Sigma teams start developing the ideas that began in the Analyze phase during the Improve phase of a project. They use statistics and real-world observation to test hypotheses and solutions. - Hypothesis testing actually begins in the analyze phase, but is continued during the improve phase as teams select solutions and begin to implement them. - Teams also work to standardize solutions in preparation for rolling improved processes to daily production and non-team employees. - Teams also start measuring results and lay the foundation for controls that will be built in the last phase. DMADV: - The fourth phase is where DMADV projects begin to diverge substantially from DMAIC projects. - The team actually works to design a new process, which does involve some of the solutions testing mentioned above, but also involves mapping, workflow principles, and actively building new infrastructures. - That might mean putting new equipment in place, hiring and training new employees, or developing new software tools. - Teams also start to implement the new systems and processes during the fourth phase.
DMADV stands for
Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify - The principles governing the method are very similar to those governing DMAIC, but the last two phases are geared toward rolling out and testing a completely new process.
DMAIC
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control These are the five phases of a Six Sigma project to improve a process that already exists.
What occurs during the Control Phase?
During the Control phase, teams usually handle four tasks: 1. Creating the foundation for process discipline 2. Finalizing documents regarding the improvement 3. Establishing ongoing metrics to evaluate the process 4. Building a process management plan that lets the team transition the improvement to the process owner. Tools used by a team during the Control phase include: - documentation checklists - control charts - response plans - process maps - process dashboards.
What occurs during the Improve Phase?
During the Improve phase of a project, a Six Sigma team selects a final solution and begins to put it in place. - Sometimes, teams will select more than one solution, especially if a few smaller solutions are highly related and work together for an overall solution. - It can be hard to determine which solution actually improves a process, however, so it's usually a best practice to implement one change at a time and verify that change before moving on to something else. Teams might also come up with many possible solutions, all of which would provide some improvement for the process. - They should use a solutions selection matrix or other Six Sigma tool to evaluate solutions, choosing only the few best solutions. - It's worth noting again that the best solution is not always the solution that provides the most improvement. Solutions that are so expensive or disruptive that they cause disadvantages that outweigh any benefits should never be selected During Improve, Six Sigma teams must continue to keep the project definitions in mind. - The solution must address a root cause verified in the Analyze phase; the root cause must be directly related to the problem stated during the Define phase. After selecting solutions, teams must test them using statistical tools and real-world sampling to ensure effectiveness before deploying solutions to a live work environment.
Benefits of building failure stop-points into a process:
Earlier detection when errors do occur, which keeps hidden costs down. Employees are able to support and manage higher quality. In-process quality assurance is actually more effective than post-process or over-process prevention and appraisal methods.
List the 8 Key Elements of Total Quality Management (TQM)
Ethics Integrity Trust Training Teamwork Leadership Recognition Communication
Which Methodology Would You Use? (A company that manufactures pizza boxes isn't happy with the profit margins in the small size boxes)
Example 3 is a classic example of what brings many teams to the DMAIC method. The problem hasn't yet been defined, but the organization knows that goals and expectations are not being met. A leadership team might work with subject matter experts and one or more Six Sigma experts to discover more about the processes involved before settling on one or more improvement projects.
In seeking to improve processes, a company that selects too many projects at one time could actually negatively impact quality. Organizations should only launch projects they can:
Fund - Six Sigma projects take monetary resources, which means organizations must prioritize based on financial criteria. Support with people resources - Six Sigma projects require work from employees at all levels. Relying too heavily on resources for multiple projects can burn out employees, decrease morale, impact quality, and impede work. Manage - Project teams require leadership. Organizations with limited Six Sigma experts on staff can't launch dozens of projects without putting a strain on those resources.
Most experts use the metaphor of an ___to explain the hidden costs of quality
Iceberg. On the surface, you see the very small tip of the iceberg—the obvious costs of poor quality. Beneath the surface, however, an iceberg is always much bigger. Because of this, calculating the cost of quality is extremely difficult on an enterprise-wide level and still moderately difficult on a process level.
The Six Sigma method lets organizations ___, ___, ___, and ___ to avoid unintended consequences.
Identify problems, validate assumptions, brainstorm solutions, and plan for implementation
What is a difference between Verify and Control?
In Verify, DMADV teams might take time to complete further CTQ analysis at the end of a project so they can identify new critical-to-quality factors. - This is done because the process or product is different than it was when the team first started working. - While teams should have made educated guesses about CTQs for the new product, it is possible that customers will react differently to the new product or process.
Why are identifying CTQ's important?
In a process improvement environment, CTQs are critical to narrowing work scope and understanding how to enact change. Consider the 80/20 rule. Often, CTQs are the factors, characteristics, or outputs that drive 80 percent of customer satisfaction. By improving these few critical factors, teams can substantially impact customer satisfaction and the performance of the overall process. Identifying CTQs lets teams create the most improvement possible with the time, money, and people resources available.
Sponsors/Champions
In most Six Sigma environments, these are the senior-level leaders who oversee projects at the highest level. Even the Black Belt must report to the project sponsor or champion. Sometimes, the sponsor or champion is the liaison between the team and the leadership council. The champion or sponsor is also responsible for assisting the team with obtaining funds and resources to ensure project success Other duties include: - Coaching the team, particularly at the project charter stage. The sponsor often provides input into what is in scope on a project and who might be included on a team. - Locating resources for the team, including support from other departments, money, equipment, time, and labor hours. - Handling matters of politics within a corporate structure so the team doesn't have to. - Working with other managers within the organization to help the team succeed in improving a process and transitioning improvements to a daily work environment.
List the Challenges of Six Sigma
Lack of Support - Leaders and executives must be willing to back initiatives with resources—financial and labor related. Subject-matter experts must be open to sharing information about their processes with project teams, and employees at all levels must embrace the idea of change and improvement and participate in training. Lack of Resources or Knowledge - Lack of knowledge about how to use and implement Six Sigma is one of the first issues small- and mid-sized companies face. Smaller businesses can't always afford to hire dedicated resources to handle continuous process improvement, but the availability of resources and Six Sigma training makes it increasingly possible for organizations to use some of the tools without an expert or to send in-house staff to be certified in Six Sigma. Poor Project Execution - Proponents of Six Sigma within any organization really have to hit it out of the ballpark with the first project if leadership and others are on the fence about the methodology. Teams can help avoid poor project performance by taking extreme care to execute every phase of the project correctly. By choosing low-risk, high-reward improvements, teams can also stack the deck in their favor with first-time projects. The only disadvantage with such a tactic is that it can be hard to duplicate the wow factor with subsequent improvements. Data Access Issues - Gaining access to consistent and accurate data streams—and applying statistical analysis to that data in an appropriate manner—is difficult. Concerns about Using Six Sigma in a Specific Industry - Organizations often discount the methods or believe they will be too difficult to implement in other industries. In reality, Six Sigma can be customized to any industry.
What does a process owner do?
Monitor how the process performs, usually using one or more metrics or regularly reported data elements. Understand how the process fits into the overall business, why the output of the process is critical to business goals, and what inputs feed the process. Ensures the process is documented via standard operating procedures (SOPs) and that process documentation is kept current and accurate. Ensures operators within the process have the resources and training they need to complete their jobs.
What is one of the biggest challenges of the Measure phase?
One of the biggest challenges, especially for teams and team members who are new to the Six Sigma method, can be deciding what to measure. - Many times, inexperienced teams end up spending time collecting data that doesn't provide answers or can't be used for the process. - Because the Measure phase starts with some educated guesswork and trial-and-error, teams and Six Sigma leaders have to keep a close eye on progress and redirect work when measurements are not creating the answers or production required.
One way of relating the cost of quality - and perhaps the most common way of doing so among corporations - is as a ___.
Percent of sales The cost of quality as a percent of sales typically aligns so closely with sigma values that you can predict the cost of quality based on a company's or process's sigma value.
Two methods for creating a project timeline or schedule
Phase-Based Timeline Critical Path Method
Possibly the most common problem that plagues Six Sigma teams during the Improve phase is ___.
Project fatigue - By the time teams come to Improve, they have been working on a project for weeks or even months; for many team members, the project work is on top of regular work. - Fatigue or frustration might push team members to select and implement solutions just to have the project completed. - Six Sigma leaders have to work to keep teams motivated on quality and improvement.
Challenges of Six Sigma: Poor Project Execution
Proponents of Six Sigma within any organization really have to hit it out of the ballpark with the first project if leadership and others are on the fence about the methodology. Teams can help avoid poor project performance by taking extreme care to execute every phase of the project correctly. By choosing low-risk, high-reward improvements, teams can also stack the deck in their favor with first-time projects. The only disadvantage with such a tactic is that it can be hard to duplicate the wow factor with subsequent improvements.
What are the three basic team member types that exist with relation to a Six Sigma project?
Regular team members - These individuals participate in all activities of the team and attend all or almost all of the team's meetings. - Regular team members include project leaders, process owners and experts, and identified subject matter experts who the team or executives feel would be critical components of their group. Ad hoc team members - Provide expertise on an as-needed basis. - Usually, these are subject matter experts or employees who work directly with the process. - You don't want to take these employees from their job functions for every single team event, as that would negatively impact the state of current production. Instead, these employees are included in team meetings as needed when additional information or assistance is required. Resource team members - only included when the project team leader feels they are needed in a meeting or team event to provide expert information, counsel, or help in accessing resources. - usually members of ancillary departments such as accounting, human resources, or compliance. - resource team members might also be managers or leaders in departments that are related to the process being improved.
Tips for a Strong Analyze Phase
Storming might still be an issue. - In that case, use a calm approach and start off accomplishing small tasks before moving on to more complicated tasks. Also, make sure work is fairly distributed. For the challenge of introducing and explaining statistical concepts that team members might not be familiar with: - Six Sigma experts should be aware of the knowledge limitations of various team members and work to both present information in a way that is understood by everyone and continue to add to team member knowledge by explaining concepts when possible.
Once a timeline is established, what is the next step?
Set up milestone meetings and dates to help keep the team on track and notify the sponsor or champion of progress. - In a DMAIC project, milestones are usually set at the end of each phase (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control). - However, teams can set custom milestones, and sponsors might require specific milestones if they are approving large resourcing or funding requests for a project. - The milestone dates are when the team or the Black Belt will meet with the sponsor to present the findings or results of each phase of the project. - The team might set up internal milestones for the Measure phase, stating that definitions will be created by January 25, temperature data collected by February 5, and time data collected by February 10. - By breaking each phase, and each larger task, into smaller parts, it is easier for the team to stay on track and complete work. Smaller tasks seem more manageable, so they are more likely to be accomplished.
What does it mean to say efficient Six Sigma processes are self-regulating?
Six Sigma improvement projects build preventative measures into processes themselves. In other words, efficient Six Sigma processes are self-regulating. They have built in checks and balances that work to constantly reduce defects and rework.
Six Sigma leaders
Six Sigma projects are usually led by certified Black Belts, although some organizations do allow Green Belts to act as leaders on small initiatives with occasional feedback and guidance from Black Belts. - In most organizations, the Black Belt holds primary responsibility for the regular work performed by a team and usually only works with one team or project at a time. - Best case scenarios let organizations align Black Belts with projects in areas they are already familiar with. - Master Black Belts play an overall role in leading multiple Six Sigma projects. Master Black Belts act as coaches to multiple teams; providing education to both Black and Green Belts, helping team members to constantly improve their grasp of Six Sigma methodologies.
What provides a backbone for Six Sigma methods and when did it originate?
Statistical process control. The roots of statistical process control began with the development of the normal curve by Carl Friedrich Gauss in the 19th century.
Tips for Closing a DMADV project
Team members who have spent a year or more working to develop a new process or product might feel like the end of the project threatens their job. - Six Sigma leaders and champions can reduce these worries by communicating next steps and expectations clearly with staff. Team members who have been working on regular job duties alongside project work for years might find it hard to return to regular duties without something else to work on. - One of the benefits of Six Sigma is that team members learn to expect more of themselves, their coworkers, and an organization's processes. - Six Sigma team leaders can work with employees returning to daily work and help them apply what they learned in a positive fashion within their respective departments. Finally, Six Sigma team leaders should ensure that a DMADV project closes on a positive note by validating all team members and ensuring process owners have all the tools they need to accept the new process without disrupting work.
What are some challenges to the Analyze Phase?
Teams in the Analyze phase might continue to suffer from storming; if teams didn't storm during Define or Measure phases, they might begin to do so in Analyze. - Six Sigma leaders can use the same tips for controlling storming in the Measure phase in the Analyze phase. Another common challenge for Six Sigma team leaders is introducing and explaining statistical concepts during the Analyze phase. - When other team members or even the champion of the process are not familiar with statistical analysis, presenting advanced analysis in terms of statistical verbiage only can be a mistake. - Team members won't understand how you came to the conclusions you are presenting, which makes it less likely they will get behind the solution or improvement in a positive way.
What occurs during the Design Phase (of the DMADV)?
The Design phase of DMADV is when teams create a new process or develop a new product. - A Six Sigma team would have previously done all the work to lay the foundation for development during the Define, Measure, and Analyze stages, which means most of the Design phase is taken up with the actual work involved in creating the process or project. Using the plans, instructions, or maps created in earlier phases, the team either creates a product themselves or works with vendors, manufacturers, or other employees to create the product. During Design, a team will also test the product, process, or service. - Testing can be done in testing environments, in limited production environments, or via Beta testing. - Usually, the team rolls out the new process or product to a limited number of internal or external customers; those customers provide feedback and the team uses the feedback to troubleshoot the new process or product as needed.
Advantage and disadvantage from The Customer Experience Management Method (CEM)
The advantage of CEM is that organizations are able to deploy customer-facing tactics across the enterprise, which often results in enormous gains in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and spending. A disadvantage of this method is that traditionally inward-facing departments, such as human resources, legal, and accounting, often have a difficult time implementing customer-focused cultural change.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of a phase-based timeline?
The benefit of this approach is that you can generate a timeline quickly. The disadvantages are that someone without experience of Six Sigma and a fair amount of knowledge of the process being improved can easily misjudge the time required for each phase and leadership might consider this a hard timeline, which can create unrealistic expectations.
The 5 Whys i.e. Why-why analysis
a brainstorming tool that asks increasingly granular why questions about a problem or process, seeking to understand the root cause or actual problem. Continually ask "Why?" when faced with a problem until you get to a root cause. - The 5 Whys can be used to define a problem or to begin seeking causes. - The tool is called the 5 Whys because it often leads to answers within five questions. However, teams could ask a dozen questions if they begin at a very high level and work down through a complex process.
Project charter
a synopsis of the project created during the Define Phase. - It provides some common information and a summary of what the team hopes to accomplish. - The charter usually features a list of team members, names of those responsible for outcomes, a problem statement, a goal, and some basic definitions of scope and metrics for success. - Some charters also include a rough timeline estimate for the project.
Pareto chart
a graphical representation of data elements - usually inputs or causes - in a ranked bar chart. - helpful when you need to analyze frequencies or causes of problems. - also help narrow an approach for a problem that has many causes or is too broad to address in a single improvement project.
SIPOC diagram
a high-level method for understanding process components and process relevance. It stands for: Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customer. - often an important part of the define stage of a Six Sigma project. - Suppliers are the people, processes, and organizations that supply inputs to your process. - Customers are the people, processes, and organizations that make use of the outputs of your process. - The process itself is the series of steps that take the inputs and make them outputs.
Defects per unit
a measure of how many defects there are in relation to the number of units tested. DPU is concerned with total defects, and one unit could have more than one defect. Number of defects found / number of units in the sample If a publisher printed 1000 books and pulled out 50 for quality checks, finding 9 errors, then DPU is 9/50 = 0.18 defects on average per unit.
Standard deviation
a measure of the "spread" of data, or the variation of data. It measures the distance between data points and the mean of all data. - A large standard deviation means an overall wide spread of points - A smaller standard deviation means a closely clustered set of points (desired).
Critical Path Method
a method for creating a project timeline or schedule, but is a more detailed way of defining timelines than the phase-based method, and therefore requires more information and input from a project team. - a critical path diagram could be one of the activities the team undertakes as part of the Define phase. - you can use the critical path method to estimate timelines for extremely complex projects or processes.
Phase-Based Timeline
a method for creating a project timeline or schedule. Six Sigma projects usually follow a specific series of phases. - DMAIC breaks a project into five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control - Experienced Six Sigma experts with some data and information about a project and process can usually provide a very basic and raw estimate of time by assigning a certain number of weeks to each phase. It's also worth noting that most of the phases are likely to overlap. - To create a raw timeline for a project, a Black Belt or other Six Sigma leader usually starts with an overall time requirement. He or she either estimates the total time required for an improvement or works with a deadline imposed by the leadership group
Selection matrix
a tool used for selecting Six Sigma projects based on priority. - It is created using criteria and a list of projects. Teams can then rate each project against each criteria using a numeric scale. In the example below, we applied a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most negative and 10 being the most positive.
CTQ Tree
a tool used to convert VoC statements to CTQs. It begins with specific and critical customer needs, breaks that need down into drivers, and uses the drivers to create requirements. - Specific requirements are easier to convert to measurable quality components. While each CTQ tree is unique, they begin with a common form. - The common structure of a CTQ tree is shown below.
Project viability model
a tool used to select Six Sigma projects using a 15-point viability model. One benefit of the project viability model is that it provides some weighting, letting teams make some criteria more important than others. 15 Criteria: 1. Sponsorship 2. Corporate alignment 3. Data 4. Definition of defect 5. Stability 6. Customer 7. Benefits 8. Timeline 9. Solution 10. Implementation is likely 11. Required investment 12. Available Six Sigma Resources 13. Inputs that can be controlled 14. Redesign 15. Process quality is improved/maintained
Decisions
closely related to tasks and can be tasks themselves. Choosing between different avenues of tasks/actions. - Decisions within a process are typically governed by a set of rules. Sometimes those rules are formally documented; other times, decisions are made via informal rules along with staff knowledge and experience.
Control charts
critical components of statistical process control that lets organizations maintain improved performance after a Six Sigma initiative. The father of control charts is engineer and scholar Walter Shewhart.
Voice of the Customer (VOC)
feedback from the customer that should be collected before, during, and after improvement projects to ensure satisfaction. - Surveys - Focus groups - Interviews - Feedback forums - Reviews
One of the biggest challenges Six Sigma teams face when in the Define phase of a project is ___.
generating positive, targeted momentum that sets the foundation for the rest of the project.
Enabler
in a SIPOC diagram, they are conditions or items that "enables" the process to move or continue.
General Electric (GE)
in the 1990s, CEO Jack Welch entered into the Six Sigma arena. Once a critic of Six Sigma, he was convinced by Larry Bossidy (CEO of Allied Signal, working with Dr. Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder) to implement Six Sigma, and the company saved millions of dollars. - He also made GE a historically successful Six Sigma organization by tying Six Sigma goals to employee reward structures. - Employees were no longer only compensated based on financial performance factors; they were also evaluated based on Six Sigma performance. - Suddenly, employees at every level had a personal reason to become involved in continuous process improvement.
Stakeholders
individuals, both within and without an organization, who have some level of influence on the success of an improvement project. Stakeholders are identified during the Define Phase. By understanding who stakeholders are, teams can remain in contact with various persons throughout the project, communicating with those stakeholders as needed to ensure future viability of any improvement that is created. One way to identify stakeholders is through a Stakeholder Analysis.
Costs of nonconformity
internal and external failures costs. They are the expenses that occur when outputs do not conform to critical to quality requirements. - Cost associated with external failures (after the products or services have been delivered) - Cost associated with internal failures (when products, services, or processes don't conform to the requirements set by the company, and the product or service is provided to the customer in an unsatisfactory fashion)
General customer feedback
obtained through feedback forms, customer complaint records, and passive information gathering via websites or social media. - Through such methods, organizations are usually testing general waters to get a temperature reading: are customers happy overall, dissatisfied overall, and is there any direction as to the cause of customer feelings? - Questions are designed to gauge general customer feelings on critical quality elements. - General VOC feedback is often used as a smoke alarm. Early action to sudden changes is important in ensuring customer satisfaction.
Process owners
people with the power to approve changes within a process, or the one who is held responsible for the performance of the process. - A person in charge of a very specific process or function - A team supervisor or department manager - An executive-level individual who is probably responsible for a number of processes in his or her division
Costs of conformity
prevention costs and appraisal costs. They are the expenses related to ensuring outputs conform to critical to quality requirements. - Prevention costs (expenses that are related to any activity meant to stop an error or defect from occurring. For ex. error-proofing, reviews, training focused on quality results in prevention costs) - Appraisal costs (those associated with any activity meant to ensure high levels of quality across a process or organization. Hiring a quality control specialist to ensure high levels of quality is an appraisal cost)
Change Management
refers to a closely-managed process of making changes in an organization. Often, companies use change management policies and rules to govern how changes are made to software, infrastructure, or processes that have compliance or audit elements. - During change management, teams must document all activity in keeping with corporate policies and report changes and results to an oversight committee. - Sometimes, Six Sigma projects involve changes that are also governed by these policies, which means Six Sigma leaders must be prepared to report to change management committees.
Inputs
refers to anything that enters a process or is required to enter a process to drive the creation of an output. Understanding all inputs to a process is important in Six Sigma because inputs are often causal - or related to causal - factors regarding a process. The problem to a process could be because of one or more of its inputs Other reasons for defining inputs: - Understanding the resources required for a process to run - Identifying extraneous inputs that aren't required - Understanding costs for the process - Understanding how the process relates to processes that come before it
Most Six Sigma process improvement teams are relatively ___. How many regular team members is considered a good number on average?
small 5 regular team members. Adding too many regular team members can create communication problems, make it difficult to manage brainstorming sessions, and cause burnout.
Events
specific, predefined criteria or actions that cause a process to begin working. - Six Sigma teams must determine what events trigger a process because it helps them understand why a process is being performed and whether the process is being run when it isn't needed.
SME
subject matter expert. It is someone who is closely associated with or familiar with a process or work function. - Six Sigma teams invite SMEs to participate in discussion, process mapping sessions, or problem and solution brainstorming, because SMEs have valuable insight that might not be provided by high-level process owners or a review of the data.
To best manage a Six Sigma project and team, leaders have to ensure all team members, leaders, and sponsors agree on what ___ means.
success - Six Sigma teams must create a well-defined measure of success.
Beta testing
the act of implementing a new idea, system, or product with a select group of people or processes in as controlled an environment as possible. - After beta testers identify potential problems and those problems are corrected, the idea, system, or product can be rolled out to the entire population of customers, employees, or processes. - The purpose of beta testing is to reduce the risks and costs inherent in launching an unproven product or system to a widespread audience.
Outputs
the service or product that is used by the customer of the process. The process customer is not always the traditional end customer who purchases a product or service. Customers can be internal or external. Internal customer example: a receptionist receiving a phone call. External customer example: a customer buying candy In some cases the customer of a process is not even a person. Many processes feed other processes. In a pharmacy, the process of entering data about a prescription feeds the process that bills an insurance company for the medication.
While success is rated by end customers in terms of performance, quality, and satisfaction, Six Sigma teams also answer to corporate leadership. For leaders, success is also measured in terms of ___ and ___.
time and budget
How to calculate the sigma level of a product or process
( (# of opportunities - # of defects) / # of opportunities ) x 100 = Yield
The Seven Muda: Correction
- "rework" - routing work with defects back for correction - Might be necessary in some cases (ex. when materials are valuable and worth saving instead of scrapping) - The key to eliminating is a twofold approach: First, the root cause of the rework—that which is causing the errors—must be addressed. Second, create quality steps that reduce rework waste.
5S Phase 5: Sustain
- 5S only works if everyone on the team or within the organization commits to the process. Employees must follow the rules that are set up for standardizing and sustaining the organization.
Yellow Belt
- A basic introduction to the concepts of Six Sigma, but a yellow belt learns basic information about the DMAIC method often used to improve processes. - At the yellow belt level, training is often geared toward understanding of the overall methodology and basic data collection. - Yellow belts are often employees who need to know about the overall process and why it is being implemented.
Green Belt
- Certified green belts work within Six Sigma teams, usually under the supervision of a black belt or master black belt. In some cases, green belts might lead or handle smaller projects on their own. - Generally equipped with intermediate statistical analysis capabilities; they might address data and analysis concerns, help Black Belts apply Six Sigma tools to a project, or teach others within an organization about the overall Six Sigma methodology. - can be middle managers, business analysts, or project managers. - considered the worker bees of the Six Sigma methodology because they undertake most of the statistical data collection and analysis under the supervision of certified Black Belts.
The Seven Muda: Over-processing
- Occurs when an employee or process inputs more resources into a product or service than is valued by the customer. - A value stream map, is a good tool for identifying any points of over-processing. Any part of the process that doesn't provide value could be considered over-processing; when the process features a series of linked events and none provide value, it's even more likely that over-processing is occurring.
5S Phase 2: Straighten
- Once excess is removed from the work area, teams must provide a streamlined and easy-to-use location for everything necessary to the workspace. - Every item, tool, or material is given a home. - The location of resources should be labeled clearly. - Provide the visual controls that allow for common-sense operation, so that even people unfamiliar with the setting can still find what they need. - Also can be applied in a digital environment
Benefits of the 5S method
- Reduced risks of accidents and safety issues - Increased compliance with regulations from organizations such as OSHA - A foundation that makes additional improvements easier to implement - Waste is easier to identify and eliminate - Production and quality are generally improved
PDCA cycle
- The idea is that improvement comes when you recognize there is a need for change and make a plan to create improvement. - Next, you do something by testing your ideas. - Using the results of the test, you check or verify that your improvements are working. - Then you act, bringing your improvements to a production environment or scaling improvements outside of the test environment. - The fact that PDCA is a cycle means it never ends; there are always improvements to be made. This is a core tenet of Six Sigma. - created by physicist and mathematician W. Edwards Deming
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Conveyance?
- The key to eliminating is to track movement using a spaghetti diagram, process map, or value steam map to identify where it exists. Spaghetti diagram is good for physical conveyances, process maps are good to identify digital conveyances. - Once you identify muda of conveyance, you can eliminate it by making changes in the process, layout, or inventory requirements for the work. - If conveyance waste isn't due to poor process design or work-area layout, it might be related to another form of muda. Conveyance is often seen in processes that involve a lot of correction, because work is transferred back and forth between staff or areas. By addressing the muda of correction, you often also address the muda of conveyance.
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Waiting?
- You can eliminate waste of waiting within many processes by balancing machinery, people, and production. The process will only perform as fast as the slowest link; beefing up the production of a single element does nothing for the whole, so teams must work to balance and improve the entire process. - Sometimes, scheduling is a key component in eliminating waiting. Understanding organizational, team, project, and process needs also helps leadership provide the right amount of resources to reduce waiting.
Rummler-Brache
- a process improvement approach that seeks to affect positive change in processes and organizations by using a set of practical tools to address business issues and process problems. Created by implementing bits and pieces of methods that incorporated Lean and Six Sigma elements. Foundational component is called the Nine Boxes Model Approaches Improvement in 6 phases: - Improvement planning - Definition - Analysis and Design - Implementation - Management of process - Processes are turned over to daily teams
White Belt
- familiar with the basic tenets of the Six Sigma methodology, though they aren't often regular members of process improvement teams. - usually only provides a very basic introduction and overview of Six Sigma, so much so that not all Six Sigma professionals recognize it as a true Six Sigma certification.
The Seven Muda: Motion
- how employees themselves move during a process, from walking to clicking back and forth on a computer screen. - The key to eliminating is to streamline company processes, and data must be collected and analyzed to identify unnecessary movement (for ex. track movement with a spaghetti diagram, which will help you find opportunities for streamlining the movement in the process)
The Seven Muda: Conveyance
- i.e. muda of "transportation" - Involves the movement of outputs, products, or resources. - Can relate to physical movement or digital movement of data or workflow. - The key to eliminating is to track movement using a spaghetti diagram, process map, or value steam map to identify where it exists. Spaghetti diagram is good for physical conveyances, process maps are good to identify digital conveyances. - Once you identify muda of conveyance, you can eliminate it by making changes in the process, layout, or inventory requirements for the work. - If conveyance waste isn't due to poor process design or work-area layout, it might be related to another form of muda. Conveyance is often seen in processes that involve a lot of correction, because work is transferred back and forth between staff or areas. By addressing the muda of correction, you often also address the muda of conveyance.
Toyota Production System
- improved performance and efficiency became a more critical goal given the nature of Japan's economy and resources in the 1940s and 50s (after WWII) - Toyota leaders applied statistics and new quality concepts to create a system they felt would increase production and allow for variable products while reducing costs and ensuring quality (using W. Edwards Deming's teachings) - The principles driving Toyota's system were later used as the foundation of Lean Process Management or Lean Six Sigma
Motorola's Focus on Defects
- it wasn't until the mid-1980s that Six Sigma concepts saw large-scale success in the United States. - Decades after Toyota developed its system, engineers at Motorola began to question how effective their quality management programs were. Those questions first arose after a Japanese company took over a Motorola television and outperformed Motorola's own television sets in terms of the number of defects by using Lean concepts. - Instead of measuring errors against a thousand opportunities, they measured it against a million opportunities. - The team, led by CEO Bob Galvin, engineer Bill Smith, and Dr. Mikel Harry, created a step-by-step process by which any team - in almost any industry - could make gains and improvements. For the first time, this type of statistical process control was taken out of the manufacturing environment on a large scale company-wide. - Galvin directed his team to share Six Sigma with the world. Motorola and its team published articles and books on the Six Sigma method and implemented efforts to train others. In this way, they created a methodology based on statistics that could be taught and implemented within any organization or industry.
5S Phase 3: Shine
- keeping the workplace clean and neat. - Shine the work space by cleaning it, maintaining equipment, and returning items to the proper place after use. - Shine can be applied to any environment, physical or digital.
5S Phase 4: Standardize
- maintain the progress achieved in all previous phases to make the benefits of 5S methodology long-term
The Seven Muda: Inventory
- occurs when materials or inputs stack up before a step in the process (i.e. a "bottleneck"). In other words, when items are purchased or created before they are needed in a manufacturing or service process. - Overproduction can cause the Muda of Inventory - Especially common in processes that operate in batches - The key to eliminating is to avoid batch processing, or by understanding a process and basing inventory decisions on historic metrics.
The Seven Muda: Waiting
- refers to any idle time in a process, whether that idle time is for machinery or people. - Waiting occurs when steps in the process are not properly coordinated, when processes are unreliable, when work is batched too large, during rework, and during long changeovers between staff or machines. - Common in construction environments. - You can eliminate waste of waiting within many processes by balancing machinery, people, and production. The process will only perform as fast as the slowest link; beefing up the production of a single element does nothing for the whole, so teams must work to balance and improve the entire process. - Sometimes, scheduling is a key component in eliminating waiting. Understanding organizational, team, project, and process needs also helps leadership provide the right amount of resources to reduce waiting.
What were engineer and scholar Walter Shewhart's contributions to Six Sigma?
1. He was the first person to closely relate sigma level and quality. He defined a process in need of correction as one that is performing at three sigma. 2. He is considered the father of control charts (critical components of statistical process control that lets organizations maintain improved performance after a Six Sigma initiative).
Rummler-Brache approaches improvement in six phases:
1. Improvement planning. During the first phase, leadership and subject-matter-experts commit to making improvements and begin to identify opportunities for change. 2. Definition. During the second phase, project goals and scopes are defined and teams are formed to create improvements. 3. Analysis and Design. Teams use analysis to understand the current problem and to define and validate workable solutions. 4. Implementation. Teams implement process changes. Depending on the type of change, this might include programming changes, retraining staff, changes in machinery or equipment, or policy changes. 5. Management of process. Teams monitor the process during and immediately following the change to ensure improvements function as planned. 6. Processes are turned over to daily teams. Management of the process is turned over to daily teams, often with some type of control in place to ensure continued success.
Two pillars of the Toyota Production System
1. Just-in-Time Manufacturing 2. Jidoka
The Levels of Six Sigma Certification
1. White Belt - familiar with the basic tenets of the Six Sigma methodology, though they aren't often regular members of process improvement teams. - usually only provides a very basic introduction and overview of Six Sigma, so much so that not all Six Sigma professionals recognize it as a true Six Sigma certification. 2. Yellow Belt - A basic introduction to the concepts of Six Sigma, but a yellow belt learns basic information about the DMAIC method often used to improve processes. - At the yellow belt level, training is often geared toward understanding of the overall methodology and basic data collection. - Yellow belts are often employees who need to know about the overall process and why it is being implemented. 3. Green Belt - Certified green belts work within Six Sigma teams, usually under the supervision of a black belt or master black belt. In some cases, green belts might lead or handle smaller projects on their own. - Generally equipped with intermediate statistical analysis capabilities; they might address data and analysis concerns, help Black Belts apply Six Sigma tools to a project, or teach others within an organization about the overall Six Sigma methodology. - can be middle managers, business analysts, or project managers. - considered the worker bees of the Six Sigma methodology because they undertake most of the statistical data collection and analysis under the supervision of certified Black Belts. 4. Black Belt - usually works as the project leader on process improvement projects. They might also work within management, analyst, or planning roles throughout a company. 5. Master Black Belt - the highest certification level achievable for Six Sigma - usually manage Black Belts and Green Belts, consult on especially difficult project concerns, offer advice and education about challenging statistical concepts, and train others in Six Sigma methodology.
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Inventory?
Avoid batch processing (creating multiple items at once), however it is important to note that you can't always avoid batch processing. You can also reduce waste of inventory by understanding a process and basing inventory decisions on historic metrics. - A shipping center that processes between 50,000 and 100,000 boxes a week wouldn't place an order for 300,000 boxes if they only wanted to have a week's supply on hand.
Similarities and Differences between traditional quality programs (such as Total Quality Management) and continuous process improvement methods (such as Six Sigma)
Both quality programs and continuous process improvement methods look to achieve goals such as reducing errors and defects, making processes more efficient, improving customer satisfaction, and boosting profits. But quality programs are concerned with achieving a specific goal. The program either runs forever, constantly working toward the same goal, or it achieves the end goal and must be reset for a new goal. Six Sigma seeks to instill a culture of continuous improvement and quality that optimizes performance of an organization from the inside out. It's the cultural element inherent in Six Sigma that lets organizations enact both small and sweeping improvements that drastically impact efficiencies and costs. Six Sigma does work toward individual goals with regard to each project, but the projects are part of the overall culture of improvement that, in practice, is never done
List the Common Six Sigma Principles
Customer Focused Improvement - Understanding the customers and their desires. Continuous Process Improvement - Once one area is improved upon, the organization moves on to improving another area. Reduce Variation - Reducing variation leads to product/service consistency. Remove Waste - Removing waste (items, actions, or people that are unnecessary to the outcome of a process) reduces processing time, opportunities for errors, and overall costs. Equipping People - After implementing an improved process, employees who work directly with the process are equipped to control and manage the process in its improved state. Controlling the Process - The goal of improvement is to bring a process back within a state of statistical control. Then, after improvements are implemented, measurements, statistics, and other Six Sigma tools are used to ensure the process remains in control.
Challenges of Six Sigma: Lack of Resources or Knowledge
Lack of knowledge about how to use and implement Six Sigma is one of the first issues small- and mid-sized companies face. Smaller businesses can't always afford to hire dedicated resources to handle continuous process improvement, but the availability of resources and Six Sigma training makes it increasingly possible for organizations to use some of the tools without an expert or to send in-house staff to be certified in Six Sigma.
In applying Six Sigma, organizations, teams, and project managers seek to implement strategies that are based on ___ and ___. Historically, many business leaders made decisions based on ___ or ___.
Measurement and metrics. Intuition or experience.
The concept that ___ must be eliminated in a process is a driving concept of Lean.
Muda (i.e. waste)
Challenges of Six Sigma: Concerns about Using Six Sigma in a Specific Industry
Organizations often discount the methods or believe they will be too difficult to implement in other industries. In reality, Six Sigma can be customized to any industry.
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Overproduction?
Planning
Common Six Sigma Principles: Remove Waste
Removing waste (items, actions, or people that are unnecessary to the outcome of a process) reduces processing time, opportunities for errors, and overall costs.
List the other forms of waste (other than the 7 Muda)
Talent - Talent can be wasted when a process doesn't make the most use of the labor or staff available. Ideas - Muda of ideas occurs when the thoughts and ideas of people are discounted, not sought out, or misappropriated in a way that doesn't make sense. - Facilitate less muda of ideas by encouraging subject matter experts to contribute and encouraging leaders to seek all ideas before moving forward with change. - Brainstorming tools are valuable for this purpose because they are designed to create a safe haven for all ideas. Capital/Cash - Banking cash when there are profits to gain isn't always the right decision. Muda of capital or cash occurs when leadership decides not to invest in upgrades or improvements that would create additional cash flow - Six Sigma helps reduce muda of cash because statistical analysis helps point leaders to decisions that involve the least risk or most gain.
Advantage and disadvantage to using JumpStart
The benefit of JumpStart is that it lets teams create and implement small-scale solutions quickly, often providing problem resolution the same day. It also lets teams identify issues that need to be addressed in a more comprehensive project environment. One disadvantage of using JumpStart alone is that changes are sometimes made on a wait-and-see mentality, which is safe for many inner-team changes but often dangerous for department or enterprise-wide processes, or for making changes to processes that are closely tied to regulatory or compliance rules.
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Motion?
The key to eliminating is to streamline company processes, and data must be collected and analyzed to identify unnecessary movement (for ex. track movement with a spaghetti diagram, which will help you find opportunities for streamlining the movement in the process)
What are the three phases to Scrum?
The pregame. - Development teams analyze available data and business requirements. They use this information to come up with the concept for the new product or upgrade. Often, this involves translating business and process concepts into computer and technical concepts. The game. - Teams begin to develop the product via programming sprints. Sprints are smaller phases of development that are completed in sequence, usually with a review and validation of the work before moving on to the next sprint. By validating work during development, teams are able to create working products faster. The postgame. - Even though validation occurs during development, teams still have to follow quality assurance, testing, and change management procedures. Quality preparation for product release is handled in the final phase.
True or False: One of the ways that Lean is similar to Six Sigma is that it is concerned with continuous improvements
True
What is the key to eliminating Muda of Correction?
Twofold approach. First, the root cause of the rework—that which is causing the errors—must be addressed. - Typically, when defects are avoided, rework is also avoided. Second, organizations should create quality steps that reduce rework waste. - For example, employees might be more efficiently held accountable through goal-setting and metrics in order to eliminate rework waste.
By applying tools such as statistical analysis and process mapping to problems and solutions, teams can
Visualize and predict outcomes with a high-level of accuracy, letting leadership make decisions with less financial risk.
5S
a Japanese Lean approach to organizing a workspace, so that by making a process more effective and efficient, it will become easier to identify and expunge muda. 5S relies on visual cues and a clean work area to enhance efficiencies, reduce accidents, and standardize workflows to reduce defects. The method is based on five steps: 1. Sort - all items or materials in a workspace are reviewed, removing unneeded items and keeping necessary resources. - Can also be applied with computerized processes 2. Straighten - Once excess is removed from the work area, teams must provide a streamlined and easy-to-use location for everything necessary to the workspace. - Every item, tool, or material is given a home. - The location of resources should be labeled clearly. - Provide the visual controls that allow for common-sense operation, so that even people unfamiliar with the setting can still find what they need. - Also can be applied in a digital environment 3. Shine - keeping the workplace clean and neat. - Shine the work space by cleaning it, maintaining equipment, and returning items to the proper place after use. - Shine can be applied to any environment, physical or digital. 4. Standardize - maintain the progress achieved in all previous phases to make the benefits of 5S methodology long-term 5. Sustain - 5S only works if everyone on the team or within the organization commits to the process. Employees must follow the rules that are set up for standardizing and sustaining the organization.
Just-in-Time Manufacturing (JIT)
a Lean concept that originated with Toyota, with the goal of producing an output "just in time" or "as needed" by the customer. - In a JIT processing situation, one machine might produce a part required by another machine. JIT manufacturing means that the first machine supplies only the amount of parts that the second machine can process. If the second machine can process one part per minute, the first machine is set to produce one part per minute. - This method helps eliminate muda of inventory and overproduction. - Using predictive analytics, companies attempt to estimate how many of each product will sell before they produce those products. That way, they don't under- or over-supply. - Today, JIT mentalities are less about the literal idea of providing the product just in time; rather, it has become a more general concept of Lean manufacturing that helps organizations eliminate waste in the process.
Kaizen
a Lean continuous improvement tool that translates to "change for the better." The purpose of every change in a Kaizen environment is to eliminate waste and/or create more value for the customer on a continuous basis.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
a continuous approach to quality that served as one of the first formal methods enacted in business environments in the United States. Originally developed in the 1950s, but saw widespread use in the 1980s. While Total Quality Management programs were often somewhat lackluster when it came to results, the method was an essential stepping point to current improvement and quality methods such as Six Sigma. Required 8 key elements: - Ethics - Integrity - Trust - Training - Teamwork - Leadership - Recognition - Communication One of the biggest advantages of the TQM mentality is that it began to force organizations to see themselves as one entity rather than a number of loosely related entities or departments. - Many organizations were run via heavily siloed departments. One department often did not understand what another was doing, which caused a great deal of rework and waste. - Thanks to TQM, organizations began to take enterprise approaches to decision making, quality, and customer service. Business leaders started to look at companies as a series of linked processes operating toward a single end goal.
Nine Boxes Model
a foundational component of the Rummler-Brache approach to process improvement. - The model is created by a matrix of three performance levels and three performance dimensions. Performance levels are the performer, the process, and the organization. Dimensions are management, design, and goal. When placed on a grid, the levels and dimensions form nine boxes.
The Customer Experience Management Method (CEM)
a process improvement approach that combines some process improvement tools with customer relations management. - takes an outside-in approach to process improvement, focusing on what the customer wants or needs and how each process in an organization serves that need. - The primary purpose of CEM is to align processes throughout an organization with customer satisfaction goals. As such, even processes without a direct relation to customers are defined in terms of customers. - Like Six Sigma, CEM relies heavily on data. Organizations can't make determinations about customer goals and the success of processes without collecting and analyzing customer feedback.
JumpStart
a process improvement method that is a fast-paced method for identifying problems and solutions in a single session. - JumpStart can be used within almost all of the other methods described in this book (Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, BPR, CEM) as a way to spark discussion regarding processes or to identify possible solutions. - Can also be used as a management tool for helping teams come to tenable solutions outside of project environments or in the absence of project resources. - Because JumpStart doesn't take the time for rigorous verification or statistical analysis on its own, teams should not use this method to enact sweeping changes or attempt to improve processes that could seriously impact customer experience or the bottom line. - JumpStart doesn't work to define the problem: the group is close enough to the issue that they already know what is wrong. Instead, the group spends several hours brainstorming root causes for the problem and coming up with possible solutions.
Business Project Reengineering i.e. business process redesign
a quality process approach that is not continuous (unlike Lean, Six Sigma, and TQM), it is less concerned with incremental quality wins and more concerned with a radical change across an entire organization or process architecture. - most often concerned with the technical processes that occur throughout an organization (systems, software, data storage, cloud and web processes) - Because of the intense integration of automation and computer elements into processes with BPR, organizations that enter BPR endeavors have to rely heavily on both inside and outside technical resources. - BPR initiatives can be costly, which is why they are often deployed only when an organization expects exponential gain or has determined that current processes are obsolete or badly broken. - Most projects go through planning, design, and implementation phases.
Six Sigma (6σ)
both a methodology for process improvement and a statistical concept that seeks to define the variation inherent in any process, while also prioritizing a culture of continuous improvement - Variation in a process leads to opportunities for error. - Opportunities for error then lead to risks for product defects. - Product defects lead to poor customer satisfaction. - Therefore, Six Sigma reduces process costs and increases customer satisfaction.
Muda
i.e. waste in a process. It is any non-value-added task within a process.
Allied Signal
in 1993, Dr. Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder joined this company. - CEO Larry Bossidy noticed executives and other high-level leaders experienced knowledge barriers in relation to Six Sigma - Dr. Harry created a system for educating executive leaders. He developed systems that allowed Six Sigma to be effectively deployed by leadership throughout an organization in its entirety.
The Seven Muda
resources that are commonly misused and mismanaged, which lead to waste within a process. 1. Overproduction - a product, part, or service was produced too fast, at the wrong time, or in too much quantity. - Important to note that overproduction is not always bad: sometimes having extra stock of safety equipment is overproduction but necessary 2. Correction - "rework" - routing work with defects back for correction - Might be necessary in some cases (ex. when materials are valuable and worth saving instead of scrapping) 3. Inventory - occurs when materials or inputs stack up before a step in the process (i.e. a "bottleneck"). In other words, when items are purchased or created before they are needed in a manufacturing or service process. - Overproduction can cause the Muda of Inventory - Especially common in processes that operate in batches 4. Motion - How employees themselves move during a process, from walking to clicking back and forth on a computer screen. 5. Conveyance - i.e. muda of "transportation" - Involves the movement of outputs, products, or resources. - Can relate to physical movement or digital movement of data or workflow. - Often seen in processes that involve a lot of correction. By addressing the muda of correction, you often address the muda of conveyance. 6. Over-processing - Occurs when an employee or process inputs more resources into a product or service than is valued by the customer. 7. Waiting - refers to any idle time in a process, whether that idle time is for machinery or people. - Waiting occurs when steps in the process are not properly coordinated, when processes are unreliable, when work is batched too large, during rework, and during long changeovers between staff or machines. - Common in construction environments.
Value Streams
the sequence of all items, events, and people required to produce an end result. For ex. If you combine all of the processes in making a hotdog (supplier, buns, ketchups, someone to serve hotdog, etc.) into a pictorial representation of exactly how these elements become the served hotdog, then you have a value stream map.
