Six Sigma

Flashcards for main terminology and processes associated with the Lean and Six Sigma processes.

Kaizen process

Japanese term for continuous improvement, used for any small improvement. Known cause, Simple solution. Estimated completion time: 0-5 days

Lean process

Used for waste elimination. Known cause - Complex solution. Estimated completion time: 45-90 days.

Six Sigma process

Used for variation reduction. Unknown cause - complex solution. Estimated completion time: 90-180 days.

Standard Deviation

Determines the spread about the mean/central tendency

Process Capability

Capability of a process to produce defect-free work

DPMO

Defects Per Million Opportunities

6 sigma (as sigma level)

3.4 defects per million

DMADV (acronym)

Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify

DMAIC (acronym)

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control

DMADV (define methodology)

Helps create new products/services, does not require historical data, used in Manufacturing

DMAIC (define methodology)

Helps improve existing products/services, requires historical data, used in most organizations and industries

15 phases

Number of phases in the DMAIC roadmap

Toll Gate

Check in meetings that should be conducted at the end of each D M A I C phase

Lean Six Sigma

A combination of Lean's principles for eliminating waste with Six Sigma's reduction of variability

Define Phase

1. Understand Customer and Business Requirements

2. Complete Project Charter

3. Complete high-level as-is process map

Voice of the Customer

The process of capturing customers' expectations, preferences, and aversions.

Need

A desire or expectation of a customer from a given product or service.

Requirement

The attribute of a product or service that fulfills the needs of the customer.

Project Charter

A document that provides a framework and objective for an improvement project.

Project Charter Components

Project Statement, Goal Statement, Project Team, Project Scope, Milestones

Living document

A document that can be updated throughout the lifecycle of a project.

Static document

A document that is only created once at the beginning of a project.

Four critical components of a Problem Statement

"What" is occurring, "When" and "where" is the problem occurring, What is the "magnitude" of the problem, What are the "consequences" of the problem

Problem Statement

Definitive statement that quantitatively describes the issue the customers are facing.

Goal Statement

Defines the outcome the project team is looking to achieve

Components of a Goal statement

Define the improvement objective in terms of the problem statement, Follows SMART goal setting, Start with a verb (increase, improve, eliminate, reduce, etc.), Time bound (when will improvement be realized by?)

SMART (acronym)

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timebound

Scope statement

Helps the team define and understand the start and end of a project, Provides insights about the project dimensions and constraints.

Project Milestones

Refer to the timeline of completion of each phase of the DMAIC process, Should be aggressive enough to maintain momentum but still realistic, Documented on a preliminary high-level project plan WITH DATES.

SIPOC (acronym)

Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers

SIPOC (benefits)

Defines the boundaries of a process, Provides a structured way to discuss the process, Helps obtain stakeholder consensus on how the process operates today

COPIS (reverse of SIPOC)

Customers, Outputs, Process, Inputs, Suppliers.

End result of toll gate #1

Prove to project champion that the team understands the issue and business area the requirements for the problem they are trying to solve

Process map

Visually displays step-by-step process activities & flow of information across different departments/sub-processes in time sequence

Connector

Connects any two steps of a process and shows the direction is it heading

Terminal Activity

The first or final step in a process that signifies completion or beginning of a workflow.

Activity

A specific task or action performed within a process.

Delay

Identifies when the process has come to a temporary halt, or what has to happen before a process resumes

Database

Shows a [name] is associated with this step

Document

Indicates a written [name] is prepared or used at this step

Predefined Process

A process that is established and documented in advance, providing a standard procedure to follow during specific operations.

Storage

Indicates when something is saved, what is saved, and for how long.

Decision

Displays a question with several answers/options that lead away, i.e. “yes” and “no.”

Waste

Anything other than the minimum amount of information, equipment, materials, & effort absolutely required to add value to a product or service.

8

Number of waste categories in the Lean process

Defects

Rejects that require additional time, resources, and money to fix

Over production

Producing more than is needed or before it is needed, leading to excess inventory and potential waste.

Waiting

The time when work is delayed or idle due to waiting for materials, information, or equipment (i.e., overfull inboxes,

Non-utilized skills

the skills and capabilities of employees that are not being effectively used in their roles.

Transfer (transportation)

Waste from moving things around or work transferring across platforms or teams. Found by excessive back-and-forth, repeated follows, movement from location to location.

Inventory

Work stuck in email inboxes not being processed, idle financial or fixed assets. Found from bottlenecks leading to “staging” areas for work in progress

Motion

Inefficient placement of resources creating motion. Found from inefficient placement of office resources, physical distance between workstations.

Excess processing

Additional processing of transactions. Found from similar info being captured in several places, large variations in time to do similar tasks, unnecessary approvals.

DOWNTIME

Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Nonutilized skills, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Excess processing

Discrete Data (attribute data)

Information that can be categorized into a classification, is based on counts, and is finite (cannot be subdivided) (example: number of accidents, number of calls)

Continuous Data

Data that can be continuously bifurcated (subdivided) into smaller and smaller fractions. Measured on a scale or continuum (example: call length, temperature, etc.)

Sampling

Process of collecting data from a portion of a population and using the results to draw conclusions about the whole population.

Simple Random Sampling

The process of choosing random samples from the whole population in which every unit has an equal chance of being selected.

Stratified Random Sampling

The process of organizing a population into groups or subsets and choosing random samples from each of the groups.

Systematic Sampling

Samples chosen by a pre-defined system. Example: auditing every 4th car produced at a car factory.

The three most important factors of data sampling strategy

Who will collect the data, how often (when) will it be collected, and how will it be collected.

P-Value

The result of any statistical analysis performed on Minitab