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78 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Six Sigma definition
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Six Sigma is a quality philosophy to reduce potential variability from processes and make dramatic reductions in customer-defined error rates.
p.3 |
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Common forms of waste/NVA activities
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Overproduction
Human resources Transportation Inventory Motion Rework Additional work above the requirements Waiting p.3 |
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Defining problem statement and goal - step 1
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State the problem > Answer: who? what? where? when? how? > Restate the problem
p.4 |
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Defining problem statement and goal - step 2
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Desired future state > Answer: who? what? where? when? how? > Restate the desired future state
p.4 |
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Defining problem statement and goal - step 3
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Restate the problem combining the current and future states > Focus on one problem with one or two sentences > Final problem statement and goal
p.4 |
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What is value stream mapping?
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A communication tool, a business planning tool, and a tool to manage change in the process. it is a simple visualization of identifying value-added and non-value-added activities.
p.5 |
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Value Stream Mapping: Preparation
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Agreeing on what process to study, how to map it, who will participate, and logistics
p.5 |
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Value Stream Mapping: Current State
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Agreeing on a well-understood map of the current situation
p.5 |
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Value Stream Mapping: Future State
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Agreeing on a shared vision of a desired future state
p.5 |
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Value Stream Mapping: Planning
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Agreeing on how to implement the future state plan
p.5 |
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Customer Takt Time
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Available time per day over Customer demand per day
p.6 |
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5 Why's - How To
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1. Write down the specific problem
2. Ask why the problem happens and write down the answer 3. Repeat the same until the root causes are identified p.7 |
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Fishbone (Ishikawa)/Cause and Effect Diagram - How To
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1. Utilize a team approach
2. Define the problem statement/effect 3. Start by answering to "Cause" and "Why?" under each category p.7 |
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What is a time and motion study?
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A basic analytical procedure to establish the preferred method of accomplishing a task. It helps to estimate a clear expectation of how long it takes to perform a particular activity under normal working conditions. Usually done by direct and continuous observation of a task, using a timekeeping device.
p. 10 |
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Why do a time and motion study?
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Quantifies value-added, non-value-added, and non-value-added but necessary (value-enabling) activities. Provides an insight to improve the existing procedures. Improves operational planning, workload assessment, and productivity expectations.
p. 10 |
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Key measurements of a time and motion study
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1. Competency
2. Adherence to procedures 3. Normal conditions Focus on the process, not the person p.10 |
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Why have a data collection strategy?
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To help measure the right things, and to validate the measurements statistically (measure things right). To identify causes (x) and critical outputs (y).
p. 11 |
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Types of data
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Qualitative
Quantitative p.11 |
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What is the minimum for a good sample size?
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30 data points
p. 11 |
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Expanded definition of Six Sigma
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A problem-solving methodology uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and re-inventing business processes.
p. 18 |
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How does Six Sigma measure performance?
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Performance is measured in defects per million opportunities (DPMO). The idea is fewer than 3.4 DPMO.
p.18 |
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What does a Six Sigma Organization do?
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Use Six Sigma tools to improve performance by:
1. Continuously lowering costs 2. Growing revenue 3. Improving customer satisfaction 4. Increase capability and capacity 5. Reduce complexity 6. Lower cycle time 7. Minimize defects and errors p.18 |
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What are the keys to transforming or building a Six Sigma organization?
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Management involvement and commitment
Cultural change Communication Change the organization's systems or processes p.18 |
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What are the roles and responsibilities of Six Sigma green belts?
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1. Demonstrate proficiency at achieving results through the application of the Six Sigma approach
2. Work closely with continuous improvement leaders to apply formal data analysis approaches to projects 3. Recommends Six Sigma projects 4, Leads Six Sigma teams in local improvement projects 5. Continues to perform normal duties while participating on Six Sigma project teams p, 19 |
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What are some customer-centered Six Sigma project foci?
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Product quality
Service dependability Timeliness of delivery p. 19 |
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What are some business process Six Sigma project foci?
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Cost reduction
Waste reduction Teamwork Innovation Customer satisfaction p. 19 |
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What is DMAIC?
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A structured problem-solving methodology that leads logically from defining a problem through implementing solutions.
Define Measure Analyze Implement Control p. 20 |
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What is the purpose of the Define phase?
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To have the team and its sponsor reach agreement on the scope, goals, and financial and performance targets for the project.
p. 20 |
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What are the key steps of the Define phase?
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1. Review project charter
2. Validate problem statement and goals 3. Validate financial benefits 4. Create/validate process map and scope 5. Create communication plan 6. Develop project plans p. 20 |
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What is a CTQ?
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Critical To Quality -
CTQs are the internal critical quality parameters that relate to the wants and needs of the customer. They are not the same as CTCs (Critical to Customer), and the two are often confused. CTCs are what is important to the customer; CTQs are what’s important to the quality of the process or service to ensure the things that are important to the customer. iSixSigma.com |
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What is the purpose of the Measure phase?
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To thoroughly understand the current state of the process and collect reliable data on process speed, quality, and costs that you will use to expose the underlying causes of the problems.
p. 22 |
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What are the key steps of the Measure phase?
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1. Develop detailed process flow (VSM, process map, SIPOC)
2. Identify X's, Y's, and other process variables 3. Create a data collection plan 4. Create a data analysis plan 5. Use measurement system analysis and Gage R&R 6. Collect data to establish baseline 7. Update VSM with data 8. Plan and execute pilot projects p. 22 |
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What is the purpose of the Analyze phase?
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To pinpoint and verify causes affecting the key input and output variables tied to project goals (finding the critical X's).
p. 23 |
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What are the key steps of the Analyze phase?
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1. Identify value-added, non-value-added, and value-enabling activities.
2. Calculate business/process efficiency 3. Analyze the process flow 4. Analyze the data collected in the Measure phase 5. Generate theories to explain potential causes 6. Narrow the search 7. Collect additional data to verify root causes p. 23 |
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What is the purpose of the Improve phase?
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To learn from pilots of the selected solutions and execute full-scale implementation.
p. 23 |
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What are the key steps of the Improve phase?
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1. Develop potential solutions
2. Evaluate, select, and optimize best solutions 3. Develop future state VSM 4. Develop and implement pilot solution 5. Compare results to baseline 6. Develop and execute full-scale implementation plan p. 23 |
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What is the purpose of the Control phase?
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To complete project work and hand off improved processes with procedures for maintaining the gains
p. 24 |
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What are the key steps of the Control phase?
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1. Develop supporting methods and documentation
2. Launch implementation 3. Lock in performance gains 4. Monitor implementation 5. Develop process control plans 6. Audit the results 7. Finalize the project 8. Validate performance and financial results p. 24 |
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Why use statistics in the Measure phase?
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1. Develop a clear and concise description of the problem.
2. Gives a framework for describing the variability and quantifies the potential sources of variability p. 25 |
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What is statistics?
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A mathematical science of collecting, classifying, presenting, interpreting, and analyzing numerical data, and making conclusions about the system.
p. 25 |
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What are the two major areas of statistics?
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Descriptive and inferential
p. 26 |
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What is descriptive statistics?
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Descriptive statistics characterizes and summarizes sets of data.
Examples: mean, median, standard deviation, percentiles, graphs, tables, charts p. 26 |
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What is inferential statistics?
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Inferential statistics draws conclusions about a population from a limited set of sample data.
Example: Estimating the wrong fax numbers p. 26 |
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Why use data?
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1. To identify and verify a problem
2. To analyze a problem 3. To understand, describe, or monitor a process 4. To test a hypothesis 5. To find a relationship between inputs and outputs of a process p. 27 |
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What are the types of data?
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Continuous (or measurement) data and discrete (or countable) data
p. 27 |
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What are examples of continuous (measurement) data?
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Length, height, weight, volume, time
p.27 |
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What are examples of discrete (countable) data?
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Number of defects, number of failures, number of wrong fax numbers
p. 27 |
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What is a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)?
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A systematic, proactive method for evaluating a process to identify where and how it might fail and to assess the relative impact of different failures.
p. 29 |
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Why do an FMEA?
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To prevent the possible failures by correcting processes proactively rather than reacting to adverse events after failures have occurred, and to evaluate an new process prior to implementation and assess the impact of a proposed change to a new process.
p. 29 |
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How do you perform an FMEA?
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List down the failure modes (what could go wrong?).
List down the failure causes (why would the failure happen?) List down the failure effects (what would be the consequences of each failure?) p. 29 |
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What are the requirements of an FMEA?
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Understanding of the process.
Identifying potential failures and effects Metrics of Severity, Occurence, Detection rankings RPN calculation Ability to develop action plans p. 29 |
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What are the phases and steps of an FMEA?
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Analyze Phase:
1. Review the process 2. Brainstorm potential failure modes 3. List potential effects of failure 4. Assign severity rankings 5. Assign occurrence rankings 6. Assign detection rankings 7. Calculate RPNs Improve Phase 1. Develop the action plan 2. Take action 3. Calculate the resulting RPNs p. 30 |
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How can you know if you have a potential good topic for a Six Sigma project?
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You can easily describe one individual occurrence of the defect, and estimate what that one defect costs when it occurs.
p. 5 (PG) |
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What are the elements of a good problem statement?
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A specific statement of the current problem, descriptive statements outlining locations and/or occurrences of problematic events, and the initial scope of the problem.
p. 8 (PG) |
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What are some common issues with poor problem statements?
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Problem is anecdotal or not quantifiable, problem is not linked to a customer expectation, or the problem is stated as a pre-determined solution.
p. 8 (PG) |
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What is SMART?
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Specific
Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound p. 10 (PG) |
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What are some characteristics of effective goal statements?
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Describe desired/planned new performance
Are as objective as possible Are also brief and use common vs. tech terms Do not include causes or imply solutions May include estimates or placeholders ("x%") Are often reviewed after Measure and Analyze phases p, 10 (PG) |
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What are the top 10 reasons project teams fail?
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1. A silent sponsor.
2. Under- or over-facilitiation. 3. The charter is unclear or absent. 4. Lack of planning through the project phases. 5. Inadequate communication with key stakeholders. 6. Team is the wrong size or has the wrong members. 7. Lack of a process or excessive focus on process (including DMAIC). 8. Weak or non-existent alignment with what is critical to the customer or the business. 9. Lack of data suitable for baselines or root cause analysis. 10. Lack of time commitment from team members, their supervisors, sponsors, or other stakeholders. p. 12 (PG) |
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What are the aspects of a continuous improvement (CI) story?
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Represents and documents the project.
Each phase has an individual slide to summarize the information learned. The project appendix page houses the majority of the tools used throughout the project. p. 13 (PG) |
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When are sponsor reviews held?
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After each phase of DMAIC.
p. 14 (PG) |
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Why are sponsor reviews held?
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To clarify what was learned, and for the sponsor to state was still needs to be worked on and give permission to move on to the next phase.
p. 14 (PG) |
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Who must attend sponsor reviews?
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Sponsor, Team lead(s), and coach
p. 14 (PG) |
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What is a customer?
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The recipient of a product or service.
p. 16 (PG) |
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What is VOC?
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Voice of the Customer
p. 17 (PG) |
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What are sources for listening to the VOC?
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Customer research
Casual contact Inbound communication Outbound communication Transactions Internal intelligence p. 17 (PG) |
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What is CTQ?
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Critical To Quality
The key measurable characteristics of a process that must be met to satisfy a customer. May include upper and lower specification limits as well as other factors. p. 19 (PG) |
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What are the general categories of CTQ?
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Critical To Cost (CTC)
Critical To Process (CTP) Critical To Satisfaction (CTS) p. 19 (PG) |
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From whose point of view is quality defined?
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From the customers' point of view.
p. 19 (PG) |
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What is a CTQ tree used for?
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To help teams drill down from complex or generic specifications to more detailed and measurable ones.
To help show the way several different characteristics may relate or contribute to one another. Mainly used when seeking quantifiable specifications. p. 20 (PG) |
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What are X's?
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Functional inputs or factors (location, system, environment, employees, machine, etc.)
p. 21 (PG) |
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What are Y's?
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The "problem" or output measure (cycle time, customer satisfaction, audit failures, etc.)
p. 21 (PG) |
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What is an operational definition?
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A specific description of the defect, process, product, and/or service to be measured.
p. 22 (PG) |
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What agreements are vital to an operational definition?
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The requirement to be measured: what the team wants to improve.
The method of measurement: the method used to measure the requirement (typically quantitatively). What the definition will not include: exclude anything that prevents the operational definition from being used consistently. p. 22 (PG) |
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What questions should you answer when creating an operational definition?
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What is the characteristic being measured?
What are the measurements that will allow you to attach a value to this characteristic? How far from perfect dos it have to be to count as a defect? What is the goal? What is the plan to collect the data? How will you record the data? How do your customers measure the same thing? What is their standard/specification? p. 26 (PG) |
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What is a SIPOC?
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A high-level process map.
Supplier Input Process Output Customer p. 27 (PG) |
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What are the benefits of process mapping?
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Gives a picture of the process
Identifies rework loops and redundancies Gives insight to bottlenecks, cycle times, and inventory Helps identify when and where to collect data Serves as a sound training and orientation tool p. 29 (PG) |
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What are the three levels of process maps in DMAIC projects?
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What it is thought to be
What it actually is What it should be p. 30 (PG) |
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What is a hidden factory?
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A rework loop, representing hidden waste and costs
p. 31 (PG) |
