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Lean Six Sigma (LSS)
What does Lean add to Six Sigma? The unqualified answer is speed. Lean Six Sigma emphasizes that speed (provided by Lean tools) is directly tied to process & product excellence (provided by Six Sigma tools). When Lean is added to Six Sigma, it is apparent there’s a need to re-think slow processes, however high their quality may be, because it’s understood that speed, discipline, and excellence go hand-in-hand. The first principle of LSS is: delight your customers with speed & quality. The second principle is to improve process flow & speed (also referred to by some Lean experts as velocity).
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Essential Quality Tools
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to figure out that my primary focus is on data, not just any data; it must be current, pertinent, valid and sufficient data. Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion. “In the absence of measurements, you have myth.” No doubt about it, “if you’re not measuring, you’re just practicing.” There are well over 100 Total Quality Management / Lean Six Sigma / Continuous Improvement (TQM / L6σ / CI) tools to be found in Dr. ReVelle’s book, “Quality Essentials,” to assist you and your teammates to select, collect, and analyze data as well as to select and solve the right problems quickly. |
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
QFD is a system used to translate the voice of the customer (the verbatims) to specific
customer requirements (the WHATs) to directly related engineering requirements (the HOWs). QFD uses cross-functional teams of subject matter experts (SMEs) to assign customer requirements throughout the supplier's organization. QFD is the first phase of the three-phase Variability Reduction Process (VRP). Phase 2 is Design of Experiments (DOE) and Phase 3 is Statistical Process Control (SPC). The output of QFD becomes the input to DOE and the output of DOE becomes the input to SPC. QFD uses a collection of interrelated matrices to analytically determine where and how scarce resources should be applied to maximize customer satisfaction in less time and with lower costs. |
Robust Design of Experiments (DOE)
DOE is an organized collection of statistically-oriented tools and techniques used to create and evaluate cost-effective, efficient experimentation. DOE is applied to reduce assets required to obtain greatest quantity of pertinent data. Assets include cost, time & physical resources such as capital equipment, raw material & personnel. There are major advantages associated with the use of DOE orthogonal arrays such as increased confidence levels and reduced costs.
By using an orthogonal array while moving from a 90% confidence level to a 95% confidence level is achievable with no additional consumption of financial, material, or personnel resources. Reduced Costs can be accomplished through the use of orthogonal array designs. These widely-used designs are easily-customized versions of fractional factorial designs which are based on the appropriate full factorial design. The savings are achieved by testing only for main effects and carefully-selected, specific interactions rather than examining every possible multiple-way interaction, most of which are of no consequence. |
Strategy Planning and Deployment Excellence System (SPADES)
Every business starts with a mission, a vision and goals. Strategy planning brings together people, organizational culture, marketing strategy, product strategy, financial strategy, and governance model. SPADES examines the environment, the economy, the competition, the risks, the opportunities, and the key issues of an organization. The outcome of strategy planning is a business plan. A business plan that answers three questions: where are we now; where do we want to be (e.g., in five years time); and how are we going to get there? |
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