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Root Cause Analysis: When to Stop
“Is that Miss or Mrs.?” the receptionist asked. “Miss,” replied the elderly lady. “My friends just call me Di.” The receptionist nodded as she typed. “Got it. Miss Di Agnosed. That should be all we need for the records. You can see the doctor now.” Dr. W. R. Ong smiled pleasantly. “What seems to be […]
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How Do I Compute Sigma? Let Me Count the Ways
With SPC work, we normally try to analyze a process distribution’s shape, central tendency and spread. We usually measure this last item by computing an estimate of the process standard deviation, or sigma, designated with the Greek letter σ. There are several ways to do this; I’ll discuss the pros and cons of some of […]
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Selecting Winning Project Portfolios
Software helps select the best projects. In a previous post I discussed how Six Sigma projects should be selected using the theory of constraints (TOC). After attempting to do so, most discover yet another constraint: money. In most organizations there are more opportunities for improvement than one can afford to pursue. If it isn’t money, […]
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DMAIC and Project Plans
Six Sigma’s magic doesn’t lie in statistical or high-tech razzle-dazzle. Six Sigma relies on tried-and-true methods that have been around for decades. In fact, Six Sigma discards a great deal of the complexity that characterizes total quality management (TQM). By one expert’s count, there are more than 400 TQM tools and techniques. Six Sigma takes […]
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Tough Times and Lean Six Sigma
Tom provides a little background on the current economic crisis, and some pointers to help you survive and prosper.
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Divide and Conquer
A typical Six Sigma project adds between $145,000 and $250,000 to the bottom line. These numbers provide useful guidelines to the Black Belt for breaking the project down to manageable size. True Six Sigma projects are neither too large nor too small. It’s rare that the project as it’s initially proposed will be the right […]
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Defining Six Sigma Projects
Six Sigma’s impressive bottom-line results normally flow from Six Sigma projects. Properly defined Six Sigma projects meet certain criteria: Six Sigma Criteria The project definition is made explicit in the project charter, which is a document issued by senior management, usually the project sponsor (not the project manager or Black Belt), that provides the project […]
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Why Six Sigma Is Not Enough
Some people, including me, believe that garden variety Six Sigma doesn’t go far enough. In fact, even zero defects falls short. Defining quality as only the lack of nonconforming product reflects a limited view of quality. Of course, that was never Motorola’s intent when it invented the Six Sigma program. However, the misinterpretation prevails. Defining […]
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The Six Sigma Management Paradox
Simply stated, the Six Sigma management paradox is as follows: To attain Six Sigma performance, we must minimize process variability, slack and redundancy by building variability, slack and redundancy into our organizations. Defining the Six Sigma Management Paradox Six Sigma involves an intense effort to reduce process variation to a minimum so that processes consistently […]
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Six Sigma Shortcuts
I often receive e-mail and phone calls from people whose management has expressed an interest in Six Sigma but doesn’t like the approach (i.e., hard work and dedication from the top down) used by pioneering companies such as Motorola, GE, AlliedSignal, Texas Instruments and others. When I suggest that people not proceed until they can […]