A Value Stream Map is a Lean tool used to examine a process for the presence of unnecessary and wasteful activities. It provides visibility of material flow and information flow in a process. On one diagram, the team can visualize the eight forms of waste (i.e., defects, over-production, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra processing.)
Developed by Bruce A. Tuckman in the mid-1960s, Form, Storm, Norm and Perform (FSNP) provides a framework for how project teams develop. It’s useful for project leaders who want to better understand team dynamics, as well as for team members who benefit from self-analysis.
Lean Six Sigma takes the fundamental Six Sigma strategies for streamlining business processes and applies them alongside the “Lean” strategies of product production. The result is a hybrid system for making products, processes and services more effective and efficient.
The null hypothesis is the complement of the alternative hypothesis. The null hypothesis is what you anticipate through randomness. The alternative hypothesis, sometimes known as the alternate hypothesis is the opposite of that. It is what you would not anticipate by randomness. More often than not you are trying to reject the null because you are trying to see a change in something – considering that most Six Sigma projects are trying to fix broken processes.
The Ishikawa Tools (also known as Seven Basic Tools) are made up of the Cause-Effect Diagram, Check Sheet, Control Chart, Histogram, Pareto Chart, Scatter Diagram, and Stratification.
Process map is an illustration of the entire process. It is usually drawn by the team facilitator on a large whiteboard or a long stretched out roll of ‘butcher’ paper. The process map gives the team visualization of how the process works. The process map is a simple, but very powerful tool that really is not meant to be a decision-by-decision flowchart; instead, it is more of a block diagram that shows the various steps of the whole process.
5S derives its name from five Japanese terms beginning with the letter ‘S’. A conscientiously-applied program of 5S creates a workplace suited for visual control and Lean production. Collectively, the five S’s (detailed below) outline how to create a workplace that is visibly organized, free of clutter, neatly arranged, and sparkling clean. The 5S system is often a starting place for implementing Lean operations.
A kaizen event (sometimes referred to as a kaizen blitz) is a focused improvement project that can accomplish breakthrough improvements in a short amount of time. The most common timeframe for such an event is five days; but there is nothing magic about having a kaizen event that is five days in length. The goal is to deliver a rapid breakthrough improvement. Kaizen events must have a clear and concise objective, along with immediate available resources and rapid results.
Force field analysis is a tool used to visualize the driving forces and the restraining forces that affect some area of interest. The team might use force field analysis to get an understanding of the forces that are helping something and the forces that are inhibiting something from being at the optimal level.
Benchmarking in Six Sigma involves a company analyzing its performance rather than measuring it against the standard set by the industry they work in or a world-class company in another …
