Lean Six Sigma: R. Murali

Lean Six Sigma
R. Murali B.E, MBA, M.Tech, (Ph.D)

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Meenakshi College of Engineering
West K.K Nagar - Chennai-600078
Dr. C. Ramesh Kumar M.E, Ph.D

Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Meenakshi College of Engineering
West K.K Nagar - Chennai-600078
Sams Publishers
Chennai
First Edition : 2021
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PREFACE
T
I
III
IV
CONTENTS
UNIT 1 Lean and Six Sigma Background and

Fundamentals 1 - 26
1.0 Introduction 2
1.1 Six Sigma 2
1.2 Historical Overview 3
1.3 Definition of Quality 3
1.4 Total Quality Management and Six Sigma 4
1.5 Set of Tools and techniques 5
1.7 Total Quality Management 7
1.8 Principles of Total Quality Management 7
1.9 Lean Manufacturing 8
1.9.1 Principles of Lean 9
1.9.2 Types of Wastes in Lean Manufacturing 10
1.9.3 Six sigma and Process Tolerance 11
1.9.4 Six Sigma and Cultural Changes 12
1.9.5 Six Sigma Capability 15
1.9.6 Six Sigma Need Assessments 18
1.9.7 Implications of Quality Levels 19
1.9.8 Cost of Doing Nothing 20
Two Marks Questions and Answers 24
Review Questions 26
UNIT 2 The Scope of Tools and Techniques 27 - 112

2.0 Introduction 29
2.1 IPO Diagram 30
2.3 SIPOC Diagram 32
2.3.1 How to create a SIPOC diagram 32
2.4 Process Maps or Flow Diagram 34
2.4.1 Types of Process Maps 36
V
VI Contents
2.5 Critical to Quality (CTQ) Trees 36

2.5.1 About CTQ Trees 37
2.5.2 How to Use the Tool 38
2.6 Project Charters 39
2.6.1 Develop Project Charter 40
2.7 Tools for Measurement 43
2.7.1 Check Sheets 43
2.8 Histograms 48
2.8.1 How to Construct a Histogram 48
2.8.2 Components of Histogram 49
2.8.3 Types of Histogram: 49
2.9 Run Chart 49
2.9.1 Scatter Diagrams 51
2.9.2 Cause and Effect Diagram 54
2.10 Pareto Charts 56
2.11 Control Charts 57
2.12 Flow Process Charts 68
2.13 Process Capability Measurements 69
2.13.1 Process mapping 72
2.14 Regression Analysis 74
2.15 RU/CS Analysis 76
2.16 SWOT 78
2.17 PESTLE 79
2.18 Five Whys 81
2.19 Interrelationship Diagram 82
2.20 Overall Equipment Effectiveness 83
2.21 TRIZ Innovative Problem Solving 86
2.22 Affinity Diagram 88
2.23 Nominal Group Technique 89
2.24 SMED 91
2.25 5S 93
2.26 Mistake Proofing 95
Contents VII
2.26 Value Stream Mapping 97

2.28 Forced Field Analysis 98
2.29 Gantt Chart 100
2.30 Activity Network Diagram 101
2.31 Radar Chart 104
2.32 PDCA Cycle 105
2.33 Milestone Tracker Diagram 106
2.34 Earned Value Management 107
Review Questions 112
UNIT 3 Six Sigma Methodologies 113 - 148

3.1 Design for Six Sigma (DFSS),- 114
3.2 Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) Method 116
3.3 Risk Priority Number (RPN) 124
3.4 Six sigma and Leadership 127
3.5 Change Acceleration Process 133
3.6 Developing Communication Plan 136
3.7 Stakeholders 142
UNIT 4 Six Sigma Implementation and

Challenges 149 - 180
4.1 Tools for Implementation 151
4.2 Implementation 160
4.3 Leadership Training 162
4.3.1 Close communication system 162
4.3.2 Project selection 163
4.3.3 Project Management and Team 164
4.3.4 Champion Training 165
4.3.5 Customer Quality Index 166
4.3.6 Challenges 167
VIII Contents
4.3.7 Program Failure 170

4.3.8 CPQ vs Six Sigma 172
4.4 Structure the Deployment of Six sigma 173
4.5 Cultural Challenge 175
4.6 Customer/Internal Metrics 176
UNIT 5 Six Sigma Implementation and

Challenges 181 - 202
5.1 Evaluation Strategy 182
5.2 The economics of Six sigma Quality 184
5.3 Return on six sigma (ROSS) or Return on Investment (ROI) 185
5.3.1 Poor Project Estimates 187
5.3.2 Continuous Improvement 191
5.3.3 Lean Manufacturing 191
5.3.4 Overproduction 195
5.3.5 Kaizen 196
5.3.6 5S 197
Multiple Choice Questions 203 - 220

University Question Papers 221 - 227
Unit 1
Lean and Six Sigma Background
and Fundamentals
Syllabus
Historical Overview-Definition of Quality-What is six sigma-TQM and Six Sigma- lean
manufacturing and six sigma- six sigma and process tolerance-Six sigma and cultural
changes-six sigma capability-six sigma need assessments-implications of quality levels,
Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ),Cost of Doing Nothing –assessment questions.
Contents
hh Historical Overview
hh Definition of Quality
hh What is Lean and six sigma
hh TQM and Six sigma
hh Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma
hh Six sigma and Process Tolerance
hh Six sigma and cultural Changes
hh Six sigma capability
hh Six sigma Need Assessments
hh Two Marks Questions and Answers with Review Questions
2 Lean Six Sigma
1. Introduction
Lean: Lean is a systematic approach to reduce or eliminate activities that don't
add value to the process.
Lean defines waste as anything that doesn't add value to the customer.
Lean streamlines a process, resulting in increased revenue, reduced costs, and
improved customer satisfaction. A Lean Process:
• Is faster
• Is more efficient and economical
Figure 1 Lean Process Before and After
• Delivers satisfactory quality

1.1 Six Sigma
A set of management techniques intended to improve business processes by greatly
reducing the probability that an error or defect will occur.
Lean Six Sigma: Lean Six Sigma is a combination of two popular Continuous
Improvement methods. Lean and Six Sigma that pave the way for operational
Lean and Six Sigma Background and Fundamentals 3
excellence. These time-tested approaches provide organizations with a clear path

to achieving their missions as fast and efficiently as possible.
1.2 Historical Overview
• Developed by Mikel Harry and Bill Smith, Motorola.
Figure 2 Historical Overview
• Motorola was amongst the first recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige Award.
• National Quality Award in 1988.
1.3 Definition of Quality
Meaning: The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar
kind; the degree of excellence of something.
Q: Quest for excellence
U: Understanding customers’ needs
A: Action to achieve customer’s appreciation
L: Leadership determination to be a leader
I: Involving all people. It is everybody’s concern
T: Team Spirit
Y: Yardstick to measure progress
4 Lean Six Sigma
Definitions
Different individuals and organizations have given different definitions for
Quality.
• Deming: “ Quality is defined from the customer’s point of view as anything

that enhances their satisfaction”.
• Juran: “Fitness for use. Those product features which meet the needs
of customers and thereby provide product satisfaction. Freedom from
deficiencies”.
• ASQC: “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service
that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs”.
• ISO: “Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics, of a product or service,
fulfill requirements”.
1.4 Total Quality Management and Six Sigma
Definition of total quality management (TQM) describes a management approach
to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all members
of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services, and the
culture in which they work.
The basic difference between Six Sigma and TQM is the approach. While TQM
views quality as conformance to internal requirements, Six Sigma focuses on
improving quality by reducing the number of defects. The end result may be the
same in both the concepts (i.e. producing better quality products).
The name Six Sigma is derived from the bell curve used in statistics where one
Sigma represents one standard deviation away from the mean.
Objectives of Six Sigma
• To reduce variation
• To solving the problems in a scientific manner
• It Places an emphasis on the DMAIC approach (Define,Measure,Analyse,
Improve and Control.) to problem solving.
• To develop the bottom line responsibilities towards continuous improvement.
1.5 Set of Tools and techniques:

The six sigma expert uses a both qualitative and quantitative techniques and tools
of continuous improvement.
Tools of Six sigma:
1. Standard work
2. 5S
3. Control Charts
4. Kanban
5. PDSA
6. DMAIC
Techniques of Six Sigma:
1. Brainstorming
2. Root cause Analysis
3. Voice of the customer
4. Benchmarking
5. Kaizen and Kairyo
Figure 3 DMAIC Process

6 Lean Six Sigma
Figure 4 Six Sigma Quality
One of the tools of this methodology are applied within a simple performance
improvement model as DMAIC.
Metrics: Six sigma quality performances mean 3.4 defects per million
opportunities.
Figure 5 Pillars of TQM

1.7 Total Quality Management

• A focus on customer satisfaction
• Commitment from everyone in the organization
1.8 Principles of Total Quality Management
1. Customer Focus: The success of an organization depends on customer
satisfaction. Therefore all improvements must focus on customers and their
needs.
2. Employee Involvement: All employees from high level through to the lowest
paid worker-need to be involved. Everyone works to increase quality and meet
customer expectations.
3. Process Centered: It focus on processes, Define, monitor and control the
process to assure quality.
4. Integrated System: As different departments evolve in a company, they often
develop their own processes.TQM requires that all business processes be
implemented across the entire company.
Figure 6 Eight Principles of TQM

8 Lean Six Sigma
5. Strategic and systematic approach: It emphasizes implementing a strategy in

a systematic way. To begin with, a strategic plan is needed. The plan needs a
strong focus on quality improvements.
6. Communication: Two way communication is essential in TQM.
7. Fact based Decisions: Strategic decisions need to be based on facts, not
assumptions. Metrics are in need to provide objective and measurable results.
8. Continual Improvement: Look for opportunities’ to improve. It’s a key
Ideology of TQM.
Benefits of TQM
• Higher productivity.
• Enhanced market image.
• Elimination of defects and waste.
• Reduced costs and better cost management.
• Higher profitability.
• Improved customer focus and satisfaction.
TQM Tools:
• Pareto Principle.
• Scatter Diagrams.
• Control Charts.
• Flow Charts.
• Cause and Effect /Fishbone/ Ishikawa Diagram.
• Histogram or Bar Graph.
• Check Lists.
• Check Sheets.
1.9 Lean Manufacturing
• Lean is defined as a set of management practices to improve efficiency and
effectiveness by eliminating waste.
• The core principle of lean is to reduce and eliminate non-value adding activities
and waste.
• Lean is a methodology to reduce waste in a manufacturing system without
sacrificing productivity.
• Lean is that it consists of a set of tools that help to identify and eliminate
waste. That waste can be created through an overburden and unevenness in
workloads.
1.9.1 Principles of Lean

Some principles that are shared by both methods of lean include:
• Pull processing
• Perfect first-time quality
• Waste minimization
• Continuous improvement
• Flexibility
• Building and maintaining a long-term relationship with suppliers (learn more
about vendor management)
• Automation
• Load leveling
• Production flow and visual control
Figure 7 Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing

10 Lean Six Sigma
1.9.2 Types of Wastes in Lean Manufacturing

Waste, or Muda in Japanese, is defined as the performance of unnecessary work
as a result of errors, poor organization, or communication.
Motion
Motion waste includes those movements (of machine or employee) which are
more complicated or difficult than absolutely necessary. This kind of waste can
cause harm to equipment, product, or employees.
Waiting
The waste of waiting includes any idle time caused by the asynchrony of two or
more interdependent processes. Operators and equipment at one step of the process
end up at a standstill waiting for the second process to catch up. Eliminating this
waste makes your processes more efficient, saving you time and money.
Overproduction
This can be considered the worst of all the wastes because it leads to other wastes
and hides the need for improvement. This waste occurs when production exceeds
customer requirements, which in turn leads to high levels of inventory which, as
you will see, hides many of the problem-areas within your organization. Your
goal, therefore, should be to only make what is required when it is required.
Overprocessing
Over processing waste is putting more work into producing the product than
the customer values. To eliminate this waste, your goal should be to only do the
amount of processing which is both useful and necessary and no more.
Defects
The waste of defects includes quality errors that invariably cost you much more
than you expect, as each defective product necessitates more work or replacement,
wasting resources and materials, and can lead to lost customers.
Transportation
Transportation waste is the movement of materials that does not directly correspond
to some value-adding process. This can be very costly for your business, as you
must pay for the time and machines involved in this wasteful process. It should be
minimized in order to reduce delays, reduce the risk of handling-induced damage

and eliminate non value added process steps and costs.
Inventory
Inventory that doesn’t directly fulfill customer needs is excessive, and should be
reduced to a level that’s supported by the reliability and consistency of a process
or value stream. Excessive inventory is often the result a company producing or
holding “just in case” inventories, built or purchased to protect against production
downtime, production delays, poor quality, or other problems. These other problems
need to be addressed so that an organization can reduce inventory. Otherwise,
an organization will likely get in trouble by cutting inventories too much if they
haven’t first increased the reliability of the supply chain.
1.9.3 Six sigma and Process Tolerance
A tolerance is an acceptable amount of dimensional variation that will still allow
an object to function correctly.
Process tolerance is a value that sets the standard by which the capability of your
process is determined. It is defined as a multiple of a process standard deviation
(sigma). Usually, 6*sigma is used as a tolerance. Some processes require a higher,
stricter tolerance than others.
A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of all opportunities to produce
some feature of a part are statistically expected to be free of defects.
In addition, process tolerance can refer to the actual difference between those
two levels.
For example, if a bag of product has an upper limit of 1.02 kg, and a lower limit
of 0.98 kg, this gives you a process tolerance of 0.04 kg.
For example, Passenger Safety depends on the components of an airplane.
Therfore; the process that produces these parts must have a high tolerance. But if
your process does not affect the safety of people and resources, a lower tolerance
is permissible.
The Importance of the Average

The attention towards the middle ground between the two tolerance points. The
average is where most of your output should be around, as we pointed out above,
12 Lean Six Sigma
and the closer you can maintain everything to that level, the better results you’re
going to see overall. It’s important that you apply statistical analysis tools properly
here. If you simply take the average of all your products to check how much
they’re deviating from the expected average, you’re probably going to see a nearly
identical value. This makes sense if your upper and lower deviations are within the
norm and don’t stray too far from the expected values.
Most people look at just the average (mean) value of their product or service,
but fail to evaluate the variation (calculated as the standard deviation).
If the variation exceeds the limits (called “capability”), then the goal is to reduce
variation and/or shift the average closer to the center of the limits. This is the heart
of Six Sigma, to understand how the average and standard deviation compares to
the tolerance limits, and identify what factors are causing the variation.
Shrinking the Tolerance Limits

For the most part, unless your client or customer specifically requests it, you
probably shouldn’t be putting any additional effort into trying to shrink the gap
between the tolerance limits.
The goal should be to continuously reduce the variation, so you can achieve
results closer to the average, which improves customer satisfaction and reduces
reliability issues.
On the other hand, if you start receiving complaints stating that you’re deviating
from the expected norms far too much, you should consider some immediate
changes, such as tightening the tolerance limits.
And in those cases, keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to shrink the
process tolerance from both ends. If products are primarily jumping over the limit,
for example, you can lower the upper level but keep the other one in place. That
way you’ll prevent unnecessary repetition of work within the organization.
Understanding process tolerance and its implications for an organization is a
critical skill for any responsible leader.
1.9.4 Six Sigma and Cultural Changes

The culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then
communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping
employee perceptions, behaviors and understanding.
Six Reasons Cultures Change

• A new CEO.
• A merger or acquisition.
• A spin-off from a parent company.
• Changing customer requirements.
• A disruptive change in the market the company serves.
• Globalization.
The power of Six Sigma to create a culture of continuous improvement lies in
the combination of changing the way work gets done by changing processes, plus
educating people in new ways of understanding processes and solving problems.
Table 1.9.4 Comparison of Traditional Vs Six Sigma in Aspects of Culture

S.No Aspects of Culture Traditional Six sigma
1 Work orientation Departmental, Process flow and
functional and/or task customer-output related
2 Who defines what Senior managers and Senior and department
needs improving department managers managers plus bottom-up
suggestions from project
leaders and team members
3 Leadership for Functional managers Champions and
improvement or designated project improvement specialist
leaders (Belts)
4 Who has skills Specialists (e.g., Specialists plus project
to develop and engineers) and leaders, team members
implement solutions managers and managers
5 Improvement The most familiar Common, state-of-the-art
methods/tools used ones approach and tools
6 Degree of operator Ad hoc Widespread through
involvement Yellow Belt training
7 Project management Variable Gate reviews at each step
discipline related to of DMAIC
improvement
8 How performance Actual versus budget Impact on Xs (causal
is measured measures) that affect Ys
(outcomes)
14 Lean Six Sigma
Creating a Six Sigma Culture in Your Workplace

Six Sigma brings to the organizations that practice it is the way it converts employees
from passive participants who often notice problems to active participants who
possess the drive to solve them.
Six Sigma culture has the potential to literally transform employees.
Those with Six Sigma certification are cultured to see themselves and the work
they do differently than traditional employees. They’re taught to:
• See work in terms of process flow, and not just departments and functions
• Take an active role in defining improvements and identifying solutions, instead
of relying on management
• Utilize the appropriate skills to create and implement solutions
• Actively involve themselves in continuous improvement efforts
Change Management: The Key to Creating a New Culture
Change management can help solidify a new culture in individuals and
organizations. Consider these four ways change management can be used to instill
Six Sigma culture into an organization.
Create Awareness and Desire
This process starts at the top, as executive management communicates the benefits
of using Six Sigma methodology, down through the organization. This can provide
four important benefits:
• Projects are better able to stay on time and budget
• Management can support Six Sigma projects by allocating the proper
resources
• Management’s support for Six Sigma projects can decrease resistance from
employees and other stakeholders
• Employee productivity may be less impacted by the change
Expose the Organization to Change
Once upper management has laid the groundwork for a change in culture by placing
its support behind Six Sigma, the methodology can be disbursed throughout the
organization. The best way to infuse Six Sigma into the organization is through
education, training and certification. The more employees exposed to Six Sigma
through online and offline training, the more entrenched it can become in the
company culture.
Move Ahead, and Be Prepared for Surprises
Following your change management plan is critical for creating a climate where Six
Sigma culture can thrive. However, change agents may encounter hidden obstacles
that threaten to derail change, such as strongly held traditions or an attachment to
outdated practices. Managing change means being prepared for the unexpected.
Reward Generously
What you reward, you typically get more of. When leaders and employees show
behavior that promotes a Six Sigma culture, recognize their contributions. Be sure
to explain how behavior that supports Six Sigma benefits the company.
Organizations that create a culture that supports Six Sigma can realize the long-
term benefits of a workforce that constantly seeks process improvement.
1.9.5 Six Sigma Capability

Six Sigma is a broad business approach to drive defects produced by all processes
down into parts per million levels of performance.
This means it’s really about improving the process capability for all critical-to-
quality (CTQ) characteristics from all processes in the organization.
The goal in a Six Sigma organization is to achieve defect levels of less than
3.4 parts per million for every process in the organization and for every CTQ
characteristic produced by those processes.
What is Process Capability (Cp)?

The process capability is thus, defined as the ratio of the voice of the customer and
voice of the process: Cp = (USL-LSL)/6s
• It is the ability of process to produce output as per the given specification.
• It can also be defined as the ratio of voice of customer(VOC) to voice of
process(VOP)
Cp and Cpk, commonly referred to as process capability indices, are used to
define the ability of a process to produce a product that meets requirements.
16 Lean Six Sigma
- 3 - 2 - +1 +2 +3
LCL UCL
VOC
VOP
Figure 8 Process Capability
Specifications: Specifications define product requirements.

Capability Ratio (Cr)
• Cr = 1/ Cp = (USL-LSL)/6s
• If Cr < 0.75, the process is capable.
• If Cr = 0.75 – 1.00, the process is capable with tight control.
• If Cr >1, the process is not capable.
How to Perform a Process Capability Study
• Select a candidate for the study
• Define the process
• Procure resources for the study
• Evaluate the measurement system
• Prepare a control plan
• Select a method for the analysis
• Gather and analyze the data
• Track down and remove special causes
• Estimate Establish a plan for continuous process improvement
1. Select a candidate for the study. This step should be institutionalized. A
goal of any organization should be ongoing process improvement. However,
because a company has only a limited resource base and cannot solve all problems
simultaneously, it must set priorities for its efforts. The tools for this include Pareto
analysis and fishbone diagrams.
2. Define the process. It is all too easy to slip into the trap of solving the wrong
problem. Once the candidate area has been selected in step 1, define the scope
of the study. A process is a unique combination of machines, tools, methods,
and personnel engaged in adding value by providing a product or service. Each
element of the process should be identified at this stage. This is not a trivial exercise.
The input of many people may be required. There are likely to be a number of
conflicting opinions about what the process actually involves.
3. Procure resources for the study. Process capability studies disrupt normal
operations and require significant expenditures of both material and human
resources. Since it is a project of major importance, it should be managed as such.
All of the usual project management techniques should be brought to bear. This
includes planning, scheduling, and management status reporting.
4. Evaluate the measurement system. Evaluate the measurement system
ability to do the job. Again, be prepared to spend the time necessary to get a valid
means of measuring the process before going ahead.
5. Prepare a control plan. The purpose of the control plan is twofold: 1) isolate
and control as many important variables as possible and, 2) provide a mechanism
for tracking variables that cannot be completely controlled. The object of the
capability analysis is to determine what the process can do if it is operated the way
it is designed to be operated. This means that such obvious sources of potential
variation as operators and vendors will be controlled while the study is conducted.
In other words, a single well-trained operator will be used and the material will
be from a single vendor. There are usually some variables that are important, but
that are not controllable. One example is the ambient environment, including
temperature, barometric pressure, or humidity. Certain process variables may
degrade as part of the normal operation; for example, tools wear and chemicals
are used. These variables should still be tracked using log sheets and similar tools.
For information on designing data collection systems.
6. Select a method for the analysis. The SPC method will depend on the
decisions made up to this point. If the performance measure is an attribute,
one of the attribute charts will be used. Variables charts will be used for process
performance measures assessed on a continuous scale. Also considered will be
the skill level of the personnel involved, need for sensitivity, and other resources
required to collect, record, and analyze the data.
18 Lean Six Sigma
7. Gather and analyze the data. Use one of the control charts described
in this chapter, plus common sense. It is usually advisable to have at least two
people go over the data analysis to catch inadvertent errors in transcribing data or
performing the analysis.
8. Track down and remove special causes. A special cause of variation may be
obvious, or it may take months of investigation to find it. The effect of the special
cause may be good or bad. Removing a special cause that has a bad effect usually
involves eliminating the cause itself. For example, if poorly trained operators are
causing variability, the special cause is the training system (not the operator), and it
is eliminated by developing an improved training system or a process that requires
less training. However, the removal of a beneficial special cause may actually
involve incorporating the special cause into the normal operating procedure. For
example, if it is discovered that materials with a particular chemistry produce
better product the special cause is the newly discovered material and it can be
made a common cause simply by changing the specification to assure that the new
chemistry is always used.
9. Estimate the process capability. One point cannot be overemphasized: the
process capability cannot be estimated until a state of statistical control has been
achieved! After this stage has been reached, the methods described later in this
chapter may be used. After the numerical estimate of process capability has been
arrived at it must be compared to management goals for the process, or it can be
used as an input into economic models.
10. Establish a plan for continuous process improvement. Once a stable
process state has been attained, steps should be taken to maintain it and improve
upon it. SPC is just one means of doing this. Far more important than the particular
approach taken is a company environment that makes continuous improvement a
normal part of the daily routine of everyone.
1.9.6 Six Sigma Need Assessments

An Organization might have a set of balanced scorecard metrics already in the
place. If these organizations were plotting to change in the metrics overtime, they
typically would find quantitative variability, where overall many of the metrics did
not improve.
The reason for this is that many of the organizations do not have a structured
approach to improve processes that impact key metrics. Six sigma can help
organizations create infrastructure whereby improvements are made through
projects that followed a structured process improvement/re-engineering road
map that is linked to metrics.However, this awareness is not enough when selling
sigma within some organizations one might need to focus more on the six sigma
monetary benefits when making a need assessment.
It helps to determine whether six sigma is right for an organization. These
measures are the cost of poor quality and cost of doing nothing. We focus on
the monetary justification for implementing six sigma.A powerful approach is to
combine the two, translating customer satisfaction and other strategic metrics into
monetary implications for the review of executive management.
1.9.7 Implications of Quality Levels
It helps an organization achieve greater consistency in tasks and activities that
are involved in the production of products and services. It increases efficiency in
processes, reduces wastage, and improves the use of time and other resources. It
helps improve customer satisfaction.
The levels of quality that are:
• Acceptable quality.
• Appropriate quality.
• Aspirational quality.
This is the minimum level of quality. You can even call it “minimum” if that’s
what you think your end users would respond best to.
Acceptable Quality:
This is the lowest level of quality that you can deliver and still get away with – it
will ensure that you hit the bare minimum of expectation levels.
Example: Building a website for the company that delivers functionally but that
does not have all the content expected at the point of go live. You believe that this
can be added in later
Appropriate Quality:
It’s what they want and what they have conditioned themselves to accept. It’s what
you should strive to deliver (because you are good at your job and want your team
to deliver something valuable, right?).
20 Lean Six Sigma
Example: Completing a project to the standards set out in your quality plan, or
if you don’t write one (like me) then understanding your stakeholders well enough,
and working with them consistently enough, to get a result that they consider
“quality” and successful.
Aspirational Quality:
Aspirational quality comes at a cost. It involves the team being self-managing
instead of micro-managing. It relies on good communication and collaboration. It
depends on a supportive working environment and a culture that is blame-free.
Example: Delivering a product that sells 30% over the original sales target
because you know your market so well and are able to suggest changes along the
way following your team’s customer focus groups that boost conversions and bring
in more revenue.
An organization that is considering six sigma might also consider the implications
of doing nothing. If any one of the current competitors of an organization or
even a new competitor achieves six sigma quality levels in the industry or market
segment of the organization, the organization profitable days could be numbered.
Six sigma bring orders of magnitude improvement over historical quality levels
and can totally change the rules by which organization operates.
Three sigma quality levels that have been prevalent for the past half century are
no longer acceptable. Consider for example that a 99.9% yield would result in the
following levels of performance in service industries.
• 20,000 wrong drug prescriptions per year
• One hour of unsafe drinking water monthly
• 22,000 bank checks are deducted incorrectly on an hour basis.
• 2000 lost pieces of mail per hour.
If these problems are need to be prevented before they happen if follows that
there should be a movement toward six sigma quality levels in all important
products and services.
1.9.8 Cost of Doing Nothing

When assessing six sigma leaders should consider the various options, doing
nothing, creating a six sigma initiative and creating a six sigma business strategy.
The “doing nothing” might be the right choice for an organization; however
an organization needs to make this decision after comparing the cost of doing
nothing to the cost of doing something.
The creating six sigma imitative option typically viewed by members of the
organization as the program of the month and risks early abandonment without
much benefit.
The six sigma business strategy option has the most benefit if it is executed
wisely.
Many executives confuse efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is “doing
things right”. Effectiveness is “doing the right things” A wise implementation of
six sigma focus on “doing the right things right”
Cost of Quality
Cost of quality (COQ) is defined as a methodology that allows an organization to
determine the extent to which its resources are used for activities that prevent poor
quality, that appraise the quality of the organization’s products or services, and
that result from internal and external failures
Cost of poor quality (COPQ) is defined as the costs associated with providing
poor quality products or services.
Internal Failure Costs

Internal failure costs are incurred to remedy defects discovered before the product
or service is delivered to the customer. These costs occur when the results of work
fail to reach design quality standards and are detected before they are transferred
to the customer. They could include:
Figure 8 Costs of Quality

22 Lean Six Sigma
• Waste: Performance of unnecessary work or holding of stock as a result of

errors, poor organization, or communication
• Scrap: Defective product or material that cannot be repaired, used, or sold
• Rework or rectification: Correction of defective material or errors
• Failure analysis: Activity required to establish the causes of internal product
or service failure
External Failure Costs:
External failure costs are incurred to remedy defects discovered by customers. These
costs occur when products or services that fail to reach design quality standards
are not detected until after transfer to the customer. They could include:
• Repairs and servicing: Of both returned products and those in the field
• Warranty claims: Failed products that are replaced or services that are re-
performed under a guarantee
• Complaints: All work and costs associated with handling and servicing
customers’ complaints
• Returns: Handling and investigation of rejected or recalled products, including
transport costs
Cost of Good Quality:
The costs of good quality are broadly broken down into prevention costs and
appraisal costs
Appraisal Costs:
Appraisal costs are associated with measuring and monitoring activities related to
quality. These costs are associated with the suppliers’ and customers’ evaluation of
purchased materials, processes, products, and services to ensure that they conform
to specifications. They could include:
• Verification: Checking of incoming material, process setup, and products
against agreed specifications
• Quality audits: Confirmation that the quality system is functioning correctly
• Supplier rating: Assessment and approval of suppliers of products and
services
Prevention Costs:
Prevention costs are incurred to prevent or avoid quality problems. These costs
are associated with the design, implementation, and maintenance of the quality
management system. They are planned and incurred before actual operation, and
they could include:
• Product or service requirements: Establishment of specifications for incoming
materials, processes, finished products, and services
• Quality planning: Creation of plans for quality, reliability, operations,
production, and inspection
• Quality assurance: Creation and maintenance of the quality system
• Training: Development, preparation, and maintenance of programs
Cost of Quality and Organizational Objectives
The costs of doing a quality job, conducting quality improvements, and achieving
goals must be carefully managed so that the long-term effect of quality on the
organization is a desirable one.
These costs must be a true measure of the quality effort, and they are best
determined from an analysis of the costs of quality. Such an analysis provides a
method of assessing the effectiveness of the management of quality and a means
of determining problem areas, opportunities, savings, and action priorities.
The quality cost system, once established, should become dynamic and have
a positive impact on the achievement of the organization’s mission, goals, and
objectives.
Assessment Questions
1. A person wants to see a specific example of six sigma that closely parallels
their own situation so that they can see how they will benefit.
2. An often there are situations where people have differently seeing how six
sigma techniques are directly applicable to their situation.
3. This is particularly true of government organizations and government contract
organizations, where ROI may not be a primary driving force.
4. Consider an employee who thinks her organization can benefit from six sigma
methodology but faces resistance from other employees who do not see the
benefits.
24 Lean Six Sigma
Two Marks Questions with Answers

Part A
1. What is Lean?
Lean is a systematic approach to reduce or eliminate activities that don’t add
value to the process.
2. What is six sigma?

A set of management techniques intended to improve business processes by
greatly reducing the probability that an error or defect will occur.
3. Define Quality.
The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind;
the degree of excellence of something.
4. What is Lean Six Sigma?

Lean Six Sigma is a combination of two popular Continuous Improvement
methods. Lean and Six Sigma that pave the way for operational excellence.
These time-tested approaches provide organizations with a clear path to
achieving their missions as fast and efficiently as possible.
5. Define TQM.
Definition of total quality management (TQM) describes a management
approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort,
all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products,
services, and the culture in which they work.
6. What are the tools and techniques of Six sigma?

Tools of Six sigma:
• Standard work
• 5S
• Control Charts
Techniques of Six Sigma:
• Brainstorming
• Root cause Analysis
• Benchmarking
7. What are the benefits of TQM?

• Higher productivity.
• Enhanced market image.
• Elimination of defects and waste.
• Reduced costs and better cost management.
8. What are different types of wastes in lean manufacturing?

• Defects.
• Excess Processing.
• Overproduction.
• Waiting.
• Inventory
• Transportation
• Motion.
• Non-Utilized Talent.
9. What is Process Tolerance?

Process tolerance is a value that sets the standard by which the capability of
your process is determined. It is defined as a multiple of a process standard
deviation.
10. What is Process Capability (Cp)?

The process capability is thus, defined as the ratio of the voice of the customer
and voice of the process: Cp = (USL-LSL)/6 σ
11. Define Change management.

organizations. Consider these four ways change management can be used to
instill Six Sigma culture into an organization.
12. What are the different levels of Quality?

• Acceptable quality.
• Appropriate quality.
• Aspirational quality.
26 Lean Six Sigma
13. What is a cost of poor Quality?

poor quality products or services.
14. What are the different costs of Quality?

• Internal Failure Costs
• External Failure Costs
• Appraisal Costs
• Prevention Costs
15. What is Prevention Costs?

Prevention costs are incurred to prevent or avoid quality problems. These
costs are associated with the design, implementation, and maintenance of the
quality management system.
Review Questions
1. Discuss the major customer related symptoms which indicate the requirement
for adapting to six sigma.
2. Discuss the symptoms which are related to organization which indicate the
requirement for adapting to six sigma.
3. Discuss the importance of lean manufacturing practices
4. Outline the relevance of the six sigma and process Tolerance
5. How will you assess the six sigma needs to increase productivity?
6. What is Costs of Quality and explain the different types of costs involved in
COQ?
7. What is six sigma cultures and explain the ways and reasons for creating six
sigma cultures?
8. Explain the concept of Process Capability.
Unit 2
The Scope of Tools and
Techniques
Syllabus
Tools for definition-IPO diagram, SIPOC diagram, Flow diagram, CTQ Tree, Project
Charter-Tools for measurement-Check sheets,Histograms, Run Charts, Scatter diagrams,
Cause and effect diagrams, Pareto charts, Control Charts, Flow Process Charts, Process
Capability Measurement, Tools for analysis-Process Mapping, Regression analysis, RU/
CS analysis, SWOT, PESTLE, Five Whys, interrelationship diagram, overall equipment
effectiveness,TRIZ innovative problem solving-Tools for improvement-Affinity diagram,
Normal group technique, SMED, 5S, mistake proofing, Value stream mapping, forced
field analysis-Tools for control-Gantt chart, Activity network diagram, Radar chart, PDCA
cycle, Milestone tracker diagram, Earned value management.
Contents
hh Introduction
hh IPO Diagram
hh SIPOC Diagram
hh Flow Diagram
hh CTQ Tree
hh Project Charter
hh Check Sheets
hh Histograms
hh Run Charts
hh Scatter Diagrams
28 Lean Six Sigma
hh Cause and Effect Diagram

hh Pareto Charts
hh Control Charts
hh Flow Process Charts
hh Process Capability Measurements
hh Process mapping
hh Regression Analysis
hh RU/CS Analysis
hh SWOT
hh PESTLE
hh Five Whys
hh Interrelationship Diagram
hh Overall Equipment Effectiveness
hh TRIZ Innovative Problem Solving
hh Affinity Diagram
hh Nominal Group Technique
hh SMED
hh 5S
hh Mistake Proofing
hh Value Stream Mapping
hh Forced Field Analysis
hh Gantt Chart
hh Activity Network Diagram
hh Radar Chart
hh PDCA Cycle
hh Milestone Tracker Diagram
hh Earned Value Management
hh Two Marks Questions and Answers
hh Review Questions
The Scope of Tools and Techniques 29
2.1 Introduction
Tools and Techniques are essential ingredients of a process. These are instrumental
to the success of a quality programme. Similarly many companies have used
tools and techniques without giving sufficient thought and have then experienced
barriers to progress.
The drivers for tools and techniques:
It is cleared that organized approach of continuous improvement will require
the use of a selection of tools and techniques for any effective problem solving
process. There are number of good reasons for this including;
• They help to initiate the process
• They pinpoint the problem
• They offer a basis for systematic analysis leading to a solution
• Employees using them feel involved.
• They enhance teamwork through problem solving.
• They provide an effective medium of communication at all levels
• They form a single set of methodology
• They facilitate a mindset of quality culture.
The following three key factors should be considered carefully when selecting
tools and techniques for a quality initiative;
• Rigour in Purpose
• Rigour in training
• Rigour in application
Six Sigma tools are defined as the problem-solving tools used to support
Six Sigma and other process improvement efforts. The Six Sigma expert uses
qualitative and quantitative techniques to drive process improvement. Although
the tools themselves are not unique, the way they are applied and integrated as
part of a system is. Some of the statistical and graphical tools commonly used in
improvement projects are:
DMAIC: The define, measure, analyze, improve, and control process is a data-
driven quality strategy used to improve processes. It is an integral part of a Six
Sigma initiative, but can also be implemented as a standalone quality improvement
procedure or as part of other process improvement initiatives such as lean.
30 Lean Six Sigma
Tools for Definition

The tools for definition are as follows
• IPO Diagram
• SIPOC Diagram
• Flow Diagram
• CTQ Tree
• Project Charter
2.1 IPO Diagram
In very general terms, every process is a blending together of inputs to produce
some desired output. Typically, the quality or performance of the product and
process is determined by measuring one or more properties of the output. A process
input is a factor that if it is intentionally changed, or if it is not appropriately
controlled, it will have an effect on one or more of the process output performance
measures. Inputs typically include: equipment parameters, raw material properties,
operators as well as the policies and procedures they follow, measurement systems,
environmental conditions and potentially many other important factors.
The generic Input – Process – Output (IPO) diagram in Figure 1A, illustrates, at
a high level, the inputs (X‘s) related to one or more process outputs (Y‘s). The inputs
listed in Figure 1A are very broad categories. In actual practice, the development
team will have to identify very specific inputs. Additionally, as illustrated in Figure
1B, most production processes are sufficiently complex that it will be necessary to
sub-divide the process into major sequential steps. Typically, at least some of the
outputs from one process step will become the inputs to the subsequent step. Often,
particularly in early development, the team will be monitoring a wide variety of
outputs at each stage, up to and including the performance of the finished product.
Ultimately, our goal is to understand the relationships between the critical inputs
and outputs of each step.
Figure 2.1.1A (top): IPO diagrams illustrate input factors (X1, X2, X3?.. Xn)
related to the quality or performance measures of interest (Y1, Y2, Y3?. Yn).
The inputs listed as examples in this diagram are very broad generic categories.
In actual practice, the development team will have to identify specific inputs and
outputs for each process step.
Figure 2.1.1 IPO Diagram
Due to the sequential nature of most processes, it is typical that some of the
inputs from one process step are related to and dependent upon the outputs of the
preceding step. Given the complexity of most pharmaceutical processes, it is likely
that it will be necessary to evaluate the inputs and outputs of each major process
step separately. One of the first tasks to be completed when developing a new
product is to understand the performance requirements of the finished product.
Although in early development we often do not have well defined specifications,
once all of the performance measures have been at least generally identified, it is
possible to start listing all of the inputs that may affect the outputs of interest. Using
prior knowledge of similar products and the results of preliminary experimentation,
the development team could perform a brainstorming exercise to create fishbone
diagrams listing all known and potential factors which could impact each of the
outputs. This initial effort should result in an exhaustive list of inputs on the basis
of current knowledge. However, it is likely that this list will grow and evolve as the
32 Lean Six Sigma
team learns more about the product and process.

In many cases, applying the average values of inputs to the transfer function
will predict the average value of the output(s). Unfortunately, this approach does
not consider the fact that most inputs are not perfectly constant—that is, they are
not always going to be equal to the average value. Inputs may vary from one day to
the next, from lot to lot or even operator to operator. Although controls are often
implemented to hold these factors constant or within a specified range, the ability
to do so is sometimes limited by technology or cost.
The advantage MCS offers is that, if the long-term distribution parameters (e.g.,
the mean and standard deviation of a normally distributed factor) can be estimated
for each critical input, these estimates can be applied to the transfer function and
used to predict what the expected distribution of the output(s) will be over the long
term, across many batches.
2.3 SIPOC Diagram

A SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers) diagram is a visual tool
for documenting a business process from beginning to end prior to implementation.
SIPOC (pronounced sigh-pock) diagrams are also referred to as high level process
maps because they do not contain much detail.
SIPOC diagrams are useful for focusing a discussion, helping team members
agree upon a common language and understanding a process for continuous
improvement.
In Six Sigma, SIPOC is often used during the “define” phase of the DMAIC
(define, measure, analyze, improve, control) methodology. Some organizations
use SIPOC diagrams in the opposite direction, or COPIS, to map the value of the
customer to a business process.
2.3.1 How to create a SIPOC diagram
SIPOC diagrams are tables that document the inputs and outputs of a process.
They can be created by following seven steps:
Choose a process: The first step is to choose a business process that would
benefit from charting in a SIPOC diagram. A team can then be assembled around
the key players of that process.
Define the process: The diagram starts with the “P” section, which is usually
an overview of the business process in 4-5 high level steps that each consist of
an action and a subject. This could include the starting and ending points for the
process or a simple flowchart.
Identify the outputs: This section includes 3-4 outputs with little supporting
information, typically neutral in tone and using nouns only. Inputs and outputs
can be anything ranging from materials, products, services or information.
Identify the customers: These are the individuals that will receive the outputs
or will benefit from the process. Customers are not always external consumers and
could be coworkers, board members or other internal stakeholders.
Identify the inputs: This section includes the resources that are necessary for the
process to function properly. Similar to outputs, only the important, overarching
inputs should be listed.
Identify the suppliers: This section lists the suppliers associated with each of
the inputs of the process. A supplier is anyone that has a direct impact on the
outputs.
Share the diagram: Once the diagram is complete, it should be shared with any
relevant stakeholders and validated before moving along with the process.
Here is an example of how a continuous improvement team might use a SIPOC
diagram for a simple process, such as feeding the family dog. The diagram can
be created rather quickly by drawing a chart with five columns. Each column is
labeled, from left to right, with the letters SIPOC or the words suppliers, inputs,
processes, outputs and customers.
How to create a SIPOC diagram

Goal: Feed the dog
Suppliers Inputs Process Outputs Customers
Grocery store Go shopping Open cupboard Dog eats Dog
Buy dog food Get bowl Dog fertilities garden Family
Return home Fill bowl Garden
Put groceries Call dog
away in cupboard
Figure 2.2. SIPOC Diagram

34 Lean Six Sigma
When to use a SIPOC diagram

Creating a SIPOC diagram can be beneficial in a variety of applications, the most
popular being for continuous improvement. Since a finished SIPOC diagram
provides a high level map of a process, it can be used for identifying problem areas,
conducting process analysis and explaining business operations to an audience.
Additionally, a SIPOC diagram can be helpful when parts of a process are
unclear. It forces team members to identify and centralize information such as
supplier contacts, project specifications and target customers.
2.4 Process Maps or Flow Diagram

Process Map (aka Process Flow Chart) is a detailed flow diagram of the process
using color coded symbols that drill further into the high level map generated on
the SIPOC.
The purpose is to visually represent the process as it is in reality. It’s a map of
the system.
Complete the current state map by walking (GEMBA walk) and experiencing
the process. This is a valuable learning experience; the team will quickly gain
insight about the actual flow. Avoid sitting in a room and think it through yourself
or with the team. Patience, time, asking questions, interviewing people, are all a
part of the completing this map.
Create a current state and a future state. Your team may want a future state with
a short term target (such as 90 days) and a long term ideal state.
Objective:
To capture all the complexity and improvement opportunities by analyzing each
step in detail. Seek out the 7-Wastes and enhance current value-added activities.
Levels of a Process Map
Look for:
• Automation Opportunities
• Material Handling
• Duplication
• Redundancy
Figure 2.3. Flow Diagram
• Decisions
• Delays
• Rework Loops
• Non-Value Added Steps vs. Value-Added Steps.
These represent opportunity for waste elimination. Proceed with the goal to
eliminate waste before settling for waste reduction. Throughout the entire process
map, look for the 7-Wastes. So, before process mapping, educate the team on how
to “see” waste.
36 Lean Six Sigma
Take caution when considering “automation” to take over manual processes.

People are adaptable and much more flexible. Automation is fixed, constant, and
often difficult to fix and maintain. In a JIT environment the decision to automate
is advised with caution.
2.4.1 Types of Process Maps
There are a few different types of process maps.
1. Flow Chart or Block Diagram (such as the example above).
These begin a the “high-level” and grow as more detailed is learned by the
team and become a “detailed flow chart process map”
2. Cross Functional Map or Swim Lane
Rearranges flow chart process steps into lanes of functions. Hand-offs
are indicated and the process steps move left to right (on the map) as time
progresses. Or the swim lanes could be vertical and the process steps move
from the top to bottom as time progresses.
“Functions” could be Departments (such as Sales, HR, Legal, Operations,
Finance, etc) or they could be process steps such as Prepare, Mix, Heat, Test,
Sort, Pack, and Ship.
3. Cross Resource Map
Further drill down into functions showing actual resource to resource hand
offs. There other more variations along with other names but what’s most
important is to get the process steps documented as they actually exist. A
SIPOC is also a basic form of a process map. A Value Stream Map is a more
detailed quantitative form of a process map.
2.5 CRITICAL TO QUALITY (CTQ) TREES

Translating Broad Needs to Requirements
When you’re developing new products and services, quality is important – not
only to satisfy your clients, but also to help you stand out from your competitors.
However, defining quality can be a challenge, and it’s easy to overlook factors that
customers care about. This is when Critical to Quality (CTQ) Trees are useful.
They help you understand what drives quality in the eyes of your customers, so
that you can deliver a product or service that they are genuinely pleased with.
2.5.1 About CTQ Trees

Critical to Quality (CTQ) Trees, as shown in figure 1, below, are diagram-based
tools that help you develop and deliver high quality products and services. You
use them to translate broad customer needs into specific, actionable, measurable
performance requirements.
For example, an instruction such as “improve customer service” is too broad to
do much with. However, by using a CTQ Tree, you can drill-down from this broad
goal to identify specific measurable requirements that you can use to improve
performance. CTQ Trees were originally developed as part of Six Sigma. You can
use them in a variety of situations, including when you’re developing products and
services for your “internal customers.”
You use CTQ Trees by first identifying the critical needs of your customers.
This is what your product or service must deliver for customers to be happy. For
example, if you’re launching a new website, a need might be: “Must be accessible
on a smart phone.” Then, for each need, you identify its quality drivers. These
are the factors that customers will use to evaluate the quality of your product.
For example, for the need “Must be accessible on a smart phone,” a quality driver
might be “Must display properly on smart phone web browsers.”
Finally, you identify measurable performance requirements that each driver
must satisfy if you’re to actually provide a high quality product to your customers.
Without these requirements, you have no way to actually measure the performance
and quality of your product. For example, the measurable requirement for the
Figure 2.4 CTQ Tree

38 Lean Six Sigma
driver, “Must display properly on smart phone web browsers,” might be for
the website to “display as required on the five most popular smart phone web
browsers.” It is best to do a CTQ Tree for each individual critical need that you
identify. You’ll then have a comprehensive list of requirements that you can use to
deliver a product that delights your customers.
2.5.2 How to Use the Tool
Step 1: Identify Critical Needs You first need to identify the critical needs that your
product has to meet. Do a CTQ Tree for every need that you identify. During this
first step, you’re essentially asking, “What is critical for this product or service?”
It’s best to define these needs in broad terms; this will help ensure that you don’t
miss anything important in the next steps. If you can’t ask customers directly
about their needs, brainstorm their needs with people who deal with customers
directly – sales people and customer service representatives – as well as with your
team. (Perceptual Positions is a useful technique here – for example, if people are
struggling to move from an engineering mindset into a customer mindset.)
Step 2: Identify Quality Drivers Next, you need to identify the specific quality
drivers that have to be in place to meet the needs that you identified in the previous
step. Remember, these are the factors that must be present for customers to think
that you are delivering a high quality product. Don’t rush this – it’s important
that you identify all of the drivers that are important to your customers. Again,
speak to people with customer contact, and ask your customers what factors are
important to them. Tools such as Kano Analysis and the Five Product Levels will
also be useful here; as they can help you identify product features that will delight
your customers.
Step 3: Identify Performance Requirements Finally, you need to identify the
minimum performance requirements that you must satisfy for each quality driver,
in order to actually provide a quality product. Here it’s important to remember
that there are many things that will affect your ability to deliver these. For example,
do you have enough resources or the right technology in place? And, what will
you need to do in other parts of your organization to meet these requirements?
Once you’ve completed a CTQ Tree for each critical need, you’ll have a list of
measurable requirements that you must meet to deliver a high quality product. Tip:
We’ve already mentioned Kano Analysis and the Five Product Levels. These tools,
along with others tools such as USP Analysis and Core Competence Analysis, will
help you differentiate your products from those of your competitors. Use them
alongside CTQ Trees if you’re developing products for customers outside of your
organization.
CTQs
DRIVERS Answers given by representatives
are correct
Reps can answer questions asked
VOC Knowledge representatives by customer on the spot
Researched information
Good customer service returned quickly
Friendly representatives Customer greeted by name
Customer not interrupted
Short wait
Time placed on hold
Customer transferred quickly

to person who can help them
General Specific
Hard to measure Easy to measure
Figure 2.5 Basic Example of CTQ Tree
2.6 Project Charters

The official plan and authorization for the project is summarized in the Six Sigma
Project Charter, as shown in Fig. The Project Charter is a contract between the
project team and its sponsor. As such, any changes in the critical elements of
scope, objectives, or schedule require approval from the sponsor and consensus
of the team. The charter documents the why, how, who, and when of a project,
include the following elements:
• Problem statement
• Project objective or purpose, including the business need addressed
• Scope
• Deliverables (i.e., objective measures of success that will be used to evaluate
the effectiveness of the proposed changes, as discussed below)
40 Lean Six Sigma
• Sponsor and stakeholder groups

• Team members
• Project schedule (using Gantt or PERT as an attachment)
• Other resources required
These items are largely interrelated: as the scope increases, the timetable and
the deliverables also expand. Whether initiated by management or proposed by
operational personnel, many projects initially have too broad a scope. As the project
cycle time increases, the tangible cost of the project deployment, such as cost due
to labor and material usage, will increase. The intangible costs of the project will
also increase: frustration due to lack of progress, diversion of manpower away
from other activities, and delay in realization of project benefits, to name just a
few. When the project cycle time exceeds 6 months or so, these intangible costs
may result in the loss of critical team members, causing additional delays in the
project completion. These ‘world peace’ projects, with laudable but unrealistic
goals, generally serve to frustrate teams and undermine the credibility of the Six
Sigma program.
2.6.1 Develop Project Charter

A Project Charter is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a
project and is a critical document to ensure that everyone involved in the project is
aware of its purpose and objectives. It outlines the project objectives, identifies the
main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager. It serves as a
reference of authority for the future of the project and its management. The detail
within the charter should be proportionate with the size of the project.
The purpose of the Project Charter is to document:
• Reasons for undertaking the project
• Objectives and constraints of the project
• Assumptions that influence the project environment
• Directions concerning the solution - scope
• Identities of the main stakeholders
• Empowers the Project Manager with the authority to carry out the project
A Project Charter typically includes all or some of the following detailed

areas:
Figure 2.6 Example of Project Charter

42 Lean Six Sigma
1. Project name and date

2. Revision history and versions: Date, what changes were made and who made
the amendments. Version is incremented for each significant change or edit.
3. Project sponsor and key stakeholders
4. Project manager
5. Project organization, governance bodies or project steering committees
6. Goal: What does the project hope to accomplish? Goals can also be viewed as
the response to identified problems.
7. Objectives: A concrete statement describing what the project is trying
to achieve. The objective should be written at a low level, so that it can be
evaluated at the conclusion of a project to see whether it was achieved or not.
A well worded objective will be specific, measurable, attainable/achievable,
realistic, and time bound.
8. Success criteria: Success criteria should be identified. To the extent possible,
these factors should be quantifiable and measurable.
9. Project scope: Identify what is in scope and what is out of scope. Defining scope
activities and deliverables (exclusions) is critical to avoiding false assumptions
regarding the project.
10. Roles and responsibilities: Describe the various skills or roles in the project
and highlight the respective responsibilities in terms of accountability,
responsibility, and information requirements.
11. Configuration management: Identify the composition of the project,
documentation control and other data that supports the project.
12. Effort: An estimate of the time that team members will spend on the project.
This may be broken down by the roles or resources that will be required to
complete the work.
13. Estimated budget/costs: An estimate of the costs that will be required to
execute the project is required.
14. Assumptions: Project assumptions are circumstances and events that need to
occur for the project to be successful but are outside the total control of the
project team. Assumptions are made to fill knowledge gaps; they may later
prove to be incorrect and can have a significant impact on the project. List only
those assumptions that have a reasonable chance of occurring. Identifying

and documenting assumptions is essential in ensuring that all stakeholders
are aligned on the project approach, and since acting on false assumptions can
add significantly high risk to the project.
15. Risks: Project risks are circumstances or events that exist outside of the control
of the project team and may have an adverse impact on the project if they
occur. (In other words, whereas an issue is a current problem that must be
dealt with, a risk is a potential future problem that has not yet occurred.) All
projects contain some risks. It may not be possible to eliminate risks entirely
but they can be anticipated and managed, thereby reducing the probability
that they will occur. Only risks that have a high probability of occurring and
have a high negative impact should be documented in the charter. All risks,
details and mitigation strategies should be included in the risk management
plan.
16. Obstacles/constraints: List any known constraints imposed by the environment
or by management. Typical constraints may include fixed budget, limited
resources, imposed interim and/or end dates, and predetermined solutions.
17. Supporting documents: Include in this section copies of pertinent documents
such as: Business Case or Plan, Requirements Documents
18. Approval: Use this section for approval signatures from project stakeholders.
2.7 Tools for Measurement

2.7.1 Check Sheets
The Check Sheet is a simple document that is used for collecting data in real time
and at the location where the data is generated. The document is typically a blank
form that is designed for the quick, easy, and efficient recording of the desired
information, which can be either quantitative or qualitative. When the information
is quantitative, the check sheet is sometimes called a tally sheet.
The check sheet is one of the seven basic tools of quality control made popular
by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa.
A defining characteristic of a check sheet is that data is recorded by making
marks (“checks”) on it. A typical check sheet is divided into regions, and marks
44 Lean Six Sigma
made in different regions have different significance. Data is read by observing the
location and number of marks on the sheet.
Five basic types of check sheets include:
Classification check sheet: A trait such as a defect must be classified into a
category. If you just kept track of the total defects, you would know that you
had 101 total defects. That is somewhat useful but that, in and of itself, does not
provide much insight as to which day is the worst day or which source of defects
is in the worst shape, etc. With a classification check sheet, it provides a visual
overview of the problem areas.
Figure 2.7.1 Classification check Sheet
Defect location check sheet: The physical location of a trait is indicated on a

picture, or illustration of a part or item being evaluated. Instead of just keeping
track of the number of defects, the defect location check sheet can sometimes
reveal an area of the product that tends to see most of the defects. Once this is
known, the team can go back to the process to see what it is about the upper right-
hand corner of the product that is causing the defects.
Figure 2.7.2 (a) Defect Location Check Sheet

When you rent a car, you probably receive a document with the sketch of the
car which allows you to circle any damages, dents, or scratches on the car with
a corresponding mark on the diagram. This is an example of a location diagram
sheet as shown in figure below.
Figure 2.7.2(b) Defect Location Diagram Sheet
A variation of this could be to mark directly on the form where a mistake

occurs. For example, if information is missing on an application, you could mark
it directly on the form.
Frequency check sheet: The presence or absence of a trait or combination of
traits is indicated. Also, number of occurrences of a trait on a part can be indicated.
Notice that if you just tracked the number of defects, you may not realize that
Wrong Color has the highest frequency of occurrence. Furthermore, if Wrong
Color was not broken down further, you might not realize that GREEN is giving
you the most defects.
46 Lean Six Sigma
Figure 2.7.3 Frequency Check Sheet

Measurement scale check sheet: A measurement scale is divided into intervals
and measurements are indicated by checking an appropriate interval.
Figure 2.7.4 Measurement Scale Check Sheet
Check List: The items to be performed for a task are listed so that as each is
accomplished it can be marked as having been completed.
Figure 2.7.5 Check List

Check sheet vs. check list
People sometimes confuse a check sheet with a check list. The list we use for
groceries and the report you get from the auto repair shop with items checked off
after service (oil, filter, tire pressure, tread, etc.) are examples of a check list. The
following table highlights some key differences between a check list and a check
sheet.
Check Sheet Check List
A tally sheet to collect data on frequency A tool used to ensure all important steps
of occurrence or actions have been taken.
Custom designed by user Often a standard form
One of seven quality tools Not one of the seven quality tools
Example: to document reasons for Example: All items required for a surgery
interruptions in operating room. are in the case cart prior to the operation
When to use the check sheet

Using a check sheet is appropriate when the data can be observed and collected
repeatedly by either the same person or in the same location. It is also an effective
48 Lean Six Sigma
tool when collecting data regarding frequency and identifying patterns of events,
problems, defects, the location of the defect and defect causes.
Advantages of using the check sheet
The check sheet is a simple and effective way to display data. It is a good first step
in understanding the nature of the problem as it provides a uniform data collection
tool. It is very useful to help distinguish opinions from facts in the define and the
measure phases of DMAIC.
2.8 HISTOGRAMS
A histogram is used to graphically summarize and display the distribution of a
process data set.
2.8.1 How to Construct a Histogram
A histogram can be constructed by segmenting the range of the data into equal
sized bins (also called segments, groups or classes). For example, if your data
ranges from 1.1 to 1.8, you could have equal bins of 0.1 consisting of 1 to 1.1, 1.2
to 1.3, 1.3 to 1.4, and so on.
Figure 2.8 Example Histogram of Frequency Vs Queue Time
The vertical axis of the histogram is labeled Frequency (the number of counts
for each bin), and the horizontal axis of the histogram is labeled with the range of
your response variable. You then determine the number of data points that reside
within each bin and construct the histogram.
The bins size can be defined by the user, by some common rule, or by software
methods (such as Minitab).
2.8.2 Components of Histogram
Each vertical bar represents an interval of data or a category of data
• The x-axis are the measurements
• The y-axis is the frequency
All bars are adjacent and will not overlap since they represent a certain interval
(group) of measurements at a specified frequency. The histogram, when made up
of normally distributed data, will form a “bell” curve when a smooth probability
density function is produced using kernel smoothing techniques. This line that
generalizes the histogram appears to look like a bell
. Often the more data being analyzed and with more resolution will create more
bars since more intervals or categories of data are available to plot. The more
measurements and at various frequencies will create more bars and fill up more of
the area under the probability density function.
To assess the data there should be at least 5 bars or intervals and at least 30 data
points. There are a variety of histograms, for most practical purposes understanding
these basic components will be sufficient.
2.8.3 Types of Histogram:
• Left-Skewed Distribution (Negatively Skewed)
• Right-Skewed Distribution (Positively Skewed)
• Bi-modal Distribution
• Uniform Distribution
• Normal Distribution
2.9 RUN CHART

A Run Chart is a basic graph that displays data values in a time sequence (the
order in which the data were generated). A run chart is used in Quality Control to
analyze the data either in the development stage of a product or before the state
of statistical control.
A run chart can be used to determine if the process is running in a state of
control or if special or assignable causes are influencing the process, thereby
50 Lean Six Sigma
making the process out of control. A run chart can be useful for identifying shifts
and trends.
Example: A supervisor of a customer service center collects data on the number
of complaints that are filed each month. Data for the last several weeks are shown
below.
Complaints 4 3 5 3 4 6 4 8 9 10 8 9 9 10 11 9
Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The run chart shows that for the first seven weeks, the number of complaints
moved up and down around an average just above four. However, for the last
several weeks, the number of complaints has shifted upward and now moves up
and down around an average of about nine.
A Run Chart for this data is given below.
The overall average number of complaints for the sixteen weeks is about seven.
A general rule of thumb is when seven or eight values are in succession above or
below the average of the group, a shift has occurred. This is like flipping a coin
and seven times in a row it comes up heads or tails. Could it happen randomly?
Yes, but not likely.
Example: A supervisor of a customer service center collects data on the number
of complaints that are filed each month. Data for the last several months are shown
below.
Complaints 3 2 3 4 6 7 9 10 11
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Note that the Run Chart shows a distinctive trend upward in the data. Clearly,
a Run Chart would also be useful in identifying downward trends in the data as
well. While different practitioners use different rules, the basic rule of thumb is
when a Run Chart exhibits seven or eight points successively up or down, then a
trend is clearly present in the data.
A Run Chart for this data is given below.
2.9.1 Scatter Diagrams:

The scatter diagram graphs pairs of numerical data, with one variable on each
axis, to look for a relationship between them. If the variables are correlated, the
points will fall along a line or curve.
A graphical technique to analyze the relationship between two variables. Two
sets of data are plotted on a graph, with the y-axis being used for the variable to
be predicted and the x-axis being used for the variable to make the prediction. The
graph will show possible relationships (although two variables might appear to be
related, they might not be; those who know most about the variables must make
that evaluation).
52 Lean Six Sigma
When to use a Scatter diagram

• When you have paired numerical data
• When your dependent variable may have multiple values for each value of
your independent variable
• When trying to determine whether the two variables are related, such as:
• When trying to identify potential root causes of problems
• After brainstorming causes and effects using a fishbone diagram to
determine objectively whether a particular cause and effect are related
• When determining whether two effects that appear to be related both
occur with the same cause
• When testing for autocorrelation before constructing a control chart
Scatter Diagram Procedure
• Collect pairs of data where a relationship is suspected.
• Draw a graph with the independent variable on the horizontal axis and the
dependent variable on the vertical axis. For each pair of data, put a dot or
a symbol where the x-axis value intersects the y-axis value. (If two dots fall
together, put them side by side, touching, so that you can see both.)
• Look at the pattern of points to see if a relationship is obvious. If the data
clearly form a line or a curve, you may stop because variables are correlated.
You may wish to use regression or correlation analysis now. Otherwise,
complete steps 4 through 7.
• Divide points on the graph into four quadrants. If there are X points on the
graph:
• Count X/2 points from top to bottom and draw a horizontal line.
• Count X/2 points from left to right and draw a vertical line.
• If number of points is odd, draw the line through the middle point.
• Count the points in each quadrant. Do not count points on a line.
• Add the diagonally opposite quadrants. Find the smaller sum and the total of
points in all quadrants.
A = points in upper left + points in lower right
B = points in upper right + points in lower left
Q = the smaller of A and B
N=A+B
• Look up the limit for N on the trend test table.

• If Q is less than the limit, the two variables are related.
• If Q is greater than or equal to the limit, the pattern could have occurred from
random chance.
Scatter Diagram Example
The ZZ-400 manufacturing team suspects a relationship between product purity
(percent purity) and the amount of iron (measured in parts per million or ppm).
Purity and iron are plotted against each other as a scatter diagram, as shown in
the figure below.
There are 24 data points. Median lines are drawn so that 12 points fall on each
side for both percent purity and ppm iron.
To test for a relationship, they calculate:
A = points in upper left + points in lower right = 9 + 9 = 18
B = points in upper right + points in lower left = 3 + 3 = 6
Q = the smaller of A and B = the smaller of 18 and 6 = 6
N = A + B = 18 + 6 = 24
54 Lean Six Sigma
Then they look up the limit for N on the trend test table. For N = 24, the limit is
6. Q is equal to the limit. Therefore, the pattern could have occurred from random
chance, and no relationship is demonstrated.
Scatter plots are an awesome way to display two-variable data (that is, data
with only two variables) and make predictions based on the data. These types of
plots show individual data values, as opposed to histograms and box-and-whisker
plots.
Correlation
With scatter plots we often talk about how the variables relate to each other. This
is called correlation. There are three types of correlation: positive, negative, and
none (no correlation).
• Positive Correlation: as one variable increases so does the other. Height and
shoe size are an example; as one’s height increases so does the shoe size.
• Negative Correlation: as one variable increases, the other decreases. Time spent
studying and times spent on video games are negatively correlated; as your
time studying increases, time spent on video games decreases.
• No Correlation: there is no apparent relationship between the variables. Video
game scores and shoe size appear to have no correlation; as one increases, the
other one is not affected.
2.9.2 Cause and Effect Diagram:

A cause and effect diagram examines why something happened or might happen
by organizing potential causes into smaller categories. It can also be useful for
showing relationships between contributing factors. One of the Seven Basic Tools
of Quality, it is often referred to as a fishbone diagram or Ishikawa diagram.
These are the best and most common practices when creating cause and effect
diagrams.
• Identify the problem. Define the process or issue to be examined.
• Brainstorm. Discuss all possible causes and group them into categories.
• Draw the backbone
• Add causes and effects
• Analyze
Advantages
• Highly visual brainstorming tool which can spark further examples of root
causes
• Quickly identify if the root cause is found multiple times in the same or
different causal tree
• Allows one to see all causes simultaneously
• Good visualization for presenting issues to stakeholders
Disadvantages
• Complex defects might yield a lot of causes which might become visually
cluttering
• Interrelationships between causes are not easily identifiable
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2.10 Pareto Chart

A Pareto Chart is a graph that indicates the frequency of defects, as well as their
cumulative impact. Pareto Charts are useful to find the defects to prioritize in
order to observe the greatest overall improvement.
Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle states that 80% of the results are determined by 20% of the
causes. Therefore, you should try to find the 20% of defect types that are causing
80% of all defects. While the 80/20 rule does not apply perfectly to the example
above, focusing on just 2 types of defects (Button and Pocket) has the potential to
remove the majority of all defects (66%).
How to Create a Pareto Chart
Creating a Pareto chart is not difficult, even without statistical software. Of course,
if you’re using Minitab, the software will do all this for you automatically—create
a Pareto chart by selecting Stat > Quality Tools > Pareto Chart... or by selecting
Assistant > Graphical Analysis > Pareto Chart. You can collect raw data, in which
each observation is recorded in a separate row of your worksheet, or summary
data, in which you tally observation counts for each category.
1. Gather Raw Data about Your Problem
Be sure you collect a random sample that fully represents your process. For
example, if you are counting the number of items returned to an electronics store
in a given month, and you have multiple locations, you should not gather data
from just one store and use it to make decisions about all locations. (If you want
to compare the most important defects for different stores, you can show separate
charts for each one side-by-side.)
2. Tally Your Data
Add up the observations in each of your categories.
3. Label your horizontal and vertical axes
Make the widths of all your horizontal bars the same and label the categories in
order from largest to smallest. On the vertical axis, use round numbers that slightly
exceed your top category count, and include your measurement unit.
4. Draw your category bars

Using your vertical axis, draw bars for each category that correspond to their
respective counts. Keep the width of each bar the same.
5. Add cumulative counts and lines
As a final step, you can list the cumulative counts along the horizontal axis and
make a cumulative line over the top of your bars. Each category’s cumulative count
is the count for that category PLUS the total count of the preceding categories. If
you want to add a line, draw a right axis and label it from 0 to 100%, lined up with
the with the grand total on the left axis. Above the right edge of each category,
mark a point at the cumulative total, and then connect the points.
A Pareto chart is just a bar chart that arranges the bars (counts) from largest to
smallest, from left to right. The categories or factors symbolized by the bigger bars
on the left are more important than those on the right.
2.11 Control Chart
A control chart is a graphical display of a measured quality characteristic. The
measurement is plotted on the vertical axis and the sample (subgroup, subsample
or sample number) is recorded on the horizontal axis.
All quality control charts have a midpoint (or centerline) which corresponds
to the process average (the mean of the normal distribution). This line is usually
plotted as a horizontal solid line but can be reversed and plotted as a central dotted
58 Lean Six Sigma
line. Above and below this is the upper control limit and lower control limit lines
which represent three standard deviations above and three standard deviations
below the process mean (±3s).
Symbols are used in the charts as a shorthand means of conveying information.
Control charts are usually used quite extensively at the beginning of a new program,
process or product, for all-important operations and processes. Charts are removed
as they are found to be unnecessary or the process stabilizes. As process knowledge
increases control charts for attributes tends to decrease while the number of charts
for variables tends to increase. These are quality management decisions.
There are at least 27 types of control charts, divided into two categories: charts
for variables and charts for attributes. Attributes are divided further into two
categories: defective units and defects per unit. In quality control a variable is
a characteristic that can be measured, an attribute is a characteristic that can be
counted. All variable control charts must track only one quality characteristic of
one product on the same chart. Attribute charts can only provide nonconformance
information on characteristics outside of specifications.
Variable charts can show patterns within the specification limits. A fundamental
principal of SPC is that the emphasis is on controlling the process not the product. If
the process is in control, it is much more probable that products produced will also
be in control. The basic purpose of all quality control charts is to reduce variation.
The means to this end is to provide information on the causes of variation so these
causes can be eliminated (or their effects can be reduced).
The first way variation is reduced is to correct or eliminate the cause of quality
problems (measurements outside the limits). The second way variation is reduced is
by improving the process – to reduce variation within the control limits so the limits
get closer and closer to the chart central value. The operator and/or immediate
supervisor usually accomplish the first variation reduction. Process improvement
can only be achieved with the involvement of top management. Control charts
have a direct role in these two variable reduction activities -corrective action and
process improvement.
Attribute control charts have two broad purposes. First is to provide overall
quality information to management (percent defective for a process, a product
line, or even an entire plant).Second purpose of attribute charts is to provide
information for the correction of problems and the improvement of quality.
The nine steps in constructing a quality control chart are as follows.
1. Select the quality characteristic.
2. Develop a quality plan.
3. Select the type of control chart.
4. Choose the proper subgroup size.
5. Collect the data.
6. Determine the trial control limits and chart midpoint.
7. Determine the revised control limits and chart midpoint.
8. Construct the revised control chart.
9. Continue to use the chart.
Step 1: Select the Quality Characteristic
• Inspect after operations that are likely to produce defective items to ensure that
no more work will be performed on faulty items.
• Inspect before costly operations so that costly work will not be performed on
defective parts.
• Inspect prior to those operations where faulty items are likely to cause
production problems (such as breaking or jamming a machine).
• Inspect before operations that might cover up a defect (such as painting,
assembly, etc.).
• Inspect before assembly operations that can‘t be undone (such as welding).
• Inspect first and last pieces on automatic and semiautomatic machines.
• Inspect before storage.
60 Lean Six Sigma
• Inspect finished products (remember the customer is the next inspector). Use
engineering and/or operator judgement to determine when, where and how to
inspect and use charts.
Step 2: Develop the Quality Plan
• The purpose of quality planning should be to establish an economic balance
between the cost of measurement and the value of the measurement. The
general rule is to inspect as little as possible while ensuring product quality.
• Quality plans along with production plans are primarily documented on
the work order. The work order lists all production steps, inspection points,
references the drawings, specifications, procedures, instructions and standards
that contain information required for production and inspection.
• Quality plans should contain as many of the following elements as possible
(usually on the work order).
• Identification of the various inspection points in the process flow where
measurements should be taken. These inspection points should be shown on
flowcharts as well as listed on the work order. Control charts are frequently
associated with inspection points.
• The type of measurement to be made and the method used to make the
measurement. This can be simply a visual attribute check recorded manually
on paper to a sophisticated measuring gauge that has a computer interface for
recording. This decision is made by quality management and/or engineering.
• The sample size or subgroup – subsample size. This is the number of units to
be measured at any one time.
• How often the measurements are to be taken (hourly, every 100 units, four
times a day, etc.).
• The mechanism (tool, gauge) to be used for making the measurement.
• Who is to make the measurement – operator, inspector, supervisor, etc.
Step 3: Choose the type of Control Chart
This step is divided into two sub steps (of course it couldn‘t be simple). First is
determining which category of chart to use – variables or attributes. The second
step is choosing which type of variable or attribute chart to use (there are at least
27 options to choose from).
Step 3A: Determining the Chart Category

This choice will depend on the characteristic to be controlled. If the characteristic
cannot be measured such as color, surface defects, labeling for example then
attributes charts are the only choice. If a great number of characteristics need
control it may prove too costly to use variable charts because each variable chart
can only track one characteristic at a time. The solution to this dilemma is to use a
single attribute chart in place of a multitude of variable charts by classifying each
measurement as good or bad and rejecting the unit if any one measurement is
found to be nonconforming. This method can greatly reduce the cost of controlling
a multitude of characteristics.
Attribute charts have several disadvantages not shared with variable charts. First
they can provide hints, and even strong evidence of possible nonconformance in
parts, but they seldom provide the detailed information needed for a complete
solution. For example they cannot provide information on patterns that occur
within the specification limits; it takes a variables chart to provide this detailed
exposure.
Variable charts indicate shifts and potential problems before the process
deteriorates to an out of control status and defects are produced. Attribute
charts seldom provide definitive information needed for good ongoing process
improvement programs. This is due in large part because of the lack of in-control
patterns from measurements of parts that fall between the specification limits. In
general variable date can be converted to into attributes data (any measurement
outside specifications is defective), but it is much more difficult to convert attributes
data into variables data.
Attributes can be converted into variables by use of an interval scale (judge
the effectiveness or degree of quality, on a scale of 1 to 10, for instance); but this
practice is seldom necessary or useful. Converting attributes may occasionally be
done when using SPC for nonmanufacturing or service processes. When used in
this manor its effectiveness is suspect because of the subjective –judgement that
must be employed. Interval scale –judgements require a great deal of training so
that all inspectors will be judging from the same base, ie., the same perspectives
and understandings. Definitions of each scale interval must be understood the
same way by all (what constitutes a 1, a 2, a 3, etc.).
62 Lean Six Sigma
General Guidelines for Chart Selection

Variables chart:
• Installing a new process or product or changing an old process or product.
• The process is obviously in trouble; it cannot produce to the tolerances on a
consistent basis.
• Destructive or expensive testing is being used.
• Sampling further along the manufacturing process can be reduced by a more
positive control at an earlier stage.
• Attributes control charts have shown a problem to exist but the solution is
difficult or unknown.
• There are difficult problem processes with tight specifications, overlapping
assembly tolerances, expensive materials etc.
• When large subgroup sizes are desired (greater than 8) and a variables chart is
indicated, use Xbar, s.When a variables chart is indicated but the characteristic
is not critical enough to warrant a large subsample size, use X-bar,R.
• The critical characteristic is measurable.
• Customer or contract requirements.
Attributes Chart
• Operators have a high degree of control over assignable causes.
• Assembly operations are complex.
• Quality can only be measured in terms of good or bad.
• Historical information is needed for management review.
• Many characteristics must be measured at one time.
• Cost of measurement is high.
• Production runs are large.
Step 3B Choose the Type of Variables or Attribute Chart To Use
Once a decision is made which category (Attribute or Variable) of chart is to be
used another decision must be made as to which variable or attribute chart is
appropriate. Following is a list of the different types of variables control charts and
an explanation of the conditions under which each may be used.
Variables Control Chart

1. X-bar, R charts: The average (X-bar) and range (R) of periodic small samples
are plotted and evaluated. Each small sample consists of successive units
produced. This is the most basic and used of all variable charts and forms the
model for most other charts. Small sample sizes are used (4 to 10) but usually
4 or 5.
2. X-bar, s: Identical to the X-bar, R except that the standard deviation (s) of
each sample is used in place of the range. (R). This variables chart is used to
control critical characteristics where the cost of sample error is large. Larger
sample sizes (greater than 10) must be chosen and the choice must be carefully
made to balance cost of sampling with the cost of possible sample error.
3. X-bar,R charts using zero-base coding: This chart is the same as X-bar,R except
that a coded value is used in place of each X-bar and each R (the averages
and ranges of the differences between each measurement and its specification
midpoint are plotted and evaluated instead of the averages and ranges of the
actual measurements). This procedure allows for the use of more than one
product per chart for evaluating processes where run sizes are small. This chart
is probably the best one to use on short production runs. The recommended
subgroup size is 4.
4. Moving average: This is the same as X-bar,R chart except that, instead of
individual subgroups of successive units produced, a moving average(X-bar)
and a moving range R are calculated from individual measurements (only one
measurement is made periodically instead of 4 or more successive ones). This
chart is used where successive units produced would be impractical (chemical
processes for example), or where variations in successive measurements are
so tiny they are unmeasurable (bottling plants, for instance). In practice a
subgroup of three is used.
5. Moving average using zero-base coding: This chart is identical to the zero-base
chart explained above except that the moving averages are used in place of
X-bar,R. It is used for vary small run sizes or where measurements of successive
units are impractical. The subgroup size is the present measurement plus the
two previous ones.
64 Lean Six Sigma
6. Charts using converted attributes data: Both X-bar,R and moving averages
charts can be used for attributes data which have been converted to variable data
using a scale to estimate the degree of non-conformance. This chart is of little
value in manufacturing but has some success in controlling nonmanufacturing
processes.
7. Pre control: The tolerance band on this chart is divided into five zones: a
central zone target bounded by two cautionary zones, which in turn are
bounded by two reject zones. The chart center is the specification midpoint,
and the specification (tolerance) spread determines the location and extent of
the five zones (the center target, area is one-half the specifications spread and
the specification limits form the boundaries of the two cautionary zones). This
chart is frequently colored for ease of analysis, with the center portion (target
zone) colored green, the two cautionary areas colored yellow and the two reject
zones colored red. This is sometimes referred to as a stoplight chart. This chart
can be used for short production runs or long runs where the technician has a
great deal of control. Although great for control this variables chart cannot be
used for process analysis and improvement.
8. Trend charts: Used for processes where wear is an integral part of the process
(such as tool wear). The center and limit lines slope up or down. In the case
of tool wear, the chart can be used for determining optimum tool replacement
policies.
9. Charts using individual values: Only one measurement is taken at a time and
each individual measurement is used and plotted as if it were a subgroup
average. This variables chart can be used in situations where most errors are
likely to be measurement errors or where only one measurement at a time can
be done.
10. Charts using specifications limits: In this variables chart the specifications are
used as control limits, so that charting can begin at the start of the process.
Although this chart has the advantage of instantaneous start-up, it also has two
serious disadvantages. First if the process is not centered on the specification
midpoint the chart can be misleading i.e. it can show a problem where none
exists or not show one that does exist. Second, the limits do not show process
improvements. This chart can be useful at the beginning of a product run but
should be replaced with one of the more traditional X-bar,R charts as soon as
possible.
11. Run charts: This is not a statistical chart like all the others. It is just a chart with
the sample means plotted to show trends. The central value and limits are not
calculated. This chart is used at the start of a process, product or measurement
in order to show trends and provide for measurement control until regular
statistical charts can be constructed.
12. Constant limit X-bar: Plots the number of average deviations from the mean
(X-bar) rather than the average measurements (using a rather complex formula
for each plot). The limits are constants that are determined solely by the sample
size. Used for short production runs and for charting more than one product
on the same chart, as in zero based charts. This chart has disadvantages that
zero based charts do not, including complex calculations for each plot and
no way to show process improvements. Because of theses disadvantages this
chart is used very little.
13. Charts for larger sample sizes: Used when sample size is greater than 30.
Special procedures are used to determine the control limits. This chart has
such limited use that you are not likely to see this outside the automotive
industry.
14. Multivariate charts: Used for controlling two or more interrelated characteristics
at the same time and on the same chart. The application of this chart uses
very complex and difficult calculations and has extremely limited use, it is
mentioned here only to provide an awareness of its existence.
Attribute Control Charts for Defectives
Following is a list of attributes control charts for defectives (defective units) along
with a brief description of the chart and its use. These kinds of charts are called p
charts, or some kind of p.
The constant sample size p chart. The basic p chart. Also called the fraction
defective chart, this chart is used to control defective units, not defects per unit.
The p is the fraction defective or process average and is the plotted value. This is
the basic attributes chart that is used the most. It is used to control ongoing, long-
term production and is usually difficult to use with short production runs, long
process times, or other special cases. Most special cases require one or more of the
special p chart adaptations listed next.
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The 100 p chart. This is not an actual chart of its own, but is just the p chart
converted to percentages. The central value, control limits and each plotted value
(p) are multiplied by 100. This form of the p chart is the most used because people
tend to understand percentages better than decimal fractions.
The np chart. The actual number of defectives in the sample (a whole number) is
plotted, rather than a fraction or percentage. Its greatest value in use is to facilitate
operator understanding.
Variable sample size p chart. In this chart, the subgroup (sample) sizes are not
constant (not the same for every sample). Therefore the control limits do not form
a straight line as they do in constant sample charts. Each sample (subgroup) has
its own control limits. The variable p chart is good for short production runs and
long process times where only counted data are available.
The average p chart. This chart is identical to the variable p chart, except that an
average sample size is used to determine the control limits, so the limits will form
a straight line. Theoretically this chart can only be used when the sample sizes are
within 10% of each other, although this limit is often exceeded in actual practice
with limited detriment to accuracy.
The weighted p chart; using a constant sample size. The counts of each type of
defective are adjusted by weights, so that more important types of defectives are
given special consideration. Especially useful for nonmanufacturing applications
needing process control.
The weighted average p chart; using a variable sample size. Identical to the
weighted p chart, except that an average sample size is used in the computations.
Again this chart is useful in nonmanufacturing applications.
The constant limit p chart. Plots the number of standard deviations from the
mean, instead of actual counts. The limits are always constant at +3s and -3s. The
sample sizes must be constant. Two big disadvantages here; complex calculations
are required and chart limits do not show process improvements
Attributes Control Charts for Defects
The constant sample size u chart. The basic u chart. Also called the average defect
per unit chart, this chart is used to control defects per unit, not defective units. The
u is the average defects per unit and is the plotted value. Just like the p chart, this
chart is used to control ongoing, long-term production runs and like the p chart is
difficult to use with short production runs, long process times, or special cases.
The variable sample size u chart. As in all variable sample size charts, the
sample sizes in this chart are not constant. Therefore the control limits do not
form a straight line as they do in constant sample size charts. This chart can be
used for short production runs and long process times where measurements are
not possible, nor desirable.
The average sample size u chart. The same as the variable u chart (sample
sizes are not constant), except that an average sample size is used to determine
the control limits so that the limits will form a straight line. Theoretically the
sample sizes must be within 10% of each other, but accurate results are achieved
successfully in practice with greater diversity.
The weighted u chart; using a constant sample size. The counts of each defect
are adjusted by weights, so that more important defect types are given more
attention. It is used with constant sample sizes only; and it is especially useful for
nonmanufacturing applications.
The weighted u chart; using a variable sample size. This chart is identical to the
weighted u chart, except that an average sample size is used in computations. It is used
for variables subgroup sizes only and it is especially useful for nonmanufacturing
applications.
The constant limit u chart. Plots the number of standard deviations from the
mean, instead of the actual counts. The limits are always a constant +3s and –3s
The sample subgroup sizes must be constant. Two big disadvantages with this
chart are the complex calculations required for each plot and chart limits that
do not show process improvements. In other charts the limits become closer and
closer as the process improves.
The basic c chart. The c chart is a special case u chart where the subgroup size is
always one unit. Also called the defect per unit chart (there can be no average size
sample when the sample size is always one), it is used for very large and critical
products. The c is the defects per unit and is the plotted value.
The weighted c chart. The counts of each type of defect are adjusted by weights,
so that more important types of defects are given special attention. It is especially
useful for non-manufacturing applications.
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The constant limit c chart. This chart plots the number of standard deviations
from the mean, instead of the actual counts. The limits are always constant at +3s
and –3s. Its one big advantage is that it can be used for short production runs.
However it does require complex calculations for each plot and chart limits that
do not show process improvements.
2.12 Flow Process Chart

The flow process chart in industrial engineering is a graphical and symbolic
representation of the processing activities performed on the work piece.
A process flowchart or process flow diagram is probably the most versatile of
the four commonly used flowchart types because it can be applied to virtually
anything. Sometimes, these types of flowcharts use a standard language or notation,
like Business Process Modeling and Notation. Use a process flow diagram to:
• Map out roles and responsibilities within an organization to gain clarity.
• Describe the manufacturing process or inputs that go into creating a finished
product.
• Draw up a proposal for a new process or project to understand its scope and
steps.
The 6 steps to making a business process flow diagram
• Determine the main components of the process.
• Order the activities.
• Choose the correct symbols for each activity.
• Make the connection between the activities.
• Indicate the beginning and end of the process.
• Review your business process diagram.
When to use Process Flow Chart
• It is used when observing a physical process, to record actions as they happen,
and thus get an accurate description of the process.
• It is used when analyzing the steps in a process, to help identify and eliminate
waste—thus, it is a tool for efficiency planning.
• It is used when the process is mostly sequential, containing few decisions.
• Operation: to change the physical or chemical characteristics of the material.
• Inspection: to check the quality or the quantity of the material.
• Move: transporting the material from one place to another.

• Delay: when material cannot go to the next activity.
• Storage: when the material is kept in a safe location.
2.13 Process Capability Measurement:

The process capability is the measurement of the capability of the process performed
when there are some noise factors and process inputs impacting the process due to
which the output of the process could not be in target line and might get deviated
from the target.
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Here the target means the process target given by the customer. Customers give
the target with some specification limits i.e. USL (Upper Specification Limit) and
LSL (Lower Specification Limit), these are the boundaries of the target which
customers already take into consideration. But obviously, hitting the exact target
is practically not possible, and therefore customers give the USL and LSL.
If all our data points lie between these given specification limits, we can say
our process is capable, however, if data points are crossing the specification limits
given by customers, it means the process is not capable enough to provide the data
as per customers’ requirement.
For example, if a pizza needs to delivered to the customer in 30 minutes then
crossing the 30 minutes time limit could be considered a failure or there can be
a chance to deliver the pizza for free. Here we can see that we have only one
specification limit which is the USL.
Hence, we can say that specification limits can be on both Upper and Lower
side or only one side Upper or Lower.
Process capability, we must assure that data must be normal and in control. If
data is not normal and in control, it is fruitless to check for the process capability.
• Process capability gives a long-term performance once it is under the statistical
boundaries.
• It checks the ability of the process also the ability of the people, machines,
measurement, and methods as well.
• Process Capability could have both side limits, in manufacturing industries,
for any measurement, there would be upper and lower specification limits.
In other industries, there might be a chance of only a single limit, either
maximum limit or minimum limit. For example, the delivery of the product
should have only the maximum limit, whereas passing an exam has a criterion
of minimum 60%.
Graphical representation quantifying the process capability
We can see that when the process data has a wider spread, it reflects the poor
capability, whereas a narrower variation spread shows a good capability. Since
it is under the specification limits, there is more area for committing the errors,
whereas, in the poor capability figure, we can see process variation exceeding the
specification limits.
Also, in this figure, we can differentiate between VOC and VOP. VOC is given
by the customer, whereas VOP is the processed voice, it comes inherently from the
data and creates the Upper Control Limit and Lower Control Limit.
While VOC gives Upper Specification Limit and Lower Specification Limit, it
can only be one-sided, however, control limits must have both sides.
Measures of Process Capability (Indices)

Process Capability Formula (Cp, Cpk):
Cp and Cpk are used for the short-term process, or within 6s.
Cp= (USL-LSL)/6s (within) and Cpk = min (Cpu, Cpl),
Cpu = (USL-Mean)/3s (within)
Cpl= (Mean-Cpu)/3s (within)
In the Cpk, k stands for off-target variation.
K= (Process Centre-Process Mean)/50%of USL-LSL and if we talk about
process center;
Process center = (USL+LSL)/2, and the process mean is the average or mean
of the process data points.
While we talk about s within, it reflects the Rbar/d2 or Sbar/C4.
Rbar/d2 are used for data if we see the average of the ranges of the subgroups
and when we have a subgroup size of less than 10; whereas, Sbar/C4 is used for
the data points when we have subgroup size ≥ 10, where the D2 and C4 are the
predefined control charts constants, as per the subgroup size we have taken. We
get the constant value for D2 and C4 from statistical data.
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Difference Between Cp and Cpk

Cp and Cpk both give the process capability, while Cp talks about the data spread
and width of the data range, the Cpk talks about the data points near to mean.
Though both give the process capability Cpk gives a more precise process
capability. Since it sees the data point with mean unlike Cp, which provides the
data points between the USL and LSL.
There are chances that data points lie between the specification limits, but far
from the target. Hence process will be more capable if the distance between the
points and target less. Which we could see by the Cpk value.
Tools for Analysis:
Process Mapping
A Process Map is detailed flow diagram of the process using color coded symbols
that drill further into the high level map generated on the SIPOC. The purpose is
to visually represent the process as it really is. Complete the current state map by
walking and experiencing the process. This is a valuable learning experience and
you will quickly gain insight about the actual flow. Don‘t sit in a room and think
it through yourself or with the team. Patience, time, asking questions are all part
of the completing this map.
Create a current state and a future state. Your team may want a future state with
a short term target (such as 90 days) and a long term ideal state.
Objective:
To capture all the improvement opportunities by analyzing each step in detail.
Seek out the 7-Wastes and enhance current value-added activities.
These represent opportunity for waste elimination. Proceed with the goal to
eliminate waste before settling for waste reduction. Throughout the entire process
map, look for the 7-Wastes. Take caution when considering “automation.
Look for:
• Automation Opportunities
• Material Handling
• Duplication
• Redundancy
• Decisions
• Delays
• Rework Loops
People are adaptable and much more flexible. Automation is fixed, constant, and
often difficult to fix and maintain. In a JIT environment the decision to automate,
or not to, must be carefully balanced. This is considered a living document,
update and analyze it on a continuous basis. The more detail it contains the better
understanding the team will have of the true process and opportunities.
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2.14 Regression Analysis
Regression analysis is a statistical tool for the investigation of relationships between
variables. Usually, the investigator seeks to ascertain the causal effect of one
variable upon another the effect of a price increase upon demand, for example, or
the effect of changes in the money supply upon the inflation rate. To explore such
issues, the investigator assembles data on the underlying variables of interest and
employs regression to estimate the quantitative effect of the causal variables upon
the variable that they influence.
The investigator also typically assesses the statistical significance of the estimated
relationships, that is, the degree of confidence that the true relationship is close to
the estimated relationship.
What is Regression?
For purposes of illustration, suppose that we wish to identify and quantify the
factors that determine earnings in the labor market. A moment‘s reflection
suggests a myriad of factors that are associated with variations in earnings across
individuals occupation, age, experience, educational attainment, motivation, and
innate ability come to mind, perhaps along with factors such as race and gender
that can be of particular concern to lawyers. For the time being, let us restrict
attention to a single factor call it education. Regression analysis with a single
explanatory variable is termed simple regression.
Assumptions of regression:
• Number of cases
• Accuracy of data
• Missing data
• Outliers
• Normality
• Linearity
a. Simple Regression
In reality, any effort to quantify the effects of education upon earnings without
careful attention to the other factors that affect earnings could create serious
statistical difficulties (termed omitted variables bias), which I will discuss later. But
for now let us assume away this problem. We also assume, again quite unrealistically,
that education can be measured by a single attribute years of schooling. We thus
suppress the fact that a given number of years in school may represent widely
varying academic programs.
At the outset of any regression study, one formulates some hypothesis about
the relationship between the variables of interest, here, education and earnings.
Common experience suggests that better educated people tend to make more
money. It further suggests that the causal relation likely runs from education
to earnings rather than the other way around. Thus, the tentative hypothesis is
that higher levels of education cause higher levels of earnings, other things being
equal.
To investigate this hypothesis, imagine that we gather data on education and
earnings for various individuals. Let E denote education in years of schooling
for each individual, and let I denote that individual‘s earnings in dollars per year.
We can plot this information for all of the individuals in the sample using a two-
dimensional diagram, conventionally termed a scatter diagram. Each point in the
diagram represents an individual in the sample.
Multiple Regression
Plainly, earnings are affected by a variety of factors in addition to years of
schooling, factors that were aggregated into the noise term in the simple regression
model above. Multiple regression is a technique that allows additional factors
to enter the analysis separately so that the effect of each can be estimated. It is
valuable for quantifying the impact of various simultaneous influences upon a
single dependent variable. Further, because of omitted variables bias with simple
regression, multiple regression is often essential even when the investigator is only
interested in the effects of one of the independent variables.
For purposes of illustration, consider the introduction into the earnings analysis
of a second independent variable called experience. Holding constant the level of
education, we would expect someone who has been working for a longer time to
earn more. Let X denotes years of experience in the labor force and, as in the case
of education, we will assume that it has a linear effect upon earnings that is stable
across individuals. The modified model may be written:
I = a + bE + gX + e
where g is expected to be positive.
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2.15 RU/CS Analysis:
The RU/CS (Resource Utilization and Customer Service) Analysis is a simple
tool to establish the relative importance of the key parameters of both RU and CS
and to identify their conflicts.
The relative importance of the key parameters of both RU (i.e. Machines,
Materials and Labor) and CS (i.e. Specification, Cost and Time) can be given a
rating of 1,2 or 3 (3 being the most importance)
Resource Utilization Customer Service
Machines Materials Labor Specification Cost Time
Operation
Operations Objective Chart
Application
If any business or operation, a manager has to find a balance between two conflicting
objectives. CS is of course the primary objective of operation. For Simplicity, three
key parameters of CS are considered. These are Specification, cost (or Price) and
Timing. The customer expects the goods or service is to be delivered according to
acceptable standards, to be of an affordable price and they arrive on time. However
the relative importance of Specification, Cost and Time could change depending
on the market condition, competition and desirability of demand.
The second Objective of the operation manager is to utilize resources to meet
customer requirements. Given infinite resources, any system can provide any
adequate CS, but many companies have gone out of business in spite of possessing
satisfied customers. Therefore, it is essential to provide an efficient use of resources.
The RU/CS Analysis aims to point out the way forward to a balanced approach of
effective CS and efficient RU.
An organization in a normal condition will not aim to maximize all three
parameters. Likewise, few organizations will aim to maximize the utilization
of all resources. Hence there is some room for adjustments and the operations
manager must attempt to balance the parameters of these two basic objectives RU
and CS. The RU/CS analysis is applied to examine the relative importance of the
parameters to lead a balanced solution of objectives.
Basic Steps:
• Identify the key parameters of RU.Any operation may have several types of
resources as input (e.g. machines, facilities, labor, information, etc.,) Choose
three important resources.
• For CS parameters, select Specification, cost and Time. There are other
dimensions of quality as perceived by customers; For the sake of simplicity
only specification has been chosen as the key parameter for the quality of
service.
• Draw two matrices for RU and CS showing the six parameters
• Allocate a rating of 1, 2 or 3 (3 being most important) to the parameters of
both RU and CS.The ratings are influenced by internal processes for RU and
external customer requirements for CS.
• Rate separately what is actually achieved for each aspect for RU and CS.
• Compare the two sets of figures (from step 4 and step 5) and identify the
shortfalls or misalignments.
• Review the criticality of shortfalls in CS and examine which resources are
inhibiting CS performance.
• Draw a combined RU/CS matrix, with the allocated ratings outlined in step 4,
and identify their conflicts. It is important to note that the high importance of
specification and Time will require a lower RU.The high importance of cost,
on the other hand, will demand a lower price and this will require a higher
RU.It can be used as a ready reckoner to identify conflicts.
• Having identified the conflicts, the next step is to examine the relative
importance of each parameter in order to minimize the conflicts.
RU
1 2 3
CS 1 √ √ √
2 √ ? √
Specification and Cost 3 √ ? 
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RU
1 2 3
CS 1 √ √ ?
2 ? √ √
Cost 3  ? √
Conflict X
1= low 2=Medium 3= high
RU/CS Conflicts
2.16 SWOT ANALYSIS
An SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) is a tool for analyzing
an organizations competitive position in relation to its competitors.
In the context of the quality improvement programme, an SWOT analysis
refers to the summary of the gaps and positive features of a process following the
analytical stage.
Application:
Based on an SWOT framework, the team members can focus on alternative
strategies for improvement. For example, an S/O (strength/Opportunities)
strategy may be considered to consolidate the strengths and open further leverage
from the process. Similarly an S/T (strength/Threats) strategy may be considered
to maximize the strength of the process and minimize the risks.
Thus an SWOT Analysis can help the team to identify a wide range of alternative
strategies for the next stage.
Internal factors External factors
Favorable factors Strengths: a resource that can Opportunities: any favorable
be effectively used to achieve situation in the external
its objectives environment
Unfavorable factors Weaknesses: a limitation, fault Threats: any unfavorable
or defect that makes achieving situation in the external
objectives difficult environment that is potentially
damaging to its strategy
Basic Steps:
• Create two categories (Internal and External factors) and then further sub
divided into positive aspects (strength and Opportunities) and negative aspects
(Weakness and Threats).
• Ensure that the internal factors may be viewed as a strength or weakness of a
process depending on their impact on the outcome or the process output.
• Similarly assess the external factors bearing in mind that threats to one process
could be an opportunity for another process.
• Summarize the key features and finding derived from previous analyses in
each of the SWOT categories.
• Develop the improvement strategy for the next stage as pointers from the
SWOT analysis.
2.17 PESTLE ANALYSIS

Definition
The PESTLE (Political, Economical, Social, Technical, Legal and Environmental)
Analysis is an analytical tool for assessing the impact of external contexts on
a project or a major operation and also the impact of a project on its external
contexts. There are several contexts including:
• Political
• Economical
• Social
• Technological
• Legal
• Environmental
Application:
Very few major changes, whether they are caused by major operation or project,
are unaffected by the external surrounds.
• Political: A Project is affected by the policies of international, national or
local government. It is also influenced by the company policies and those of
stakeholders, managers, employees and trade unions.
• Economical: A Project is affected by the national and international economic
issues, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates.
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• Social: The change is influenced by social issues, the local culture, the lives of
employees, communications and language.
• Technological: The success of implementation is affected by the technology of
the industry and the technical capability of the parent company.
• Legal: The Project is affected by the legal aspects of planning, registration and
working practices.
• Environmental: The impact of change on environmental emission, noise,
health and safety is assessed.
Basic Steps:
• Develop a good understanding of deliverables of the operation and the project.
And this stage, the relevant policies and guidelines of both the local company
and the parent organization are reviewed.
• List the relevant factors affecting the various aspects of projects related to
PESTLE. It is important that the appropriate expertise of the organization is
drawn into the team for this analysis
• Validate the factors in step 2 with the stakeholders and functional leaders of
the company.
• Review progress and decide on the next steps by asking two questions
a. How did we do?
b. Where do we go next?
2.18 The Five Whys

The Five Whys is a systematic technique of asking five questions successively. The
aim is to probe the causes of a problem and thus hopefully get to the heart of the
problem.
Application:
The Five Whys is a technique that is widely used to analyse problems in both
manufacturing and service operations. It is a variation on the classic work study
approach of critical examination involving six questions why, what, where, when
who and how?
The Objective is to eliminate the root cause rather than patch up the effects.
Basic Steps:
• Select the problem for analysis
• Ask five close questions one after another starting with why.
• Do not defend the answer or point the finger of blame at others.
• Determine the root cause of the problem.
Question 1: Why does it happen?
Answer: The routing of trucks is not optimised.
Question 2: Why is it not optimised?
Answer: Cioods are loaded based on their size rather than the location of the
delivery.
Question 3: Why are they loaded by size?
Answer: The computer defines the dispatch based upon the principle of ‘large
items first’.
Question 4: W hy are large items given preference?
Answer: Large items are delivered first.
Question 5: But why?
Answer: Current prioritisation policy puts large items first on the delivery
schedule.
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2.19 Interrelationship Diagram

Definition:
An Interrelationship Diagram (ID) is an analytical tool to identify, systematically
analyse and classify the cause and effect relationships among all critical issues
of a process. The key drivers or outcomes are identified leading to an effective
solution.
Application:
An ID is an often applied to enable the further examination of causes and effects
after these are recorded in a Fishbone Diagram. ID encourages team members to
think in a multiple directions rather than merely in a linear sense.
This simple tool enables the team to set priorities to root causes even when
credible data does not exist.
Basic Steps:
• Assemble the team and agree on the issue or problem for investigation.
• Lay out all of the ideas or issues that have been brought from other tools (such
as cause and effect diagram) or brainstormed.
• Look for the cause and effect relationships between all issues and assign the
relationship strength as
3- Significant
2- Medium
1- Weak
• Draw the final ID in the matrix format and insert the relationship strength
given by members.
• Total the relationship strength in each row to identify the strongest effect of an
issue on the greatest number of issues.
Example:
The following example is considering five key issues to improve CS.
• Logistics support
• Customer Satisfaction
• Education and Training
• Personal Incentives
• Leadership
The ID is plotted in a matrix in a below figure with appropriate relationships

strengths.
From the above analysis in the Total Column it is evident that customer
satisfaction and leadership are the two most critical issues.
2.20 Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Definition:
The Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is an index of measuring the delivered
performance of a plant or equipment based on a good output.
The method of monitoring OEE is devised in such a way that it would highlight
the losses and deficiencies incurred during the operation of the plant and identify
the opportunities for improvement.
There are many ways to calculate OEE
Overall OEE is defined by the following formula
OEE% = (Actual Good Output/ Specified Output)*100
Where Specified output = (Specified speed *operation time)
Application
The Application of OEE has been extensively, especially when driven by the TPM
(Total Productive Maintenance) Programmes, to critical plant and equipment. It
can be applied to single equipment, a packing line, a production plant or processes.
84 Lean Six Sigma
In order to appreciate the usefulness of OEE it is important to understand

Equipment Time Analysis as shown in figure below.
Total time defines the maximum time within a reporting period, such as 52
weeks a year, 24 hours a day, 8760 hours in a year.
Available time is the time during which the machine or equipment could be
operated within the limits of national or local statues, regulation or convention.
Operation time is the time during which the machine or equipment is planned
to run for production purposes. The Operational time is normally the shift hours.
Production time is the maximum time during which the machine or equipment
could be expected to be operated productively after adjusting the Operation time
for routine stoppages such as changeover and meal breaks.
Effective time is the time needed to produce a good output delivered if the
machine or equipment is working as its specified speed for a defined period. It
includes no allowances for interruptions or any other time losses.
It is important to note that Effective time is not recorded; it is calculated from
the specified speed as
Effective Time = (Good Output/ Specified Speed)
Where specified speed is the optimum speed of a machine or equipment for
a particular product without any allowances for loss of efficiency. It is expressed
as quantity per unit such as Tons per hour, Bottles per minute, cases per hour or
Litres per minute.
In Addition to OEE, two other indices are commonly used as shown below
Production Efficiency (%) = (Effective Time (E) / Production Time (P))*100
Operational Utilization (%) = (Operation Time (O) / Total Time (T))*100
A properly designed and administered OEE scheme offers a broad range of

benefits and a comprehensive manufacturing performance system. some of its key
benefits are:
• It Provides information for shortening lead time and changeover time and a
foundation for SMED (Single Minute Exchange Die)
• It provides essential reliable data for capacity planning and scheduling.
• It identifies the six big losses of TPM leading to a sustainable improvement of
plant reliability.
Basic Steps:
• Select the machines, equipment or a production line where the OEE scheme
could be applied. The selection criteria will depend on the criticality of the
equipment in the context of the business. It is useful to start with a single
production line as trial or a pilot.
• Establish the specified speed of the production line governed by the control or
bottleneck operation. As shown in the following example of a soap packaging
line, the specified speed is 150 tablets per minute i.e. this constitutes the speed
of a wrapper (which is the slowest piece of equipment)
• Set up a data recording system so that the output data and various stoppages
and losses can be recorded.
• Compile the data everyday and validate the results. At this stage detailed
calculations are not necessary.
• Monitor the results, comprising OEE and key indices, major losses as a percent
of the operation time and the trends of indices. The reporting is normally on
a monthly basis for senior Management.
• Use the results for continuous improvement, planning and strategic changes.
Worked out example
Consider the production data of a toilet soap packing line where the control station
governing the Specified vSpeed is an ACM A 711 wrapping machine.
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Week Number: 31
Operation Time: 128 hours
Specified Speed: 150 tablets per minute
Good Output: 4232 cases
Routine Stoppages: 11 hours 30 minutes
Unexpected Stoppages: 27 hours 15 minutes
Given that each case contains 144 tablets
Good Output 609408
Effective Time    67.71 hours
Specified Speed 150  60
Pr oduction Time  Operation Time  Routine Stoppages
 128 11.5  116.5 hours
Total Time  7  24  168 hours
Effective Time 67.71
OEE    0.553  53%
Pr oducction Time 128
Effective Time 67.71
Pr oduction Efficiency    58%
Pr oduction time 116.5
OPeration Time 128
Operation Utilisation    76%
Total Time 168
It is important to note that the Effective Time was calculated and not derived
from the recorded stoppages. There will be an amount of unrecorded time (also
known as Time Adjustment) as, in the example, given by:
Unrecorded Time = (Production Time – Unexpected Stoppages)
– Effective Time
= (116.5 – 27.25) – 67.71
= 2 1.54 hours
2.21 TRIZ: Innovative Problem Solving

Definition:
It extends traditional systems engineering approaches and provides powerful
systematic methods for problem formulation, system and failure analysis.
There are 39 characteristics and 40 principles of Innovative problem solving.
The contradictions are systematically eliminated by 40 principles to lead to the

development of a new invention.
Application:
There are two groups of problems face those with generally known solutions
and those with unknown solutions. Those with known solutions can usually be
solved by information found in books, technical journals or with subject matter
experts. The other type of problems is one with no known solution. It is called an
inventive problem and may contain contradictory requirements. Methods such as
brainstorming and trial and error are commonly suggested. This approach later
known as TRIZ should satisfy the following conditions:
• Be a systematic, step by step procedure.
• Be a guide through a broad solutions space to direct to the ideal solution.
• Be a repeatable and reliable and not depend on Psychological tools.
• Be able to access the body on inventive knowledge.
• Be able to add to the body of inventive knowledge.
• Be familiar enough to inventors by following the general approach to problem
solving.
TRIZ general problem solving model

Altshuller more clearly defined an inventive problem as one in which the solution
causes another problem to appear (such as increasing the strength of a metal plate
causing its weight to get heavier) and categorized the solutions into five levels.
• Level One: Routine design problems solved by methods well known within
the speciality. No invention needed. About 32% of the solutions fell into this
level.
88 Lean Six Sigma
• Level Two: Minor improvements an existing system, by methods known within

the industry. Usually with some compromise. About 45% of the solutions fell
into this level.
• Level Three: Fundamental improvements an existing system, by methods
known outside the industry. Contradictions resolved. About 18% of the
solutions fell into this level.
• Level Four: A new generation that uses a new principle to perform the primary
functions of the system. Solutions found more in science than in technology.
About 4% of the solutions fell into this level.
• Level Five: A rare scientific discovery or pioneering invention of essentially a
new system. About 1% of the solutions fell into this level.
Tools for Improvement:
Understanding processes so that they can be improved by means of a systematic
approach requires the knowledge of a simple kit of tools or techniques. The
effective use of these tools and techniques requires their application by the people
who actually work on the processes, and their commitment to this will only be
possible if they are assured that management cares about improving quality.
• Affinity Diagram
• Normal Group Technique
• SMED
• 5S
• Mistake Proofing
• Value Stream Mapping
• Forced Field Analysis
2.22 AFFINITY DIAGRAM
An affinity diagram is a tool that is used to organize a large number of ideas,
opinions, and issues and group them based on their relationships. Affinity diagrams
are generally used for categorizing ideas that are generated during brainstorming
sessions and can be particularly useful for analyzing complex issues.
The steps for creating an affinity diagram can include:
• Generating ideas through brainstorming.
• Displaying the ideas randomly.
• Sorting the ideas into groups.

• Creating header cards for each group to capture the essential links among the
ideas in each group.
• And, drawing the affinity diagram by writing the problem statement at the
top and the headers with their respective groups of ideas below the problem
statement.
• An affinity diagram helps in sorting and grouping customer requirements.
An Affinity Diagram is an analytical tool used to organize many ideas into
subgroups with common themes or common relationships. The method is reported
to have been developed by Jiro Kawakita and so is sometimes referred to as the
K-J method.
Example
Several members of a small company have just returned from a workshop on the
methods of Six Sigma. On the trip back from the seminar, the group engaged in
a vigorous discussion of the challenges they would confront if they attempted to
implement the Six Sigma approach. One person quickly jotted down the list of
challenges they generated. The list of brainstormed challenges is given below.
• Cost accounting discourages other measures
• Culture does not encourage quality at the source
• Distrust of “new initiatives”
• Inadequate performance reporting tools
• No current process champions
• Operators not well trained in quality
• Performance measures discourage cooperation
• Poor cooperation among departments
• Poor opinion of team-based projects
• Reward systems do not accommodate teams
• Supervisors resistant to required time to train
• Suppliers not held accountable for quality
2.23 NORMAL GROUP TECHNIQUE:

The nominal group technique (NGT) is a decision-making method used by
teams to separate the vital few from the trivial many. Separation of the important
90 Lean Six Sigma
items from the not-as-important items can be made using various techniques.
One technique is majority rule. The decision made by majority rule is quick, but
those in the minority feel alienated because they lose. It is better to get a win-win
decision. A popular nominal group technique is to give everyone on the team five
votes. Some use Post-it notes where one note equals one vote. Each member can
vote on one item and use all of their five votes on that one idea. The team member
may choose to split his or her votes among a few different ideas. For example, they
might want to put three votes on one idea and two votes on another idea. They
might even want to put one vote on each of the five items.
When to Use Normal Group Technique
• When you have shy team members.
• When the team tends to defer to a single person or group of people.
• When a team member hasn’t felt like their voice is being heard.
• When teams think better in silence.
• When there are controversial items to discuss.
How Normal Group Technique Works
1. The moderator states the topic for brainstorming and ensures all participants
are clear on the topic.
2. All participants are given a set period of time (5-10 mins) to write their thoughts
on paper.
3. When finished, each idea is presented.
• Continue for set period of time or until impractical
4. Moderator transcribes ideas to a shared visual board.
• Duplicate ideas are skipped or merged.
5. Each idea is discussed by the group.
• No idea may be eliminated without consensus.
• Some ideas are merged.
• New ideas may emerge and the moderator should capture them as well.
6. Use Multivoting to select the path forward.
For example, Table 1 lists possible user requirements for a library card system.
Three team members have assigned each user requirement a points value based on
the estimated work involved.
2.24 SMED (Single Minute Exchange Die)

Lean offers a variety of strategies for identifying and eliminating waste. One of the
most effective comes with an interesting name: Single Minute Exchange of Die
(SMED). It’s also known as a Quick Changeover.
SMED is a tool in Lean used to reduce the amount of time it takes to change
from running one process in an operation to running another. In addition to
improving cycle time in a process, SMED can help reduce costs and increase
flexibility within a process.
The “single minute” title refers to the goal of reducing the changeover time to
single-digit minutes, from a maximum of nine minutes down to one (if possible).
Principles of SMED
In general, SMED steps take place within one of two areas: external and internal
setup components. Internal steps happen while the equipment or process is
stopped. External steps occur while the equipment or process is running. Both are
important in accomplishing SMED.
External
With external components, one of the focuses is on having supplies and tools ready
for a changeover. For example, you don’t see pit crews running around looking for
the right tires or the gas hose when a race car pulls in. In the best restaurants, chefs
don’t suddenly have to find choice ground beef for the lunch burgers just as the
clock strikes noon.
All of this is already on hand through careful analysis of what will be needed
and then adequately ordering supplies so that the needed items are available.
92 Lean Six Sigma
That sort of predictive analysis is key to making the external part of SMED
successful.
Internal
This is where the videotaping of a process proves especially valuable. Careful
analysis of how a team handles the details of a process can help leaders identify
areas where improvements can be made.
Part of the process is identifying internal components that can be made external,
such as having tires ready in the pit crew example. Any operation that can be done
before the actual changeover takes place should be identified. This helps speed up
the process significantly.
Steps to Implement SMED
The following is an outline of the steps that need to be taken to implement
SMED.
Identify the Process:
In this first step, the focus area for improving changeover times is identified. It
needs to be a situation where:
• The changeover is long enough where there is room for improvement
• There has historically been a lot of variance in the past in changeover times
• The operation is done frequently
• All employees involved in the changeover process have been trained and have
buy-in for the change
• The process has been a bottleneck in the overall operation, meaning changes
will have immediate impact
Identify Elements
Again, video typically comes in handy. Seeing how the process is being handled
can help identify areas for improvement. Each element of the process should be
quantified by the amount of time it takes as well as the cost. The process is then
mapped out by each individual element, those involving both human and machine
activities.
Separate External Elements
In this step, all elements of the operation that are external should be separated.
This includes elements that are currently internal but can be made external. On
each element, it should be asked: can this be done while the equipment or process is
running? If so, it can be accomplished before the actual changeover takes place.
Convert Internal to External
As mentioned above, any element that can be moved to external should now be
moved. Prioritize the list so that the elements with the most potential impact on
reducing time and cost are acted on first. This involves advanced preparation on
many elements. It also could involve reconfiguring machinery or investing in extra
machinery that can handle an external element while the main process is still
running.
Streamline
In this final step, the internal elements should be simplified to take less time.
Every single element must be considered. This also can involve new equipment or
modification of existing equipment to make changeovers run smoother and faster.
Also keep in mind to eliminate wasted motion or time spent waiting – two of the
major areas of waste addressed in Lean.
Putting it all together can lead to operations that run faster while also producing
quality products. Toyota, pit crews and even restaurants have put SMED into play
– it can work for your organization too.
2.25 5S
5S is a method of organizing a workspace to make it safe, efficient and effective.
The goal of 5S is to create a clean, uncluttered environment that allows people to
do their jobs without wasting time, while also lowering the risk of injury.
94 Lean Six Sigma
The five words in 5S represent the five steps to accomplish this goal. They are
sort, set, shine, standardize and sustain. Lean bases the words on the original
Japanese: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke.
5S is a key component in eliminating the eight wastes of Lean when setting
up a workstation. While it ranks among the most widely used and fundamental
components of Lean Manufacturing, it’s common-sense application also works in
almost every setting.
SEIRI (Sort)
In this first step, workers sort everything in a workspace into what is and what
is not needed. Some use a system called “red tagging” in which every item not
necessary for a process gets red-tagged during the sort phase. These items are set
aside and evaluated later. Workers store seldom used items nearby, but not at the
workstation. They discard unsafe items and clutter.
The Sort phase is the first step to making more effective use of space by clearing
out hazardous items and clutter that distracts from doing the job.
SEITON (Set)
Set, or Set in Order, follows the advice: “A place for everything and everything
in its place.” Workers position items based on use, with frequently needed items
kept closer at hand. Every item that made it through the Sort stage is given storage
space. In some cases, workers can use color-coded labels to easily identify storage
spaces.
The Set in Order phase creates an ergonomic, organized and uncluttered
workspace where employees have what they need close at hand and know where
every item is stored. This creates a less stressful work environment.
SEISO (Shine)
With the clutter gone and storage space organized, it’s time to clean. After a
thorough initial cleaning, workers clean the station every day (sometimes twice a
day). This maintains the gains made in the Sort and Set phases. Cleaning includes
storage areas, machines, equipment, tools and work surfaces.
The Shine phase creates a more pleasant environment for employees, who no
longer have to combat dust, dirt and clutter. Cleaning the area every day also leads
to a higher level of employee buy-in for the 5S method.
SEIKETSU (Standardize)
This step involves creating ways to sustain the first three steps. Employees
participate in creation of a set of standards that will govern maintenance of the
workspace going forward. Once this “new normal” becomes a habit, all old habits
will fall away. This may require oversight and enforcement before becoming a
habit, however.
The Standardize phase takes the progress and changes in behavior from the first
three steps and makes them the standard procedure.
SHITSUKE (Sustain)
In Sustain, the goal is to stick to the new rules. Workers keep the new standards in
place and practice the first three steps every day until they become automatic and
the accepted way of doing things. This final step often proves the most challenging.
However, without sustaining the new system, all the cost and effort that went into
creating it will prove pointless.
The Sustain phase of 5S often requires training and good communication, but it
eventually will lead to employees becoming comfortable with 5S procedures.
While not complicated, the 5S system presents challenges in both implementing
the steps and sustaining the practice. Putting 5S into place can not only help make
people less stressed and more efficient, but will also improve workplace safety and
reduce training time for new employees.
2.26 MISTAKE PROOFING (POKA YOKE)

Shigeo Shingo is credited with this concept which involves some form of
mechanism that helps avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Poka-yoke is the Japanese
term corresponding to mistake-proofing.
Mistake Proofing is about adding techniques to prevent defects and detect
defects as soon as possible, if one does occur.
Poka-Yoke is often used as a synonymous term but its meaning is to eliminate
product defects by preventing human errors (that are unintentional). The concept
was first put to widespread use by Shigeo Shingo within the Toyota Production
System (TPS).
When an error cannot practically be 100% prevented or detected, then the next
best option is to try to reduce the severity of the error and defect.
96 Lean Six Sigma
Objective:
PREVENT a defect from occurring and when this is not possible, DETECT the
defect every time one occurs. There are various levels, effort, and costs of error
proofing.
The team needs to identify the optimal states and examine feasibility of
implementation in the new product or process KPIV’s.
The goal is in this priority:
1. To prevent the errors that lead to the defects
2. To detect defects (not all errors can be 100% preventable)
3. To reduce the severity of the defect
If practical and necessary, try to implement all three or a combination of the
three options.
Sometimes technology isn’t available to prevent and/or detect errors so the next
best solution is to reduce the severity of the defect.
Tools such as the 5-WHY are used to get to root causes of the errors. When
thinking about mistake-proofing it is crucial to get to the sources and root causes.
Three Types
Shigeo Shingo coined three types of poka-yokes:
• Contact method - identifies defects by testing product characteristics.
• Fixed-value - a specific number of movements every time.
• Sequence method - determines if procedure were followed.
Defects found in later operations or steps of a process have more costs associated
with them. There are more materials, labor, overhead, previously reworked product
that are at risk. Ultimately if the product gets to the customer as a defect, the
intangibles, such as reputation, can exceed the tangible cost.
For example, a carbon monoxide detector will not be as effective if the inputs
of dangerous and tolerable PPM levels are not known, or if the proper location for
installation is not clear.
GOOD: Detect defect before proceeding to next step.
BETTER: Detects defects while in process at an operation.
BEST: Prevent defects from occurring at all.
Each process should have error-proofing to ensure defects are not passed on to
the next step and that each operation has mistake proofing in place to ensure only
defect free parts are accepted in.
Examples of Poka-Yoke
The examples listed below are devices that help prevent or detect mistakes.
However, there are varying degrees of effectiveness and the team needs to balance
getting the most effective poka-yoke while being practical and economical.
• Spell check on work editor
• UPC codes and scanners (reduces data entry errors)
• Snooze
• Circuit breaker
• Operator training
• Low fuel alarm and visual indicator on vehicle
• Instructions on assembling furniture or light fixture
• Automatic save features on software
• Pull down menus for consistent data entry
• Inspection
2.26 Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

Value stream mapping is a technique developed from Lean manufacturing that
organizations use to create a visual guide of all the components necessary to
deliver a product or service, with the goal of analyzing and optimizing the entire
process.
The process of creating a value stream map takes all the necessary people,
processes, information and inventory, and displays them in a flowchart format. By
visualizing all elements that go into creating a product or service, organizations
can apply lean principles to reduce waste in specific areas of their processes.
Why Do We Use Value Stream Mapping?
The purpose of value stream mapping is to maximize value and minimize waste
in a number of different ways including:
• Facilitating clear communication and collaboration
• Encouraging continuous improvement of a process
98 Lean Six Sigma
• Enabling culture change within an organization

• Creating visualizations of delays, excess inventory and production constraint
Steps to Complete a Value Stream Map

• Step 1 – Understand Value
• Step 2 – What is our Focus?
• Step 3 – Go to Gemba (Walk the Process)
• Step 4 – Work Backwards
• Step 5 – Define the basic value stream
• Step 6 – Fill in Queue Times
• Step 7 – Fill in Process Data
• Step 8 – Include Smiley Faces
• Step 9 – Include the Value Added Percentage (%VA)
• Step 10 – interpret the VSM?
2.28 Force Field Analysis

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.
How to perform force field analysis
1. Define the situation
Describe the current situation, and where you’re trying to get to
2. Force analysis
Identify forces in favor of the change, and forces against it
3. Current situation line

Draw a chart with a line down the middle which is the ‘current situation’
4. Forces in favor
Draw arrows on the left showing forces pushing the current situation forwards.
The size of the arrow is the strength of the force
5. Forces against
Draw arrows on the right showing forces holding the current situation back
from advancing
6. Action plan
Produce actions plan on how to remove the barriers to progress, prioritizing
the largest barriers first
Example
Force field analysis for a project that will add some automated elements to a
process
Tools for Control:

In the Control Phase the team develops a Monitoring Plan to keep an eye on the
continued success of the updated process. They also develop a Response Plan in
case there is a dip in performance. ... The team is busy moving on to tackle the next
improvement effort, so it’s key to leave the process in good hands.
The Tools used for control are:
• Gantt Chart
• Activity Network Diagram
• Radar Chart
• PDCA Cycle
• Milestone Tracker Diagram
• Earned Value Management
100 Lean Six Sigma
2.29 GANTT CHART
The Gantt chart is traditionally display as a bar chart. It shows the tasks of a project,
when each must take place and how long each will take. The project progress is
presented by bars, which are shaded to show which tasks have been completed.
This can be a valuable tool to a Lean Six Sigma practitioner.
Gantt chart is also a tool (A graphical tool) that finds tremendous use in the
field of Project management ranging from small projects to large-scale project
portfolios. It is used to sequence the activities according to the time axis and is
helpful in preparing and reviewing project plan.
A Gantt chart is a bar graph with time scale on x-axis and the activities marked
as bars parallel to x-axis. The bars’ length indicates the duration of the activity and
the start and stop points of the bar represent the start and stop dates of the activity.
Often, Gantt charts have two bars for an activity: one representing the planned
schedule and the other representing the actual.
When and how is a Gantt chart used?
• When you want to display the activities against time
• When you want to compare the Plan Vs the Actual completion rate of the
project
• When you want to know the overlapping time of parallel activities and plan
the resources and schedule accordingly.
Plotting a Gantt chart is quite simple. Here are some quick steps to help you:
• Plot the time in X axis (Start and End dates of the project)
• Plot bars of each activities in the project one below the other in parallel lines.
Use the start and end dates of each activity to mark the respective bar
• Similarly plot the actual time taken for each activity (If needed and available)
• Use color indicators to differentiate various activities, and also to denote plan
adherence (Green, Amber, Red etc)
2.30 ACTIVITY NETWORK DIAGRAM

An Activity Network Diagram is a diagram of project activities that shows the
sequential relationships of activities using arrows and nodes. An activity network
diagram tool is used extensively in and is necessary for the identification of a
project’s critical path (which is used to determine the expected completion time of
the project).
The team creates a chart – Activity Network Diagram – where the nodes (the
boxes) represent the nine major steps involved in building a house. Arrows that
connect the nodes show the flow of the process.
Example: Suppose the team is tasked with improving the process of building a
house. The team lists the major steps involved – everything from the excavation
step through the landscaping step.
Some of the process steps (nodes A, B, and C) run in series, while other process
steps (nodes D, E, and F) run in parallel. Notice that Step B cannot happen until
step A has been completed. Likewise, step C cannot happen until step B has
completed. Step H cannot happen until steps D, E, and F have completed – and
ALL need to be completed before Step H. So, nodes A, B, and C are running
in series. Nodes D, E, and F run in parallel. This is important to know because
102 Lean Six Sigma
those steps that are running in parallel most likely will have different expected
completion times.
Critical Path
The team’s job is to take note of which of the nodes D, E, and F, will be taking
the most amount of time, and which of those nodes is expected to take the least
amount of time. This is essential when creating the Critical Path. For instance, if
node D is expected to take the most amount of time as compared with nodes E
and F, it is not important that nodes D and E start at the exact same time as node
F. Those steps can start later, but they have to be finished no later than the most
time consuming of the three steps that run in parallel. The team evaluates the nine
steps and come to a consensus on how many days each of the nine steps will take.
The critical path is a line that goes through all of the nodes that have the longest
expected completion times.
Most Likely Time
Nodes A, B, and C run in series, so the critical path is straightforward. Notice
that between the three nodes that run in parallel, (nodes D, E, and F) node D is
expected to take the longest to complete as compared to the other two nodes. The
critical path would run through nodes D and G because those particular nodes have
the longest expected completion times. The line above shows the critical path. By
looking at the Activity Network Diagram the team can easily see that the expected
completion time as defined by the critical path is 50 days. (5+2+12+9+10+7+5 =
50 days) That’s the MOST LIKELY time.
Optimistic Time
The team might want to know what the best case (Optimistic Time), in terms of
time, would be. To come up with that number, the team would decide upon the
shortest possible time for each of the nodes, and then add those up. The numbers
in parenthesis are the most optimistic times. (4+2+10+8+8+7+4 = 43)
Pessimistic Time
The team also might want to know what the worst case (Pessimistic Time), in
terms of time, would be. To come up with that number, the team would decide
upon the longest possible time for each of the nodes, and then add those up. Note:
To determine the best case or the worst case, the critical path line must be followed.
The numbers in parentheses are the most pessimistic times. (7+3+14+10+11+8+6
= 59) Remember, you are only calculating the numbers along the critical path
when calculating the most optimistic and pessimistic times.
Optimistic [4 (Most likely)  P essimistic]

Expected Time 
6
43  200  59
Expected Time   50.3days
6
104 Lean Six Sigma
Control Bands
We could calculate control bands around the average. Here’s how we do that:
Optimistic  P essimistic
Limits of exp ected var iation 
6
59  43
Limits of exp ected var iation 
6
16
Limits of exp ected var iation   2.7
6
For the critical path, we can expect the project to take from 47.6 days to 53.0
days
50.3 + 2.7 = 53 on the high side
50.3 – 2.7 = 47.6 on the low side.
2.31 RADAR CHART
A radar chart is a graphical method of displaying multivariate data in the form
of a two-dimensional chart of three or more quantitative variables represented on
axes starting from the same point. It is equivalent to a parallel co-ordinates plot,
with the axes arranged radially.
The radar chart is also known as web chart, spider chart, spider web chart, star
chart, star plot, cobweb chart, irregular polygon, polar chart, or Kiviat diagram. It
is equivalent to a parallel co-ordinates plot, with the axes arranged radially.
The radar chart is a chart and/or plot that consist of a sequence of equi-angular
spokes, called radii, with each spoke representing one of the variables. The data
length of a spoke is proportional to the magnitude of the variable for the data
point relative to the maximum magnitude of the variable across all data points.
A line is drawn connecting the data values for each spoke. This gives the plot a
star-like appearance and the origin of one of the popular names for this plot.
Applications
• One application of radar charts is the control of quality improvement to
display the performance metrics of any ongoing program.
• They are also used in sports to chart players’ strengths and weaknesses, where
they are usually called radar charts.
Limitations
• Conversely, radar charts have been criticized as poorly suited for making trade-
off decisions – when one chart is greater than another on some variables, but
less on others
• Further, it is hard to visually compare lengths of different spokes, because
radial distances are hard to judge, though concentric circles help as grid lines.
Instead, one may use a simple line graph, particularly for time series
2.32 PDCA Cycle: (Plan, Do, Check and Act)

The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle is a four-step problem-solving iterative
technique used to improve business processes. Originally developed by American
physicist Walter A. Shewhart during the 1920s, the cycle draws its inspiration from
the continuous evaluation of management practices and management’s willingness
to adopt and disregard unsupported ideas.
Benefits of the PDCA Cycle
Companies looking to enhance their internal and external processes often deploy
the PDCA methodology to minimize errors and maximize outcomes. Once put
into effect, companies can repeat the PDCA Cycle and make it a constant in their
organization as something of a standard operating procedure. That one of the four
106 Lean Six Sigma
stages is to deploy corrective actions makes the methodology ideal to strive for
continuous improvement.
When To Use The Pdca Cycle

• Starting a new improvement project
• Developing a new or improved design of a process, product, or service
• Defining a repetitive work process
• Planning data collection and analysis in order to verify and prioritize problems
or root causes
• Implementing any change
• Working toward continuous improvement
Procedure
• Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change.
• Do: Test the change. Carry out a small-scale study.
• Check: Review the test, analyze the results, and identify what you’ve learned.
• Act: Take action based on what you learned in the study step. If the change
did not work, go through the cycle again with a different plan. If you were
successful, incorporate what you learned from the test into wider changes. Use
what you learned to plan new improvements, beginning the cycle again.
2.33 MILESTONE TRACKER DIAGRAM

A milestones chart displays all activities (milestones) and their corresponding start
and completion dates. It is used to manage and monitor a project and can serve as
a supporting document when attached to a project status report.
Typical application
• To plan and schedule project activities.
• To track and monitor the progress of a project.
• To aid project status reporting.
Step-by-step procedure
• STEP 1 The team first identifies all major activities of the project to be
scheduled.
• STEP 2 The team constructs a milestones chart and lists all identified activities
in the order of completion. See example Poster Development Process.
• STEP 3 The team estimates the time required to complete each activity and
assigns a completion date to each.
• STEP 4 Next, the team draws a horizontal bar for each activity, placing the bar
in accordance with start and completion dates in sequential order along the
milestones chart, as shown in the example.
• STEP 5 The team then checks all information and dates the chart.
2.34 EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT

Earned Value Management (EVM) helps project managers to measure project
performance. It is a systematic project management process used to find variances
108 Lean Six Sigma
in projects based on the comparison of worked performed and work planned.

EVM is used on the cost and schedule control and can be very useful in project
forecasting.
Steps to Earned Value Analysis
• Determine the percent complete of each task.
• Determine Planned Value (PV).
• Determine Earned Value (EV).
• Obtain Actual Cost (AC).
• Calculate Schedule Variance (SV).
• Calculate Cost Variance (CV).
• Calculate Other Status Indicators (SPI, CPI, EAC, ETC, and TCPI)
• Compile Results.
Example:
Whenever there is an issue in a process, attempts are made to identify the process
step that is causing the problem, identify the root cause and come up with a
corrective or preventive action. The time taken to identify the “right” process step
is directly proportional to the number of process steps involved and it becomes vital
to identify the root cause as quickly as possible in order to take action. This article
explains how the process steps can be identified using earned value management
(EVM) without losing time by deep diving into the complete process.
The Earned Value Method there are three data sources:

• Planned value – PV;
• Actual value – AV;
• The earned value of the concrete work already completed.

Part A
1. What are the different tools for definition?
• IPO Diagram
• SIPOC Diagram
• Flow Diagram
• CTQ Tree
• Project Charter
2. Define IPO Diagram.
An IPO (Input-Process-Output) Diagram is a very high-level diagram used for
systems analysis that visually describes business processes with the description
of each component in word. It shows a process key inputs and resulting outputs
after a set of operations.
3. What is Flow Diagram?

A flowchart (also known as a process flow diagram) is a graphical tool that
depicts distinct steps of a process in sequential order (from top to bottom of the
page). The basic idea is to include all of the steps of critical importance to the
process. Also, flowcharts are often annotated with performance information.
4. What are the elements of Project charter?
• Business Case
• Problem Statement
• Goals
• Goal statement
• Project Scope
• Project Plan
• Team Structure
5. What is Check Sheets?

The Check Sheet is a simple document that is used for collecting data in real
time and at the location where the data is generated. The document is typically
110 Lean Six Sigma
a blank form that is designed for the quick, easy, and efficient recording of the
desired information, which can be either quantitative or qualitative
6. What is Cause and Effect Diagrams?

A cause-effect diagram is a visual tool used to logically organize possible causes
for a specific problem or effect by graphically displaying them in increasing
detail, suggesting causal relationships among theories.
7. What is Control Charts?

A Six Sigma control chart is a simple yet powerful tool for evaluating the
stability of a process or operation over time. A control chart offers a way of
taking the details involved in creating and improving a process and having one
chart that shows the outcome.
8. What is Regression Analysis?

Regression analysis is one of many tools of the Six Sigma analysis phase.
Regression analysis can also be used in Lean to find areas of waste. It allows
for both making predictions based on data and for measuring whether results
align with what is expected when a variable in a process is changed.
9. What is Interrelationship Diagram?

An Interrelationship Diagram shows graphically the cause-and-effect
relationships that exist among a group of items, issues, problems, or
opportunities. An Interrelationship Diagram shows graphically the cause-and-
effect relationships that exist among a group of items, issues, problems, or
opportunities
10. What is Affinity Diagram?

An Affinity Diagram is an analytical tool used to organize many ideas into
subgroups with common themes or common relationships. ... By organizing
the ideas into “affinity groups,” it is much easier to visualize the commonality
and plan for and address the challenges to the Six Sigma approach.
11. Define 5S
• Seiri (Sort)
• Seiton (Straighten, Set)
• Seiso (Shine, Sweep)
• Seiketsu (Standardize)
• Shitsuke (Sustain)
In simple terms, the five S methodology helps a workplace remove items that
are no longer needed (sort), organize the items to optimize efficiency and
flow (straighten), clean the area in order to more easily identify problems
(shine), implement color coding and labels to stay consistent with other areas
(standardize) and develop behaviors that keep the workplace organized over
the long term (sustain).
12. What is Mistake proofing?

It is also known as error-proofing; Poka-yoke is a method for taking steps to
mistake proof a process. It is a foundational tool of both Lean, which targets
waste, and Six Sigma, which focus on defects, with a goal of eliminating every
mistake by creating systems that either immediately prevent or detect them.
13. What are the uses of value stream mapping?

• Facilitating clear communication and collaboration.
• Encouraging continuous improvement of a process.
• Enabling culture change within an organization.
• Creating visualizations of delays, excess inventory and production
constraints.
14. What are different tools for control?

• Gantt chart
• Activity Network Diagram
• Radar chart
• PDCA cycle
• Milestone Tracker Diagram
• Earned Value Management
15. What is Radar Chart?

A radar chart is a graph in which each data series has its own axis and ‘radiates’
out from a central point. A radar chart is particularly useful when there are
multiple characteristics that need to be compromised to a point (a ‘sweet spot’)
that is most pleasing to most of the customers in a particular niche.
112 Lean Six Sigma
16. When and how is Pareto analysis chart used?

A Pareto Chart is a graph that indicates the frequency of defects, as well as their
cumulative impact. Pareto Charts are useful to find the defects to prioritize in
order to observe the greatest overall improvement.
17. What is Earned Value Management?

Earned value management is a project management technique for measuring
project performance and progress and it has the capacity to combine cost,
scope and schedule.
18. Define OEE?

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a “best practices” metric that
identifies the percentage of planned production time that is truly productive.
An OEE score of 100% represents perfect production: manufacturing only
good parts, as fast as possible, with no downtime.
19. What is the purpose of Scatter Diagram?

Scatter plots’ primary uses are to observe and show relationships between two
numeric variables. The dots in a scatter plot not only report the values of
individual data points, but also patterns when the data are taken as a whole.
Identification of correlational relationships are common with scatter plots
Part B
1. Explain in detail about the tools for definition.
2. Explain the Concept of SWOT and PESTLE with examples.
3. What is value stream mapping and explain the procedure involved in it?
4. Explain in detail of OEE.
5. What is control charts and explain the types of control charts?
6. What is need for improvement phase and explain about the tools for
improvement?
7. Explain about Gantt chart and Radar Chart.
8. What is PDCA cycle and explain the concept involved in it?
9. Explain in detail about SMED with an example.
10. Explain about cause and effect diagram with an example.
Six Sigma Methodologies 113
Unit 3
Six Sigma Methodologies
Syllabus
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), Methods of Six sigma-Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
(FMEA), FMEA Process- Risk Priority Number (RPN) - six sigma and Leadership-change
Acceleration Process (CAP)-Developing communication plan-stakeholder.
Contents
hh Introduction
hh Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
hh Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) Method
hh Risk Priority Number (RPN)
hh Six sigma and Leadership
hh Change Acceleration Process
hh Developing Communication Plan
hh Stakeholders
114 Lean Six Sigma
3.1 INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN FOR SIX SIGMA (DFSS)

In the current global marketplace, competition for products and services has never
been higher. Consumers have multiple choices for many very similar products.
Therefore, many manufacturing companies are continually striving to introduce
completely new products or break into new markets. Sometimes the products meet
the consumer’s needs and expectations and sometimes they don’t. The company
will usually redesign the product, sometimes developing and testing multiple
iterations prior to re-introducing the product to market. Multiple redesigns of
a product are expensive and wasteful. It would be much more beneficial if the
product met the actual needs and expectations of the customer, with a higher
level of product quality the first time. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) focuses on
performing additional work up front to assure you fully understand the customer’s
needs and expectations prior to design completion. DFSS requires involvement by
all stakeholders in every function. When following a DFSS methodology you can
achieve higher levels of quality for new products or processes.
DFSS – DMAIC
To design new products To improve the existing
or processes, or to
processes in order to satisfy
improve the designs of
existing ones in order to
customer requirements.
satisfy customer
requirements
Six Sigma
Process Management
To achieve the business results,

managing the processes efficiently.
What is Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a different approach to new product or process
development in that there are multiple methodologies that can be utilized.
Traditional Six Sigma utilizes DMAIC or Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve
and Control. This methodology is most effective when used to improve a current
process or make incremental changes to a product design. In contrast, Design for
Six Sigma is used primarily for the complete re-design of a product or process.
The methods, or steps, used for DFSS seem to vary according to the business or
organization implementing the process. Some examples are DMADV, DCCDI and
IDOV. What all the methodologies seem to have in common is that they all focus
on fully understanding the needs of the customer and applying this information to
the product and process design. The DFSS team must be cross-functional to ensure
that all aspects of the product are considered, from market research through the
design phase, process implementation and product launch. With DFSS, the goal is
to design products and processes while minimizing defects and variations at their
roots. The expectation for a process developed using DFSS is reportedly 4.5 sigma
or greater.
Why Implement Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
When your company designs a new product or process from the ground up it
requires a sizable amount of time and resources. Many products today are highly
complex, providing multiple opportunities for things to go wrong. If your design
does not meet the customer’s actual wants and expectations or your product does
not provide the value the customer is willing to pay for, the product sales will
suffer. Redesigning products and processes is expensive and increases your time to
market. In contrast, by utilizing Design for Six Sigma methodologies, companies
have reduced their time to market by 25 to 40 percent while providing a high quality
product that meets the customer’s requirements. DFSS is a proactive approach
to design with quantifiable data and proven design tools that can improve your
chances of success.
When to Implement Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
DFSS should be used when designing a completely new product or service. DFSS
is intended for use when you must replace a product instead of redesigning. When
the current product or process cannot be improved to meet customer requirements,
it is time for replacement. The DFSS methodologies are not meant to be applied
to incremental changes in a process or design. DFSS is used for prevention of
quality issues. Utilize the DFSS approach and its methodologies when your goal
is to optimize your design to meet the customer’s actual wants and expectations,
shorten the time to market, provide a high level of initial product quality and
succeed the first time.
116 Lean Six Sigma
1.2 How to Implement Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)

As previously mentioned, DFSS is more of an approach to product design rather
than one particular methodology. There are some fundamental characteristics
that each of the methodologies share. The DFSS project should involve a cross
functional team from the entire organization. It is a team effort that should be
focused on the customer requirements and Critical to Quality parameters (CTQs).
The DFSS team should invest time studying and understanding the issues with the
existing systems prior to developing a new design. There are multiple methodologies
being used for implementation of DFSS. One of the most common techniques,
DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify), is detailed below.
Define
The Define stage should include the Project Charter, Communication Plan and
Risk Assessment / Management Plan.
The Project Charter
• The team should develop a Project Charter, which should include:
• Purpose or reason for project – preferably with quantifiable data or measurable
targets
• Voice of Business – what the business expects to gain from completion of the
project
• Project Scope – establish the scope and parameters of the project and determine
exactly what is in and out of scope for the project to prevent “project creep”
• Problem statement or identification of the gap between current and desired
state
• Statement of the goals for improved revenue, customer satisfaction or market
share stated in measurable, well-defined targets
• Project timeline or schedule with well-defined gates and deliverables for each
gate review.
• Project Budget – Cost target for the project including any capital
expenditures
• Identification of the project sponsor and key stakeholders
• Identification of the cross-functional team members
• Clarification of roles and responsibilities for the team members and other
stakeholders
The Communication Plan

During the Define phase, the team should develop a strategy for proper
communication throughout the life of the project. The Communication Plan
should be designed to address different aspects and techniques for discussing
the evaluation results. The plan should also guide the process to successfully
share results of the evaluation. To develop the Communication Plan, answer the
following questions:
• Who is the primary contact on the team that is responsible for
communicating?
• What are the main goals for the communication process?
• Who are you communicating to? (Identify target audience)
• When and how often will the communication occur?
• What methods will be used for communication?
The Risk Assessment or Risk Management Plan
The project manager should prepare a Risk Assessment or Risk Management Plan
that includes, but is not limited, to the following information:
• Risks associated with the project
• Impact of risks against the success of the project
• Outline / plan for managing any project risk
Measure
During the Measurement Phase, the project focus is on understanding customer
needs and wants and then translating them into measurable design requirements.
The team should not only focus on requirements or “Must Haves” but also on the
“Would likes”, which are features or functions that would excite the customer,
something that would set your product apart from the competition. The customer
information may be obtained through various methods including:
• Customer surveys
• Dealer or site visits
• Warranty or customer service information
• Historical data
• Consumer Focus Groups
118 Lean Six Sigma
Analyze
In the Analyze Phase, the customer information should be captured and
translated into measureable design performance or functional requirements. The
Parameter (P) Diagram is often used to capture and translate this information.
Those requirements should then be converted into System, Sub-system and
Component level design requirements. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
and Characteristic Matrix are effective tools for driving the needs of the customer
from the machine level down to component level requirements. The team should
then use the information to develop multiple concept level design options. Various
assessment tools like benchmarking or brainstorming can be used to evaluate how
well each of the design concepts meet customer and business requirements and
their potential for success. Then the team will evaluate the options and select a final
design using decision-making tools such as a Pugh Matrix or a similar method.
Design
When the DFSS team has selected a single concept-level design, it is time to begin
the detailed design work using 3D modeling, preliminary drawings, etc. The design
team evaluates the physical product and other considerations including, but not
limited to, the following:
• Manufacturing process
• Equipment requirements
• Supporting technology
• Material selection
• Manufacturing location
• Packaging
Verify
During the Verify Phase, the team introduces the design of the product or
process and performs the validation testing to verify that it does meet customer
and performance requirements. In addition, the team should develop a detailed
process map, process documentation and instructions. Often a Process FMEA is
performed to evaluate the risk inherent in the process and address any concerns
prior to a build or test run. Usually a prototype or pilot build is conducted. A
pilot build can take the form of a limited product production run, service offering
or possibly a test of a new process. The information or data collected during
the prototype or pilot run is then used to improve the design of the product or
process prior to a full roll-out or product launch. When the project is complete the
team ensures the process is ready to hand-off to the business leaders and current
production teams. The team should provide all required process documentation
and a Process Control Plan. Finally, the project leaders, stakeholders and sponsors
complete the project documentation and communicate the project results. The
entire team should then celebrate project completion.
Other Variations of DFSS
DMADV seems to be the most prominently used process but as mentioned
previously it is not the only option. Even DMADV has a variation sometimes
utilized, known as DMADOV, which adds the step identified as Optimize or
Optimization. This step can be beneficial for developing new or revised business
procedures. An additional variation of DFSS is known as DCCDI (Define
Customer and Concept, Design, Implement). DCCDI has many similarities with
DMAVD and contains similar define, measure and design stages. Furthermore yet
another variation is IDOV (Identify, Design, Optimize, and Verify). The IDOV
method also adds the optimization phase. Companies could possibly implement
any one of these various methods according to their business culture and needs.
For additional information regarding Design for Six Sigma, please contact our
Subject Matter Experts (SME) at Quality-One and will help you successfully
implement DFSS!
Once the preliminary design is determined the team begins evaluation of the
design using various techniques, such as:
• Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Tolerance Stack Analysis
• Design of Experiments (DOE)
FMEA is a popular tool used to identify potential design risks, identify key
characteristics and develop a list of actions to either alter the design or add to the
validation plan. Computer simulation and analysis tools can allow the team to
work through the processes and understand the process inputs and desired outputs.
The design phase is complete once the team has developed a solid design and
validation plan for the new product or process that will meet customer and business
120 Lean Six Sigma
requirements. One popular tool is Design Verification Plan and Report (DVP&R),
which documents the validation plan and provides a section for reporting results.
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is 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, in order to identify the parts of the process that
are most in need of change.
FMEA is a procedure in product development and operations management
for analysis of potential failure modes within a system for classification by the
severity and likelihood of the failures.
• Failure modes are any errors or defects in a process, design, or item, especially
those that affect the customer, and can be potential or actual.
• Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures.
Main terms to know:
• Failure
The loss of an intended function of a device under stated conditions.
• Failure mode
The manner by which a failure is observed; it generally describes the way the
failure occurs.
• Failure effect
Immediate consequences of a failure on operation, function or functionality,
or status of some item.
• Failure cause
Defects in design, process, quality, or part application, which are the underlying
cause of the failure or which initiate a process which leads to failure.
• Severity
The consequences of a failure mode. It considers the worst potential
consequence of a failure, determined by the degree of injury, property damage,
or system damage that could ultimately occur.
HISTORY
• Procedures for conducting FMECA were described in US Armed Forces
Military Procedures document MIL-P-1629
• By the early 1960s, contractors for the NASA were using variations of FMECA
or FMEA under a variety of names.
• The civil aviation industry was an early adopter of FMEA
• During the 1970’s, use of FMEA and related techniques spread to other
industries.
• In 1971 NASA prepared a report for the US Geological Survey recommending
the use of FMEA in assessment of offshore petroleum exploration.
• FMEA moved into the Food industry in general.
• In the late 1970s the Ford Motor introduced FMEA to the automotive industry
for safety and regulatory consideration.
• FMEA methodology is now extensively used in a variety of industries including
semiconductor processing, food service, plastics, software, and healthcare.
The process for conducting an FMEA is typically developed in three main
phases
Step 1: Severity
Step 2: Occurrence
Step 3: Detection
THE PRE-WORK
• Robustness Analysis
• A Description Of The System And Its Function
• A Block Diagram Of The System
• Worksheet
Step 1: Severity
• Determine all failure modes based on the functional requirements and their
effects.
• Examples of failure modes are: Electrical short-circuiting, corrosion or
deformation.
• A failure mode in one component can lead to a failure mode in another
component, therefore should be listed in technical terms and for function.
Hereafter the ultimate effect of each failure mode needs to be considered
• A failure effect is defined as the result of a failure mode on the function of the
system as perceived by the user.
122 Lean Six Sigma
• Examples of failure effects are: degraded performance, noise or even injury to

a user.
• Each effect is given a severity number (S) from 1 (no danger) to 10 (critical).
These numbers help an engineer to prioritize the failure modes and their
effects.
• If the sensitivity of an effect has a number 9 or 10, actions are considered to
change the design by eliminating the failure mode, if possible, or protecting
the user from the effect.
Step 2: Occurrence
• Looks at the cause of a failure mode and the number of times it occurs.
• All the potential causes for a failure mode should be identified and documented
in technical terms.
• A failure mode is given an occurrence ranking (O), again 1–10. This step is
called the detailed development section of the FMEA process.
• Occurrence also can be defined as %. If a non-safety issue happened less than
1%, we can give 1 to it based on your product and customer specification
Step 3: Detection
• First, an engineer should look at the current controls of the system, that
prevent failure modes from occurring or which detect the failure before it
reaches the customer.
• identify testing, analysis, monitoring and other techniques that can be or have
been used on similar systems to detect failures.
• Likeliness for a failure is identified or detected
• Each combination from the previous 2 steps receives
• A Detection number (D). This ranks the ability of planned tests and inspections
to remove defects or detect failure modes in time.
• The assigned detection number measures the risk that the failure will escape
detection.
• A high detection number indicates that the chances are high that the failure will
escape detection, or in other words, that the chances of detection are low.
124 Lean Six Sigma
3.3 RISK PRIORITY NUMBER (RPN)

• RPN play an important part in the choice of an action against failure modes.
• They are threshold values in the evaluation of these actions.
• RPN can be easily calculated by multiplying the severity, occurrence and
detectability
RPN = S × O × D
• This has to be done for the entire process and/or design.
• Once this is done it is easy to determine the areas of greatest concern.
• The failure modes that have the highest RPN should be given the highest
priority for corrective action.
• This means it is not always the failure modes with the highest severity numbers
that should be treated first. There could be less severe failures, but which occur
more often and are less detectable.
• After these values are allocated, recommended actions with targets,
responsibility and dates of implementation are noted.
• These actions can include specific inspection, testing or quality procedures,
redesign (such as selection of new components), adding more redundancy and
limiting environmental stresses or operating range.
• Once the actions have been implemented in the design/process, the new RPN
should be checked, to confirm the improvements.
• These tests are often put in graphs, for easy visualization.
• Whenever a design or a process changes, an FMEA should be updated.
The FMEA should be updated whenever
• A new cycle begins (new product/process)
• Changes are made to the operating conditions
• A change is made in the design
• New regulations are instituted
• Customer feedback indicates a problem
Types of FMEA
• Process: analysis of manufacturing and assembly processes
• Design: analysis of products prior to production
• Concept: analysis of systems or subsystems in the early design concept
stages
• Equipment: analysis of machinery and equipment design before purchase

• Service: analysis of service industry processes before they are released to
impact the customer
• System: analysis of the global system functions
• Software: analysis of the software functions
FMEA Process
• Step 1 - Review the process
• Step 2 - Brainstorm potential failure modes
• Step 3 - List potential effects of each failure
• Step 4 - Assign Severity rankings
• Step 5 - Assign Occurrence rankings
• Step 6 - - Assign Detection rankings
• Step 7 - Calculate the RPN
• Step 8- Develop the action plan
• Step 9- Take action
• Step 10- Calculate the resulting RPN
126 Lean Six Sigma
STEP 1: Review the process

• Use a process flowchart to identify each process component.
• List each process component in the FMEA table.
• If it starts feeling like the scope is too big, it probably is. This is a good time
to break the Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis into more manageable
chunks.
STEP 2: Brainstorm potential failure modes
• Review existing documentation and data for clues about all of the ways each
component can failure.
• The list should be exhaustive – it can be paired down and items can be combined
after this initial list is generated.
• There will likely be several potential failures for each component.
STEP 3: List potential effects of each failure
• The effect is the impact the failure has on the end product or on subsequent
steps in the process.
• There will likely be more than one effect for each failure.
STEP 4: Assign Severity rankings
• Based on the severity of the consequences of failure.
STEP 5: Assign Occurrence rankings
• Rate the severity of each effect using customized ranking scales as a guide.
STEP 6: Assign Detection rankings
• What are the chances the failure will be detected prior to it occuring.
STEP 7: Calculate the RPN
• Severity X Occurrence X Detection
STEP 8: Develop the action plan
• Decide which failures will be worked on based on the Risk Priority Numbers.
Focus on the highest RPNs.
• Define who will do what by when.
STEP 9: Take action
• Implement the improvements identified by your Process Failure Mode and
Effects Analysis team.
STEP 10: Calculate the resulting RPN

• Re-evaluate each of the potential failures once improvements have been made
and determine the impact of the improvements
RPN Action Priority
When risk is determined to be unacceptable, Quality-One recommends a priority
of action to be applied as follows:
1. Error Proofing (Eliminate Failure Mode or Address Cause)
• Failure Mode (Only Severity of 9 or 10)
• Causes with High Occurrence
2. Improve Potential Process Capability
• Increase Tolerance (Tolerance Design)
• Reduce Variation of the Process (Statistical Process Control and Process
Capability)
3. Improve Controls
• Mistake Proofing of the tooling or process
• Improve the inspection / evaluation techniques
3.4 SIX SIGMA AND LEADERSHIP

Six Sigma and leadership development and there are some guidelines for business
and human resources professionals
• Select the Right Talent – In order to ensure leadership success from the start,
select for Black Belt training only those people who are assessed to be good
potential leaders. Black Belts should be the best people in a company. Many
companies therefore select employees who have been identified as having high
potential and sometimes even management trainees as Black Belt candidates.
A Black Belt candidate should be:
• A self-starter who can work on their own initiative with minimum
supervision.
• Able to lead, train, mentor and work in a team.
• An effective communicator, at all levels.
• Able to effectively work at multiple levels within the organization.
• Computer literate and competent in mathematics and elementary
statistics.
• Energetic and enthusiastic and have a passion for excellence.
128 Lean Six Sigma
• Develop Clear and Promising Pathways – Designated Black Belts should know
from the beginning that their assignment is just temporary, typically for two or
three years. They must be assured that, after this period, they can move into an
attractive leadership position. A promising pathway helps retain Black Belts
in the company.
• Provide Additional Training and Coaching – In addition to the knowledge and
skills Black Belts acquire when working as process improvement experts and
change agents, to be a successful leader, they need know-how and competencies
in such areas as:
• Developing and implementing strategy
• Financial planning and controlling
• International organization development
• Performance management
• Marketing and sales effectiveness
Investing in Six Sigma Training and Resources: For successful implementation of

Six sigma methodology the first step should be to hire trained and experienced Six
Sigma resources (Probably Six Sigma Master Black belts & Black belts), and then
train different levels of management in Six Sigma methodology. Top management
should ensure there are adequate staffs in Six Sigma roles to drive Six Sigma.
Include Six Sigma Cost Saving in Management Goals & Review: Along with
other goals fixed for each department, Six Sigma cost saving should also be a
management goal, which top management should review in each meeting. Thus,
the employees will also start to see Six Sigma methodology as a part of their
responsibility and start identifying project opportunities.
Communicate the Importance of Six Sigma: Top management should let the
employees know that Six Sigma is an important goal, and that the leadership
views it as an important parameter in its business. Posters, email communications,
addressing employees about their concerns related to Six Sigma adoption, and
providing clarity on each one’s role in Six Sigma journey are some ways to
communicate the message strongly to employees.
Drive Six Sigma Projects: Management should create Six Sigma champions,
who will identify projects and allocate resources for the projects. There should
be intervention from the leadership when there are bottlenecks in the progress of
projects. Also, leadership should conduct periodical reviews on the progress of
projects.
Recognize and support Employee Participation: The KPIs and responsibilities
of the employees should include contribution towards Six Sigma journey. Apart
from this, leadership should identify ways and means to identify extraordinary
participation by employees and reward them accordingly. This will motivate other
employees to work towards the Six Sigma initiatives.
Review and Support: As the organization progresses in the path of Six Sigma
strategy, the policies and rules framed at the beginning of the journey may need
reviewing and modification. Leadership should identify these changes and ensure
that the journey is in the right path and at right pace.
Committed Leadership:
Being a leader is not just about leading a group of people. Leadership is only
effective when the staff members accept that the person in charge will make the
most convenient recommendations and take appropriate actions. This conveys the
message that everyone shares the same ideas and the same goals.
In addition, the leader must show his or her absolute commitment to the cause,
because only transmitting the company values clearly to the work team can be
decisive in order to achieve the mission. The committed leader must achieve what
130 Lean Six Sigma
is proposed and guide the rest of the company towards those goals. For this, it
must have a series of qualities or take on new roles.
Communicator and good speaker: The committed leader has to know how to
convey their thoughts clearly, persuasively and suggestively so that the team takes
the message without ambiguities. That necessarily implies the ability to show a
contagious enthusiasm for the rest of the employees.
Resolution and decision-making: The team expects a leader to make decisions when
problems arise and to do so effectively and immediately. Your role as a committed
leader forces you to be aware of your decision and take responsibility for it, but
you must make decisions without hiding from the possible consequences.
Efficient organizer: The leader is required to have a thorough understanding of
what the business entails and, as such, has to be able to manage the available
resources. The feeling of having everything under control and being able to react
to future problems is an important asset in the committed leader.
Charismatic leader: The committed leader does not impose himself on others, but
rather his own role makes him stand out above all of them. You must be skilled in
the art of attraction that allows you to attract the team and make the best of each
member, for the benefit of the company itself.
Discipline and authority: The committed leader bases his accomplishments on
his ability to convince, but if the time is right, his role must turn to a solid and
disciplined stance that makes use of his natural authority. Showing weakness in
situations that require discipline is not a good way to lead the group.
Honesty is no stranger to leadership: Rather, it is an ethical value that should not
only be part of the natural role of the committed leader, but should be explicitly
displayed to all team members. Only then will they follow with the confidence that
the leader will not abandon them halfway.
The leadership qualities needed in a Lean Six Sigma team leader both universal
and specific to the Lean Six Sigma process. Each quality is generally seen in good
leaders across many different industries and applications, but also tends to be
present at exceptional levels in a good Lean 6 Sigma team leader.
What are the key leadership qualities required? Lean Six Sigma experts may
vary somewhat in the specific words and labels they give to each quality, but they
most often fit into one of the following categories:
• Project Management
• Problem Solving
• Team Dynamics
• Customer Focus
• Business Expertise
• Technical Expertise
• Integrity
• Deal with all aspects of a project from start to finish
Project Management • Effective use of resources, time, team personnel, and
Six Sigma processes
• Anticipate probable obstacles and issues
Problem Solving
• Create solutions for emergent problems
• Facilitation
• Motivation
Team Dynamics • Conflict resolution
• Guide team through common stages of development
(forming, storming, norming, performing)
• Attention to needs of internal and external customers
Customer Focus
• Advocate for customer as final judge of quality
• Understand and apply alignment between project results
and overall business strategies
Business Expertise
• Attention to financial results
• Attention to competitive issues
• Understand data and statistics
Technical Expertise • Analytical skills
• Fluent in Six Sigma methodology
• Trustworthy
• Well-liked
Integrity • Respected
• Open, honest communication
• Commitment to do the right thing
132 Lean Six Sigma
Success Strategies for Lean Six Sigma Team Leaders

All Lean 6 Sigma teams go through various stages and processes to get to the
final project results. Each step along the way presents unique challenges and
opportunities to the team leader, requiring different leadership and management
strategies to ensure success.
Here are some of the most common situations a team leader faces, along with
suggested strategies for working through them.
• Team building exercises
• Clarification of roles and expectations
Team Development • Establish team ground rules
• Ensure participation by all team members
• Foster open and honest communication
• Anticipate potential obstacles
• Facilitate team actions for emergent obstacles
Obstacles and • Foster problem solving skills and behavior among team
Impediments members
• Intervene on team behalf when necessary
• Encourage creative solutions
• Recognize what motivates each team member
• Regularly recognize and reward team
accomplishments
• Foster culture of mutual support among team
Team Motivation members
• Call for breaks, down time, team building, motivational
activities, etc. as necessary
• Coach and counsel team members who become
frustrated or discouraged along the way
• Establish communication and conflict resolution
expectations
• Provide conflict resolution tools
Conflict Management • Manage team morale to anticipate and prevent conflict
and Resolution when possible
• Facilitate conflict resolution activities
• Recognize that team members have varying levels of
comfort with conflict
• Facilitate gathering of “lessons learned” from team

members
• Ensure appropriate celebration of successful project
completion
Project Completion • Ensure appropriate recognition for contributions of
team members
• Provide individual coaching and feedback to team
members to support professional and/or personal
growth
3.5 CHANGE ACCELERATION PROCESSES (CAP)

Change Acceleration Processes (CAP) represents a group of change management
tools that are used to help the change effort to be accelerated towards a common
goal. In simple words, it is a set of principles and tools designed to accelerate
implementation and increase the success of organizational change. It helps to
gauge the political, strategic, cultural environment in the organization and plan
for the action which will eventually estimate what a change initiative is capable of
achieving with the existing operational processes.
Change Acceleration Process (CAP) is the process of moving the Current State
of the Process/Service/Product to an Improved State by catalyzing (speeding up)
the Transition State.
CAP addresses the following:
• How to create a shared need for the change?
• How to understand and deal with resistance from the key stakeholders?
• How to build an effective influencing strategy and communication plan for the
change?
Change is inevitable: Employees and management usually refuse to accept
change. As change, is unpredictable, difficult, uncomfortable and risky. Business
and market conditions evolve continuously, so the organization should be on toes
to be able to adapt successfully to remain in the competition.
To achieve the CAP effectively and efficiently, following are the overall processes
consisting of seven steps:
134 Lean Six Sigma
Leading Change: As the saying goes, ‘Don’t talk the talk if you don’t walk the walk’,
the leader should demonstrate consistently showing strong commitment towards
the change. Leaders should be cautious of their messages and their actions. From
the project management perspective, there is a significant risk of failure if the
organization lacks leadership commitment to the change initiatives.
Creating a Shared Need: Here one needs to answer the need for change, irrespective
of the reason whether it has been derived from a threat or an opportunity. As
the need for change must be outweighed by the resistance by the organization.
Reasons must be compelling and resonate not just for the leadership team but that
it should appeal to all the stakeholders.
Shaping a Vision: It is the direction towards how one is going to achieve the
outcome of change initiatives. It is a clear statement which tells what, why, who
and when the organization will address the changes. The desired outcome should
be clearly understood, have genuine reasons and widely accepted.
Mobilizing Commitment: The strong commitment needs to be invested by business
functions in the change to make it work and demand management support in
order to support the changes. It also includes engaging, identifying, planning and
analyzing the changes.
Making the Change Last: Once change is starts, the key is to sustain the change
and transform it to a new norm, by allocating and adjusting the required funds and
surviving through the competition.
Monitoring the Process of the Change Initiative: Measuring the progress of the
CAP project by providing focus, direction and momentum throughout the change
process. Ensures insight into level of acceptance throughout the change. It takes
corrective action whenever necessary. To reward and encourage it tracks the key
events and milestones of the change process
Changing the Overall Systems and Structures: Making sure management practices
are used to complement and reinforce the change. It is to realign and leverage the
way the business functions has t organize, communicate, measure, train, reward
and promote.
ARMI model is a CAP tool used to assess each person’s role in the project
during various phases of the project. ARMI is an acronym of
A - Approval of team decisions
R - Resource of the team, one whose expertise/ skills may be needed
M - Member of team, with the authorities and boundaries of the charter
I - Interested Party, one who will need to keep informed on direction and
findings
ARMI helps in defining the role of each individual within the project team. It
helps in clarifying any ambiguity related to the roles and responsibilities of these
individuals
Project Acceptability:
Project Acceptability is based on the below equation:
Effectiveness of a solution = Quality of a solution * Acceptability of the
solution.
The Key Benefits of Project Acceptability is that it enables projects to be started
and completed more quickly. It helps ensure that project solutions are supported. It
helps ensure that customers and suppliers are getting involved appropriately. Team
involvement ensures change sustenance. It reinforces change that is consistent,
visible and tangible. It ensures a “baked-in” change – not just something on the
surface that will be the first thing to be dropped in a pinch. And it helps drive
change on a global/strategic basis.
Three commonly used CAP tools to help create a shared need are:
• Critical Success Factors
• Stakeholder Analysis
136 Lean Six Sigma
Critical Success Factors:

These are factors that are critical for the success of the project and needs to be
considered and tracked. Some of these factors are Appropriate Metric, Data
Availability, Resource Availability, Proximity to Champion/Stakeholders, Degree
of Difficulty, Scalability, Benefits. All of the Critical Success Factors need to be
articulated well to ensure stakeholder buy-in.
Stakeholder Analysis:
This tool helps the team answer questions like:
• Who are the key stakeholders?
• Where do they currently stand on the issues associated with this change
initiative?
• Where do we need them to be in terms of their level of support?
3.6 DEVELOPING COMMUNICATION PLAN

Developing a communication plan can help focus your message and reach your
target audience. A plan can also influence the efficiency and simplicity of your
communication methods. This section looks at what a communication plan
entails, how and when to create one, and how to use a communication plan to
raise awareness about your issue or project.
Why Should You Develop A Plan For Communication?
• A plan will make it possible to target your communication accurately. It gives
you a structure to determine whom you need to reach and how.
• A plan can be long-term, helping you map out how to raise your profile and
refine your image in the community over time.
• A plan will make your communication efforts more efficient, effective, and
lasting.
• A plan makes everything easier. If you spend some time planning at the
beginning of an effort, you can save a great deal of time later on, because you
know what you should be doing at any point in the process.
When Should You Develop A Plan For Communication?
As soon as your organization begins planning its objectives and activities, you
should also start planning ways to communicate them; successful communication
is an ongoing process, not a one-time event.
Communication is useful at all points in your organization’s development - it

can help get the word out about a new organization, renew interest in a long-
standing program, or help attract new funding sources.
Planning for communication is an eight-step process. The steps are:
• Identify the purpose of your communication
• Identify your audience
• Plan and design your message
• Consider your resources
• Plan for obstacles and emergencies
• Strategize how you will connect with the media and others who can help you
spread your message
• Create an action plan
• Decide how you will evaluate your plan and adjust it, based on the results of
carrying it out
1. Identify Your Purpose
What you might want to say depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with
your communication strategy. You might be concerned with one or a combination
of the following:
• Becoming known, or better known, in the community
• Educating the public about the issue your organization addresses
• Recruiting program participants or beneficiaries
• Recruiting volunteers to help with your work
• Rallying supporters or the general public to action for your cause
• Announcing events
• Celebrating honors or victories
• Raising money to fund your work
• Countering the arguments, mistakes, or, occasionally, the lies or
misrepresentations of those opposed to your work.
• Dealing with an organizational crisis that’s public knowledge – a staff member
who commits a crime, for example, or a lawsuit aimed at the organization.
2. Identify Your Audience
Who are you trying to reach? Knowing your audience makes it possible to plan
your communication logically. You’ll need different messages for different groups,
and you’ll need different channels and methods to reach each of those groups.
138 Lean Six Sigma
There are many different ways to think about your audience and the best ways
to contact them. First, there’s the question of what group(s) you’ll focus on. You
can group people according to several characteristics:
• Demographics: Demographics are simply basic statistical information about
people, such as gender, age, ethnic and racial background, income, etc.
• Geography: You might want to focus on a whole town or region, on one or
more neighborhoods, or on people who live near a particular geographic or
man-made feature.
• Employment: You may be interested in people in a particular line of work or in
unemployed people.
• Health: Your concern might be with people at risk for or experiencing a
particular condition – high blood pressure, perhaps, or diabetes – or you might
be leveling a health promotion effort – “Eat healthy, exercise regularly” – at
the whole community.
• Behavior: You may be targeting your message to smokers, for example, or to
youth engaged in violence.
• Attitudes: Are you trying to change people’s minds or bring them to the next
level of understanding?
3. The Message
When creating your message, consider content, mood, language, and design.
Content
In the course of a national adult literacy campaign in the 1980s, educators learned
that TV ads that profiled proud, excited, successful adult learners attracted new
learners to literacy programs. Ads that described the difficulties of adults with
poor reading, writing, and math skills attracted potential volunteers. Both ads were
designed to make the same points – the importance of basic skills and the need for
literacy efforts – but they spoke to different groups.
You should craft your message with your audience in mind; planning the content
of your message is necessary to make it effective.
Mood
Consider what emotions you want to appeal to.
The mood of your message will do a good deal to determine how people react
to it. In general, if the mood is too extreme – too negative, too frightening, trying
to make your audience feel too guilty – people won’t pay much attention to it. It
may take some experience to learn how to strike the right balance. Keeping your
tone positive will usually reach more people than evoking negative feelings such
as fear or anger.
Language
There are two aspects to language here. One is the actual language – English,
Spanish, Korean, Arabic – that your intended audience speaks. The other is the
style of language you use – formal or informal, simple or complex, referring to
popular figures and ideas or obscure ones.
You can address the language people speak by presenting any printed material
in both the official language and the language(s) of the population(s) you’re hoping
to reach, and by providing translation for spoken or broadcast messages.
The second language issue is more complicated. If your message is too informal,
your audience might feel you’re talking down to them, or, worse, that you’re
making an insincere attempt to get close to them by communicating in a way that’s
clearly not normal for you. If your message is too formal, your audience might
feel you’re not really talking to them at all. You should use plain, straightforward
language that expresses what you want to say simply and clearly.
Channels of communication
What does your intended audience read, listen to, watch, or engage in? You have
to reach them by placing your message where they’ll see it.
• Posters
• Fliers and brochures - These can be more compelling in places where the issue
is already in people’s minds (doctors’ offices for health issues, supermarkets
for nutrition, etc.).
• Newsletters
• Promotional materials - Items such as caps, T-shirts, and mugs can serve as
effective channels for your message.
• Comic books or other reading material - Reading material that is interesting
to the target audience can be used to deliver a message through a story that
readers are eager to follow, or through the compelling nature of the medium
and its design.
140 Lean Six Sigma
• Internet sites - In addition to your organization’s website, interactive sites like

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are effective mediums for communication
• Letters to the Editor
• News stories, columns, and reports
• Press releases and press conferences
• Presentations or presence at local events and local and national conferences,
fairs, and other gatherings
• Community outreach
• Community or national events - The Great American Smokeout, National
Literacy Day, a community “Take Back the Night” evening against violence,
and other community events can serve to convey a message and highlight an
issue.
• Public demonstrations
• Word of mouth
• Music
• Exhibits and public art - The AIDS quilt, a huge quilt with squares made by
thousands of people, commemorating victims of the HIV epidemic, is a prime
example.
• Movies - Since the beginnings of the film industry, movies have carried messages
about race, the status of women, adult literacy, homosexuality, mental illness,
AIDS, and numerous other social issues.
• TV - TV can both carry straightforward messages – ads and Public Service
Announcements (PSAs) – and present news and entertainment programs that
deal with your issue or profile your organization.
• Theater and interactive theater - A play or skit, especially one written by people
who have experienced what it illustrates, can be a powerful way to present an
issue or to underline the need for services or change.
4. Resources
What do you have the money to do? Do you have the people to make it possible?
If you’re going to spend money, what are the chances that the results will be worth
the expense? Who will lose what, and who will gain what by your use of financial
and human resources?
Your plan should include careful determinations of how much you can spend
and how much staff and volunteer time it’s reasonable to use. You may also be
able to share materials, air time, and other goods and services with individuals,
businesses, other organizations, and institutions.
5. Anticipate Obstacles And Emergencies
Any number of things can happen in the course of a communication effort.
Someone can forget to e-mail a press release or forget to include a phone number
or e-mail address. A crucial word on your posters or in your brochure can be
misspelled, or a reporter might get important information wrong. Worse, you
might have to deal with a real disaster involving the organization that has the
potential to discredit everything you do.
It’s important to try to anticipate these kinds of problems, and to create a plan
to deal with them. Crisis planning should be part of any communication plan,
so you’ll know what to do when a problem or crisis occurs. Crisis plans should
include who takes responsibility for what – dealing with the media, correcting
errors, deciding when something has to be redone rather than fixed, etc. It should
cover as many situations, and as many aspects of each situation, as possible.
6. Strategize How You’ll Connect With The Media And Others To Spread Your
Message
Establishing relationships with individual media representatives and media outlets
is an essential part of a communication plan, as is establishing relationships with
influential individuals and institutions in the community and the population you’re
trying to reach. You have to make personal contacts, give the media and others
reasons to want to help you, and follow through to sustain those relationships to
keep communication channels open.
The individuals that can help you spread your message can vary from formal
community leaders – elected officials, CEOs of prominent local businesses, clergy,
etc. – to community activists and ordinary citizens. Institutions and organizations,
such as colleges, hospitals, service clubs, faith communities, and other health and
community organizations, all have access to groups of community members who
might need to hear your message.
7. Create an Action Plan
Now the task is to put it all together into a plan that you can act on. By the time
you reach this point, your plan is already done, for the most part. You know what
your purpose is and whom you need to reach to accomplish it, what your message
142 Lean Six Sigma
should contain and look like, what you can afford, what problems you might face,
what channels can best be used to reach your intended audience, and how to gain
access to those channels. Now it’s just a matter of putting the details together –
composing and designing your message (or messages, if using multiple channels),
making contact with the people who can help you, and getting everything in place
to start your communication effort. And finally, you’ll evaluate your effort so that
you can continue to make it better.
8. Evaluation
If you evaluate your communication plan in terms of both how well you carry it
out and how well it works, you’ll be able to make changes to improve it. It will
keep getting more effective each time you implement it.
And there’s really a ninth step to developing a communication plan; as with just
about every phase of health and community work, you have to keep up the effort,
adjusting your plan and communicating with the community.
Communication Plan Template
Communica- Objective of
Medium Frequency Audience Owner Deliverable
tion Type Communication
Communication templates allow for repeat communications using a common

query data source, for example, a draft to mail a list of new members at the end
of each month. When you send an email, the results of the query determine the
list of recipients, regardless of the communication template used. When you send
or preview a communication the query data source is reevaluated. This means
that every send or preview could result in a different set of contacts based on the
parameters of the associated query.
3.7 STAKEHOLDERS
Stakeholders may include suppliers, internal staff, members, customers (including
shareholders, investors, and consumers), regulators, and local and regional
communities. Additionally, stakeholders may include purchasers, clients, owners,
and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Identifying Stakeholders
In order to identify who a stakeholder might be, ISO 26000 suggests that an
organization should ask the following questions:
• To whom does the organization have legal obligations?
• Who might be positively or negatively affected by the organization’s decisions
or activities?
• Who is likely to express concerns about the decisions and activities of the
organization?
• Who has been involved in the past when similar concerns needed to be
addressed?
• Who can help the organization address specific impacts?
• Who can affect the organization’s ability to meet its responsibilities?
• Who would be disadvantaged if excluded from the engagement?
• Who in the value chain is affected?
The answer to any one of these questions may determine if an individual or
group is a stakeholder.
Stakeholder impact is the primary consideration of social responsibility. All
stakeholder interests should be considered and balanced for an organization to be
socially responsible.
The concept of the stakeholder may be very easy for the quality professional to
understand. The same considerations that are made with customers and suppliers
for quality assurance are expanded to employees, the local community, and other
potential stakeholders when approaching social responsibility.
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder analysis is defined as a tool organizations can use to clearly identify
key stakeholders for a project or other activity, understand where stakeholders
stand, and develop cooperation between the stakeholders and the project team.
The main objective is to ensure successful outcomes for the project or the changes
to come.
Types of stakeholders include:
• Primary: Those who are directly affected, either positively or negatively, by an
organization’s actions.
144 Lean Six Sigma
• Secondary: Those who are indirectly affected by an organization’s actions.

Stakeholder analysis is frequently used during the preparation phase of a project
and is an excellent way to assess the attitudes of stakeholders towards changes
or critical actions. It can be done once or on a regular basis to track changes in
stakeholder attitudes over time.
The stakeholder analysis is generally considered a highly confidential document
because it often contains sensitive information.
Benefits of Creating a Stakeholder Analysis
• Provides clear understanding of stakeholders’ interests
• Offers mechanisms to influence other stakeholders
• Enables full understanding of potential risks
• Identifies key people to be informed about the project during the execution
phase
• Provides awareness of negative stakeholders as well as their adverse effects on
the project
How to Make a Stakeholder Analysis Matrix
• Stakeholder identification: Create a stakeholder matrix (Table 1) that will
be used to identify key stakeholders and their positions. List the level of
“influence” on the X axis (top row) and the level of “importance” on the Y
axis (first column).
• List all key stakeholders in the appropriate cells.
• Stakeholder analysis: Create a second matrix. List all key stakeholders in the
first column. List relevant information regarding them in the top row, using as
many columns as needed.
• Complete the information in the table by conducting interviews or through
discussions with the project sponsor or another high-level resource.
• Prepare an action plan to engage the stakeholders who could have a negative
impact on the project or could be severely impacted by the actions.

PART - A
1. What is Design for Six Sigma?
Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), or the Six Sigma DMADV process (Define,
Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify), is an improvement system used to develop
new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. It also can be employed
if a current process requires more than just incremental improvement.
2. What are the various methods of DFSS?
• Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Tolerance Stack Analysis
• Design Of Experiments (DOE)
3. Define FMEA
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is 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, in order to identify the parts of the
process that are most in need of change.
4. When the FMEA should be updated?
• A new cycle begins (new product/process)
• Changes are made to the operating conditions
• A change is made in the design
• New regulations are instituted
• Customer feedback indicates a problem
146 Lean Six Sigma
5. What are the different types of FMEA?

• Process
• Design
• Concept
• Equipment
• Service
• System
• Software
6. Define Failure and Failure Mode.
• Failure
The loss of an intended function of a device under stated conditions.
• Failure mode
The manner by which a failure is observed; it generally describes the way the
failure occurs.
7. What is RPN?
The Risk Priority Number (RPN) is a numeric assessment of risk assigned to
a process, or steps in a process, as part of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
(FMEA), in which a team assigns each failure mode numeric values that
quantify likelihood of occurrence, likelihood of detection, and severity of
impact.
The RPN is calculated by multiplying the three scoring columns: Severity,
Occurrence and Detection. For example, if the severity score is 6, the occurrence
score is 4, and detection is 4, then the RPN would be 96.
RPN= Severity*Occurrence *Detection
8. What is leadership in six sigma?
Leadership should recognize Six Sigma as a management strategy, rather
than using it as a tool. When a company adopts Six Sigma as a management
strategy, the entire organization and all its departments will be channelized
towards identifying and improving its processes.
9. What are the different qualities for leadership?
• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Business savvy
• Continual growth
• Patience
• Self-awareness
• Relational transparency
10. Who is charismatic leader?
The committed leader does not impose himself on others, but rather his own
role makes him stand out above all of them. You must be skilled in the art
of attraction that allows you to attract the team and make the best of each
member, for the benefit of the company itself.
11. What is CAP?
Change Acceleration Process (CAP) is the process of moving the Current State
of the Process/Service/Product to an Improved State by catalyzing (speeding
up) the Transition State.
12. What is ARMI?
ARMI model is a CAP tool used to assess each person’s role in the project
during various phases of the project. ARMI is an acronym of
• A - Approval of team decisions
• R - Resource of the team, one whose expertise/ skills may be needed
• M - Member of team, with the authorities and boundaries of the charter
• I - Interested Party, one who will need to keep informed on direction and
findings
13. What are the three commonly used CAP tools to help create a shared need?
• Critical Success Factors
• Stakeholder Analysis
14. What are the different channels of communication?
• Face-to-Face or Personal Communication
• Broadcast Media Communications
• Mobile Communications Channels
• Electronic Communications Channels
• Written Methods of Communication
148 Lean Six Sigma
15. Who are stakeholders?

Stakeholders may include suppliers, internal staff, members, customers
(including shareholders, investors, and consumers), regulators, and local and
regional communities. Additionally, stakeholders may include purchasers,
clients, owners, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Part - B
1. Explain the concept of DFSS.
2. What are the different process and types of FMEA and explain in detail.
3. Explain the concept of Severity, occurrence and detection with ranking.
4. What is RPN and how to calculate the RPN with the example?
5. Explain the change acceleration process in detail.
6. Explain the concept of committed leadership in six sigma.
7. Explain about communication plan with an example.
8. Who are stakeholders and what are the roles of stakeholders in six sigma
process?
Six Sigma Implementation and Challenges 149
Unit 4
Six Sigma Implementation and
Challenges
Syllabus
Tools for Implementation-Supplier Input Process Output Customer (SIPOC)-Quality Function
Deployment (QFD) or House of Quality (HOQ)-alternative approach-implementation-
leadership training, close communication system, Project Selection-Project management
and team-champion training-customer quality index-challenges-Program failure,CPQ vs.
six Sigma- structure the deployment of six sigma- cultural challenge-customer internal
metrics.
Contents
hh Tools for Implementation
hh Implementation
hh Leadership Training
hh Close communication system
hh Project selection
hh Project Management and Team
hh Champion Training
hh Customer Quality Index
hh Challenges
hh Program Failure
hh CPQ vs Six Sigma
150 Lean Six Sigma
hh Structure the Deployment of Six sigma

hh Cultural Challenge
hh Customer/Internal Metrics
4.1 TOOLS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Six Sigma tools are defined as the problem-solving tools used to support Six Sigma
and other process improvement efforts. The Six Sigma experts use qualitative and
quantitative techniques to drive process improvement.
Although the tools themselves are not unique, the way they are applied and
integrated as part of a system is. Some of the statistical and graphical tools
commonly used in improvement projects are:
Qualitative Tools
• Brainstorming
• Root Cause Analysis/The 5 Whys
• Voice of the Customer
• The 5S System
• Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)
• Benchmarking
• Poka-yoke (Mistake Proofing)
They are a set of tools and techniques used for planning and managing any
type of operations effectively. The main purpose of these tools was to guide the
managers in planning, analysis and decision making. These tools were invented
separately by different people for various purposes, but were organized and clubbed
together during the course of time to achieve efficient planning and management
of operations.
The list below discusses the Seven Management and Planning tools:
Affinity Diagram: Otherwise also called as KJ Method (Named after Jiro
Kawatika). It is used to organize a large number of ideas or decision criteria
into groups based on their underlying relationships and affinity (likeness). This
method is used when the team is confronted with large number of different ideas
or solutions and if the issue seems to be very complex and difficult to manage. The
process followed herein is
• Bring all the team members and domain experts in a room.
• Brainstorm all the ideas related to the problem and stick it on a board. This
will ensure that ideas are free flowing and not interrupted or influenced.
152 Lean Six Sigma
• The Project Leader will then group the similar ideas and if there is a conflict
in having any idea in a particular group, place it in both the groups and finally
give a heading to each group.
• Discuss the relevance of the enlisted points and revise it as applicable.
Relationship Diagram: Otherwise also called as Interrelationship diagram. It

is used to signify the strength of relationship between two processes or entities.
It helps us to understand the causal relationship between variables/processes in
a complex scenario. It establishes the linkages between variables/processes. The
number of incoming and outgoing links indicates the importance of each process.
The higher number of incoming arrows indicates the higher dependency of that
process on other processes. Similarly, the more number of outgoing arrows from
a particular process indicates the importance of that process on other dependent
processes.
Tree Diagram: This helps in understanding the process level-by-level by breaking

down complex processes to the minute level of detail. It helps the team move down
from broad process map to specific process details and requirements. It brings
down and explores the finer details in any complex process. This is very helpful in
decision making in a complex process with many business rules or in process that
have huge financial implications.
Matrix Diagram: This is another tool that helps in establishing relationship

between variables. Variables are arranged in both Row & column and the strength
of the relationship between each pair is marked in their corresponding cell. We
can use this to measure relationship for one (Triangle), two (L shape), three (T
shape, Y shape, C shape) and four set (X shape) of variables.
Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC): This tool is based on the Decision
tree but has other additional features like mapping the failure mode, risk involved,
effect of failure with each decision node. It combines the aspects of FMEA –
Failure mode, effect and risk of failure with the Decision tree. Thus it helps us to
analyze all possible problems involved in making a decision. Thus, a corrective/
preventive action can be planned for any step in the process.
Activity Network Diagram (AND): This is also called as Arrow Diagram and
is a tool used in PERT and by Project Management professionals to map their
activities and sequential tasks in a visual format to understand and optimize the
project duration. Plotting an AND makes you find the project duration, schedule
tasks easily and identify the critical path.
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Supplier Inputs Process Outputs Customers (SIPOC)

A SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers) diagram is a visual tool
for documenting a business process from beginning to end prior to implementation.
SIPOC (pronounced sigh-pock) diagrams are also referred to as high level process
maps because they do not contain much detail.
SIPOC diagrams are useful for focusing a discussion, helping team members
agree upon a common language and understanding a process for continuous
improvement.
In Six Sigma, SIPOC is often used during the “define” phase of the DMAIC
(define, measure, analyze, improve, control) methodology. Some organizations
use SIPOC diagrams in the opposite direction, or COPIS, to map the value of the
customer to a business process.
SIPOC diagrams are tables that document the inputs and outputs of a process.
They can be created by following seven steps:
Choose a process: The first step is to choose a business process that would benefit
from charting in a SIPOC diagram. A team can then be assembled around the key
players of that process.
Define the process: The diagram starts with the “P” section, which is usually an
overview of the business process in 4-5 high level steps that each consist of an
action and a subject. This could include the starting and ending points for the
process or a simple flowchart.
Identify the outputs: This section includes 3-4 outputs with little supporting
information, typically neutral in tone and using nouns only. Inputs and outputs
can be anything ranging from materials, products, services or information.
Identify the customers: These are the individuals that will receive the outputs or
will benefit from the process. Customers are not always external consumers and
could be coworkers, board members or other internal stakeholders.
Identify the inputs: This section includes the resources that are necessary for the
process to function properly. Similar to outputs, only the important, overarching
inputs should be listed.
Identify the suppliers: This section lists the suppliers associated with each of
the inputs of the process. A supplier is anyone that has a direct impact on the
outputs.
Share the diagram: Once the diagram is complete, it should be shared with any
relevant stakeholders and validated before moving along with the process.
Here is an example of how a continuous improvement team might use a SIPOC
diagram for a simple process, such as feeding the family dog. The diagram can
be created rather quickly by drawing a chart with five columns. Each column is
labeled, from left to right, with the letters SIPOC or the words suppliers, inputs,
processes, outputs and customers.
Goal: Feed the dog
Suppliers Inputs Process Outputs Customers
Grocery store Go shopping Open cupboard Dog eats Dog
Buy dog food Get bowl Dog fertilities garden Family
Return home Fill bowl Garden
Put groceries Call dog
away in cupboard
When to use a SIPOC diagram

Creating a SIPOC diagram can be beneficial in a variety of applications, the most
popular being for continuous improvement. Since a finished SIPOC diagram
provides a high level map of a process, it can be used for identifying problem areas,
conducting process analysis and explaining business operations to an audience.
Additionally, a SIPOC diagram can be helpful when parts of a process are
unclear. It forces team members to identify and centralize information such as
supplier contacts, project specifications and target customers.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) or House of Quality (HOQ)
Also called: Matrix product planning, decision matrices, customer-driven
engineering
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Every organization has customers. Some have only internal customers, some
have only external customers, and some have both. When you are working to
determine what you need to accomplish to satisfy or even delight your customers,
quality function deployment is an essential tool.
Background:
QFD is a focused methodology for carefully listening to the voice of the customer
and then effectively responding to those needs and expectations.
First developed in Japan in the late 1960s as a form of cause-and-effect analysis,
QFD was brought to the United States in the early 1980s. It gained its early
popularity as a result of numerous successes in the automotive industry.
Definition: Quality Function Deployment, or QFD, is a model for product
development and production popularized in Japan in the 1960’s. The model aids
in translating customer needs and expectations into technical requirements by
listening to the voice of customer.
When Should You Use Quality Function Deployment?
As soon as there is a well understood customer and their challenges and desires
have been quantifiably captured, QFD can be incorporated into the product
development process. It is most effective when it is used throughout the entire
product lifecycle, as its main purpose is to ensure a constant focus on the voice
of the customer. You can’t “check it off ” as completed since it is an ever-present
ingredient every step of the way.
QFD is most appropriate when companies are focused on relatively iterative
innovation versus something completely new, since there is a large base of customer
feedback and input to drive the process. When a product is creating a completely
new category it’s more difficult to fully articulate the voice of the customer since
they don’t necessarily have a frame of reference, but even in these cases carrying
forward what is known about customer needs and preferences can provide value.
Waterfall model
The importance of the QFD and for them the four phases are: product planning,
product development, process planning and production planning.
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Major benefits of Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

• A systematic way of obtaining information and presenting it.
• Shorter product development cycle.
• Considerably reduced start-up costs.
• Fewer engineering changes.
• Reduced chance of overnights during design process.
• An environment of team work.
• Consensus decision.
• Everything is preserved in writing.
Alternative Approach:
Six Sigma is a data-driven methodology that provides tools and techniques to define
and evaluate each step of a process. It provides methods to improve efficiencies in
a business structure improve the quality of the process and increase the bottom-
line profit. There are some more approaches to support six sigma as follows
• 7MP Management and planning tools
• Autocorrelation Charts
• Box Whisker Charts
• Bulls Eye Charts
• Designed Experiments
• Failure Mode Effects and criticality Analysis
• Regression Analysis
• Statistical Process Control (SPC)
7MP Management and planning tools
Affinity Diagram, Interrelationship diagraph, Tree Diagram, Matrix Chart, Matrix
Data Analysis.
Autocorrelation charts
The Autocorrelation Function (ACF) is a tool for identifying dependence of current
data on previous data points. It tests for correlation (in this case, autocorrelation)
between observations of a given characteristic in the data set.
Box Whisker Charts
A Box Whisker Chart is a graphical tool that may be used with variables data
(data that is both quantitative and continuous in measurement, such as a measured
dimension or time). Box Whisker plots may be used to:
• Monitor the process location and variation over time.

• Compare the location and variation of various processes or categories of
products or services.
Box Whisker plots show the relationship between two parameters, usually a
response and a factor, in terms of a measure of centrality and one of dispersion.
Dispersion may be made expressed using the median with quartile limits (useful
for non-normal distributions) or the mean with limits expressed in standard.
deviations (useful for normal distributions)
Bulls Eye Charts:
A Bulls eye Chart is a graphical tool that may be used with variables data (data
that is both quantitative and continuous in measurement, such as a measured
dimension or time). The Bulls eye chart may be used to estimate whether each
of two parameters is within its desired or expected range (depending on input
parameters).
Designed Experiments:
A designed experiment is an experiment where one or more factors, called
independent variables, believed to have an effect on the experimental outcome are
identified and manipulated according to a predetermined plan.
Data collected from a designed experiment can be analyzed statistically to
determine the effect of the independent variables, or combinations of more than
one independent variable. An experimental plan must also include provisions for
dealing with extraneous variables, that is, variables not explicitly identified as
independent variables.
Failure Mode Effects and criticality Analysis
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), also known as Failure Modes, Effects
and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), is used to determine high risk functions or
product features based on the impact of a failure and the likelihood that a failure
could occur without detection.
Regression Analysis
Regression analysis is most associated with the analysis phase of the five-step
Six Sigma method of DMAIC. Regression analysis can also be used in Lean to
find areas of waste. It allows for both making predictions based on data and for
160 Lean Six Sigma
measuring whether results align with what is expected when a variable in a process
is changed.
Regression Analysis can find the benefits from applying Six Sigma regression
analysis on variables include:
• Decreased work-in-progress
• Improved process flow
• Increased productivity
• Improved inventory turns
• Reduced cycle time
Statistical Process Control (SPC)
Statistical Process Control - the use of valid analytical statistical methods to
identify the existence of special causes of variation in a process. The basic rule of
statistical process control is: Variation from common-cause systems should be left
to chance, but special causes of variation should be identified and eliminated.
4.2 IMPLEMENTATION
Six Sigma principles use statistical and numeric methods to reduce the number of
defects in output to an insignificant level. They emphasize simplicity of process,
quality of parts and supplies, and employee responsibility for achieving promised
results. The direct involvement of employees in the introduction of Six Sigma
strategies is a major factor for successful implementation. Training key employees
in Six Sigma techniques is an important prerequisite. Businesses that successfully
implement Six Sigma programs see an improvement in company performance and
increased financial returns.
Project
The best way to implement a Six Sigma program is to start with a pilot project.
You can identify a company process that generates defects or has other problems,
usually in production. The process of identifying a pilot project has to involve the
people carrying out the work and consider their input. Six Sigma only works when
everyone is involved.
Training
The person leading the Six Sigma implementation project has to be knowledgeable
about Six Sigma methods and principles. In Six Sigma terms, he must be a "black
belt" expert. In small businesses, one black belt for a pilot project is usually enough.
The business can hire a qualified new employee or can train within the ranks.
Training for black belt certification and implementation of the pilot project may
overlap.
Team
Once the company has chosen the black belt team leader, it must assign team
members who will help with the implementation. The company has to consult
the workers involved in the pilot project. Some team members will become black
belt leaders for other company implementations, and many will become green belt
support workers who help the black belt leaders. Good workers are needed on the
team, but also to run the Six Sigma pilot project after implementation.
Plan
The team has to plan the implementation under the leadership of the black belt.
The aim is to put in place an organizational structure that streamlines the target
production process to reduce defects. The black belt identifies problem areas,
and the workers who carry out the work help with solutions. The plan details
the measures the team proposes to reduce waste, increase worker efficiency and
eliminate bottlenecks.
Execute
Six Sigma requires an initial effort and is then a continuous process. The pilot
project has to set up the initial steps and put in place the organization for continued
application. The team makes the necessary changes according to the plan and then
puts in place a black belt to run it. Green belts help with operation according to the
new plan and take responsibility for specific aspects.
Evaluate
At the completion of the pilot project, an evaluation details what worked well and
where there were problems. The workers involved are a key source for evaluation
criteria and parameters. The company now has at least one qualified black belt and
several candidates. The evaluation is the basis for a continued application to other
areas of company operations. In a small business, a second round can probably
encompass all the remaining production activities. A third round can extend Six
Sigma principles to services such as design and human resources.
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4.3 LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Leadership plays a key role in Six Sigma. This is because the entire success of
a Six Sigma project lies in the support and interest of Top management. Top
Management has a huge responsibility in driving the Six Sigma culture in an
organization.
Leadership should recognize Six Sigma as a management strategy, rather than
using it as a tool. When a company adopts Six Sigma as a management strategy, the
entire organization and all its departments will be channelized towards identifying
and improving its processes.
Leadership training programs are short-term programs intended to help you
refresh and build on your existing leadership skills in order to increase your
leadership capacity in your current job – and in your next job.
Look for a leadership training program that allows you to examine your
leadership style and effectiveness in a safe and supportive environment, with the
benefit of honest and impartial feedback. Leadership exercises and professional
leadership coaching are useful tools for understanding your leadership goals,
recognizing your leadership traits, experimenting with your leadership role,
becoming aware of what’s going on within you and around you, and identifying
the right steps towards improvement.
4.3.1 Communication
Communication is a key factor in the success of any project. For Six Sigma leaders,
maturity and experience can bring a balance between viewing individual “trees
in the forest” and understanding how the whole forest full of trees can function
together. When a leader starts adjusting processes in one area, changes can be felt
in other areas, even if the perturbation was unintentional.
When a change results in employees or a branch of the company feeling like
they are caught off guard or have been disregarded in some way, the end result
can be as damaging as a forest fire. To an untrained eye, a small pile of leaves
smoldering in the corner may seem harmless, but over time the problem can grow.
Just like most forest fires, with proper education and communication they can be
avoided all together.
Communication throughout a Six Sigma project is very important because the
power and scope of Six Sigma demands a significant commitment from everyone
in the organization. Six Sigma successes require clear and open communication
at all levels to transcend departmental barriers that would otherwise cause
confusion. In addition, any change in an organization will meet some resistance,
either intentional or just because of inertia. When management can effectively
communicate that it is behind that change and can communicate the positive
aspects of the change, resistance can be countered and overcome.
4.3.2 Project selection
Project selection is a critical part of the Six Sigma quality improvement process.
Just like other Six Sigma tools, project selection is quantifiable and based on
objective data rather than subjective guesswork.
A project is a problem that is scheduled for solution. A good Six Sigma project
is connected to a company’s strategic goals and will solve customers’ problems. A
successful project will lead to improvements in schedule, quality or cost and can be
used to meet the needs of external customers, internal customers or shareholders.
Because an organization only has so many Black Belts and Green Belts, only the
projects with the greatest benefit to the company and the greatest probability for
success are implemented.
The rigors of Six Sigma require that project selection be based on quantifiable
metrics. Choosing a project based on quantifiable data helps the organization
identify the project that provides the greatest savings relative to the time expended
and cost of deployment.
Pareto priority index
A cost-benefit analysis can be performed on the potential project to determine its
estimated benefit to the organization. This analysis is known as the Pareto priority
index (PPI). The index takes account of the following elements:
Savings – This a dollar amount, determined by the accounting department, that
reflects savings that result from increased sales, decreased labor costs, decreased
carrying costs, and reduced maintenance and material costs.
Probability of success – Not all projects will be successful. This figure is expressed
as a percentage and indicates how likely the project is to achieve its stated goal.
Cost – This dollar amount, determined by the accounting department, illustrates
the price of implementing a project. This figure includes costs such as materials,
work stoppage for data collection and labor costs.
164 Lean Six Sigma
Completion time – This is the time required for the project team to complete the
DMAIC process and implement the solution.
The PPI weighs the dollar savings and the probability of success of a project
against the cost of deployment and the time required for project completion. The
result is illustrated in an index number.
The index number helps organizations compare a several different potential
projects at a glance. Potential projects with greater dollar savings and a higher
probability of success will have a higher PPI number than those with greater cost
and longer completion time.
4.3.3 Project Management and Team
A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and
therefore defined scope and resources.
Project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of
operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. So a project team often includes
people who don’t usually work together – sometimes from different organizations
and across multiple geographies.
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques
to project activities to meet the project requirements.
Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge
and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project
acceptance criteria within agreed parameters. Project management has final
deliverables that are constrained to a finite timescale and budget.
Project management processes fall into five groups:
• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing
Team
A team is defined as a group of people who perform interdependent tasks to work
toward accomplishing a common mission or specific objective.
Project teams are groups of employees who work collectively toward shared
goals. This type of team allows you to structure work in a specific, measurable, and
time-constrained way. You can assign clear roles, responsibilities, and deadlines.
Also, by selecting both experienced and inexperienced workers, you enable them
to do informal coaching and mentoring.
There are four main types of project teams:
• Functional Teams
• Cross Functional Teams
• Matrix Teams
• Contract Teams
Functional Teams: These teams are permanent and always include members of
the same department with different responsibilities. A manager is responsible for
everything, and everyone reports to him. These types of teams are more likely to
be found in companies that incorporate traditional project management.
Cross-functional Teams: Cross-functional teams are made up of members from
various departments. These teams tackle specific tasks that require different inputs
and expertise. Even though cross-functional teams are becoming increasingly
popular worldwide, a recent study has proven that a whopping 75% of all cross-
functional teams are dysfunctional.
Matrix Teams: These teams are characterized by a “two-boss system”, where an
individual report to a different manager for various aspects of his work. This type
of team is the product of the Matrix management approach.
Contract Teams: Contract teams are outsourced teams that are tied down by
a contract and brought in to complete a part of a project. After the project is
completed and the contract has ended, the client can cut all ties to the team, no
questions asked.
4.3.4 Champion Training

Champion training focuses on providing you with the managerial and technical
knowledge to facilitate the leadership and deployment of the Six Sigma strategy.
Champions are upper-level managers who lead the execution of the Lean Six
Sigma deployment plans for the company.
That makes it one of the most critical roles in any successful Lean Six Sigma
improvement initiative. Guided by the direction set forth by the executive team,
champions select the projects, determine who's trained as Black Belts/Green
166 Lean Six Sigma
Belts, review progress, and mentor the Black Belts/Green Belts in order for the
deployment to be effective.
The one day Lean Six Sigma Champion training agenda focuses on providing
the managerial and technical knowledge necessary to facilitate the leadership and
deployment of the Six Sigma Strategy without a significant investment of time
away from the office.
Champions play a pivotal role in a successful Lean Six Sigma initiative. They
serve as mentors to project teams and act as a bridge between black belts and
organization management. Without champions, efforts can become entangled
with internal obstacles, become misaligned with core business objectives, lose
focus and track of time, and may not yield expected benefits.
Champions are typically members of the executive or leadership group who
sponsor projects and mentor teams working on those projects. To be effective,
champions must be trained in the essentials of the Six Sigma Methodology.
Champions do not need to be “expert” in Six Sigma tools and techniques but
they do need to have proficient skills in facilitation, collaboration and conflict
resolution.
The role of a lean six sigma champion online training is need help to be
successful. The Role of a Champion course provides that help by exploring basic
champion roles, investigating a sustainable support infrastructure for champions
and preparing champions for common pitfalls.
4.3.5 Customer Quality Index
What is Quality Index? We can’t measure quality of a product that is performing
well today, but can go down tomorrow because of changes in customer needs.
Thus we define Quality Index (QI), which is a measure of quality.
Need for Quality Index
• Customer satisfaction is one of the most critical things when it comes to quality
of the application. Based on the QI, one can measure customer satisfaction.
• Easy for management to digest one number and drill down, if required.
• The QI trend provides continuous feedback, which is required for control. It is
easy to monitor when the process is going out-of-control.
Evaluating Quality Index

There are two approaches for evaluating QI:
• Metric based Approach
• Question-Answer (QA) based Approach
Question-Answer (QA) based Approach
This approach is easy and works well for evaluating QI. Based on the requirement
and the view point of the customer, we can measure QI and drill down, if
required.
Process
Each Characteristic and their Sub-Characteristics are converted into meaningful
questions and sent to the stakeholders. Stakeholders should rate each one on a
scale of 1 to 3 as follows: -
• Bad = 1
• Fair /Acceptable = 2
• Good = 3
4.3.6 Challenges
It directly applies to Six Sigma and how businesses apply it. Some blame Six Sigma
when an organization decides to put the methodology into action and things don’t
improve. Or they simply think Six Sigma does not apply to their situation.
Six Sigma is not some sort of magic incantation to chant that solves issues in a
snap. It takes dedication, training and proper application.
Challenges arise not with Six Sigma itself, but with how it is applied and the
people who apply it.
Challenges with People
Six Sigma is a collection of tools and techniques. They’ve been proven to work
time and time again to make processes within a company more efficient. Those
who doubt can call Motorola, Toyota, IBM and General Electric. They’ve all had
a bit of success with Six Sigma.
Six Sigma or Lean, properly applied, can make any process more efficient.
Feelings are not part of the equation. Any process can be improved when its
168 Lean Six Sigma
measured, analyzed, defects and wastes are found and eliminated, and a plan is
put into action to sustain the changes.
But things sometimes get in the way. They include many of the following.
• Low Information
Some people simply do not learn the rules of Six Sigma before applying them.
Without basic knowledge and training in the details of Six Sigma methodology,
it will not work properly.
• Resistance to Change

Many employees – and managers – are resistant to changing a process that has
worked one way for many years, no matter how inefficient. This is an emotional
response, not a logical one. In some cases, employees fear they will lose their
jobs if Six Sigma is applied. This is one of the biggest Six Sigma myths. That’s
not what Six Sigma does. It focuses on fixing defects, not eliminating jobs.
• No Management Buy-In
Management doesn’t always completely commit to Six Sigma. Or, if the
benefit is not clear or immediately realized, they will lose interest and offer
weak support. This short-term view is not the best approach. Six Sigma is a
process that requires long-term commitment.
Challenges with Implementation

These areas are results of the issues listed above. They involve errors in implementing
Six Sigma process improvement methodologies.
• Incorrect Scope
The scope of a project is important as it defines the ultimate goal and sets parameters
for what the project will encompass. However, once a project begins and issues are
uncovered, scope creep can occur. This leads teams off onto tangents that don’t
necessarily benefit the stated project goal. Office politics and a lack of unclouded
vision from management can also constrain a project.
• Not Using a Data-Driven Approach
Knowing the correct data to collect on a project is difficult enough, as is analyzing
it properly to reach conclusions that will benefit an organization. However, in
many cases, managers and executives will still go with “gut instincts” no matter
what the data shows. By ignoring the data, people ignore one of the basic principles
of Six Sigma.
• Lack of Resources
This ties in particularly with management buy-in. Without providing the proper
tools to accomplish a project, a team can soon flounder.
• Change Is Hard
Of everything listed above, fear of change is likely behind much of the issue.
Ultimately, the issue becomes one of vision. Any “agent of change” – such
as a process improvement methodology – will be a cause of concern. There are
five fundamental ideas to keep in mind that might be helpful to implementing Six
Sigma
There are five fundamental ideas underlying any process improvement project.
All these boxes need to be ticked to make a project work.
• Set the focus for the entire organization. This means leaders setting and
communicating clear, realistic objectives and expectations.
• Ensure the organizational culture is aligned to the process goals. Smart leaders
focus on culture as much as anything else, knowing that encouraging the right
kinds of positive behaviors and habits are the real key to long-term success.
• Understand the process. Commit resources to educating and training employees
on process improvement methodologies.
170 Lean Six Sigma
• Pick the right problem to address. This manages scope. Tackle issues with a clear
goal in mind. Don’t underestimate the complexity of solving challenges.
• Use the right approach. Use the right tools and techniques, which requires
extensive knowledge of what Six Sigma offers to know what will work best in
your situation.
4.3.7 Program Failure
The reasons of the failure in Lean Six Sigma projects have been identified
and examined and the issues which lead to a successful project have been
investigated.
There is more number of reasons why these projects fail, and this company
experienced many of them to at least some extent. By understanding the chief
points of failure, managers can do a better job of anticipating potential trouble
spots in their organizations and structuring their initiatives to most effectively
offset the risks. These include:
1. Lack of Management Support:
The first reason or the prime reason for Six Sigma failure is the lack of management
support. It is the support that comes from management commitment to provide
the resources, including team members.
Any Six Sigma project requires people from multiple disciplines to join the
team, collect data, do data analyses, identify solutions. If the people identified
as the team members are not freed or spared from their respective department
to support the project assignments, you really cannot do anything. The project is
bound to fail. This is where management support comes into the picture, and for
this, a supporting champion in the organization is a key to Six Sigma program
success.If there is strong support from the management, and the Six Sigma team
gets the needed resources, there’s a good chance of the project being completed.
2. Lack of Process Owner Support:
Another reason for Six Sigma project is the lack of process owner support.In Six
Sigma you are working towards improving a process. But if the process owner
doesn’t support that project, you will not get access to collect data and make
changes to the process. This might lead to your project not achieving the required
objective.
3. Team Member’s Commitment:

Six Sigma projects are generally done by a team. The members of this team are
from various disciplines. If the team members do not complete the assigned tasks,
it will lead to the failure of the project. Team member commitment, in a way,
is linked to the lack of management support. Because if the management gives
importance to the project, there is a good chance that the team members will
support the project.
4. Incorrect Scope
When you decide the scope of the Six Sigma project, it needs to be really well
defined and nicely sliced. You can’t eat a big pie at a time; you need to cut that
into small pieces, the pieces which you can digest at a time.
The correct scope would be something which you can complete in two to three
months. If you take too broad a scope, then there is a chance that this project
becomes a never-ending project. You cannot solve the world population problem
or world hunger problem with the Six Sigma project. You need to break it down
to a manageable size and attempt that do the project which you can do in two to
three month.
5. Lack of Training
Next reason for the Six Sigma failure is the lack of training. People need training,
not just the Black Belt; you need to have people below having Green Belt, and
Yellow Belts training. In addition to that, the management also needs to be trained.
Management needs to know the benefits of Six Sigma and to understand that their
support is critical to the success of Six Sigma projects. So the lack of training will
undoubtedly lead to project failure.
6. Incorrect Project Selection
Any Six Sigma project needs to be aligned with the strategic goal of the organization.
The management is looking at the strategic goals of the organization, which they
want to achieve. This could be to expand the market share, to increase the sale, or
to improve the product quality. Unless the project is aligned with the strategic goals
of the organization, it’s not going to be successful because you will not be getting
required management support, If the selected project does not provide the financial
gains in the short term or long term, it is bound to fail because management is
looking at how much money this project will be making.
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Any one of these factors can spell trouble for organizations hoping to realize
the Six Sigma promise of continuous improvement. Those that pay close attention
to the people and project issues from the outset will benefit by experiencing Six
Sigma initiatives that measure up and deliver.
4.3.8 CPQ vs Six Sigma
Cost of quality (COQ) is defined as a methodology that allows an organization
to determine the extent to which its resources are used for activities that prevent
poor quality, that appraise the quality of the organization’s products or services,
and that result from internal and external failures. Having such information allows
an organization to determine the potential savings to be gained by implementing
process improvements.
poor quality products or services. There are three categories:
• Appraisal costs are costs incurred to determine the degree of conformance to
quality requirements.
• Internal failure costs are costs associated with defects found before the customer
receives the product or service.
• External failure costs are costs associated with defects found after the customer
receives the product or service.
Quality-related activities that incur costs may be divided into prevention costs,
appraisal costs, and internal and external failure costs.
Examples of CPQ vs Six Sigma
The examples below could all benefit from a configuration solution that keeps
customer needs front and center while increasing profits and growth via process
improvement:
• Trade, Transport & logistics: Increasing First Time Right delivery, reducing
inventory costs and picking errors by creating accurate controlled information
from the start.
• Business Services; Increasing customer value by jointly and structurally
improve customer processes
• Banks and insurance companies: reducing lead time for mortgage applications
or claims processing by automating calculations and assuring that all necessary
information is provided.
• Telecom & Utilities: Increasing service desk resolutions, reducing / preventing

the number of reported incidents;
• Medical Care: Efficient surgical procedures with reduced errors and faster
patient recovery with checklists and assurance that all necessary questions
were asked.
• Government: Faster, more transparent processing for routine, repeatable areas
such as licensing and other protocols
4.4 STRUCTURE THE DEPLOYMENT OF SIX SIGMA

A Six Sigma deployment is an interesting and challenging initiative undertaken by
forward thinking enterprises. A well strategized Six Sigma deployment can give
a face-lift to your company, thereby allowing you to obtain best results. However,
a Six Sigma deployment strategy can differ between enterprises, based on their
corporate culture and strategic business objectives. Once a company has made the
decision to deploy Six Sigma, it has two basic choices:
• To deploy a Six Sigma initiative/program
• To set up a Six Sigma infrastructure
Steering Team: A steering committee is a group of people, usually managers. It
is formed to oversee and support a project from management level. Committee
members are selected based on their stake in the project. In other words: A steering
committee should represent the main stakeholders.
Six Sigma Leaders: As a group, business leaders must own and drive Six Sigma by
doing the following:
• Establish business objectives and the role of Six Sigma to achieve those
goals.
• Create an environment which enables success including goals, measures,
coaching, and communication, among others.
• Actively participate in Six Sigma activities and projects.
• Success of the effort is very highly correlated to the interest and time invested
by business leaders.
Project Champion: Project Champions (Sponsors) are the managers of the business,
function, or value stream which has been identified as high priority for a Six Sigma
team. They play a pivotal role in that they own the processes of the business and,
therefore, must ensure process improvements are captured and sustained.
174 Lean Six Sigma
They typically also manage Six Sigma Green Belts (GB’s) and must understand
the challenges faced by GB associates (for example, removing roadblocks). They
also must work with BB’s and MBB’s to ensure that their business area has
developed, and is implementing, a long-term vision of a Six Sigma operating
environment across the entire operative base.
Process Owner: A process owner is the manager of a process. He or she has
responsibility for the process and has the authority to change the process on his or
her signature. The process owner should be identified and involved immediately in
all Six Sigma projects relating to his or her own area.
Master Black Belt (MBB): A master black belt takes on a leadership role as keeper
of the Six Sigma process and advisor to senior executives or business unit managers.
He or she must leverage his or her skills with projects that are led by black belts
and green belts. Frequently, master black belts report directly to senior executives
or business unit managers.
A master black belt has successfully led many teams through complex Six Sigma
projects. He or she is a proven change agent, leader, facilitator, and technical expert
in Six Sigma management. It is always best for an organization to develop its own
master black belts. However, sometimes it is impossible for an organization to
develop its own master black belts because of the lead time required to become a
master black belt. Thus, circumstances sometimes require hiring master black belts
from outside the organization.
Black Belt: A black belt is a full-time change agent and improvement leader who
may not be an expert in the process under study [see Reference 4]. A black belt is
a quality professional who is mentored by a master black belt, but who may report
to a manager for his or her tour of duty as a black belt.
Green Belt: A green belt is an individual who works on projects part-time (25%),
either as a team member for complex projects or as a project leader for simpler
projects. Most managers in a mature Six Sigma organization are green belts. Green
belt certification is a critical prerequisite for advancement into upper management
in a Six Sigma organization.
4.5 CULTURAL CHALLENGE
When the company culture is focused on teaching and practicing the principles
of Six Sigma, it can transform the way employees see themselves and their work.
Six Sigma expands employees’ vision and gives them the power to move from
passively witnessing a problem to actively solving it. Once employees are steeped
in the practice of Six Sigma, they may never be the same again.
Many organizations focus broadly on providing their employees with Six
Sigma training. While broad-based Six Sigma training is important, it is only the
beginning. Training must be reinforced by a company culture that nurtures a Six
Sigma outlook and prevents employees from returning to their old and less-effective
ways. Management consultant Peter Drucker is widely quoted for observing,
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” He could easily have been talking about Six
Sigma. When an organization lacks a culture to sustain Six Sigma, employees are
more likely to slip back into their old patterns of solving problems, regardless of
stated strategy. The sad fact is that Six Sigma efforts that are not planted in the rich
soil of a supportive culture are not likely to take root.
Companies without a culture that supports Six Sigma need not despair; culture
can be changed.
The biggest benefit Six Sigma brings to the organizations that practice it is the
way it converts employees from passive participants who often notice problems to
active participants who possess the drive to solve them.
A Six Sigma culture has the potential to literally transform employees.
Those with Six Sigma certification are cultured to see themselves and the work
they do differently than traditional employees. They’re taught to:
• See work in terms of process flow, and not just departments and functions
• Take an active role in defining improvements and identifying solutions, instead
of relying on management
• Utilize the appropriate skills to create and implement solutions
• Actively involve themselves in continuous improvement efforts
The Key to Creating a New Culture:
organizations. Consider these four ways change management can be used to instill
Six Sigma culture into an organization.
176 Lean Six Sigma
• Create Awareness and Desire

• Expose the Organization to Change
• Move Ahead, and Be Prepared for Surprises
• Reward Generously
4.6 CUSTOMER/INTERNAL METRICS
Organizations evaluate themselves by measuring customer satisfaction with their
products or services. As organizations evolve, the measurement of customer
satisfaction across the entire organization becomes imperative. The first step is for
an organization to implement a metric for tracking customer satisfaction.
As departments are regarded as customers of other departments, the internal
customer satisfaction survey is more or less identical to the external customer
satisfaction survey. The same rules apply and the same questions can be asked.
The Net Promoter Score: The Net Promoter Score, a metric used for quantifying
overall customer satisfaction, can also be used to measure internal customer
satisfaction. Promoters, Detractors and Passives will offer valuable insights into
how a certain part of your company is performing – or, to be more precise, how its
performance is perceived by internal customers.
Overtime these results can be used to compare, benchmark, and measure and
spot long term trends, which in turn enables fact-based decision making. Some
companies even use the Net Promoter Score to base decisions on bonuses and
incentives – for instance, the department with the highest score wins a team trip.
Customer Effort Score: The Customer Effort Score was originally created to
measure external customer loyalty but it can just as easily be applied to internal
customers. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement:
The organization made it easy for me to handle my issue. The idea is that
organizations create loyal (internal) customers primarily by reducing the amount
of effort said customer has to make when trying to solve a problem. From an
internal customer’s viewpoint, the Customer Effort Score identifies the level of
friction that exists between departments or teams within a company.
Effective customer service is all about removing friction, making the experience
as smooth as possible. A high Customer Effort Score means other departments or
units of a company have to make quite a lot of effort to get things done from the
177 Lean Six Sigma
department under scrutiny. In other words, work needs to be done to straighten

things out. A low score usually means said department is making things easy for
your company.
Customer Satisfaction Score: The Customer Satisfaction Score is another metric
used to gauge customer satisfaction. It too can be applied to internal customer
research. The Customer Satisfaction Score is particularly useful in this case as
it can be used to measure experiences with a single or multiple touch points, for
example, satisfaction about responsiveness, communication skills, productivity,
service.

Part - A
1. What is tree diagram?
Tree Diagram helps in understanding the process level-by-level by breaking
down complex processes to the minute level of detail. It helps the team move
down from broad process map to specific process details and requirements. It
brings down and explores the finer details in any complex process.
2. What is relationship diagram?
It is also called as Interrelationship diagram. It is used to signify the strength
of relationship between two processes or entities. It helps us to understand the
causal relationship between variables/processes in a complex scenario.
3. What are the different tools used for six sigma implementation?
• Brainstorming
• Root Cause Analysis/The 5 Whys
• Voice of the Customer
• The 5S System
• Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)
• Benchmarking
• Poka-yoke (Mistake Proofing)
178 Lean Six Sigma
4. Define Activity Network Diagram (AND)

It is also called as Arrow Diagram and is a tool used in PERT and by Project
Management professionals to map their activities and sequential tasks in a
visual format to understand and optimize the project duration.
5. What is mean by SIPOC?
A SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers) diagram is a visual
tool for documenting a business process from beginning to end prior to
implementation. SIPOC (pronounced sigh-pock) diagrams are also referred to
as high level process maps because they do not contain much detail.
6. Define QFD.
Quality Function Deployment, or QFD, is a model for product development
and production popularized in Japan in the 1960’s. The model aids in translating
customer needs and expectations into technical requirements by listening to
the voice of customer. QFD is a focused methodology for carefully listening to
the voice of the customer and then effectively responding to those needs and
expectations.
7. What are the alternative approaches to support six sigma?
• 7MP Management and planning tools
• Autocorrelation Charts
• Box Whisker Charts
• Bulls Eye Charts
• Designed Experiments
• Failure Mode Effects and criticality Analysis
• Regression Analysis
• Statistical Process Control (SPC)
8. What are the major benefits of QFD?
• A systematic way of obtaining information and presenting it.
• Shorter product development cycle.
• Considerably reduced start-up costs.
• Fewer engineering changes.
• Reduced chance of overnights during design process.
• An environment of team work.
• Consensus decision.
• Everything is preserved in writing.
9. What is champion training?
Champion training focuses on providing you with the managerial and
technical knowledge to facilitate the leadership and deployment of the Six
Sigma strategy. Champions are upper-level managers who lead the execution
of the Lean Six Sigma deployment plans for the company.
10. What are the two different approaches for evaluating QI?
• Metric based Approach
• Question-Answer (QA) based Approach
11. What is process owner?
A process owner is the manager of a process. He or she has responsibility for
the process and has the authority to change the process on his or her signature.
The process owner should be identified and involved immediately in all Six
Sigma projects relating to his or her own area.
12. What is Master Black Belt?
A master black belt takes on a leadership role as keeper of the Six Sigma
process and advisor to senior executives or business unit managers. He or she
must leverage his or her skills with projects that are led by black belts and
green belts. Frequently, master black belts report directly to senior executives
or business unit managers.
13. Explain the role of champion in implementing six sigma
The role of a lean six sigma champion online training is need help to be
successful. The Role of a Champion course provides that help by exploring
basic champion roles, investigating a sustainable support infrastructure for
champions and preparing champions for common pitfalls.
14. What are the keys to creating a new culture?
• Create Awareness and Desire
• Expose the Organization to Change
• Move Ahead, and Be Prepared for Surprises
• Reward Generously
180 Lean Six Sigma
15. What is customer internal metrics?

Organizations evaluate themselves by measuring customer satisfaction with
their products or services. As organizations evolve, the measurement of
customer satisfaction across the entire organization becomes imperative. The
first step is for an organization to implement a metric for tracking customer
satisfaction.
16. What is Customer Effort Score?
The Customer Effort Score was originally created to measure external customer
loyalty but it can just as easily be applied to internal customers.
Review Questions
Part - B
1. Discuss the Seven Management and Planning tools.
2. Explain in detail of supplier input process output customer tools helps in
implementing six sigma.
3. Explain the concept of QFD in detail.
4. Explain the reasons for failure failure in Lean Six Sigma projects.
5. Discuss about the structure of the deployment in six sigma.
6. What are the different challenges for implementing six sigma?
7. What are the alternative approaches to support six sigma and explain it?
8. What is cultural challenges and explain the keys to creating a new culture?
Evaluation and Continuous Improvement Methods 181
Unit 5
Evaluation and Continuous
Improvement Methods
Syllabus
Evaluation Strategy-the economics of six sigma Quality-Return on six sigma-(ROSS),ROI,Poor
Project estimates- Continuous Improvement – Lean manufacturing-value, customer focus,
perfection, focus on waste,overproduction-waiting,Inventory in process (IIP),processing wa
te,transportation,motion,making defective products, underutilizing people-kaizen-5S.
Contents
hh Evaluation Strategy
hh The economics of Six sigma Quality
hh Return on six sigma (ROSS) or Return on Investment (ROI)
hh Poor Project Estimates
hh Continuous Improvement
hh Lean Manufacturing
hh Overproduction
hh Kaizen
hh 5S
182 Lean Six Sigma
5.1 EVALUATION STRATEGY
Successful corporate initiatives such as Lean Six Sigma require proper planning,
prioritization, resource allocation, budgeting, training, and proper review and
reward mechanics. These initiatives also must consider the stability, accuracy and
maturity of the core processes, measurement systems and the people they will
affect.
In most organizations there is a wide range of both experience and infrastructure
to deal with such issues. This variation can be attributed to a variety of causes
including – organizational structure (e.g., centralized versus decentralized),
organization size, geographical diversity, previous initiative rollout experience,
management style/culture, management infrastructure (e.g., tools to enable
clear and concise communication, measurement and reward/recognition) and
contention for the best resources. Within this dynamic environment of moving
parts lies the groundwork for a highly successful initiative or – at the other end of
the spectrum – a train wreck.
Understanding these processes and systems enables an organization to logically
build out an implementation plan while mitigating potential risks of failure. This
is the concept behind a readiness assessment used to drive successful initiative
planning and rollout.
One of the primary inputs to the assessment process is what people in the
organization actually do in the performance of their daily work. Deciding how,
how many and who that information is elicited from is a critical decision in the
process. When considering the survey or interview populations, several choices
should be considered:
Sample size (how many and from where) – This is often determined by the size of
the organization and whether or not web-based technology is used. If assessing
an organization of 500-5,000 associates and utilizing an interview-based model,
sample sizes should be 3 to 5 percent of the population. When using web-based
technology, a sample size of 100 percent is not out of the question. Web-based
assessments while missing on actual observation and dialog, add the capability
to collect, process and store a large amount of data quickly, which enhances the
ability to reuse and drill down in the detailed data.
Demographics (various locations, cultures and or geographies) – Demographics

are important to learn about in an assessment. Often locally tuned processes and
practices are getting results and thus may be ripe for adoption by the organization
at large. Sometimes certain geographies are required to comply with local laws
or requirements. A supply chain view also is worth considering. It can be highly
desirable to include several customers, clients or even suppliers in the assessment.
This is a great way to see how external sources view the strengths and weaknesses
of a process.
Availability of information (from other sources including other audits and
assessments) – If a recent and rich source of information exists (previous audit
or assessment) it only stands to reason that this information is useful. Even if it
appears to be in conflict with other things discovered. This often happens when
things are being done in a vacuum or pocket of excellence. All are useful things to
learn.
Use of technology (specifically, web-based survey and assessment tools) – Web-
based tools for assessments are gaining popularity and accuracy. It is important
to differentiate between “survey only” and assessment tools. Assessment tools
usually have some type of intelligence built in to generate comparative and gap
analysis automatically. They typically can trap user comments and opinions,
which can then be stored for quick retrieval and summarization. There are many
advantages to web-based systems but no web-based system can observe actual
behavior. Usually some combination of web technology and observation-based
validation provides the most accurate result.
Timing (of the initiative and other things going on in the organization) – All efforts
should be made to plan an assessment in concert with the initiative scheduling
process. Sometimes when senior management announces a timeline for an initiative
it does not consider the assessment. The assessment becomes an afterthought and
then must be rushed. While not the optimum way to execute, good planning and
frequent communication can help overcome this shortfall.
Organizational culture (receptiveness or resistance to assessment) – If this is
the first time an organization has undergone a formal assessment, it is normal
to see significant organizational resistance. The best way to overcome this is by
meticulous planning and frequent communication. Organizations used to such
events will be able to move faster with less communication.
184 Lean Six Sigma
Availability of people (resource bandwidth given the type of work being performed)
– Careful consideration should be given to make people available to participate
without any negative consequences. Typically a survey or interview will require an
hour or so of preparation and an hour in an actual interview or survey. Management
must create a safe ground for employees to participate.
5.2 THE ECONOMICS OF SIX SIGMA QUALITY

Six Sigma is a quality management methodology used to help businesses improve
current processes, products or services by discovering and eliminating defects. The
goal is to streamline quality control in manufacturing or business processes so
there is little to no variance throughout.
Six Sigma was trademarked by Motorola in 1993, but it references the Greek
letter sigma, which is a statistical symbol that represents a standard deviation.
Motorola used the term because a Six Sigma process is expected to be defect-
free 99.99966 percent of the time — allowing for 3.4 defective features for every
million opportunities. Motorola initially set this goal for its own manufacturing
operations, but it quickly became a buzzword and widely adopted standard.
Six Sigma is specifically designed to help large organizations with quality
management. In 1998, Jack Welch, CEO of GE, helped thrust Six Sigma into
the limelight by donating upwards of $1 million as a thank you to the company,

recognizing how Six Sigma positively impacted GE’s operations and promoting
the process for large organizations. After that, Fortune 500 companies followed
suit and Six Sigma has been popular with large organizations ever since.
The goal in any Six Sigma project is to identify and eliminate any defects that
are causing variations in quality by defining a sequence of steps around a certain
target. The most common examples you’ll find use the targets “smaller is better,
larger is better or nominal is best.”
Smaller is Better creates an “upper specification limit,” such as having a target of
zero for defects or rejected parts.
Larger is Better involves a “lower specification limit,” such as test scores — where
the target is 100 percent.
Nominal is Best looks at the middle ground — a customer service rep needs to
spend enough time on the phone to troubleshoot a problem, but not so long that
they lose productivity.
The process aims to bring data and statistics into the mesh to help objectively
identify errors and defects that will impact quality. It’s designed to fit a variety of
business goals, allowing organizations to define objectives around specific industry
needs.
5.3 RETURN ON SIX SIGMA (ROSS) or RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)

Six sigma is not only about quality in the traditional sense but also about helping
the organization and make more money and become profitable. The traditional
quality is defined as conformance to internal requirements, has little to do with
six sigma.
Quality comes into two flavors:
• Expected Quality
• Actual Quality.
Expected quality is the known maximum possible value added per unit of
input.
Actual quality is the current value added per unit of input. The difference
between expected and actual quality is waste.
186 Lean Six Sigma
Six sigma focuses on improving quality and reducing waste by helping

organization produce products and services better, faster and cheaper. In more
traditional terms, six sigma focuses on defect prevention, cycle time reduction and
cost savings. Unlike mindless cost cutting programs which reduce value and quality.
Six sigma identifies and eliminates costs which provide no value to customers,
waste costs. For non six sigma companies these costs are often extremely high.
Companies operating at three or four sigma typically spend between 25 and 40
percent of their revenue fixing problems. This is known as cost of poor quality.
(COPQ)
Return on Investment (ROI) or Return on six sigma (ROSS) helps companies
turn over working capital faster, reduce capital spending and make existing capacity
available and new capacity unnecessary. It will add to the bottom line by reducing
the unnecessary and non value adds activities.
Six sigma Advantage Inc has performed an analysis on the return on six sigma
projects; they believe that “Even a small six sigma deployment can produce dramatic
results. In our illustration below, deploying 15 black belts (to complete 3 projects
each) and 15 green belts (to complete 2 projects each) will produce benefits of over
$8,000,000 in the first year, typically at a cost of less the $2,000,000.Results like
this are typical when six sigma is properly deployed.
Number GB’s
Average project Savings year 1
Project type or BB’s per Total Projects
cost savings (millions)
wave
Black Belt $150,000 15 45 $6.75
Green Belt $50,000 15 30 $1.50
Totals N/A 30 75 $8.25
Saving report from the companies that has implemented six sigma.
Motorola has saves $15billion during 11 years of six sigma discipline.
Allied signal has had productivity gains of 6 percent in manufacturing in a two
year period.
General Electric produced more than $2 billion in benefits in 1999, because of
its six sigma efforts.
There is mounting pressure on business to maintain a competitive edge in
everything they do and to achieve complete customer and shareholder satisfaction.
That means optimizing cycle time and equipment usage; having a fewer rejects
or errors; improving response time to customer inquiries; reducing inspection,

maintenance, inventory and other high costs, provide more employee development
and boosting financial results.
ROI is arguably the most popular metric when you need to compare the
attractiveness of one business investment to another. The return on investment
equals the present value of your accumulated net benefits (gross benefits less
ongoing costs) over a certain period divided by your initial costs. It is expresses as
percentage over a specific amount of time. If the process or a technology obsoletes
in three years, after three years. The equation for a 3-year ROI is
(net benefit year 1/ (1+discount rate)+net benefit year 2 /(1+discount rate)+
net benefit year 3/(1+discount rate))/initial cost.
So if the initial cost of manufacturing company is small new software roll out
was $10,000,your annual benefits minus annual costs are constant at $5000 for the
next three years, and the discount rate is 10% your 3 year ROI would be
($5000/1+.1) + $5000/(1+.1)2 + $5000/(1+.1)2)/ $10000 = 124%
While ROI tells you what percentage return you will get over a specified period
of time, if does not tell you anything about the magnitude of the project. So while
a 124% may seem initially attractive, would you rather have 124% return on a
$10000 project or a 60% return on a $300.
5.3.1 Poor Project Estimates:
The most important part of ROI calculations the accurate estimate of the nature
of the project and duration time. Following of some of the key elements that need
to considered in order creating an accurate ROI.
• Unclear requirements.
• Unclear parameters affecting estimates.
• Little or no project databank to learn from
• Difficult to adjust the estimates once approved (we must plan to re estimate)
• Estimates are rushed
• Inability to get acceptance of the estimates.
• Imposed budgets, time and resources
• Lack of training/coaching on estimating techniques (and tools)
188 Lean Six Sigma
Finance and the project champion play a critical role in establishing the ROI
factors. The financial numbers must be calculated according to financial structure
of the company.
The final numbers and also be calculated and expected ROI need to be approved
by the fiancé group as well.
Causes of poor project estimates:
• Lack of experience
• Business pressure
• Poor communication
• Organizational dysfunction
Lack of experience
For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of a new project manager. Let’s say that
you're asked to attend an early strategic planning session with senior executives. A
number of new project ideas are discussed, and before you know it, your project
takes center stage. The executives want to know if it is possible for your team
to complete the project in six months. You haven’t even had a chance to do any
detailed planning and haven’t even talked with the senior developers about their
concerns. All eyes are upon you. What do you say? Most inexperienced project
managers will say, “Of course we can do it in six months!"—a classic case of a
project manager offering or agreeing to an erroneous estimate without knowing
what he or she is talking about.
Inexperienced managers may lack knowledge in various areas, including:
• The target environment or technologies.
• The development languages, tools, or platforms.
• The skill level of the available resources.
• The related business (or political) issues.
• The fundamentals of the software development process.
Certainly, more experienced project managers are less likely to promise
extraordinary results, but experience doesn't guarantee a reasonable estimate.
Business pressure
Some organizations find themselves in a situation where they are rapidly losing
market share to a major competitor. With eroding margins and lost revenue
opportunities, they need to release a new product to the market, and they need to
do it fast. In these cases, the release date for the product is most likely driven by a
date identified by a department other than the IT department, such as the marketing
department. This date might be aligned with a national trade show or some type
of advertising campaign. In any case, the project manager and developers will
probably have little input in determining the planned release date.
Poor communication
I have seen excellent project estimates that included meticulous details for
effort, schedule, cost, and scope. Unfortunately, the underlying assumptions or
prerequisites that these estimates were based on were not always communicated
effectively or understood within the organization. Here are some factors that must
be taken into account:
• The dates that key people will be ready to start the project and how long they
will be able to stay on the project
• The fact that people may need to be pulled from other duties to work on the
project
• The organization's ability to recruit and retain developers with the right skill
level
• The necessary education and training that must be made available to the
team
• High-level business requirements that are accurate and fairly stable
• The developer tools that must be in place and appropriate to the planned
development task
• The development processes that need to be efficiently applied and designed for
effective outcomes
• The reliability of any existing software that will be reused
Executives may remember the due dates for major project deliverables, but
they may not remember the assumptions. If these project assumptions are not
communicated effectively and often, the project estimates may no longer be valid.
Organizational dysfunction
The final root cause of unrealistic estimates is something I will call organizational
dysfunction. By that I mean an organization that practices behaviors that are
190 Lean Six Sigma
self-defeating. One of these behaviors includes a lack of trust throughout the

organization. For example, I have known executives who do not trust software
developers and their estimates. These executives will always cut the estimates in
half because “These software guys always pad the schedule by twice as much!” In
these organizations, you will have an epidemic of unrealistic project estimates.
Another dysfunctional characteristic includes managing by fear. If an executive
or even a project manager has committed to a project being completed in six
months, do you want to be the messenger who gets shot? This environment is
similar to the tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes." Everyone on the development
team is afraid to tell the truth. As a result, the most absurd estimates will simply
be accepted.
Possible cures
If you find yourself in a truly dysfunctional organization, there may not be
much hope. In that case, the best solution could be to find a more functional
organization or wait for new leadership to replace the dinosaurs who are running
your organization. However, if your organization isn’t too far gone, you may be
able to take steps to stop an unrealistic schedule from being chiseled in stone. Here
are some ideas.
Do the research. Prepare a list of the high-level tasks you believe will need to
be accomplished on the project. Identify rough estimates of effort, schedule, and
staffing requirements. Include your underlying assumptions. Shouldn’t this be the
project manager’s job? Yes, but maybe he or she is finishing up a higher priority
project and just doesn’t have the time. Or perhaps you have a better idea of some
of the got as that await the project. Whatever the reason, why not show some
initiative and do some preliminary planning?
Collaborate with other developers to get a better handle on the scope of the new
project. If there are developers that have worked on similar projects, get their input
on the actual effort and calendar time required for their projects. Carefully identify
similarities and differences with these benchmarked projects. Having examples,
even from other organizations, can be a powerful way to make your case.
Discuss the detailed information with your project manager before he or she
sets early expectations with senior executives. The more concrete information you
can provide, the easier it will be for your manager to sell senior management on a
realistic timeframe.
Act Early
If you are regularly faced with bad estimates, there is probably a reason for it. It
could be the result of actions (or inaction) by your project manager, or it could
extend more deeply throughout the organization. Whatever the reason, the sooner
you act, the better your chances of getting a schedule you can live with.
5.3.2 Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is an active, intentional practice, ideally one that is honed
across an entire organization. To provide structure to their continuous improvement
practice, many organizations choose to follow a continuous improvement model.
Continuous improvement models vary in their rigidity of structure, but generally
all aim to eliminate waste and improve quality and efficiency of work processes.
Continuous improvement is one of the most important pillars of Lean. While
its definition might sound self-evident, continuous improvement isn’t just an
idealistic goal or a catchy slogan to throw on a poster.
Six Sigma is a continuous improvement model that focuses on eliminating
variability and improving predictability in organizations. The goals of Six Sigma
are to achieve stable and predictable process results, through clearly defined,
measurable processes, and a commitment to sustained quality improvement.
Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach to continuous improvement.
It uses a set of quality management methods rooted in statistical analysis, and
relies on an infrastructure of people within the company who are trained experts
in these methods to see them through.
Six Sigma experts have to work their way through a series of certifications,
which are identified by different colored belts, as in karate or judo. Each role comes
with specific responsibilities, so success with Six Sigma relies on having each role
filled by a qualified expert.
With its statistical tools, certification programs, defined roles and responsibilities,
Six Sigma is a highly structured continuous improvement model, ideal for
organizations already organized in a structured, corporate way.
5.3.3 Lean Manufacturing
Lean: Lean is a systematic approach to reduce or eliminate activities that don't
add value to the process.
192 Lean Six Sigma
Lean defines waste as anything that doesn't add value to the customer.
Lean streamlines a process, resulting in increased revenue, reduced costs, and
improved customer satisfaction
Lean manufacturing is a methodology that focuses on minimizing waste within
manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximizing productivity. Waste is
seen as anything that customers do not believe adds value and are not willing
to pay for. Some of the benefits of lean manufacturing can include reduced lead
times, reduced operating costs and improved product quality.
Lean manufacturing, also known as lean production, or lean, is a practice that
organizations from numerous fields can enable. Some well-known companies that
use lean include Toyota, Intel, John Deere and Nike. The approach is based on
the Toyota Production System and is still used by that company, as well as myriad
others. Companies that use enterprise resource planning (ERP) can also benefit
from using a lean production system.
Lean manufacturing is based on a number of specific principles, such as Kaizen,
or continuous improvement.
Lean manufacturing was introduced to the Western world via the 1990
publication of The Machine That Changed the World, which was based on an MIT
study into the future of the automobile detailed by Toyota's lean production
system. Since that time, lean principles have profoundly influenced manufacturing
concepts throughout the world, as well as industries outside of manufacturing,
including healthcare, software development and service industries.
Key Objectives of Lean Manufacturing
• Continuous Improvement
• Cost Reduction
• Production Agility
• Improvements in the Work Environment
• Elimination of Waste
The 5 Basic Lean Principles
1. Identify Value
What does every company strive to do? To offer a product/service that a customer
is ready to pay for. To do so, a company needs to add value defined by its customers’
needs.
The value lies in the problem you are trying to solve for the customer. More
specifically, in the part of the solution that your customer is actively willing to
pay. Any other activity or process that doesn’t bring value to the end product is
considered waste.
So you first need to identify the value you want to deliver and then proceed to
the next step.
2. Value Stream Mapping
This is the point where you literally need to map the workflow of your company.
It has to include all actions and people involved in delivering the end product to
the customer. By doing so, you will be able to identify what parts of the process
bring no value.
Applying the Lean principle of value stream mapping will show you where
value is being generated and in what proportion different parts of the process do
or do not produce value.
When you have your value stream mapped, it will be much easier for you to see
which processes are owned by what teams and who is responsible for measuring,
194 Lean Six Sigma
evaluating, and improving that process. This big-picture will enable you to detect
the steps that don’t bring value and eliminate them.
3. Create Continuous Workflow
After you mastered your value stream, you need to make sure that each team's
workflow remains smooth. Keep in mind that it may take a while.
Developing a product/service will often include cross-functional teamwork.
Bottlenecks and interruptions may appear at any time. However, by breaking up
work into smaller batches and visualizing the workflow, you can easily detect and
remove process roadblocks.
4. Create a Pull System
Having a stable workflow guarantees that your teams can deliver work tasks much
faster with less effort. However, in order to secure a stable workflow, make sure to
create a pull system when it comes to the Lean methodology.
In such a system, the work is pulled only if there is a demand for it. This lets
you optimize resources’ capacity and deliver products/services only if there is an
actual need.
Let’s take a restaurant, for example. You go there and order a pizza. The baker
pulls your order and starts making your pizza. He doesn’t prepare tons of dishes in
advance because there isn’t actual demand, and these tons of dishes can turn into
a waste of resources.
5. Continuous Improvement
After going through all previous steps, you already built your Lean management
system. However, don’t forget to pay attention to this last step, probably the most
important one.
Remember, your system is not isolated and static. Problems may occur at any
of the previous steps. This is why you need to make sure that employees on every
level are involved in continuously improving the process.
There are different techniques to encourage continuous improvement. For
example, every team may have a daily stand up meeting to discuss what has been
done, what needs to be done, and possible obstacles—an easy way to process
improvements daily.
Types of Wastes in Lean Manufacturing:

Waste, or Muda in Japanese, is defined as the performance of unnecessary work as
a result of errors, poor organization, or communication.
Motion
Motion waste includes those movements (of machine or employee) which are
more complicated or difficult than absolutely necessary. This kind of waste can
cause harm to equipment, product, or employees.
Waiting
The waste of waiting includes any idle time caused by the asynchrony of two or
more interdependent processes. Operators and equipment at one step of the process
end up at a standstill waiting for the second process to catch up. Eliminating this
waste makes your processes more efficient, saving you time and money.
5.3.4 Overproduction
This can be considered the worst of all the wastes because it leads to other wastes
and hides the need for improvement. This waste occurs when production exceeds
customer requirements, which in turn leads to high levels of inventory which, as
you will see, hides many of the problem-areas within your organization. Your
goal, therefore, should be to only make what is required when it is required.
196 Lean Six Sigma
Over processing
the customer values. To eliminate this waste, your goal should be to only do the
amount of processing which is both useful and necessary and no more.
Defects
The waste of defects includes quality errors that invariably cost you much more
than you expect, as each defective product necessitates more work or replacement,
wasting resources and materials, and can lead to lost customers.
Transportation
Transportation waste is the movement of materials that does not directly correspond
to some value-adding process. This can be very costly for your business, as you
must pay for the time and machines involved in this wasteful process. It should be
minimized in order to reduce delays, reduce the risk of handling-induced damage
and eliminate non value added process steps and costs.
Inventory
Inventory that doesn’t directly fulfill customer needs is excessive, and should be
reduced to a level that’s supported by the reliability and consistency of a process
or value stream. Excessive inventory is often the result a company producing or
holding “just in case” inventories, built or purchased to protect against production
downtime, production delays, poor quality, or other problems. These other
problems need to be addressed so that an organization can reduce inventory.
5.3.5 Kaizen
Kaizen is a Lean manufacturing tool that improves quality, productivity, safety,
and workplace culture. Kaizen focuses on applying small, daily changes that result
in major improvements over time. ... Kaizen comes from two Japanese words: Kai
(improvement) and Zen (good), which translates to “continuous improvement”.
Kaizen, or rapid improvement processes, often is considered to be the "building
block" of all lean production methods. Kaizen focuses on eliminating waste,
improving productivity, and achieving sustained continual improvement in targeted
activities and processes of an organization
The Kaizen approach consists of 5 founding elements:

• Teamwork,
• Personal discipline,
• Improved morale,
• Quality circles,
• Suggestions for improvement.
5.3.6 5S
The 5S process, or simply “5S”, is a structured program to systematically achieve
total organization, cleanliness, and standardization in the workplace. A well-
organized workplace results in a safer, more efficient, and more productive
operation. It boosts the morale of the workers, promoting a sense of pride in their
work and ownership of their responsibilities.
5S is a systematized approach to organized work areas, keep rules and standards
and maintain the discipline needed to do a good job
Importance of 5S
• Prevent errors
• Eliminate Wastes
• Prevent accidents
• Eliminate maintenance breakdowns
The 5s are as follows

• Sorting (seiri)
• Straightening (seiton)
• Systematic cleaning (seiso)
198 Lean Six Sigma
• Standardizing (seiketsu)
• Sustaining (shitsuke)
Sorting (Seiri)
• Eliminating obstacles to make work easy
• Eliminate the need to take care of unnecessary items
• Provide no chance of being disturbed with unnecessary items
• Prevent accumulation of unnecessary items
Straightening (Seiton)
A place for everything and everything in it’s place”.
• Store files for first-in-first-out retrieval.
• Label files and their location systematically.
• Separate tools from common ones.
• Put frequently used files nearer.
• “Only feet on the floor” -Avoid storing anything directly on the floor, which
creates an impediment to cleaning and one more thing to trip over.
Systematic cleaning (Seiso)
“Inspect, Clean & Remove Periodically!”
• Sweeping, polishing, painting, greasing / oiling & fixing!
• Regularly removing files and documents from storage areas and dusting
them.
• Inspecting files / objects for their probable retention or disposal!
• Early identification & fixing of possible source of contamination!
Standardizing (Seiketsu)
“Standard Policies, Procedures and Guidelines for Implementing 1st 3 S
Uniformly!
Encompasses both personal and environmental cleanliness personnel must
practice seiketsu starting with their personal tidiness.
Develop a routine for sorting, setting in order and shining on a daily basis
We all have our own way of doing things. This kind of individuality is great in
our personal lives because it makes life much more interesting and fun but non-
conformity can be unproductive in the workplace.
Sustaining (Shitsuke)
“Make it a Habit!”
• This step is all about working 5S into daily routines and ensuring that it
becomes an integral part of the workplace fabric.
• Habits are not easy to form. Leaders need to take time out for the cause of 5S
and should demand ownership from the employees.

Part - A
1. What is Lean?
Lean is a systematic approach to reduce or eliminate activities that don't add
value to the process.
2. What is Lean Manufacturing?
Lean manufacturing is a methodology that focuses on minimizing waste
within manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximizing productivity.
Wastes is seen as anything that customers do not believe adds value and are
not willing to pay.
3. What are the principles of lean manufacturing?
• Identify Value
• Value stream mapping
• Create continuous workflow
• Create a pull system
• Continuous improvement
4. Define ROSS
ROI with respect to a project, or project ROI, is an indicator used to measure
the financial savings/gain (or loss) of a project in relation to its cost. Typically,
it is used in determining whether a project will yield positive financial benefits
and in turn be given approval to proceed.
The formula for determining project ROI is:
Project ROI = (Financial Gain or Loss – Project Cost / Project Cost) × 100.
200 Lean Six Sigma
5. Expand 5S
• SEIRI
• SEITON
• SEISO
• SEIKETSU
• SHITSUKE
6. What are the causes of poor project estimates?
• Lack of experience
• Business pressure
• Poor communication
• Organizational dysfunction
7. What is kaizen?
Kaizen is a Lean manufacturing tool that improves quality, productivity, safety,
and workplace culture. Kaizen focuses on applying small, daily changes that
result in major improvements over time. ... Kaizen comes from two Japanese
words: Kai (improvement) and Zen (good), which translates to “continuous
improvement”.
8. What are the importances of 5S?
• Prevent errors
• Eliminate Wastes
• Prevent accidents
• Eliminate maintenance breakdowns
9. What is Over Production?
This can be considered the worst of all the wastes because it leads to other
wastes and hides the need for improvement. This waste occurs when
production exceeds customer requirements, which in turn leads to high levels
of inventory which, as you will see, hides many of the problem-areas within
your organization. Your goal, therefore, should be to only make what is
required when it is required.
10. What are the objectives of lean manufacturing?
• Continuous Improvement
• Cost Reduction
• Production Agility
• Improvements in the Work Environment
• Elimination of Waste
11. What do you mean by processing waste?
the customer values. To eliminate this waste, your goal should be to only do
the amount of processing which is both useful and necessary and no more.
12. What are the different types of waste in lean manufacturing?
• Inventory
• Motion
• Defects
• Over Processing
• Waiting
• Transport
13. Define IIP
Inventory is seen as an asset and often time suppliers give discount for bulk
purchases. But having more inventory than necessary to sustain a steady flow
of work can lead to problems such as product defects, greater lead time in the
production process and an inefficient allocation of capital.
14. What are the different methods of continuous improvement?
• Benchmarking
• Force Field Analysis
• Flowcharts
• Affinity Diagram
• Delphi Technique
• Pareto Chart
• Cause and Effect Diagram
15. What is production Agility?
Agility is all about anticipating and adapting to changes in the market
landscape. It means being in the right place at the right time with the right
offering of products, tools, materials, and equipment.
202 Lean Six Sigma
Part - B
1. Discuss the strategies that evaluate six sigma
2. What is Return on six sigma and explain with the example.
3. Explain how continuous improvement methods enable six sigma.
4. Discuss the economics of six sigma quality
5. Explain in detail about lean manufacturing and the principles applied.
6. Explain kaizen in detail.
7. Discuss 5S with the sketch and its need, objectives in six sigma
8. Explain the types of wastes in lean manufacturing.
Multiple Choice Questions 203
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Who is considered to be the father of Six Sigma?
(A) Bill Smith
(B) Walter Shewhart
(C) Jack Welch
(D) None of the above
2. The concept of Six Sigma was developed by the following company.
(A) General Electric
(B) Motorola
(C) Honeywell
(D) DuPont
3. Six Sigma strategies seek to improve the quality of the output of a process by
(A) identifying the causes of defects
(B) removing the causes of defects
(C) minimizing variability in manufacturing
(D) all of the above
4. Processes that operate with “six sigma quality” over the short term are assumed to
produce long-term defect levels below ___ defects per million opportunities (DPMO)
(A) 2.4
(B) 3.4
(C) 4.4
(D) 5.4
5. The aim of Six Sigma initiative is to
(A) reduce cost
(B) improve quality
(C) both (A) and (B)
(D) none of the above
6. Combination of Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing is known as
(A) Advanced Six Sigma
(B) Lean Six Sigma
(C) Operational Six Sigma
204 Lean Six Sigma
7. The first standard published by the International Standard Organization (ISO) defining
a Six Sigma process.
(A) ISO 13053:2009
(B) ISO 13053:2010
(C) ISO 13053:2011
(D) ISO 13053:2012
8. Six Sigma project follows the following project methodology(ies)
(A) DMAIC
(B) DMADV
(C) Both (A) and (B)
9. “DMAIC” is used for projects aimed at
(A) improving an existing business process
(B) creating new product or process designs
10. “DMAIC” is used for projects aimed at
(A) improving an existing business process
(B) creating new product or process designs
11. In “DMAIC”, M stands for
(A) Method
(B) Measure
(C) Machine
(D) Manpower
12. Poka Yoke means
(A) mistake proofing
(B) standardization
(C) process control
(D) none of the above
13. The percentage yield in Six Sigma is

(A) 93.3
(B) 99.38
C) 99.977
(D) 99.99966
14. Six Sigma is applicable to
(A) Finance
(B) Supply chain
(C) Healthcare
(D) All of the above
15 Six Sigma is a business-driven, multi-dimensional structured approach to
A. Reducing process variability
B. Increasing customer satisfaction
C. Lowering Defects
D. Improving Processes
E. All of the above
16. Small/Mid-sized Six Sigma projects are executed by professionals titled as:
A. Champion
B. Green Belt
C. Black Belt
D. Site Champion
17. 1. Six Sigma follows the DMAIC model.
a) True
b) False
18. Which of the following is not part of the ‘Define’ activity in the DMAIC Model of Six
Sigma?
a) Identification of project
b) Identification of champion
c) Identification of project owner
d) Identification of founder of the business
206 Lean Six Sigma
19. Which of the following does not belong to the ‘Define’ activity in the DMAIC Model of
Six Sigma?
a) Determination of customer requirements
b) Determination of CTQs
c) Validating the measurements
d) Mapping the process
20. Defining the problem, objective, goals, and benefits belong to the ‘Define’ activity in
the DMAIC Model of Six Sigma.
a) True
b) False
21. Which of the following is not a tool used in the ‘Define’ process in the DMAIC Model
of Six Sigma?
a) Project charter and plan
b) Check sheet
c) Effort/impact analysis
d) Process mapping
22. Which of the following is not a tool used in the ‘Measure’ process in the DMAIC Model
of Six Sigma?
a) Quality Function Deployment
b) Measurement Systems Analysis
c) Process capability
d) Tree diagram
23. Which of the following is not part of the ‘Measure’ activity in the DMAIC Model of Six
Sigma?
a) Determining operational definitions
b) Establishing performance standards
c) Developing the project plan
d) Developing data collection and sample plan
24. Which of the following is not a tool used in the ‘Analyze’ process in the DMAIC Model
of Six Sigma?
a) Quality Function Deployment
b) Histogram
c) Pareto Diagram
d) Run chart
25. Which of the following is not part of the ‘Improve’ activity in the DMAIC Model of Six
Sigma?
a) Determination of solution effectiveness using data
b) Implementing solution
c) Developing solution alternatives
d) Closing project and communicating results
26. Which of the following is not a tool used in the ‘Improve’ process in the DMAIC Model
of Six Sigma?
a) Design of Experiments
b) Brainstorming
c) Statistical Process Control
d) Failure Mode Effect Analysis
27. What does the letter ‘D’ and ‘V’ refer to in the DMADV model?
a) Data, Verify
b) Design, Validate
c) Data, Validate
d) Design, Verify
28. OCAP refers to ________
a) On Control Action Plan
b) Out of Control Action Plan
c) Out of Concern Action Plan
d) Out of Control Assessment Plan
29. The Six Sigma model used for improving the existing process/product is _______
a) DMAIC
b) DMAAD
c) DMADV
d) DMAAX
30. The approach of QFD in product design leads to customer-driven products.
a) True
b) False
208 Lean Six Sigma
31. QFD has a complete focus on the ‘voice of the customer’?

a) True
b) False
32. Which of the following is not a technique used to capture customer requirements for
the QFD approach?
a) Market surveys
b) Customer surveys
c) Cash receipt
d) Customer complaints
33. Which tool is used to break down the complex customer needs into key customer
needs in QFD approach?
a) Voice of customers
b) Affinity diagram
c) Poka Yoke
d) 5S
34. HOQ refers to _________
a) Headquarters
b) High Quality
c) House of Quality
d) Head of Quality
35. What does the relationship matrix in the House of Quality represent?
a) Correlation between customer requirements and technical descriptors
b) Correlation between good and bad customers
c) Correlation between the organization’s profit and loss
d) Correlation between good and bad investors
36. Which of the following is not an item included in the prioritized customer requirements
in the House of Quality?
a) Customer importance rating
b) Customer benchmarking
c) Sales point
d) Technical benchmarking
37. The interrelationship between technical descriptors in the House of Quality is given
by _____
a) Relationship matrix
b) Trade-off matrix
c) Customer matrix
d) Customer requirement matrix
38. The technical descriptors are the ________
a) Voice of the customer
b) Voice of the manager
c) Voice of the owner
d) Voice of the organization
39. In which part of the House of Quality ‘product design characteristics’ can be
located?
a) Customer requirements
b) Prioritized customer requirements
c) Technical descriptors
d) Prioritized technical descriptors
40. In which part of the House of Quality ‘degree of technical difficulty’ can be located?
a) Customer requirements
b) Prioritized customer requirements
c) Technical descriptors
d) Prioritized technical descriptors
41. TQM is the management approach of an organization, centered on quality, based
on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through
customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society.
Which organization had given this definition of TQM?
a) Total Quality Forum of USA
b) Indian Statistical Institute
c) ISO
d) ASQ
210 Lean Six Sigma
42. Which ‘pillar of TQM’ is referred to when the study of customer needs is done, the
requirements of the customer are gathered, and customer satisfaction is measured
and managed?
a) Process Management
b) Employee Empowerment
c) Continuous Improvement
d) Customer Focus
43. Which ‘pillar of TQM’ recognizes that product quality is a result of process quality?
a) Process Management
b) Employee Empowerment
c) Continuous Improvement
d) Customer Focus
44. In traditional management, quality is determined by the company. In total quality
management, quality is determined by the customer.
a) True
b) False
45. To anticipate failures and prevent them from happening is the objective of FMEA.
a) True
b) False
46. What is RPN?
a) Risk Potential Number
b) Risk Priority Number
c) Risk Preference number
d) Risk Preventive Number
47. Find the odd one out related to the FMEA team.
a) Assembly engineer
b) Manufacturing engineer
c) Quality engineer
d) Process variability data
48. A particular product has been given the following rankings for calculating RPN while
preparing FMEA chart, S=10, O=2, D=2. What is the value of RPN?
a) 20 b) 10
c) 40 d) 2
49. There are four stages of FMEA.

i) Specifyingthe possibilities
ii) Quantifying risk
iii) Correcting high risk causes
iv) Re-evaluation of Risk
Which is the correct order of proceeding with these stages of FMEA?
a) i),ii),iii),iv)
b) i),ii),iv),iii)
c) iv),iii),i),ii)
d) iv),iii),ii),i)
50. Who is the father of Toyota Production System (TPS)?
a) Ohno
b) Deming
c) Crosby
d) Taguchi
51. ‘Muda’ refers to waste in Japan.
a) True
b) False
52. Mura and Muri refer to _____ and _____ respectively.
a) Unevenness, waste
b) Unevenness, overburden
c) Overburden, waste
d) Overburden, poka-yoke
53. Muda Type 1 refers to non-value-added activities in the processes that are important
for the end customer.
a) True
b) False
54. Which of the following terms in the seven types of wastes categorized by Ohno
considers the waiting of one process to begin while the other one gets over?
a) Overproduction
b) Waiting
c) Transportation
d) Excessive inventory
212 Lean Six Sigma
55. Which of the following means ‘visual cards’?

a) Poka-yoke
b) 5S
c) Muda
d) Kanban
56. C-Kanban is also known as _______
a) P- Kanban
b) Production Kanban
c) Withdrawal Kanban
d) Poka-Yoke
57. Which of the following does not belong to the five principles of lean?
a) Identifying Value
b) Mapping the value stream
c) Creating flow
d) Establishing push
58. In the jargon of statistical process control, USL and LSL are known as _______ and
_____ respectively.
a) Upper specification limit, Lower specification limit
b) Upper specification limit, Limit specification limit
c) Up specification limit, Limit specification limit
d) Up specification limit, Lower specification limit
59. Specification limits are also known as ________ of the product.
a) Mode
b) Median
c) Tolerances
d) Allowances
60. If a product falls in the range of USL-LSL then it is meeting the expectation of the
customer.
a) True
b) False
61. Natural tolerance is also known as _______
a) Specification limits
b) Control limit
c) Process capability
d) Mean
62. What is the interpretation of Cp>1?
a) The process cannot meet the specification
b) The process will meet the specification
c) The process is just meeting the specification
d) No interpretation is possible
63. What is the interpretation of Cpk=Cp?
a) The process is out of control
b) The process is customer-centric
c) The process is centered
d) The process is costly
64. 5S is defined as a housekeeping technique used to establish and maintain a
productive and quality environment in an organization.
a) True
b) False
65. In which country was 5S invented?
a) India
b) Japan
c) Vietnam
d) Norway
66. What is the English equivalent of the Japanese word ‘Seiri’?
a) Sorting out
b) Systematic arrangement
c) Standardizing
d) Self-discipline
67. Which of the following is not an advantage of implementing 5S technique?
a) To improve work efficiency
b) To standardize work practices
c) To improve work discipline
d) To create a dirty workplace
214 Lean Six Sigma
68. Process deployment flow is another term for ________

a) Flow chart
b) Matrices
c) Determinants
d) Arrows
69. Tally sheet is another term for _______
a) Flow chart
b) Matrices
c) Determinants
d) Checksheets
70. The type of checksheet used to collect information on process variability is called
________
a) Process distribution check sheet
b) Defective item check sheet
c) Defect location check sheet
d) Defect factor check sheet
71. The type of check sheet used to monitor the input parameters that can affect the
occurrence of defects in a process is called _________
a) Process distribution check sheet
b) Defective item check sheet
c) Defect location check sheet
d) Defect factor check sheet
72. ‘Random causes of variations’ in any manufacturing process are inevitable.
a) True
b) False
73. Which of the following is not a factor that affects the occurrence of ‘random causes
of variation’ in any manufacturing process?
a) Human variability
b) Minor variations in raw materials
c) Working conditions fluctuations
d) Differences among machines
74. ‘Assignment causes of variation’ of any manufacturing process are also known as
_______
a) Random causes of variations
b) Common causes of variations
c) Chance causes of variations
d) Special causes of variations
75. ‘Assignment cause of variation’ in any manufacturing process can be easily traced
and detected.
a) True
b) False
76. A stable process in any manufacturing process exhibits only ______
a) Assignable causes of variations
b) Special causes of variations
c) Chance cause of variations
d) A stable process cannot be predicted
77. What is not benchmarking?
a) Systematic search for best practices
b) Systematic search for innovative ideas
c) Systematic search for highly effective operating procedures
d) Systematic search for imitating competitors
78. The x-charts and R-charts monitor ____ and ____ of any manufacturing process.
a) Precision, accuracy
b) Accuracy, precision
c) Variation, accuracy
d) Precision, variation
79. The x-charts and R-charts are also known as ________ and _______ respectively.
a) average-charts, range-charts
b) median-charts, average-charts
c) range-charts, median-charts
d) median-charts, range-charts
80. Benchmarking is used by organizations as a ________ tool.
a) Intermittent improvement
b) Discontinuous improvement
216 Lean Six Sigma
c) Continuous improvement
d) Sporadic improvement
81. Benchmarking involves ________ between the performance level of the organization
with its benchmark.
a) Increasing the gap
b) Reducing the gap
c) Opening the gap
d) Broadening the gap
82. Benchmarking is used extensively in __________
a) Manufacturing organizations only
b) Service organizations only
c) Manufacturing and service organizations
d) Government institutions only
83. Proper selection of the best-in-class for benchmarking is _______
a) Crucial
b) Doesn’t hold great importance
c) Least important
d) Not important
84. The product quality after using TQM philosophy _______
a) Increases
b) Decreases
c) Remains the same
d) We cannot comment on product quality
85. Which of the following is a tangible benefit of following TQM?
a) Reduction in employee grievances
b) Increase in employee grievances
c) No change in employee grievances
d) We can’t comment on employee grievances
86. Which of the following is not an intangible benefit of following TQM?
a) Better company image
b) Enhanced problem-solving capacity
c) Enhancement of job interest
d) Reduction in customer satisfaction
87. The working relationships after using TQM philosophy _______

a) Declines
b) Remains the same
c) Improves
d) We cannot comment on working relationships
88. Employee participation after using TQM philosophy _______
a) Declines
b) Remains the same
c) Improves
d) We cannot comment on working relationships
89. The process of involving yourself and influencing others towards the accomplishment
of goals is called _______
a) Leadership
b) Dictatorship
c) Sportsmanship
d) Autocracy
90. Leaders use _______ to create a sustainable competitive advantage for their
organization.
a) Ineffective strategy
b) Effective strategy
c) Papers
d) Media
91. Quality leaders give primary importance to ___________ and their needs.
a) Internal and external customers
b) Founder and co-founder
c) Founder and internal customer
d) Founder and external customer
92. Quality leaders focus on _____________ rather than maintenance.
a) Continuous improvement
b) Discontinuous improvement
c) Static improvement
d) Aesthetics
218 Lean Six Sigma
93. Quality Leaders _________ people rather than directing and supervising them.
a) Train and coach
b) Scold
c) Threaten
d) Fire
94. Quality leaders encourage _______ over ________ when we consider functions of
various departments in a company.
a) Collaboration, competition
b) Competition, collaboration
c) Competition, threat
d) Threat, collaboration
95. The property that is possessed with a product and that is intended to meet certain
customers’ needs and thereby provide customer satisfaction is called _________
a) Product Tree
b) Product Feature
c) Product Cycle
d) Product Design
96. The two types of customers are ______ and ______
a) Founder, Co-founder
b) Internal, External
c) Government, People
d) CEO, CFO
97. Which of the following does not fit in the category of Internal Customers?
a) Stakeholders
b) Public
c) Shareholders
d) Employees of a company
98. The state of affairs in which customers feel that their expectations have been met by
the product features is known as ______________
a) Customer Satisfaction
b) Customer Attraction
c) Customer Loyalty
d) Customer Reputation
99. Which of the following is not a measure of Product Deficiency?

a) Errors
b) Defects
c) Off-specification
d) Mass of the mobile phone
100. Who developed the concept of ‘TRIZ’?
a) GenrichAltshuller
b) Deming
c) Crosby
d) Juran
101. Which of the following is not an emotional based method for increasing
innovation?
a) Brainstorming
b) Synectics
c) Lateral thinking
d) TRIZ
102. The quality of the product is substantially affected by _______
a) Supplier quality
b) Supplier fund
c) Supplier money
d) Supplier name
103. Who gave the ten principles for customer/supplier relations?
a) Ishikawa
b) Deming
c) Crosby
d) Taguchi
104. Which of the following business activities must be performed by customers and
suppliers so that a friendly and satisfactory relationship is maintained between
them?
a) Procurement only
b) Production and inventory planning only
c) Clerical work and systems only
d) Procurement, production and inventory planning, clerical works and systems
220 Lean Six Sigma
105. Quality circle develops _______ awareness for safety.

a) Greater
b) Lesser
c) No
d) Diminishing
ANSWERS:
1-(A), 2-(B), 3-(D), 4-(B), 5-(C), 6-(B), 7-(C), 8-(C), 9-(A), 10-(B), 11-(B), 12-(A),
13-(D), 14-(D), 15-(E), 16-(B), 17-(A), 18-(D), 19-(C), 20-(A), 21-(B), 22-(D),
23-(C), 24-(A), 25-(D), 26-(C), 27-(D), 28-(B), 29-(A), 30-(A), 31-(A), 32-(C),
33-(B), 34-(C), 35-(A), 36-(D), 37-(B), 38-(D), 39-(C), 40-(B), 41-(C), 42-(D),
43-(C), 44-(A), 45-(A), 46-(B), 47-(D), 48-(C), 49-(A), 50-(A), 51-(A), 52-(B),
53-(A), 54-(B), 55-(D), 56-(C), 57-(D), 58-(A),59-(C),60-(A), 61-(C), 62-(B),
63-(C), 64-(A), 65-(B), 66-(A), 67-(D), 68-(A),69-(D), 70-(A), 71-(D), 72-(A),
73-(D), 74-(D), 75-(A), 76-(C), 77-(D), 78-(B) ,79-(A),80-(C),81-(B), 82-(C), 83-(A),
84-(A), 85-(A), 86-(D), 87-(C), 88-(C), 89-(A), 90-(B), 91-(A), 92-(A), 93-(A),
94-(A), 95-(B), 96-(B), 97-(B), 98-(A),99-(D),100-(A),101-(D),102-(A),103-(A),
104-(D),105-(A)
Question Papers 221
B.E./B.Tech. DEGREE EXAMINATIONS, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

Seventh Semester
Aeronautical Engineering
OMF751 – LEAN SIX SIGMA
(Common to Automobile Engineering/Industrial Engineering/Industrial Engineering
and Management/Materials Science and Engineering/Medical Electronics/Robotics
and Automation/Fashion Technology/Food Technology/Handloom and Textile
Technology/Information Technology/ Pharmaceutical Technology/Textile Chemistry/
Textile Technology/Biomedical Engineering/Computer Science and Engineering/
Computer and Communication Engineering/Electronics and Communication
Engineering/Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering/Marine Engineering/
Mechanical and Automation Engineering/Mechatronics Engineering/Production
Engineering / Biotechnology/Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering)
(Regulations 2017)
Time : Three Hours Maximum : 100 Marks
Answer ALL questions
PART – A (10×2=20 Marks)
1. How is customer centricity a critical success factor for six sigma?
2. What is lean six sigma? Refer Unit 1 Part A Q.No:4
3. What is the purpose of a scatter chart? Refer Unit 2, Part A, Q.No:18
4. When and how is Pareto analysis chart used? Refer Unit 2, Part A, Q.No:16
5. What is Failure mode? Refer Unit 3, Part A, Q.No:6
6. What is a DFSS methodology? Refer Unit 3, Part A, Q.No:1
7. Explain the role of champion in implementing six sigma. Refer Unit 4, Part A,
Q.No:13
8. Discuss the role of organization structures in implementing six sigma.
Six Sigma is a detailed and disciplined methodology for improving processes in many
aspects of business management, while boosting leadership skills, saving time, and
promoting cost efficiency for managers. One of the major objectives of SixSigma
involves reducing error and deficiency.
9. Talking about being customer-focused is much easier than actually being customer-
Centric. Do you agree? Why or Why not?
Agree. A customer-centric strategy centers on unique experiences and brand defining
222 Lean Six Sigma
engagements. While a customer-focused company spends time asking its customers

for feedback, a customer-centric organization leverages technology and data to gain
deep insights into behavioral patterns to anticipate their needs
10. An ideal preventive maintenance programme prevents all equipment failure before
it occurs. Explain
Predictive maintenance (PdM) is maintenance that monitors the performance and
condition of equipment during normal operation to reduce the likelihood of failures.
Also known as condition-based maintenance, predictive maintenance has been utilized
in the industrial world.
PART – B (5×13=65 Marks)

11. a) Discuss the major customer related symptoms which indicate the requirement for
adapting to six sigma.
(OR)
b) Discuss the symptoms which are related to organization which indicate the
requirement for adapting to six sigma.
12. a) Explain the purpose of using Deming’s PDCA cycle with diagram.
(OR)
b) Explain CTQ tree. Discuss the process and draw a CTQ tree for an automobile
component manufacturer who supplies the components to a car manufacturer.
13. a) What is Risk Priority Number (RPN) and how is it calculated ?
(OR)
b) Explain the overall process of DMAIC.
14. a) The leadership component of lean six sigma initiation encompasses specific
activities. Explain in detail.
(OR)
b) “Effective project selection is a key factor in determining the effectiveness of your
Lean Six Sigma effort.” Justify the statement.
15. a) Discuss different categories of wastes.
(OR)
b) Implementing the Five Ss usually leads to a safer and more pleasant working
environment that encourages both self-management and team working. Explain.
Question Papers 223
PART – C (1×15=15 Marks)

16. a) Explain how to improve the process flow in an organization so that things are
actioned in less time and with less effort.
(OR)
b) Explain the vital ingredients needed to successfully deploy Lean Six Sigma
throughout an organization.
224 Lean Six Sigma
B.E./B.Tech. DEGREE EXAMINATIONS, APRIL/MAY 2014

Seventh Semester
(Regulations 2017)
1. What is Quality?
2. What is Six sigma?
3. What is a Flow Diagram?
4. What is PDCA Cycle?
5. What is Failure Mode Effect Analysis?
6. What is Leadership?
7. What is House of Quality?
8. What is Customer Quality Index?
10. What is kaizen?

11. (a) Discuss how the lean manufacturing and six sigma practices are used in an
organization. Explain with examples.
(or)
(b) How will you assess the six sigma needs to increase productivity?
Question Papers 225
12. (a) Explain the tools used to measure six sigma

(or)
(b) Explain the tools used for analysis in six sigma
13. (a) Describe the process of Failure Mode Effect Analysis
(or)
(b) Discuss the change acceleration process in Detail.
14. (a) Explain how the supplier input process output customer tools helps in implementing
six sigma.
(or)
(b) Outline the various challenges in six sigma implementation.
15. (a) Discuss the strategies that evaluate six sigma.
(or)
(b) Explain how continuous improvement methods enable six sigma.
226 Lean Six Sigma
B.E./B.Tech. DEGREE EXAMINATIONS, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

Seventh Semester
(Regulations 2017)
1. What is Six Sigma?
2. Define Quality.
3. What is PDCA Cycle?
4. Explain Histograms.
5. What is Risk Priority Number?
6. Define FMEA Process?
7. What is Internal Metrics?
8. What is Project Management?
9. What is ROI?

11. (a) Discuss the importance of lean manufacturing practices.
(or)
(b) Outline the relevance of the six sigma and process Tolerance.
Question Papers 227
12. (a) Write Short notes on SIPOC Diagram,CTQ Tree, Cause and Effect Diagram, Process
Mapping.
(or)
(b) Write Short notes on PDCA Cycle, 5S Concept, Control Charts, Scatter Diagram.
13. (a) Explain the process of Failure Mode Effect Analysis
(or)
(b) Describe the change acceleration process in Detail.
14. (a) Outline the various challenges in six sigma implementation
(or)
(b) Discuss the procedure to implement six sigma.
15. (a) Discuss the economics of six sigma quality.
(or)
(b) Explain any four continuous improvement techniques related to six sigma.

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Lean Six Sigma

R. Murali B.E, MBA, M.Tech, (Ph.D)

Dr. C. Ramesh Kumar M.E, Ph.D

LEAN SIX SIGMA

UNIT 1 Lean and Six Sigma Background and

UNIT 2 The Scope of Tools and Techniques 27 - 112

2.5 Critical to Quality (CTQ) Trees 36

2.26 Value Stream Mapping 97

UNIT 3 Six Sigma Methodologies 113 - 148

UNIT 4 Six Sigma Implementation and

4.3.7 Program Failure 170

UNIT 5 Six Sigma Implementation and

Multiple Choice Questions 203 - 220

Figure 1 Lean Process Before and After

• Delivers satisfactory quality

excellence. These time-tested approaches provide organizations with a clear path

Figure 2 Historical Overview

• Deming: “ Quality is defined from the customer’s point of view as anything

1.5 Set of Tools and techniques:

Figure 3 DMAIC Process

Figure 4 Six Sigma Quality

Figure 5 Pillars of TQM

1.7 Total Quality Management

Figure 6 Eight Principles of TQM

5. Strategic and systematic approach: It emphasizes implementing a strategy in

1.9.1 Principles of Lean

Figure 7 Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing

1.9.2 Types of Wastes in Lean Manufacturing

minimized in order to reduce delays, reduce the risk of handling-induced damage

The Importance of the Average

Shrinking the Tolerance Limits

1.9.4 Six Sigma and Cultural Changes

Six Reasons Cultures Change

Table 1.9.4 Comparison of Traditional Vs Six Sigma in Aspects of Culture

Creating a Six Sigma Culture in Your Workplace

1.9.5 Six Sigma Capability

What is Process Capability (Cp)?

Figure 8 Process Capability

Specifications: Specifications define product requirements.

1.9.6 Six Sigma Need Assessments

1.9.8 Cost of Doing Nothing

Internal Failure Costs

Figure 8 Costs of Quality

• Waste: Performance of unnecessary work or holding of stock as a result of

Two Marks Questions with Answers

2. What is six sigma?

4. What is Lean Six Sigma?

6. What are the tools and techniques of Six sigma?

7. What are the benefits of TQM?

8. What are different types of wastes in lean manufacturing?

9. What is Process Tolerance?

10. What is Process Capability (Cp)?

11. Define Change management.

12. What are the different levels of Quality?