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Simplify – The Second of the 5S’s

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

SimplifySimplify is really simplify access. Make things neat. Here we specify a place for everything and everything is put in it’s place.

After we have sorted everything out in step one , we now need to organize what is left. To do this we identify the places with tape or paint where things should be placed. Label the places for the things and label the things that go in the places. Include offices as well.

Provide a standardized address to every location in your work area. Here are a few basic steps to Simplify.

  1. Preparing for labeling – Here we review the area that we are about to label things in. We review each work area/station and identify were things should be placed for easy access. We need to keep things used several times a day so that they can be retrieved with in 30 seconds or less with the minimum of motion from the operator of the work station. During this preparation we will need to find some one to be a “Label coordinator” to order and get all the materials needed to label everything in the area.
  2. Label all the items and/or their location . You can use masking tape at first to see if things are laid out right and to give time to get the labeling materials in. Label everything that is needed in the work area; this includes but is not limited to Contents in Draws, Garbage cans, Stationery, tools Books chairs Tables, etc.
  3. Outline where all the large items go. Outlining is where you place Tape or paint lines on the floor or table top (etc.) for the large item. The outline area needs to have a label for what should be in it. Things that you might outline are Movable carts , Garbage Cans, Walkways, Stationary items in a cabinet, Desks, Chairs, Equipment, Copiers, material pallets, etc.
  4. Create shadow board for smaller items. Many times you will see a peg board with the shapes of tools painted on them, this is a shadow board. When you do a shadow board do each tool or item in a different color so you can paint that item with the same color. Items that you can shadow Board are: Hand tools Desk supplies, Mops, Shovels, Rakes that get hung on the wall etc.

Once you complete this step everyone should find that it is easier to do their job as all of their needs are close and available. I once had a client that manufactured Satellites and each satellite was assembled in a bay from start to finish. Each step of the assembly process would move in and out of the assembly bay. Workers would roll in their 5-6 feet tall multi-drawer tool boxes. They stated they needed all their tools. The company was constantly buying tools for their employees as they continued to loose their tools. Some when home and never came back, some were borrowed by a fellow worker, some were just hidden in that bottom drawer way in the back. It was getting very expensive so the company did the 5S’s. In the Simplify step the company gave everyone their tool boxes to take home and then they made Shadow Box trays with the tools needed for each step. As a Satellite completed a step of the process the old step tool trays were stored in cabinets and the new ones were brought out for use. Even with this added setup time things moved faster through there assembly. People were happier and working with less stress all because the tools were there when they needed them. Believe it or not there were no complains from anyone. It really works.

Well there you have Simplify of the 5S’s . Remember that the 5S’s are not a one and done. You should do this on a regular basis. Many companies create a dashboard for the 5S’s so a department knows how well they are doing. If you have questions or comments please leave them or send me an Email.

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090


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Sort – The First of the 5S’s

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

sort

In a nut shell this first step is to sort through and sort out. In this first step a team needs to eliminate all unnecessary items from the work area. Here we look closely at everything we own. As we look at everything we have to decide if it is “needed” or not. If it is not needed we remove it from the work area. The question here is defining “Needed” and what do we mean by removing it if it is not needed. So let me puts some steps together and give you some details.

1. Form a team consisting of work area members. This team should be from 5 to 10 members. Plus the members need to try to be unbiased about what they are going to do.

2. The team now goes through the area and identifies all the items in the area which will not be needed for the next month. Needed mean that it will actually be used in that month. A month is the standard but in special situations you may make this time frame different. If a work area is seasonal it may be “not needed in the month of fall.” The area should include office areas as well.

3. Tag all item identified above as not needed with a “Waste Tag”. This tag normally is Red and has the following information on it. (Note: Never tag a people)

    • Item Name
    • ID Number (if it has one)
    • Quantity
    • Date tagged
    • Tagged by who
    • Reason for tagging
    • What is the item (Machine, Equipment, Raw material, tools, supplies, work in progress, finished material, other)
    • Reviewed By (we talk about this later)
    • Disposition (we talk about this later)

4. Rapidly remove tagged items to a holding/ review area but off or out of the process area.
5. Upon the completion of the area waste tagging, the area supervisor and the team lead will get together and separate the tagged items into two groups:

  • Items to be retained and stocked – These are items tagged as not needed for the month ( or what ever period of time was set by the team) but will be needed less frequently in the area. These items are then stored a distance from the area relative to the frequency of use.
  • Monthly – Next to area.
  • 6 months – Building stores
  • Yearly – Long term storage
  • Items to be discarded –These items are sold, given away or scrapped but never stored anywhere on site.

6. Once the two groupings have been made the final decision is coordinated with management and the “Tag Team”.

7. Last is to coordinate the movement of the tagged and grouped materials.

Well there you have Sort of the 5S’s . Remember that the 5S’s are not a one and done. You should do this on a regular basis. Many companies create a dashboard for the 5S’s so a department knows how well they are doing. If you have questions or comments please leave them or send me an Email.

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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The 5 S’s – a Summary

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Here is another simple but ever effective tool for improving the way you do business. Many call this a “Lean” tool, which it is, but I like to think of it as a great effective Six Sigma technique that many time needs to be a “Go Do” in areas where things are really cluttered.

What is 5S’s you ask? It is a 5 step process use to arrange work areas to optimize performance and safety. The 5S’s are: Sort, Simplify, Sweep, Standardize and Sustain. These simple fives steps, if done right, can have a great impact on all of the following:

  • Can give you increase effectiveness of floor space.
  • Can improve inventory management
  • Can reduce search time
  • Can reduce the number of accidents/ and safety incidents.
  • Can improve your working conditions.


So lets talk through what the 5 S’s are and how you use this technique. First is that you apply them in the below order. Plus , just like in any Six Sigma project, you will need a good cross-functional team to make it happen. So lets step through each step that the team (not just you) must do to use the  5S’s. This is a high level look at each step and in later articles I’ll go into depth on each of the 5S’s individually. (Keep a watch at my blog to insure you get them all).

  1. sort Sort through and sort out. –  In this first step the team needs to eliminate all unnecessary items from the work area. What has to happen is to look at EVERYTHING and see if it is needed (necessary) and those things that are; are kept in the work area and everything else is moved out side that area. Note the word “Eliminate” does not always mean throw away. Many things are used once in a while and NOT everyday. They are kept but in storage out side the work area so they can be found when needed but they are not taking up valuable space in the work area.
    .
  2. .Simplify things – To simplify things here we mean to determine fixed locations and quality of all necessary tools, support equipment, and inventory. Another way of saying this is a place for everything (necessary) and everything in it’s place.

  3. Sweep up – Make sorting, cleaning and checking a part of your daily routine. This includes preventative cleaning and sweepmaintenance. By the way this is talking about the people working the process. Janitors and cleaning crews have no idea how the areas equipment or tools are working and thus if the “true operator” cleans and does simple maintenance they will see leaks and wear that other will never see. Think about a secretary  that while dusting the desk will pick up and remember that the stapler seems to jam now and then, they could look closer to see what is needed or if a new one needs to be ordered. Cleaning serves will never pick up on that.
  4. Standardize the processes – Establish standard processes and clear rules to maintain work place order. Review your rules continually so you can revise them to eliminate waste as customer focus/needs change.Standardize
  5. Sustain the Gains – Establish a vision for management to have everyone continually apply 5S’s to what they do. This means training everyone in how to apply the 5S’s. Keep a 5S’s awareness and discipline throughout the company. Every department should be keeping metrics to trend their improvements. Many companies think they apply the 5S’s to their companies but often forget or just ignore this fifth step thinking it is not that important. But if you follow any of the Six Sigma approach to process improvement you know that sustaining the gains is just as important as any other step and is critical to the success of what you do.


Well there you have it. The 5S’s in a nut shell. I will be over the next weeks going into depth on each of the 5 S’s. Keep watching, and I will try to get them to every blog I post this to. But in case I miss the one you are looking at you will always find them all at my blog  http://www.sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com/knowledgebase/ . As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.


Bersbach Consulting

Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com

peter@bersbach.com

1.520.829.0090

Posted in Six Sigma Tools | 1 Comment »

The Check Sheet – Simple but powerful

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

checklistI recently heard a gentleman talking about using check sheets, sometimes called checklists, in the surgery room of hospitals. His point, and I agree, is that check sheets can reduce errors and cut down surgery time for all most any surgery given. He stated that many surgeons think that the check sheet could not be used because every patient is different and thus every surgery is different. I agree that every patient is different and that during the “same” surgery on different people one has to constantly adjust to the circumstances. But in reality surgery is the same as most any other procedure. Most companies know that there is variation in everything and thus have to be ready, through robust procedures to adjust the process to have positive end results. Look at NASA, they uses check sheets for every flight and every flight is different and very dangerous, but they find they can not do without them. I think that if surgeons thought about it there are a lot of things that you do the same; at least the major steps. Plus as complicated as surgery is and with all the variations that occur you need a good check sheet to keep the complicated process steps in focus and not forget anything critical that one wanted to get done.

There are several types of check sheets and believe it or not we all use them almost every day; Shopping lists, grocery lists, task lists are all types of check sheets. But the one the gentleman talked about I call “Run Rules.” Why I call them Run Rules is that in critical or complex process you need a “cheat sheet” that is used all the time during the process run. In six sigma these, check sheets, are a control, to insure that changes that are put in place maintain the gains they were designed for.

Why are they needed if you have standard operating procedure? Because those are detailed and lengthy but extremely important for reference and those learning for the first time. For those that have been doing the process for some time, they are not now really look back to those procedures. They have them in their heads. In critical or complex processes , including surgery, there are something’s you want to make sure they are “in their heads.” They are things you really do not what forgotten. These go on the “Run Rules” or check sheet that everyone looks at daily as they are doing the process to insure everything gets done. So if everyone IS going to look at them you have to create them so they are the “go to” item when doing this process. Here are some guidelines for creating effective Run Rules/ Check Sheets. 

They are:

  • Only a small but critical portion of the Standard Procedure applicable to the activity.
  • One page MAXIMUM.
  • Used as a reference for everyday use.
  • Key steps identified as value added for the customer.
  • On a Standard form so anyone stepping in recognizes them.
  • Easy to understand
  • Good for new employees and things you do not do that often.


In summary these Check Sheets/Checklists/Run Rules are your day to day reminders of the details in what you are doing.

Well I hope this has been informative. If you have questions drop me a line.

 Peter Bersbach
Bersbach Consulting
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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LCS a Creative Thinking Tool and More

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Creative ThinkingHere is a tool that I feel is the greatest tool for coming up with good creative ideas. Ideas on what happened. Ideas on how it happened. Ideas on what caused it. Ideas on how to fix it. Ideas on how to improve it.

Many times we are in meetings where discussions are taking place and you try to add to the discussion only to have someone else ”Knicks” your comments. The person “Knicking” really did not mean to make it sound like your idea was bad but that is the way it came across. Unusually, you will not add more to the conversation. Once put off we tend to keep quite. Plus, I might add, the issue being discussed never really gets resolved by the group. What is happening here is just something that our culture seems to thrive on and that is negative comments. We tend to always come up with why something will not work. We seem to be focused on that. But we never or rarely come up with why something will work, or at least what is good about that idea.

This tool helps in this discussion area to bring out what is good ( the golden nuggets) first and then discuss the issues with the idea next. So here it the tool:

LCS

LCS stands for Likes, Concerns Suggestions. In almost any meeting you can use this tool and you will be amazed at how it improves the discussions in the meeting. Here is how it works:

  1. Everyone in the room must use LCS. At first this means that you will have to explain it to those in the room. Many times I’ll have soft spongy toy’s around the room so if someone does not follow these rules that anyone in the room can and will throw a toy at them to remind them to use LCS.
  2. LIKES – First, if you are going to make a comment about something the first thing you should say about it, is what you like. In doing this you show the person that made the statement and the rest of the members in the room that you understood what was said by identifying things in the statement that you liked. What I call the “Golden Nuggets” of an idea.
  3. CONCERNS – Second, no idea (or comment) is perfect so many times we have some concerns about some points in the original statement. Well those get stated next, but only if you have suggestions to improve or correct your concerns. If you can not come up with a suggested improvement then DO NOT STATE YOUR CONCERN. Why? Because you have no idea that is better. If you did you could add it as a suggestion, which means that you could now state your concern and suggestion for improving it.
  4. SUGGESTIONS –Third, if you state a concern YOU MUST ALWAYS give a suggestion to improve on your concerns. In brainstorming this is called piggybacking off someone else’s idea. They had an idea you liked some of it you had some concerns and suggestions that made the idea better.

Usually the ideas created using LCS are far superior to those that don’t. The reason for that is it is additive intelligence. With a good cross-functional team using LCS a diverse amount of intelligence is brought to the meeting and through LCS it is unleashed to solve an issue or problem the team is working on.

Now remember in Six Sigma even this discussion is only an opinion of the team or group. Now you have to go collect data and prove that the opinion is correct.Well give it a try and let me know what you think. Enjoy


Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

Bersbach Consulting

From Process to Profits

1.520.829.0090

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The Fifth Step of DMAIC – Control

Monday, November 30th, 2009

DMAIC’s Control


ControlControl is the fifth step of the Six Sigma five step process DMAIC. The objective of Control is to Develop and implement the best controls to maintain the gains and to celebrate, share & reward your successes.

This is the step that is most forgotten because we think we do not need controls. But if we do not perform this step then the gains we achieved in improve will be lost very quickly. Lost because when ever you change a process it takes time to make it part of everyone way of doing things. Think about this with yourself. You have just decided to change the way you do something. How easy is it to forget your new plan without something to help you remember that you changed? An example of this is if you say that from now on I will not snack after dinner. How long will it take before you forget that change and you do snack unless you place some controls (maybe locks on the snack cabinet) to remind you not to. So with any new process you will want to have controls in it to insure that those working the process don’t forget the new method.

The second thing in the objectives is to celebrate your success. I am afraid that in most companies, just like the news, good news or success stories are NOT mention much and it is extremely important that success is shared with all. This is how six sigma becomes a culture rather than a one shot application. Celebration, recognition and reward can be very simple and are always greatly accepted by all. So share your story. If you have a good one send it to me and I will post it on my website.

Here are a series of questions that you will want to answer before calling your project complete and moving on to the next one:

  • Does your results link back to your objectives, deliverables, and exit criteria?
  • Will the controls implemented sustain the gains?
  • How will you recognize and celebrate the success of your team?
  • Have attitudes changed about using Six Sigma?
  • Have you addressed and closed all parking lot issues?
  • What do you need to grow?

It is very important that you get all of these answered. Some that stand out are “Will the controls implemented sustain the gains” and “Have you addressed and closed all parking lot issues”.  Make sure that the controls you implement help to sustain the gains. Remember that controls are non value added to the customer but important to delivering what the customer wants, so minimize them but make sure they work. Something that may be unknown to you but very familiar to me is what I call a “Parking Lot”. On every project, I have a parking lot. I use it to put concerns, thoughts, and ideas that come up during the project that, at the time, pulled the team off its focused objective at the moment. Usually these are later addressed in the project but sometimes they have nothing to do with the project and don’t get address during the project. You must hand this off to someone to make sure they are address and not just dropped. They could be another project that will be worked. Forgetting them is like discarding a twenty dollar bill and it has a negative impact on spreading the Six Sigma culture in a company thus impacting further projects.

To answer the questions above it may take several tools and techniques to insure you have control.

  • Non Statistical Controls
    • Standardized Procedures – These are detailed written series of actions which have to be executed in the same manner in order to always obtain the same result. Verbal never is good enough. It needs to be written down so that everyone does it the same way.
    • Run Rules – These are like standardized procedures but are only one page long and are used as a reference or guide by those that have been doing a job along time. Detailed procedures are usually not looked at after one has learned and done the job for some time, but there are things in the procedure that need to be available to even the expert worker. These are kept on what I call Run Rules. Must do for all.
    • Visual Controls – You may have heard the saying “a Picture is worth a 1000 words” it is true. Visual Controls are basically pictures that help control a process. Think of a handicap sign in a parking lot; it is a visual control to help hold parking spots for those that need to park closer to the store. And every driver knows what they mean. The old take a number is another visual control where it insures the customer that has been waiting the longest gets help first.
    • Contingency Plan – These are plans that you need to develop for when something goes wrong with the new process. It lets everyone one know that if they run into a problem (and believe me someone will) this is what you do to continue with the new process.
    • Preventative Maintenance – Is the same thing as oil changes with your car or your annual physical; it keeps everything working at an optimum level. It is proactive rather than reactive so you can schedule it during off hours. It is heavily into preventative,
      predictive, and scheduling. As a scheduled activity it needs to be coordinated with all involved working as a team.

  • Statistical Controls
    • Control Charts – Control charts are not always the best method of controlling a given process element. In fact, control charts are seldom the method of choice. When process elements are important we would prefer that they not vary at all! Only when this cannot be accomplished economically should we resort to the use of control charts to monitor the element’s variation.

______________________________

The above are six tools I have not talked about before, other useful Control tools that I have talked about are:

Brainstorming, LCS, Affinity Diagramming, Multi-voting and 5 Whys from my article The First step of DMAIC – Define.

Well there you have it, a little more understanding of the Control step of the Six Sigma 5 step DMAIC process. I hope that this gives you a better understanding of what questions to answer and what tools to uses to get those answers in Control.

Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
Bersbach Consulting
From Process to Profits
1.520.829.0090

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The Fourth Step of DMAIC – Improve

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

DMAIC’s Improve

ImproveImprove is the fourth step of the Six Sigma five step process DMAIC. The objective of Improve is to develop and implement the best plan for improvement of the opportunities (Root Causes) identified in the analyze step. It is not to develop only one plan because to get the “best” you need to have several approaches to work through with your sponsor to find the best mix of solutions that is acceptable to all. I often tell my black belts to develop several options and pick one to really sell to management and the sponsor. If you do not do this then management (your project sponsor) only have the ability to accept what you have or reject the team efforts and shut down the project.  You have to understand that the team is focused on improving the process. Management is focus on the whole business and the plan you really want may have a bigger negative impact some where else. That can happen and you need other options that will. Here are a series of questions that you will want to answer before moving on to control:

n      What options do you have?

n      What options will we go ahead and do?

n      What is the plan to implement the new process (options)?

n      What additional resources are needed?

n      How does your new process work?

n      Are you sub-optimizing?

n      What are your measures that show improvement?

n      What went different than planned?

n      Does this solution support company’s goals?

It is very important that you get all of these answered. Some that stand out are “Are you sub-optimizing” and “Does this solution support company Goals?”  Sub-optimization is when you make improvements in your process only to have a negative impact further down stream in the company or organization. This is best address as I mentioned earlier buy making sure you understand all the options to improve. Once you have a plan make sure again that you are making an impact on your company goals. Some times we get to this stage and do not make sure that the options we want to implement really do impact the company goals.

To answer the question above it may take several tools and techniques to collect the “facts and data.” So here in Improve, there are several good tool and techniques that can help get you that data.

  • Constraint Management – A Constraint (bottleneck) is any resource with fewer throughputs than the demand placed on it. Usually constraints regulate the output of the process so you need to use techniques that optimize the constraint and keep it running/ working all the time.
  • Pull Systems – These are method of controlling the flow and quantity of resources by only replacing what has been consumed. It is a system of signals to refill/ replenish right when you take the last item to work.

  • Setup Reduction – Setup is the time required for the process or activity to changeover from producing the last good piece of the prior item (part) to the first good piece of the next item. Setup Reduction is a set of techniques used to reduce that time.
  • Lot Size Reduction – Lot Size is defined as “The amount of a particular item that is ordered from the plant or a supplier or issued as a standard quantity to the production process – (APICS). Lot sizes larger than 1 adds wait time to every piece in the lot. Waiting is considered a waste[1]. So in Lot Size Reduction we try to decrease the lot size to one.
  • 5 S’s – The 5 S’s are a waste elimination process that is applied to any process. There are a lot of methods to doing this and worksheets to help but in short the 5S’s stand for:
    • Sort through and Sort out
    • Set everything in order
    • Shine everything
    • Standardize processes
    • Sustain the gains

  • Design of Experiments – This is simply when you design an experiment to determine when you change something how a process reacts to that change. Many times we do this by hold all input variables constant except one and  observe the response as you vary the single input. This is called OFAT (one factor at time) which is not the best way to do a designed experiment. Problems with this approach are:
  1. It usually isn’t possible to hold all other variables constant.
  2. There is no way to account for the effect of joint variation of independent variables, such as interaction.
  3. There is no way to account for experimental error, including measurement variation.

Most that do Design of Experiments (DOE) vary two or more variables simultaneously and make multiple measurements under the same experimental conditions. This eliminates all three of the above problems. This is the best way to run an experiment to get the most for your efforts.

  • Simple Business Analysis – This analysis takes all the approaches to improvement and evaluates them on at least in these three areas; effectiveness, costs to do and time it will take to implement. Below is a simple chart I use to do this analysis.

Business Process Analysis____________________________________________________________________________________________

The above are seven tools I have not talked about before, other useful Improve tools that I have talked about are:

Brainstorming, LCS, Affinity Diagramming, Multi-voting and 5 Whys from my article The First step of DMAIC – Define.

Plus  DE & UDE, Gauge R&R, Basic Summary Stats and Pareto Charts from my article The Second step of DMAIC – Measure.

Cause & Effect Diagrams,  The Third step of DMAIC – Analyze.

Well there you have it, a little more understanding of the Improve step of the Six Sigma 5 step DMAIC process. I hope that this gives you a better understanding of what questions to answer and what tools to uses to get those answers in Improve.

Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
Bersbach Consulting
From Process to Profits

1.520.829.0090

[1] The Seven Types of Waste a Summary

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The Third Step of DMAIC – Analyze

Monday, November 16th, 2009

DMAIC’s Analyze

Analyze is the third step of the Six Sigma five step process DMAIC. The objective of Analyze is to analyze the current state data and determine the root causes, the opportunities, to improve. Here we take a more in-depth look at the data collected in measure and try to determine the root causes of the issues that the data shows us. Many times, we have to go back out and take more data from the process in what I call a “Deep Dive” to determine the real root cause of what we see in measure. Remember that as you get opinions of what is causing thing to happen go collect the data to back up (validate) that opinion. Here are a series of questions that you will want to answer before moving on to improve:

  1. What are the perceived causes of the process variability and which can we control?
  2. What is of value to the customer?
  3. What are the detail steps of the process?
  4. Have you validated the “As-Is” causes?

It is very important that you get all of these answered. Some that stand out are what is of value to the customer and have you validated the “As-Is” causes. Make sure that the root causes that you find really do impact something that the customer really cares about; something that is of value to them. If you are not working causes that impact customer value then they will never return value back to the company and you will be spending time fixing something that the customer really does not care about. If you find this is true the solution maybe to totally eliminate this step since the customer finds it not of value. If you think that you can not eliminate it, then ask yourself what customer does find it important to do. We always are creating value for someone even if it is you. If you are not then you are just wasting your time.

The second thing I mentioned was to validate the “As-Is” causes. You may have had a group meeting and come up with some causes of effects you saw in measure that your customer really cares about, but until you go collect data on those causes and validate the opinions that they cause what you saw in measure you should not move forward to improve. Remember we are all about facts and data that support what we are doing.

To answer the question above it may take several tools and techniques to collect the “facts and data.” So here in Analyze, there are several good tool and techniques that can help get you that data.

  • Value Flow Analysis – This analysis take the process observation log[1] that one usually creates in measure and reviews each step listed and the time it takes to do that step, to determine if it is of value or not. Usually you will sum up all the times of the value added and non value added steps. In this way, you can see how much time you spend creating value for your customers and where there are steps that need to be reduced or eliminated because they do not create any value for your customer.

process observation log

  • Cause & Effect Diagrams – This diagram organizes group knowledge about causes of a problem and displays the information graphically. It was invented by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa and is sometimes called a called Ishikawa Diagrams. Some see this diagram and think it resembles a fish skeleton and that is why it is sometimes called a Fishbone Diagram. In the Cause and Effect Diagram, you start by drawing a box on the right or left hand side and in the box you put the effect that you saw in measure. Next, you brainstorm[2] causes of that effect and add them to the “branches.” Sometimes you also combine it with the five whys[3] tool to get the detail branches and the true “root” cause or causes of the effect.

c&e diagram

  • Scatter Plots – This plot is used to visualize the relationship between two variables. In the plot below, we are looking to see if there is a relationship between weight and days. If there was no relationship, the points on the chart would be scatter randomly all over the chart. In this chart, there is a relationship that shows as the number of day’s increase the weight also increases.

scatter plot

  • Confidence Intervals – These are statistically created to give you an area that you will feel confident that the real value will be found in. Say you make 12 inch rules and you like to be very confident (99% sure) that all your rules are 12 inches. Well you first have to understand that everything varies and so do your rulers but how accurate are they? You would take a sample of them and calculate the confidence interval for their length. You might find that you can be 99% sure that any rule you make is within 11 7/8 inch to 12 1/8 inch or 12 inches plus or minus 1/8 of an inch.
  • T Tests – This is also called the “Student’s t test”. This is statistically created when we want to compare two group averages and determine if they are the same or different. Many times, we want to know if a process has changed or shifted from what it was doing before. This test would tell you if it did.
  • F Test – This is statistically created when we want to compare two groups variations or variability. Let me try to explain this thing called variation. Everywhere you look, you see variation. In the people, the traffic at an intersection, or even pencils in a box. Let’s say you are buying pencils and there are two boxes of them on the shelf made from different companies. Both make pencils 10 inches long but you want to know if one company’s are more consistently 10” long. You would use this test to see if the variation in pencil length in one box versus the other is different or the same.
  • Chi Square Test – Not every thing is “measurable” sometime all we have is count data. The Chi square Test is statistically recreated to see if two group proportions (percentage of a count) are the same or different. Say, you run a grocery store and the current shipment of eggs seem to have a lot that are cracked, and you want to know if the next shipment that just arrived is any better. Here you could take a sample of what is on the shelf and a sample from the new shipment and find out if the two shipments have the same number of cracked eggs or not.

n      The above are tools that I have not talked about before, other useful Analyze tools that I have talked about that are; Brainstorming, LCS, Affinity Diagramming and 5 Whys from my article The First step of DMAIC – Define. Plus  DE & UDE, Gauge R&R, Basic Summary Stats and Pareto Charts from my article The Second step of DMAIC – Measure

Well there you have it, a little more understanding of the Analyze step of the Six Sigma 5 step DMAIC process. I hope that this gives you a better understanding of what to questions to answer and what tools to uses to get those answers in Analyze.


Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

Bersbach Consulting

From Process to Profits

1.520.829.0090




[1] Process observation Log was talked about in the article “The Second step of DMAIC – Measure”

[2] Brainstorming was talked about in the article “The First step of DMAIC – Define”

[3] The Five Whys was talked about in the article “The Second step of DMAIC – Measure”


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The Second step of DMAIC – Measure

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Measure is the second step of the Six Sigma five step process DMAIC. The objectives of Measure are two fold. First is, using GEMBA, factually understand the existing process. For those that have not heard of GEMBA it means “go see” and in Six Sigma we use the term to imply that you need to get up and go out to the process that you are going to improve and actually “see” what is really happening.  You can NOT do this is a conference room or at your desk alone. The process may in fact be all done at your desk but you need to have other with you looking at what is done to collect the actual way things are done. Second, you then compile that data into a characterization of the current state. Many times you will hear this called the process Baseline.

In measure it is important that you capture exactly what is really happening and do not take for granted that everything is being done exactly to procedure. It usually is not. If more than one person is doing this process check them all as you will find they all are doing it slightly different. Different is not necessarily bad but that difference IS the variation in your process.  So to help me (and you) capture the current state I have a series of questions that if you address them will help insure you complete this step. Here they are:


  1. 1. How does it work now?
  2. 2. What are the Key metrics for this process? Are they valid?
  3. 3. What is the Current Sigma level of the process?
  4. 4. What are the Detail steps of the process?
  5. 5. What is good about the process you want to keep?
  6. 6. What are the problems and their causes?


It is very important that you get all of these answered. Some that stand out are identifying key metrics  and identifying what is good about the process. You need to always look and find out how the process is currently being measured. How does any one know that things are going good or bad with this process? They have to have some “measure” they take to get that idea. Yes sometimes it is a gut feel but you will have to back it up with data so if they say it takes to long; time it and see how long it takes. The second key question that many forget is what works well in the process. This is key because you want to make sure that when you improve the bad you have not made things worse in the good areas. Those you do not want to touch.


To answer the question above it may take several tools and techniques to collect the “facts and data” to answer these questions. We like opinions, they help guide us, but we need data that validates the opinions. So in answering these questions many times you will get opinions but you still need to gather the data to show the opinion is true (or false). So here in Measure, there are several good tool and techniques that can help get you that data.

  • Descriptive Statistics –These are generally calculated from a sample of  information (data) off your process. They tend to be in three areas of interest about your data group (distribution). They are location, it’s spread and it’s shape.

Location _______Spread ________Shape

Location _______Spread ________Shape

  • Location or Central Tendencies – These are the mean (average), Median (or middle value) and the Mode (the most frequent value).
  • Spread or Dispersion – The most popular are Range (The difference or spread between the highest value and the lowest value) or the Standard Deviation a calculated measure of variation around the Mean or Average.
  • Shape – Two things determine shape. One is it Skewed to one side or the other (you can calculate this) and two is it flat or peaked (again you can calculate this [kurtosis])
  • Dot Plots – Are just that a plot of every data point on a chart.

Dot Plot

  • Histograms – These are a pictorial of the data. They are created by grouping the data into what is called bins or cells.

Histogram

  • Run Charts – Similar to the dot chart, the run chart plot the data over time, in time sequence.

run chart

  • Control Charts – Like the Run Charts, Control Charts plot data over time. Unlike Run Charts they have control limits plotted on the chart as well. Although you can plot individual data points like the one below, a control chart many time plots Summary data over time.

Control Chart x

  • Gauge R&R (Repeatability & Reproducibility) – These studies are important to understanding how much of the variation that you see is due to the process and how much is do to the measurement system (the way the measurements are taken). Many times this is overlooked but you have to understand that everything varies including the way you measure (collect) your data.
  • Pareto Charts – This is a special type of Histogram that arranges the Bins or Cells (categories) into an order of highest frequency to the lowest. This is done so one can see what the major categories are.

Pareto

  • Process Observation Log – This is just a log sheet that you list the process steps in order, how long they take and what the yield is at each step. Sometimes people include a column that identifies the step as value added or Non value added.
  • Process Flow Diagramming – This is a  diagram draw to show the sequence of steps from the process observation log. People draw these because it is easier to understand and see what is happening in the diagram then the log list.

Flow Chart

  • DE & UDE – DE (Desired Effect and Undesired Effect) is just a list of those things that are desirable (things you want to keep) and undesirable (things you do not want). This seems simple, and it is, but we forget to write these things down so that when we get into the heat of things we can not remember them unless they are written down.

Plus here are two more that I talked about in Define: Brainstorming and the 5 Whys.

Well there you have it. A little more understanding of the Measure step of the Six Sigma 5 step DMAIC process.


Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

Bersbach Consulting

From Process to Profits

1.520.829.0090



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The First Step of DMAIC – Define

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

DMAIC – Define

Define is the first step of the Six Sigma five step process DMAIC. The objectives of Define are two fold. First is to define the issue (problem) and the real need to improve it (The Burning Platform). Second is to then get alignment and commitment to solve this issue from the sponsor and project team (including their supervision).  Define is one of the critical steps of this five step process. Many times, we do not gather enough of the right information to properly define the issue we are trying to solve. So to help me (and you) I have a series of questions that if you address them will help insure you complete this critical step. Here they are:


  1. 1. What is the Burning Platform? Why do you need to do this NOW?
  2. 2. What company goal does this support and what is its priority?
  3. 3. What is the Top level process flow?
  4. 4. Who are its – Suppliers and their inputs & Customers and what outputs do they receive?
  5. 5. What is your vision of the future?
  6. 6. What are you trying to accomplish and the process needing improvement?
  7. 7. What benefits will the organization realize?
  8. 8. Whom & what do you need to accomplish this project?
  9. 9. What is the expected outcome of the project (quantified goals / objectives)?

10. How do you know you are done (exit criteria)?

11. Who are the committed/aligned team members?


It is very important that you get all of these answered. Some that stand out are alignment to company goals and having a good vision of the future. Goal alignment is critical if you want your team to stay together and finish the project.  If your project is not aligned you can bet team member supervisors will have other priorities that, in their mine, are higher than the ones for your project and will pull team members to work their priorities. Every project needs a good vision so the whole team will know where they are headed with the project. That increases the team alignment.


To answer the question above it may take several tools and techniques to collect the “facts and data” to answer these questions. Remember that in Six Sigma we like opinions, they help guide us, but we need data that validates the opinions. So in answering these questions many times you will get opinions but you still need to gather the data to show the opinion is true (or false). So here in define, there are several good tool and techniques that can help get you that data.


  • SIPOC – Stands for Supplier, Input, Process, Output, and Customer. It is a very top level process flow of the process you are trying to improve, but it includes more than just the process flow. It has inputs to the process and who supplies those inputs. Plus it also has the output of the process with who (customer) will receive the output.


  • GEMBA – Is just a Japanese term for “Go See” and here we use it to remind us to get out to the area where the process is working and really watch and see how it works. Nothing can be solved in a conference room or sitting at a desk.


  • Creative Thinking/ Brainstorming – This is just a method for coming up with as many ideas as one can conceive of. They can be wild and crazy ideas because in them, just like the ore in mines, we will find the golden nuggets.


  • LCS – Stands for Likes Concerns and Suggestions. This is one of the best and simple tools I have ever used. In any meeting (or even conversation), if all parties follow LCS you will eliminate divergence and create alignment in the discussion. Here how it works. There are three basic rules that anyone in the group must follow to comment on another person’s statement.
  • First, you must states something you like about what the person said. This tells them you understood what they said and gets alignment and agreement on what you liked.
  • Second (NOTE!!! you can only do this second step if you also have the third in mind otherwise you must stop on the fist step only!!!) Tell them you concerns about what they said.
  • Third, you must always follow your concerns with your own suggestions for correcting your concerns.


  • This really gets folks moving forward on issues they disagree on as we build ways around the disagreement through suggestions.


  • Affinity Diagramming – usually follows brainstorming where you have all those wild and crazy ideas. Now we take them all and group them into area of similarities. This helps see those nuggets I was talking about before. A lot of times, I use post it notes in brainstorming so I can easily move them around and place in groups that are similar. It helps and gets everyone on there feet moving around.


  • Multi-Voting – is a method of deciding or prioritizing ideas or tasks. The basic rule here is to give everyone an amount of votes (usually it is 20% of the number of ideas or tasks that you are trying to work) and let them vote on the ones they like best. Right away, you will see certain ones are more important than others to the group.


  • 5 Whys – This gets us back to our childhood a bit but to get at the true root of something many times we have to ask why several times. It is simple but true. If we don’t ask “why” enough times we may not get to the bottom of the issue. But you will know when it is too many when you get there. Usually it is about 5 times.


Well there you have it. A little more understanding of the define step of the Six Sigma 5 step DMAIC process.


Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

Bersbach Consulting

From Process to Profits

1.520.829.0090


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