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Asynchronous learning is the concept of teaching the same material to students at different times or places. It is also referred to as location independent learning. The format of this material can vary. It is commonly recorded video or audio programs but can be virtually any medium. Asynchronous learning does Read more…
There are 6 big losses of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). 6 Big Losses Breakdowns Setup and Minor Adjustment Idling and Minor Stoppages Reduced Speed Defects and Rework Startup Loss Each of these losses saps a small portion of potential production you could be getting from your machines. Total productive maintenance Read more…
Most processes are governed by a basic transfer function, Y=f(x). It is pronounced “y equals f of x.” Y is the output, or “dependent variable”. X is the input (or inputs). Essentially, there are some input parameters that affect the output. When you change one of the input variables, you Read more…
Tolerance stackup is the cumulative effect of the components of a product being skewed towards the same side of the specification limits. Tolerance is the range between the lower specification limit and the upper limit of a part. Imagine you have a product that lines three or four or more Read more…
Error proofing, also referred to as mistake proofing or poka yoke, is the art of building processes that make it nearly impossible to make a specific mistake. Error proofing is targeted at specific errors—they are not general in nature. This concept is predicated upon the concept that errors cause defects. Read more…
Nominal data is a type of qualitative data. It contains a set of possible values that has no measurable sequence to them. For example, “favorite pet” would be nominal data set. The values might include dog, cat, snake, frog, and horse. While most people would agree that dogs rank much Read more…
DPMO is the abbreviation for defects per million opportunities. It is a metric commonly used in six sigma. Presumably, if you are engaged in an active process improvement effort, you will have made (or will eventually) make significant improvements to your quality. For that reason, it can be difficult to Read more…
On our Kaizen Charter, we devote quite a bit of space at the top of the form to the problem statement. This should be a good indicator as to the importance we place on it. A good kaizen problem statement serves two main purposes. The first is that it creates Read more…
Lean Certifications (or Six Sigma Certifications) comes in several forms. Company Internal Lean Certification. This type of certification has the drawback of being internally run, so there is little information outside of the company as to the quality of the training, the rigorousness of the training, or the resulting abilities Read more…
Central tendency is a statistics term that is used to describe where the middle of a data set lies. The challenge is that there are a few different ways to describe where that middle lies. There are three common ways to describe the centering of data. Mean (or average): the Read more…
Capability Analysis is the act of determining process capability, or the ability of a process to meet a designated set of specifications. It involves a set of statistical calculations to determine whether the spread of the performance of a process fits within the desired specification. There are several terms embedded Read more…
The Analyze Phase of Six Sigma is the third phase of the DMAIC process. It is the phase where the relationship between the variables and outputs are established and quantified. This relationship is often called the ‘transfer function’ and is represented as Y=f(X). Y is the output and is determined Read more…