Six Sigma
The common Six Sigma symbol Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was developed by Motorola in 1986.[1][2] Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995.[3] Today, it is used in many industrial sectors.[4] Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, mainly empirical, statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Champions", "Black Belts", "Green Belts", "Yellow Belts", etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits. Doctrine[edit] Methodologies[edit]
Total quality management
Total quality management (TQM) consists of organization-wide efforts to install and make permanent a climate in which an organization continuously improves its ability to deliver high-quality products and services to customers. While there is no widely agreed-upon approach, TQM efforts typically draw heavily on the previously-developed tools and techniques of quality control. TQM enjoyed widespread attention during the late 1980s and early 1990s before being overshadowed by ISO 9000, Lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. History[edit] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the developed countries of North America and Western Europe suffered economically in the face of stiff competition from Japan's ability to produce high-quality goods at competitive cost. Development in the United States[edit] From the Navy, TQM spread throughout the US Federal Government, resulting in the following: Features[edit] The key concepts in the TQM effort undertaken by the Navy in the 1980s include:[11] Joseph M. [edit]
Lean manufacturing
Overview[edit] The difference between these two approaches is not the goal itself, but rather the prime approach to achieving it. The implementation of smooth flow exposes quality problems that already existed, and thus waste reduction naturally happens as a consequence. Both lean and TPS can be seen as a loosely connected set of potentially competing principles whose goal is cost reduction by the elimination of waste.[5] These principles include: Pull processing, Perfect first-time quality, Waste minimization, Continuous improvement, Flexibility, Building and maintaining a long term relationship with suppliers, Autonomation, Load leveling and Production flow and Visual control. Origins[edit] Lean implementation is therefore focused on getting the right things to the right place at the right time in the right quantity to achieve perfect work flow, while minimizing waste and being flexible and able to change. Lean aims to make the work simple enough to understand, do and manage.
Lean Glossary Information and Resources
3P – Production Preparation Process Lean experts typically view 3P as one of the most powerful and transformative advanced manufacturing tools, and it is typically only used by organizations... Continue Reading 5S Workplace Organization 5S is a reference to five Japanese words that describe standardized cleanup: Seiri : tidiness, organization. Refers to the practice of sorting through all... A3 Reports And A3 Thinking As the amount of information that we have at our fingertips grows at an exponential rate, the ability to synthesize and distill information becomes... Activity- Based Costing Activity-based costing (ABC) is a method of allocating costs to products and services. Agile Manufacturing Agile manufacturing is the ability to accomplish rapid changeover between the manufacture of different assemblies. Andon You have probably heard of andon cords, andon boards, andon lights, etc. Autonomation Benchmarking Benchmarking is a tool to help you improve your business processes. Best Practices
The Best Of Lean Impact - 10 Articles Worth Checking Out NOW! Lean Impact
With our new and improved website launched, we wanted to properly introduce you to all things Lean Impact. As such, we wanted to share with you some of our best pieces of Lean Startup goodness from this past year. If you are new to our site, these are great articles to get your lean juices flowing! Without further adieu… 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. … Now it’s YOUR turn!
Root Cause Analysis - Problem Solving from MindTools
Tracing a Problem to its Origins A powerful five-step problem-solving process. © iStockphoto In medicine, it's easy to understand the difference between treating symptoms and curing a medical condition. But when you have a problem at work, how do you approach it? If you only fix the symptoms – what you see on the surface – the problem will almost certainly happen again... which will lead you to fix it, again, and again, and again. If, instead, you look deeper to figure out why the problem is occurring, you can fix the underlying systems and processes that cause the problem. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a popular and often-used technique that helps people answer the question of why the problem occurred in the first place. Root Cause Analysis seeks to identify the origin of a problem. Determine what happened.Determine why it happened.Figure out what to do to reduce the likelihood that it will happen again. RCA assumes that systems and events are interrelated. The Root Cause Analysis Process
Mind Tools - Management Training, Leadership Training and Career Training
